Chapter 2: Enter the Demon King!

Beelzebub was bored with the ancient castle.

“Hmph..! I’m all done with this!”

“I apologize, Princess. But… to become a great Demon Queen who follows in the footsteps of the current Demon King, who has led the Magocratic Kingdom to such peace and prosperity…”

The tutor, who kept spouting boring words in front of her, was no fun.

“I! want! to wear! dis!”

“I apologize, Princess… but for a treasure of our Magocratic Kingdom such as yourself to wear such shabby clothes…”

The strict head maid, who wouldn’t let her wear comfortable clothes, was no fun.

“Hyah, hyah! Die!!”

“Princess! Swordsmanship is not a game! Now! Assume the stance again!”

“Hmph… I just wanna play…”

The stiff attitude of the Guard Captain, who became frighteningly strict whenever she held a sword, was no fun at all.

“I.. I can’t take dis anymore!”

During a series of incredibly boring days, Beelzebub went to a place forbidden to anyone else in the castle.
A space that only two beings in the entire Magocratic Kingdom could freely enter.

“Daddy!”

She had come to the office of the Demon King, Devil.

“Ugh… selecting a diplomatic envoy to dispatch to the newly launched international organization… hmm?”

Devil, who had been groaning while clutching his head, his brilliantly red horns pulsing as he grappled with the documents before him, turned his gaze to the door as it opened, something that should never have happened.

“Beelzebub! My daughter! Did you come because you missed your daddy?”

But upon seeing his entire life’s meaning struggling adorably to open the door and enter his office, his pained expression vanished, replaced by a radiant smile as he stood up from his seat.

“Daddy, Daddy!! I’m bored! I wanna go to the secret base and play!”

As his lovely little girl toddled towards him, showing off her dazzling ruby-like eyes, all the fatigue that had built up from his work instantly melted away.
Devil chuckled, lifting his precious other half into his arms.

“Hoho… Are you that bored?”

“Yep! The tutor who only says boring stuff all day is no fun, and the head maid who only makes me wear uncomfortable clothes is no fun, and the Guard Captain who always yells and stops me when I play with a sword is no fun!”
“So, so! I wanna go to the secret base and play with Daddy… can I?”

His little girl’s fatally adorable plea!
Devil, whose heart had been weakening with age, clutched his chest as if in pain and slowly sat down on the sofa in the center of the office.

“Ugh… It’s difficult because I have so many documents to process…”
“Ah! Then how about playing with your daddy in the evening?”

“The evening..? Okay! Then, then let’s eat dinner together at the secret base, just you and me, Daddy!”
“I’ll catch cwams at the beach and make it for you!”

“Dinner…? With this daddy…?”

“Yep! I wanna eat with Daddy… but the servants keep saying I shouldn’t bother you…”

Oh… oh my?
The man is crying!!
The Demon King is crying!!

“Sob… My daughter… how did you grow up to be so thoughtful…”

“Daddy! Don’t cry! If Franz sees you crying, he’ll nag you again!”

“Sniffle…”

After sitting on the sofa and crying his eyes and nose out for a good while, Devil finally seemed to calm down and looked at his daughter to speak.

“Alright. But your daddy’s work isn’t finished yet…”
“If you go and play first, this daddy will finish up quickly! and follow you.”

“Wow!! Daddy’s the best! Daddy’s number one!! Daddy’s so cool!!”

“Kuhuhu… sniffle…”

Was it the change of life hitting him?
Struck by his daughter’s triple praise combo, Devil started sobbing all over again…
Is that… really the Demon King?

“Kuhp! Sniffle… Right… I’ll tell the servants I’m skipping dinner, and I’ll follow you soon.”
“I’ll open the portal to the secret base now. You have to play nicely, okay? And don’t follow strangers, alright?”

“Yay!!”

Beelzebub! Escape from the boring castle!

“Ah… s-so… then what about the clothes?? How did you get these clothes??”

“I changed when I got to the secret base! How can you play when it’s so uncomfortable?”

Finally, all the questions were answered!
There was no way the princess, the Demon King’s daughter, would wear such plain clothes…

“Haa… So that’s why you were in such simple clothes, gathering clams on the beach…”

“Yep! But Mister, you’re the first person who’s played with me so nicely like this! I’m going to introduce you to my Daddy!”

The princess was saying something that would be the death of me…

“Um… will I be able to survive…?”

“It’s okay, it’s okay! My Daddy is really nice!”

‘Sure… he’s probably nice to Beelzebub…’
‘Ah, so this is the beginning of the hellish difficulty setting for this crappy isekai life…’
Just as I was thinking that, the sound of someone’s loud stomach clock echoed through the cabin.

“Guuuuuuurrrrgle…!”

As expected!
The number one heir to the pinnacle of the Magocratic Kingdom!
Even the sound of her stomach rumbling was on a different level from ordinary demons.

“Mister… but… I’m hungry.”

Considering it was a cabin in the woods… the sky had gotten quite dark.
Come to think of it, it was well past dinner time.

“Ugh… Right. Let’s eat first. They say even a ghost that died after eating looks better… um, Princess?”

“Mmm! I’m Beelzebub! Call me Beelzebub, not Princess, Mister!”

Having heard the word “Princess” until her ears grew calluses (not literally), Beelzebub seemed to like hearing her name called by a stranger.
She cast aside her own title and asked me to call her by her name.

“B-But… if the Demon King sees me calling you by your name, I think there’s about a 90% chance my limbs will be torn to shreds… you know?”

“It’s okay, it’s okay! I’ll talk to Daddy for you! So don’t call me Princess! Got it?”

‘Ah… I cannot call my father, ‘Father’… ah… this body is an orphan without a dad…’
‘And now I can’t call the princess ‘Princess’, but must use her name…’

“When I think about it, you know my name, Mister, but I don’t know yours! Tell me! Your name!”

A valid point!
This was a different situation from my motto of treating everyone fairly, whether they were a child or an adult.
Hmm… Did I just say it’s different from the motto I just explained?
This and that are two separate things.

“Teo… My name is Teo.”

“Yay! Teo Ajeossi!”

(TL Note: Ajeossi usually means “mister” and is used for middle-aged men who are not family.)

“Umm… To be called ‘Ajeossi’… my physical age is only sixteen…”

“Nope! From now on, Teo is Ajeossi! Teehee!”

She giggled as she called my name… no, based on my motto, from now on, I will call her Beelzebub even in my thoughts.
Anyway, watching Beelzebub giggle as she combined my name with ‘Ajeossi’ reminded me of the clam porridge my little cousin, born late to my uncle and 23 years my junior, used to eat so deliciously before I came to this damn world.

“Haa… Either way, I can’t leave this cabin, can I? Prin… I mean, Beelzebub?”

“Yep! Teo Ajeossi can’t leave this cabin until you eat with me and my Daddy!”

“What if… I just walk out?”

At my words, Beelzebub stood there, stunned, as if the world had ended.
Ah… I’ve seen this before.
This was the expression my cousin made when my aunt would leave him with me for a little while…

“T-Teo Ajeossi… are you leaving…?”

Beelzebub’s ruby-like eyes welled up with sapphire-like tears…
If I leave this as it is, the probability of having my limbs torn apart by the Demon King will go from 90% to 100%… a certainty!
I have to stop it!

“Ah!! No!! I’m definitely not leaving, Prin… I mean, Beelzebub!”

“Sniffle… Really..? Are you really going to stay with me? If you leave the secret base… I’m going to cry and cry!”

“O-Of course..! Ahh~ I’m so hungry~ Aren’t you hungry too, Beelzebub?”

“Wuwu… I’m hungry…”

Nice!
As I shifted the focus to her hunger, Beelzebub moved the ruby that was producing jewel-like tears from me to her own stomach!
Not wanting to experience having my limbs torn apart a second time, I quickly moved the sack of clams and crabs to the space that looked like a kitchen.

“Come this way, Beelzebub! We need to make a meal to eat together before the Demon King arrives, right?”

Beelzebub, who seemed pleased to be called by her name again instead of ‘Princess’, beamed and toddled after me into the kitchen.

“Heehee… Being called Beelzebub instead of Princess feels really good! Mister!”
“Keep calling me Beelzebub, Beelzebub! If you call me Princess… I’ll cry and cry in front of Daddy!”

Get my limbs torn apart by the Demon King for calling Beelzebub by her name!
Versus…
Call Beelzebub ‘Princess’ in front of the Demon King, and just before her sapphire tears fall from those brilliant rubies, have my limbs torn apart by the Demon King’s own hands!
It was truly a hellish choice.

“F-First… let’s cook together… Beelzebub…”

“Ah! Right! Let’s cook quickly, Teo Ajeossi! Daddy will be here soon!”

The moment I entered the cabin… no, the moment I started picking clams with her on the beach, I knew this day would come.
I decided to temporarily set aside the infernal choice I would eventually have to make and focus on the cooking in front of me.

-Clatter, clatter.-

“Wow… is it because this is a royal secret base? The kitchenware looks amazing.”

“Teo Ajeossi? Is there anything for me to do?”

“Hmm… Then could you put the clams in that big pot, Beelzebub?”

“Heehee! Okay! Teo Ajeossi!”

What a good kid!
This damn world probably doesn’t have anything like after-school programs, yet Beelzebub was looking for something to do on her own.
I pointed to the sack of clams and asked her to put them in the big pot.

Ah! And don’t worry about purging the sand!
Strangely, there was no sand in the clams…
And I absolutely! did not find this out after getting too hungry while catching them and eating one raw!

“Haa… Thankfully, there’s rice… Huh? Sesame oil…? There’s even sesame oil?”

“Huh? That! That’s the oil you sprinkle with sugar on Fish Head Pie and Eel Jello!”

“………”

As expected… their use of ingredients was beyond comprehension.
Why on earth would they sprinkle sesame oil and sugar on what were clearly disgusting dishes like Fish Head Pie and Eel Jello…?
I couldn’t understand it.

“S-So, Beelzebub…? If I hadn’t been here… what were you planning to make with the clams…?”

“Hee! Me and Daddy were gonna coat the cwams in sugar, which I wike, and dip it in a sauce made of mashed bananas and chili peppers!”

A recipe that made my head spin… Ah… if there is a hell on earth… wouldn’t it be right here?

“Umm… have you ever eaten clams with that recipe before…?”

“Nope! I haven’t tried it!”
“But… I like sugar and bananas and chili peppers! It must be delicious if you eat them together!”

“…I’m truly glad I’m the one cooking, Beelzebub.”

There was no time to hesitate!
I erased the dizzying recipe for that monstrous food from my mind and got back to preparing the clam porridge.
I put the pot with clams and water on the fire and soaked the rice I found in a corner in warm water.

“Preparation complete!”

“Pweparation complete!”

Now that the clam porridge for the child was ready… it was time for the crab stew for the adult (the Demon King)!
The ingredients weren’t anything special.
Just some radishes from the garden behind the cabin, the crabs, and the overflowing clams were enough!

“Hmm…? Teo Ajeossi? Why are you putting the cwabs and cwams in the water together?”

“Because it’s more delicious this way.”

“I’ve never seen that before! I’ve only eaten cwab as medicine… It was so~ yucky… Ugh…”

An unbearable curiosity…
She ate crab as medicine?
How?

“…H-How do you eat crab as medicine, Beelzebub?”

“I don’t know either! A long time ago, I went thump! and fell in the hallway, and my horn broke!”
“So the doctor gave me c-cwab as a powder! It was so, so chalky and yucky… hic… I don’t wanna eat cwab… sniffle…”

Ah… if even a little bit of meat had been included, she wouldn’t have said it was tasteless…
What in the world did they do to make crab so chalky and unpalatable that it brought her to tears…?

“…That won’t happen, so don’t worry, Beelzebub… Please… the tears…”

“Sniffle… Okay, Teo Ajeossi…”

She’s holding back her tears… What a brave girl, Beelzebub!
Thanks to this, my limbs will remain in their original form for a little longer.

‘Alright… now take out the soaked rice, stir-fry it in sesame oil, then add the clam broth and simmer gently.’
‘Separate the meat from the opened clams and set it aside.’

Beelzebub stared intently at the simmering pot, which was emitting a savory and delicious aroma, and gulped.

“Gulp… It… It smells delicious… I’ve never seen cwams cooked like this before!”

“Hehe… I’ll make it delicious for you, so just wait a little longer, Beelzebub.”

“Indeed. The aroma is quite appetizing… But who are you, boy?”

Just then, a chilling voice I shouldn’t have heard yet came from behind me…

“…………?”

“Hyaa!! Daddy!!”

Uh… well, let’s see…?
Someone who’s about to be… disassembled?