Chapter 178 : Staff Meal
Chapter 178: Staff Meal
Lucy held a rusty iron shovel in her hand, standing beside a pile of black soil in the back garden of the Palace of Eternal Night, her calves still trembling.
Yesterday she had been a reserve Hero meant to save the world. Today, she had become an undocumented gardener raising flowers for the Demon King.
This kind of dramatic rise and fall in life was honestly a bit too stimulating.
That silver-haired maid—her gaze before leaving yesterday was even more terrifying than the fireball that had blown off Lucy’s lower leg.
“If you kill even one plant, I’ll bury you in as fertilizer.”
That sentence had looped in Lucy’s mind eight hundred times.
She looked at the rows of “flowers” in front of her—each one baring fangs and claws, dripping purple saliva, and covered in barbs—and swallowed hard.
One of the flytrap-like plants, as tall as half a person, seemed to sense the presence of a living human. Its massive bloom suddenly turned toward her, snapping shut its tooth-filled mouth with a sharp “crack,” producing a sound that made one’s teeth ache.
Lucy nearly threw her shovel in fright.
“D-don’t… don’t eat me…”
Trembling, she scooped a spoonful of black, foul-smelling fertilizer from a wooden bucket beside her.
It was said to be made from the feces of high-tier magical beasts mixed with some kind of rotting Abyss mushrooms, then fermented.
Holding her breath, Lucy shakily brought the spoonful of indescribable substance to the flytrap’s mouth.
“Ti-time to eat…”
The two thick leaves of the plant twitched, as if sniffing the scent.
The next moment—
It actually twisted its entire stem like a puppy seeing a bone. From that gaping maw came a cheerful, almost “ying ying ying” sound.
“Ah-woo”—chomp!
The spoonful of fertilizer, along with half the shovel’s head, was swallowed in one bite.
Before Lucy could even scream, she felt the shovel in her hand pushed back by a strong force.
The flytrap even patted her pant leg with its leaves in a strangely human-like manner, then let out a satisfied burp. The originally ferocious barbs even retracted a little, making it look… somewhat well-behaved?
Lucy was stunned.
Th-this was it?
There was no need to wrestle like when feeding pigs back in the village, struggling with those two-hundred-pound beasts to keep them from overturning the trough?
No need to bend over under the scorching sun all day like weeding the village chief’s fields until her back couldn’t straighten?
After it was full, this “demonic flower” even pulled out the surrounding weeds by itself, and casually slapped a passing giant mosquito to death.
Fully automated weeding and pest control?
For the next few hours, Lucy felt like she was in a dream.
She had originally thought she would suffer hellish torment in the Demon King’s back garden, constantly guarding against being devoured by these strange plants.
But the truth was, these plants were lazier than the last, and easier to take care of than anything.
As long as they were fed, not only did they not attack people, they even actively cooperated with the work.
That vine-like Ghost-Face Fern, upon seeing Lucy carrying a watering can, actually curled its leaves into a funnel shape to catch the water, afraid of spilling even a single drop.
That red-flowered mandrake even extended its vines to wipe away nonexistent sweat from Lucy’s forehead.
These plants of the Demon Realm… how were they more polite than the troublesome villagers back home?
Lucy sat on a stone bench at the edge of the garden, looking at the workload she had completed in just half a day, and fell into deep thought.
Back in that shabby village of hers—
She had to wake up before dawn every day, feed pigs, carry water, chop firewood, and take care of the priest’s daily needs.
If she worked too slowly, she got scolded. If the food was too salty, she got beaten.
That pot-bellied priest always stared at her with a disgusting gaze, often deducting her wages under the pretense of it being a “trial of serving the gods.”
And here—
She was actually… almost bored from having nothing to do?
“Um… Miss Lucy?”
A timid voice interrupted her thoughts.
She turned her head to see a demon maid with goat horns standing at the garden entrance, holding a food box.
“Um… this is your lunch.”
The demon set down the food box and pointed toward a row of stone houses not far away.
“The leftmost one has been arranged as your residence. The key is on the table. If there are no other instructions, I’ll take my leave.”
After speaking, she ran off in a flash.
Lucy stared blankly at the food box on the ground, then at the neat row of small houses in the distance.
A residence?
A private room?
Back in the village, she could only sleep in the woodshed next to the pigsty! It leaked wind in winter, rain in summer, and mice danced on her face.
Lucy walked to the house and pushed the door open.
Though small, only about a dozen square meters—
Inside there was a wooden bed and a table.
Lucy touched the bed.
Tears suddenly streamed down uncontrollably.
Was this really the Demon Realm?
Wasn’t this heaven?
This treatment was ten thousand times better than that priest who only knew how to make empty promises!
If she had known being captured by the Demon King came with benefits like this, why would she have bothered touching that sensing stone at the village entrance? She would’ve packed her bags and surrendered on the spot!
“Praise… uh, praise Lady Lilia.”
Lucy wiped her tears and silently replaced the god she believed in with that silver-haired girl.
Sure, that woman had a sharp tongue, a bad temper, and a talent for deceiving people.
But she actually provided housing!
The emotion lasted only ten minutes.
When Lucy opened the food box with anticipation, ready to enjoy her first “staff meal” in the Demon Realm, her expression froze.
Cracked.
Completely shattered.
What kind of hellish food was this?!
The first layer contained slices of tentacles from some unknown creature, still wriggling slightly, drenched in green slime and emitting a smell like rotten eggs mixed with sulfur.
The second layer was a bowl of purple soup, still bubbling, with several eyeball-like objects floating inside, staring at her in death.
The third layer—the so-called “staple food.”
Was a black lump as hard as a brick.
Bread? Or a rock?
Lucy picked up the “bread” and knocked it against the table.
“Dong, dong, dong.”
Her lips twitched.
This was edible?
If she ate this thing, her newly healed leg might survive, but her stomach would definitely die first.
“Maybe… it just looks bad?”
Lucy tried to convince herself.
After all, customs were different in the Demon Realm. She had to be tolerant.
Trembling, she picked up a spoon, scooped a bit of the purple soup, closed her eyes, and sent it into her mouth as if facing death.
One second.
Two seconds.
“Bleurgh—!!!”
Lucy rushed out of the stone house, bracing against the wall as she vomited violently.
Spicy, bitter, fishy—everything except what food was supposed to taste like.
This wasn’t a meal.
This was a biochemical weapon!
Lucy looked despairingly at that delicate-looking “murder cuisine” and finally understood why the treatment here was so good.
Because probably no one lived long enough to get paid!
This was straight-up trying to starve people to death!