Chapter 3 : Soft Demon King and the Hero Party, and Stew with Potaik and Instant-Death Rabbit Hind Legs

The demon lord can control the seven emotions of humans.

That power is the source that can burn and rule the world.

Why do tens of thousands of demons pledge allegiance to the demon lord?

Why do monsters that fill the horizon follow the demon lord?

It’s because of that terrifying power that can control and amplify emotions.

“Ta-da!”

And right now, I was being controlled by the emotion of fear by the hero in front of me!

“How is it?

Doesn’t it look incredibly delicious!

It’s cooked nicely and will be really tasty~!”

“No!

This isn’t cooked, it’s burned!”

“Aww~!

You must have a refined palate because you’re the demon lord?

It’s okay!

It just turned a little black!”

It’s not just a little, it’s turned into charcoal!!!

Is this a new form of torture?

Are you going to feed me like this until I agree to go to the promised land or whatever because you think I won’t go willingly?

No matter how I look at it, it doesn’t look like something a person, let alone a mountain boar, would eat!

Hero party!

These terrifying guys!

“Look how delicious it is!”

-Crunch!

“Ah…

Awawa?!”

Uh, how serious are you about torture?

You’re eating burned meat with a lot of black charcoal on your mouth!

One bite and the unpleasant burnt taste will fill your mouth heavily…?

“Nom nom…

Nom nom…

Shouldn’t you eat quickly too, demon lord?”

“Awawa…”

…You don’t really think it’s delicious and are eating it, do you?

Aside from the fact that your mouth is covered in soot, the inside isn’t cooked at all?

Bright red blood is dripping, and you’re eating it saying it’s delicious?

“Since we have cooking utensils, we can cook the mushrooms too.”

“Saint Dominicus!

Don’t eat them all by yourself like last time!”

I told you, they’re poisonous mushrooms.

Are you really, seriously thinking that eating like this is delicious?

“Ah, the demon lord likes things to be nicely presented, huh?”

The hero, Maeve, tore off a leg of the instant death rabbit with a ‘rip’ and held it out to me.

Are you telling me to eat a lump of charcoal dripping with bright red blood?

“Ah-!”

Don’t smile so brightly and push it towards me!

“It’s hard to find such good mushrooms.”

The saint, Dominicus, was really trying to grill the mushrooms.

These…!

Idiots worse than barbarians…!!!

‘You fools!

Are you doing such atrocious things in your right mind!’

“Are you all crazy?!”

I couldn’t take it anymore and snatched all the mushrooms Dominicus was holding and threw them into the basket.

“Oh, are you angry?

Don’t you like rabbit?”

‘You’re choosing to say such stupid things!

Do you know how dangerous instant death rabbits are and are trying to eat them like this?!’

“Sister Maeve is a baka!

It’s dangerous to eat instant death rabbits like this!

You’ll die!”

Maeve suddenly laughed and took another big bite of the meat.

“It’s okay!

Demon lord.

Look?

If you eat it and it doesn’t seem right….”

-Flicker flicker!

“May God’s grace be with us.”

…Did you just use healing magic?

And some kind of dispel magic too?

“The saint can heal us like this!

So there’s no need to bother with preparing it-“

“Don’t say such baka things!!

The basics of cooking is to treat the ingredients with care!

That’s how you can properly bring out the flavor of the ingredients!”

Without realizing it, I shouted seriously and hit Maeve’s head with a nearby helmet.

Is this a person?

It’s a beast!!

“Ouch…?!”

‘Listen carefully!

You arrogant fools!

Every life born in this world has value!’

“Listen carefully!

You shouldn’t waste ingredients like this!

It’s a bad thing!”

I snatched the instant death rabbit grill that Maeve was holding.

The internal organs weren’t properly prepared, so it’s covered in poison and can’t be eaten.

The taste has turned incredibly bitter, so you’ve basically turned a life into trash!

‘Watch carefully, you fools.

This body will show you what a true meal is.

And prepare to praise this body!’

“Purpure will cook for you…

So just stay still…”

Let’s eat first.

Really!

There were many dishes I could make with Potake and instant death rabbit, but there was only one I could make right now.

Stew!

A thick stew has a taste that touches the soul.

Even the ignorant and barbaric hero party fools will eat it saying it’s delicious.

“I brought the water as you requested, demon lord.”

“But I think it would be better to just grill it quickly and eat it quickly…”

Tsk.

“Sister Maeve says such baka things.”

I poured the water Dominicus brought into the helmet.

This helmet has served as a pot for a long time.

Honestly, I want to cook in a proper pot too, but I can’t help it.

The squishy demon lord doesn’t have an evilly twisted dwarf or a demon that breathes red fire.

“Purpure will cook stew for you.”

“Stew?

I could only eat that at inns!

Saint Dominicus!

I think we’re really lucky today!”

Maeve clapped her hands together and was delighted.

So you have experience eating cooked food.

…

You have that experience and you grill instant death rabbits like that?

Anyway, I brought the instant death rabbit and quickly cut off both legs.

Then I skillfully grabbed the skin and pulled it off with a ‘riiiiiip’.

“Oh, you’re only using the legs for the stew?

Can’t you just put the body in too?

It’s all edible meat.”

“Of course not.

The internal organs of instant death rabbits have dangerous poison.”

“Ah~ so that’s why it stings sometimes when you get bitten!”

It ends with a sting?

A normal person would ‘die instantly’!

“If you have the right tools, you can eat everything, but you can’t right now.”

“Ah…

What a waste.”

“You’ll die if you eat it.

Don’t say it’s a waste.”

It’s not just poison, it’s a deadly poison, so touching it is really a foolish act.

It would have been nice to have more time to drain the blood, but since it was an urgent situation, I put the legs in the remaining water and shook them vigorously.

“I’ll boil the stew here.”

I lit the pile of firewood under the helmet.

It’s not as good as a modern gas stove or induction cooktop, but I made a hole to put the helmet on with mud.

“Wow…

It’s more serious than I thought.

It’s really a pot…

Our demon lord is really good at cooking.

What’s your secret?”

“Purpure is just good at it.”

I felt it when I lived my second life too, but here and there, people are too careless with cooking.

If you just pay a little attention, it becomes incredibly delicious, so why does everyone make it so carelessly?

The nobles are too wasteful, it’s really strange.

Anyway, I threw the two legs of the instant death rabbit, which had drained a little blood, into the helmet.

Most of the flavor of the stew comes from the meat!

Especially the leg meat of instant death rabbits is tough because of the high amount of exercise, but if you boil it slowly, that toughness turns into a deep flavor.

Ah, just imagining the taste makes my mouth water!

“Oh?

What are you doing?

Demon lord?”

You’re probably asking about me scraping the fat between the skin and the meat and putting it in the helmet, right?

“It makes it more delicious.”

“The demon lord is very smart?

I always threw that away because it was tasteless!”

Of course, it would be tasteless if you just scorched the fat over a fire!

I sighed and chopped the Potake with a knife.

“You’re putting Potake in too?

I know it’s dangerous.”

“I don’t want to hear that from someone who tried to eat poisonous mushrooms.”

In the first place, Potake is just a potato that you can eat deliciously if you just remove the sprouts.

Rather, it has more sweetness and more starch than regular potatoes, so if you put it in a stew, the broth becomes thicker, which is an advantage you don’t know about?

I immediately pushed the Potake into the helmet, splash splash.

Then I brought a lump of the remaining red root vegetable from the box.

This root vegetable, whose name I don’t know, had a pretty attractive texture.

“Oh, I ate that last time, and it didn’t taste like anything…”

“If you put it in a stew and eat it, it’s crunchy and delicious.”

It’s a bit like a radish, I guess?

The difference is that if you boil a radish for a long time, it eventually becomes soft, but this one stays crunchy until the end.

The crunchy texture and the rich meat broth seem incompatible, but they have an amazing combination.

-Boil boil boil boil!

“Wow…

This, gulp.

It looks really delicious.”

The heavy aroma of the boiling stew quickly filled the demon lord’s castle.

The deep savory taste of the meat, the sweet scent of Potake, and the spicy scent of the root vegetable combined to create a truly fantastic harmony.

It’s almost done.

Before that, I need to sprinkle in the powdered salt bug while tasting it, right?

“Can’t we eat it quickly, quickly?

I’m really hungry right now!”

“Cooking doesn’t get done quickly just because you do it quickly.”

“Ugh…

Just turn up the heat…!”

I hit Maeve’s back with both hands.

I’m still tasting it, okay?!

“Ow!

I, I’m a hero!

That’s too much!”

I 괜히 hit Maeve’s back once more and handed her a wooden bowl and a wooden spoon.

“Here, hold this still.”

Finally, adding a few herb leaves is the end of the stew cooking.

If I had my way, I would add more carefully cut pieces of meat and boil it for about 6 hours, but since I’m hungry right now, this will have to do.

“It’s done.”

“I’ll move this helmet.

It has a string, but it looks dangerous.”

“Then bring it to that sunken pit over there.”

It’s not like it’s only been a day or two since I started eating with a helmet.

Do you know how many times I’ve cooked with this helmet?

It’s half my size, so it’s a bit of a hassle every time I eat!

There’s no nice table, but I made my own space to eat.

Fortunately, Maeve and Dominicus didn’t mention anything about a table and just sat on the floor.

“The smell…

Ahem, it’s incredibly good!”

“I’m already looking forward to it.”

I quickly scooped the stew into the wooden bowls that Maeve and Dominicus were holding.

The large chunks of meat, root vegetables, and Potake floating in the brown broth made my mouth water just from the color.

The rising aroma was also fantastic.

It feels like proof that the chewy meat flavor of the instant death rabbit has permeated the broth.

“Then shall we…”

Maeve’s eyes sparkled as she took a spoonful of stew.

The way she properly ate the Potake first made me feel a little proud that she knew how to eat.

“Huu…

Haa!

Wow!

Oh, this is incredibly delicious?!

I, I really!

Didn’t know Potake could be so soft and meaty?!”

Of course, you wouldn’t know.

Because the carbohydrates of the Potake are cooked until they’re thick, and the broth and fat from the meat are sticking to it!

You don’t know how to make a deep meat broth like this?

Honestly, if I had a little more ingredients and time, I could have shown you a thicker and richer taste, it’s really a shame.

If I could have prepared it properly, I could have added bones and savory flavors and the rich taste of the internal organs to make you sweat and gulp down the broth in one shot!

“The aroma was quite to my liking, but the taste is also quite good.”

Slurp, Dominicus drank the stew broth from the wooden bowl and had a pretty satisfied expression.

The steaming meat broth was pretty unsatisfactory by my standards, but it must have been different for the hero and the saint.

Well!

If it’s your first time having a properly brewed stew, this would be incredibly delicious.

“Right?

Right?

Dominicus!

This broth is really…

What should I say?

It’s a bit sticky, so it tastes even better, don’t you think?!”

“Now that you mention it, it is.

The stew I had at the inn last time had more water.”

“Ah…

To think that such a cute, small, and soft demon lord could make such a delicious stew…

It reminds me of the old days, it’s really nice.”

How carelessly do they run inns?

The more time and effort you put into a stew, the more delicious it becomes…

This is why the food culture of this world doesn’t develop.

Anyway, since I was also hungry, I cut the nameless root vegetable floating in the stew in half with a wooden spoon and put it in my mouth.

-Crunch!

Crunch!

Mmm~!

Yes, this is it!

It’s full of heavy meat broth, but it’s crunchy like a radish, so it’s delicious to chew.

It’s like enjoying the taste of meat twice as much!

It’s so good to chew the crunchy vegetables and feel the broth and fat that has soaked into the broth.

That’s why I can’t give up on this root vegetable.

You have to put it in a stew!

“Huu…

Ung, gulp.”

And the broth came out really well.

I think it’s a miracle that it came out this much with just two legs, but is it because of the starch from the Potake?

Anyway, the taste is heavy, so it stays in my mouth for a long time, making me feel full.

If you slurp it with a spoon, your mouth is filled with the taste of meat, and when you swallow, your stomach feels heavy.

Haa!

That’s why meat is the best.

Just a little bit of food with meat makes you feel good.

“Ah…

This is really delicious.

Honestly, I didn’t think the demon lord would give us such delicious food~!”

I thought it was poisoned.

But it wasn’t.

It was such a fantastic meal that it reminded me of the ensemble I often heard at the basilica.”

Maeve and Dominicus, who had completely emptied the helmet, muttered with a look of regret.

Well, I was a little disappointed too.

Every time I eat stew, I strangely miss rice.

If you put steaming rice in this kind of meat broth, it would be really delicious.

Even now, when I look at the stew I made, it strangely feels like beef and radish soup…

Ah, I want to eat.

I ate, but I want to eat a little more.

As expected, it wasn’t quite enough for three people.

“Anyway!

Since we ate deliciously.

Shall we continue our story?

Demon lord?”

The hero, Maeve, sparkled her eyes and held my hand as she began to speak.

“We have a prophecy.

We have to meet Purpure at this demon lord’s castle and return to the land of prophecy together.

And it’s a very, very important mission.”

“You can come with us with a comfortable heart, demon lord.”

The land of prophecy.

Unfortunately, I don’t know exactly where it is.

If it’s the capital of the empire or the capital of the holy kingdom, I’d know right away.

Actually, even if I knew where it was, my answer is decided.

“What will you do if Purpure says no?”

I’m not an idiot.

It’s too obvious what the hero and the saint will do if they take me to the land of prophecy.

They’ll kill me, right?

Having lived as a demon lord once, this story is too blatant and obvious to me.

“Hmm…

What should we do?

Dominicus?

I really don’t remember……..”

“It’s okay.

Maeve.

It’s something we expected, isn’t it?”

“That’s true.

Since we could wait for more than 50 years, should we just carry out the prophecy first?”

Hey, I’m right here, you know?

If you’re going to have a secret meeting, can’t you at least pretend to whisper secretly?

“Ahem!

Even if you don’t want to, you have to!!

And are you really going to live in this creepy and gloomy cave?

Wouldn’t it be more fun to go on an adventure with your sister and brother?”

“This is Purpure’s precious demon lord’s castle.”

“Even so, you have to!

Let’s go back to the land of prophecy with us starting tomorrow!

Purpure!”

You have no intention of listening to me…

Considering the momentum of these humans, if I whine that I don’t want to go, they’ll put a dog collar on me and take me!

“Ah, okay.

Then promise me one thing instead.”

Maeve smiled.

You’re really happy!

“A promise with Purpure…

I’m happy.

What is it?

What?”

“From now on, Purpure will cook.

I have to go to a promised land I don’t want to go to, so I can’t eat bad food!”

I don’t know what was so funny about my words.

Maeve and Dominicus suddenly burst into laughter and held my hand.

“Okay.

Please feel free to ask.

Demon Lord Purpure.”

“I’m totally counting on you!

Demon lord!

We can get to the land of prophecy quickly!!

These days, thanks to magic, we can come and go pretty quickly!”

Yes!

Laugh as much as you can now.

Because one day, when I see an opening, I will definitely make you the subordinates of the great demon lord!