Demon's Virtue - Chapter 664: Exchange

It took a few hours for Eiro to reach every corner of the nest that was created by those large Cavern Ants. However, as he traveled to make sure that every part of this cave system was safe enough for the monsters of the city to traverse, he fortified the walls as much as he could using his earth magic, strengthened by his fusion with Gondos. He took note of the direction that these ants apparently came from, and sent a servant to investigate further before sealing off the tunnel in question.

And now, he finally climbed back up from underneath the surface, cleaning himself up with a wave of his hand. He ended up somewhere on the other side of city from where the others were currently gathered. From what he could tell, this area was once bustling with restaurants, though now, it was just regular housing for the Trolls in particular. The restaurants all had decently high ceilings in the first place, and then once the monsters took over this city eight years ago, they had ‘renovated’ this area in a way that made it even better for them to live in. However, that being the case… this area was still quite dirty. While that was to be expected, since it was still monsters living here at the end of the day, it still wasn’t good for them to live in such an environment.

Rotting food, excrements… trolls just lounging at the side of the road. While trolls had incredible regenerative abilities, they still weren’t immune to disease. Resistant, sure, but living in environments like this would just make it easier for them to get sick. Not to mention the other species like the goblins or orcs living quite nearby that didn’t have such resistances to disease. He would probably have to talk to Rashi about this, though she clearly wasn’t the kind who would be happy about the idea of cleaning up after herself. And it also wasn’t fair to just assign people to clean the Trolls’ roads for them.

And then there was another issue with the Trolls… usually, as Eiro walked through the roads, all the monsters were respectful to him. The Orcs, Kobolds, and Goblins most of all, but the majority of the newer monsters still showed Eiro their respect. He didn’t necessarily need them to bow to him as he passed, but the Trolls quite literally scowled at him, with the exception of a few who at least ignored him. They had their monstrosisty suppressed, otherwise they wouldn’t have been allowed to live here, but if they kept acting like that then there was no chance to ever connect this city with the people of this country. Even if the trolls somehow didn’t act like assholes, people usually barely accepted other people that are just a little different to them, so if these monsters didn’t act perfectly, then they would just focus all of their prejudice on them and things wouldn’t turn out particularly well in the future.

Eiro stood there in the center of the road, seeing a group of Trolls in the corner of his eye. They were sitting in a circle, glaring daggers at the Demon, “Is something the issue?” Eiro asked in the Trolls’ language. One of them scoffed and shook his head, “No issue… lord,” he replied, though clearly speaking with contempt particularly at the last part.

With how annoyed he was already feeling today, it was hard for Eiro to not just rip that trolls’ arm off and beat him black and blue with it. Well, even more black and blue than they already were anyway. Monsters instinctively created hierarchies through power. The stronger a being was, the higher in said hierarchy. So why did the trolls still act like this toward Eiro? They knew how strong he was, there was no doubt about that. But why was it that they still rebelled so much toward him, but obeyed Rashi’s every grunt?

Maybe it was because they had time to form some sort of attachment to Rashi before their monstrosity was suppressed. That would also mean that part of their natural instincts came from the monstrosity itself, however. Not that it would really surprise Eiro though. Being controllable simply by having power exerted over you probably made things very easy for the gods that forced the concept of monstrosity on monsters. If that was the case, then Eiro would have to come up with some other idea to have the trolls respect him.

While fear still wasn’t a bad idea, since it clearly didn’t seem to work all too well on the trolls, that would probably mean that he would have to continuosly become more and more aggressive toward them. And that might rub off on the other monsters, if they ended up seeing that Eiro only treated the trolls that way, and he didn’t want them to be ostracized. So, the demon let out a deep sigh and approached the group of trolls more closely. They were so large that even though they were lounging around on the ground, they were still around or above Eiro’s eye-level.

“What do you want?” he asked bluntly, and the trolls looked back at him confused. Though soon, they seemed to take it as provocation, but still held themselves back so that they wouldn’t be killed. They knew that much, at least. But Eiro just shook his head, “I’m not trying to start a fight. I’m just genuinely asking; what is it that you want? How can I make your lives in this city better?”

Even more confused, the trolls looked at each other for a few moments, thinking about what Eiro was actually asking them. And before long, one of them finally replied.

“Meat. Only plants to eat here. Ants not tasty,” one of them said, and Eiro thought about it for a moment. It was true that meat was vastly limited. The trolls were omnivorous, even if they had a strong tendency toward meat. That was why they were secondary in being given meat compared to the harpies, who were completely carnivorous. And the ants’ meat was mostly going to be turned into emergency provisions. The city had a decent structure so far, so it wouldn’t make sense to completely change the way things worked just because they have a source of meat that couldn’t actually be replenished once gone.

“What meat do you like most? Pig, cow, bird, fish?” Eiro asked, and the troll immediately responded, “Goat! Goat meat, best.”

Eiro thought back on the beginning of his life; on the way from the monster king’s lair over to the holy empire’s capital, they did pass by some mountains with plenty of goats. Since these trolls were part of that same army, they probably got a taste for them then. He did remember seeing some goat droppings and hearing some of their bleats in the distance. So they were around here, even if Eiro didn’t see them, “If I get goats here, would you be willing to care for them? Obviously you could eat all of them, but then you would just run out again, and I won’t go on multiple trips to get you some food. I’ll get you the goats, but you have to figure out the rest,” Eiro suggested. The trolls had luckily been introduced to having to work a little bit when it came to repairing the city. Rashi made sure that they pulled their own weight. Actually, they had quite the knack for building things, and from what Eiro could see, they enjoyed it as well, as lazy as they were. Most of the trolls that didn’t just sit around on their asses all day actually happily helped out with construction even now. But in the end, while they weren’t particularly happy with having to care for the goats, they would probably get settled into it at some point.

Then, the Demon looked at the next Troll, “Anything else? Beside meat?”

“Alcohol.”

“…Meat and alcohol, alright. I guess a tavern isn’t a bad idea in general… I’ll figure something out,” Eiro said. He did read plenty about the process of making alcohol, so if he found someone competent enough, he could probably set up a brewery here. Since there was quite a quantity involved, the powerful trolls would probably be quite helpful in hauling around all the ingredients and finished products. But until then, he could probably send some shipments of alcohol here to get the trolls through the time that they were figuring out how to make their own.

Eiro looked around, and waved his hand. A gust of wind quickly gathered a lot of the trash that was lying around on the ground, and a wave of water cleaned up the rest of the gunk that was left behind on the cobblestone. He only did it for a small section of the road, however, “If you want the meat and the alcohol, then make sure that this place is at least close to this clean by the time it gets here.”

One of the trolls started laughing loudly, making the others follow behind. Clearly they didn’t care much about keeping clean, not that it surprised Eiro much. It seemed as though they would rather keep this mess around than get their meat and alcohol, at least for some of them.

It was easier to convince his kids to clean up after themselves than to get these trolls to move even slightly… Eiro realized that this would be a bit more annoying than he thought. But he was sure he would be able to figure something out.