Mr Devourer, Please Act Like a Final Boss

***

Chapter 14

It took two hours after sunrise for breakfast to arrive. The offerings were quite disappointing, considering they could have been used for a distinguished guest—only a fist-sized loaf of bread with dense clusters of wheat seeds and a bowl of watery soup with chopped pungent herbs. And two incredibly thin slices of bacon.

For Devourer, who was quite interested in human food, it was quite underwhelming. Human food that seemed even less appetizing than the humans themselves.

Amid complaints about the lackluster breakfast, Devourer hungrily slurped down the soup from the fancy pottery. Surprisingly palatable. Somehow, it raised an expectation that the bread might taste decent too. With inflated anticipation, Devourer tore off a corner of the bread and popped it into their mouth. Chewed. Spit it out. The whole process took no more than a second.

“Yuck, blegh!!!”

Devourer’s expression stiffened as they belatedly examined the contents of the bread. Upon closer inspection of the bread’s interior, they found finely chopped pieces of the ‘dreadfully tasteless dried fruit’ they had encountered yesterday embedded within.

How do you even eat this? Devourer diverted his gaze elsewhere, only to find Melje quietly eating the bread. And remarkably, despite being potentially the Demon King, there was a sense of elegance in the way Melje delicately cut the bread with a knife. Devourer wasn’t entirely sure if slicing the bread with a knife was customary.

Nevertheless, Melje, in an uncharacteristically composed manner, consumed the bread without a word. Even her thick eyelashes, so fitting of her, seemed to captivate the attention. ‘This composed Melje has a certain allure,’ Devourer thought briefly and concluded.

Melje’s reaction wasn’t just irritation. It was more than ‘being upset.’ It was closer to ‘being absolutely peeved.’ It wasn’t just a slight annoyance; it was a deviation from the norm.

“Sorry.”

Devourer wasn’t entirely sure what he was sorry about, but for now, that could wait. With as pitiable a voice as possible, he apologized to Melje, which surprisingly drew murmurs of pity from the humans around them.

“From the beginning, Melje was miffed.”

“I wasn’t annoyed. Also, did something happen last night? I was sound asleep and don’t really remember. So Sir Devde, don’t speak to me.”

“But you’ve been hearing everything despite saying that.”

“Too loud! La-la-la, I can’t hear you. I won’t hear you. Even if you speak, I won’t hear a word.”

“C’mon, since earlier, you’ve been saying that and still hearing everything.”

“Loud! I said, I can’t hear you. I won’t. Heh, whatever. I’m starting to dislike Sir Devde. I used to like him, but not anymore. From now on, I’ll only look at Mr Devourer, not Sir Devde.”

It was quite a contradiction, wasn’t it?

“At least give me a chance to explain…”

“Explain? Go ahead. Even if you do, I won’t forgive, but out of my generosity, I’ll listen.”

“Well, that’s… certainly… if you put it that way, I’ve got nothing to say. It makes sense.”

The effect was tremendous!

“Y-yes! If you had blocked my strike, who knows what would have happened.”

“Because I wasn’t stronger… I hadn’t thought of it. So everything lines up! Right. I was going to misunderstand. I’m sorry.”

Melje’s face flushed again. It smiled again as if to say, “What a simpleton.” Despite feeling internally embarrassed, Devourer forced a grin. In this awkward atmosphere where both smiled, Melje whispered subtly.

“Sir Devde might need to learn how to dress women. Cinching too tightly with a corset only leads to a fatter figure. Thanks to you, I’m still sore. Be a bit gentler with a woman’s body from now on.”

Walking would’ve been a disaster, indeed. Yep, it sure would’ve.

After finishing breakfast, Devourer and Melje headed towards the center of Raize. Fortunately, not long after, a huge castle wall spread out before them.

Another castle wall within the city enclosed by the outer walls. When they first saw the outline of the wall shrouded in mist, it didn’t feel so grand. But as they approached, lifting their heads to see its height, it truly was magnificent.

A size that would fill the entire field of view. Compared to Devourer’s wingspan, it reached up to Devourer’s chest.

And only after the inspection did they realize ‘the fact’.

“From here on, it’s the entrance to the central part. You mentioned going to the teleportation hub, right? The hub is located outside the palace, so we still have quite a ways to go from here. We’ll need to pass through three more castle walls ahead.”

“The time it takes?”

“If you were to walk, I’d advise planning for at least a week.”

The reply came from the guards at the castle gate. They used formal language, probably acknowledging Melje’s noble attire, but their tone hinted at a hint of “Are you asking because you don’t know?”

An unexpected situation.

No, perhaps if they had thought a bit more, they might have realized. They were too careless. Raize was vast. It wasn’t just the size of an ordinary city. Despite knowing that the distance between Hastin and Raize could take two months by carriage, they were too nonchalant. They were under the illusion that once they entered the castle, the palace would be right there.

It was daunting. Devourer grasped his forehead with a headache accompanied by dizziness.

Should he just sprint with all hismight? If he unleashed his polymorph and ran in circular flight, he could probably arrive today. But doing so would turn the entirety of Raize into a battlefield.

It might even become the starting point of a chaotic war between humans and monsters. Not that he cared much about fighting or not, but he didn’t particularly want to trigger the display of power in that war.

He considered using teleportation magic, but no matter how much he thought about it, it wasn’t a good idea. The Primodial Core to Melje’s citadel, a distance that took humans over two months, covered in just three teleportations by Devourer. However, all three times were misfires. The teleportation worked correctly, but he ended up at coordinates far from the designated ones.

Apart from covering more distance, it was akin to the lowest-tier teleportation magic, ‘Random Teleport,’ which didn’t set coordinates. The probability of landing in the center of Raize with the next teleportation was close to zero. It was almost zero for landing near Hastin as well. No one knew whether the next teleport would drop him in the sea or onto a different continent.

Melje didn’t dispute this aspect either. The fact that he landed on top of her citadel due to teleportation mishaps was something she probably vaguely understood.

“So, what about flight magic?”

“We can’t… constantly emitting mana in the open might get us noticed by humans.”

They were stuck in a dilemma. Was there truly no way to get to the hub quickly?

And then, as he pondered, a savior appeared in the form of a man named ‘Belbir.’

“Sorry for eavesdropping unintentionally, but are you folks heading to the hub?”

The gate was guarded by the soldiers. Next to it, a man handling a carriage led by two peculiar creatures greeted Devourer and Melje with a commercial smile.

Through such a scenario, Devourer and Melje were now comfortably lounging.

They were flying through the sky. A flying carriage—something Devourer had never heard of. They didn’t even know such a thing existed.

A robust physique, neat short black hair, and the man’s self-introduction as ‘Heavenly Horseman Belbir.’ The carriage he led was indeed flying. However, instead of horses, it was two creatures strapped with wings larger than their bodies, attached to arms thicker than their torsos.

“Alchemically-created Homunculus, the Winged Horses.”

Heavenly Wings Abandoned 4th-generation Homunculus.

It were the result of the Empire’s ‘Artificial Angel Production Project’ Engineered angels meant to destabilize the refined aura and solidify the Emperor’s ‘Sole Divinity’ position by pulling out the Pope.

Belbir introduced it, patting one of the Homunculu’s heads. Their slightly retreating expression seemed twice as large as a human’s mouth. Their tongues extended, splitting into three branches.

Apart from having wings, it didn’t seem to share any common traits with angels.

‘White, even pallid skin. Thin, revealing blue veins. It resemble Chimeras.’

Devourer watched with fascination, while Melje, displaying a repulsive reaction, stepped back. Belbir resumed with his sales smile, explaining:

“As you can see, it’s a stretch to call it angel based on its appearance. Its strong, obedient, and can fly, but fundamentally, it failed to achieve its original purpose of ‘refined collapse.’ Hence, the ‘Artificial Angel Production Project’ was a failure. So, It have been discarded, as it have been deemed useless and are sold off at a fraction of their actual price to us Heavenly Horsemen. Though even at a fraction, the actual cost is enormous.”

He said this while tapping the carriage with his hand. Then, Melje, now curious about the carriage, began to look around through the window.

“As for human Homunculus research, is it concluded then?”

“Hardly. It’s tough to explain the details to outsiders, but the Empire wouldn’t give up on such power. There are rumors that large-scale production of Homunculus is ongoing somewhere. Well… as you can see from these fellows, it seems more like they’re creating simple biological weapons rather than Homunculus.”

“The large-scale production? Wasn’t it carried out meticulously in giant flasks?”

“What era are you talking about? That was the cultivation method used a hundred and fifty years ago for the 1st generation Homunculus. What time are we in now?”

Devourer nodded slightly, wondering if it had already been that long since Renee was born.

“The carriage seems sturdy, and it doesn’t seem like a lie. How long will it take to get to the hub if we ride this?”

“Three hours for the flight, an hour for inspection. So, about four hours in total. Even if we fly, we’ll still have to go through inspection at the gate eventually.”

“An hour for inspection?”

“An hour is short, actually. As you move towards the center, the crowd gets packed, so you’ll have to queue up for inspection. We have dedicated inspection for the Heavenly Horsemen, so that makes it quicker.”

“And the cost?”

Interrupting Melje and Belbir’s conversation, Devourer asked. Belbir flashed his irritating salesman smile again as he replied, “For the two of you, it’ll be eight gold ounces.”

An absurd price.

Eight gold ounces equated to 800 silver ounces. The inn’s petty lodging cost was four silver ounces per person. If there had been enough time, Devourer might have cursed out the Heavenly Horsemen and walked away instead.

“Sorry. Sir Devde… I don’t… have… that much money…”

“I don’t carry money either.”

Melje’s trembling voice came from beside. Despite being a Demon king, Melje considered eight gold ounces a considerable sum, more than the revenue from killing humans and more than her dungeon management expenses.

Devourer was in the same boat—no money. The situation was the opposite for Devourer. He had money but rarely had reasons to leave the core; his style was hoarding it all there.

‘Should I kill this Belbir guy and steal the carriage? Would that Homunculus obey my commands?’

Exhaling deeply, Devourer rummaged through his pockets. There was no way there was money. However, something was caught in the pocket, something was there.

Pulling it out revealed a neatly folded, thick note. It seemed damp, probably from the incident at the bath in the early morning. Carefully unfolding it to decipher the somewhat smeared ink, he managed to read the writing:

[Boss who gets everything right. Someday, you’ll owe me thanks, -Patrick]

Inserted between the note were six gold coins, each worth five ounces.

—

The wind rustling through the gap in the carriage door signified the end of Devourer’s nostalgic recollection.

“That’s quite fortunate, Sir Devde. But seriously, that money, who put it in there? It wasn’t just a couple of coins; it was quite a sum, wasn’t it?”

“Well… it was secretly put in by a dungeon companion.”

“Companion? Oh, I asked before, but how can Sir Devde freely roam around despite being a dungeon-bound monster?”

Melje’s gaze was solely fixed outside. Even as the Heavenly Horsemen steered the carriage, she strained to see the scenery outside.

“If I say I was chased out, will that be an acceptable answer?”

“Chased out? Sir Devde, so you were expelled from the dungeon and wandering like this? Is the companion you’re looking for someone who was also expelled then? And you know, I had a faint inkling. Somehow, avoiding answers hinted at something going on.”

“That’s the gist of it.”

It wasn’t necessarily a wrong statement. Renee was chased out by Devourer, and Devourer was expelled too, chasing after Renee.

“I envy you. Even after leaving the dungeon, you’re still looking out for your companion. I wish I had a companion like that.”

Still looking outside, Melje’s voice lingered with lingering regret.

“I want a life like yours, Sir Devde. Someone taking care of you, and you, in turn, going to take care of someone else. Isn’t that an amazing life?”

The carriage was flying through the air. Glancing momentarily outside from behind Melje, Devourer saw the palace far off in the distance.

Phase 4

**