Entering a Company From Another World! – Chapter 690

When it comes to the residents of Isal, what kind of existence is the Demon Lord’s Army? How do they perceive it? In a single word, they are wicked demons.

Rampant. Evil and inhumane.

They tell their children that if they misbehave, the Demon Lord will come, much like the Namahage monster, conveying just how publicly known and evil the Demon Lord’s Army is in the world of Isal.

That is common sense. That is normal.

Yes, it is all the Demon Lord’s fault that young, able-bodied workers are conscripted due to preparations for war, increasing taxes and making life difficult.

So, the officials and nobles tell the commoners and shift the blame.

“My son, my husband, my brother, has departed for the battlefield.”
Even as the remaining young children, wives, and elderly desperately try to protect their homes, poverty torments the people, as if mocking their desperation.

“Mom, I’m hungry.”
“I’m sorry, this is all we have. We’ll have a little more tomorrow.”

A mother with gaunt cheeks shows the food she’s painstakingly prepared to her child, whose cheeks, once plump, are gradually becoming thinner.

It’s not enough to fill a basket.
The vegetables fill about sixty percent of a small basket that a woman can carry.

This is the amount of food the parent and child must survive on for a week.

They don’t even have the strength to cry out, “It’s definitely not enough.” Once they put the vegetables in the house, they head to the field, dragging their own bodies, on the verge of collapsing from hunger, with their child in tow, to try and grow more crops with their remaining strength, holding a hoe in their free hand.

The field the woman is heading to is a short distance away, and along the way, thin villagers, just like her, are tilling the fields to survive tomorrow.

However, the vegetables grown here won’t become their own sustenance.

More than half are taken by the taxes raised due to the war.

Even though the sun’s rays shine upon them, their future does not brighten.

When their husbands initially left as soldiers, it was all the Demon Lord’s fault.
They believed the words of the officials and priests that the Demon Lord, who threatened their lives, was responsible for everything.

But anger and hatred cannot overcome hunger.

As their daily lives become harder, they try to direct their resentment towards the Demon Lord, whom they have never seen, but more than that, their dissatisfaction grows towards the officials who take away their food, husbands, and brothers, and their families.

The officials, with their round, fat cheeks, while they themselves are so thin.

The villagers’ spirits were starting to break under the unreasonable demands of the officials, who complained about the meager tax payments, saying, “You can’t even get enough to eat, and you can only prepare this much?”

“Ah, this must be a dream,” the woman thought, somehow unable to face reality. As she reached her field and asked her child for help, it happened.

“H-Help! Everyone, hide in your homes!”
An elderly man who hadn’t been conscripted into the war shouted as he ran with a grim expression.

“It’s a demon race! The demon race is here!”
As soon as she heard the content of his words, her dazed consciousness instantly sharpened, and the woman grabbed her child’s hand and desperately ran home.

The surrounding villagers were in a similar situation.

Stumbling on their feet, they rushed desperately to their homes.

Even these emaciated villagers, whose tomorrow is uncertain, cherish their lives. They have lived believing that if they survive, something good will surely happen.

They cannot give up.

But, that may be the end.

The villagers, who believed the officials’ words, could not hide their despair at the arrival of the Demon Lord’s Army, the wicked demons and evil spirits.

This is a border village in a small country.
The men who could wield weapons have gone to the battlefield, and there is no one left who can be a soldier.

The villagers, who are terrified even of wild boars and struggle desperately to fend off goblins, can only hold their breath and wait for the fear to pass.

The woman took her child’s hand, entered the house, bolted the door, slid under the desk, and hugged her child tightly.

“God, please protect us.”
All they could do was pray. They believed in a miracle from God, who, rather than not performing miracles, never performed them in their everyday lives.

They believed that the hero, in a great nation, would suddenly appear in this village and drive away the evil demons.

But, the woman knows this prayer will not reach them.

If it did, she wouldn’t be hugging her child so desperately, at least to protect them.

And at this moment, the villagers probably imagined the destruction that was about to come.

“…”
“Mom.”
“It’s alright, it’s alright.”

As they waited with fear in their hearts, thinking, “It’s scary, so scary,” they heard a loud voice that seemed to be calling for something.

“Oi, over here! Bring it over here!!”

Instead of the sound of destruction, a voice that seemed to be summoning something echoed.

“This is fine, isn’t it?”
“Isn’t it a bit less?”
“Well, how about adding another bag?”

They were doing something in front of the house.

She thought they might be about to break down the door, so she tensed her body, but she didn’t hear the sound of the door being knocked on. Instead, she heard the thudding sound of something being placed on the ground.

“Oi!! When you’re done there, let’s withdraw!!”
“Ooh!”

And with that sound, it became quiet.

They remained on guard for ten, twenty minutes, but they never heard the sound of an attack.

“Did they go somewhere?”
“Mom.”
“You stay here. If anything happens, hide in that pot over there.”

It’s difficult to stay vigilant all the time, so, worried, she cautiously unbolted the door and peeked outside.

“Eh?”

She expected the outside to be devastated, but it wasn’t.

The scene caused a foolish sound to escape her lips.

“Are these all food?”

A large amount of food was placed in front of the house.

At first, she thought it was a dream or an illusion, but it didn’t disappear even when she blinked.
Hesitantly, she picked up the vegetable on top, and in her hand was a vibrant, red vegetable she had never seen before – a tomato.

“Why?”

Demons are terrifying beings.
She had been told so, so why would demons leave food in front of her house?

A question arose in the woman’s mind.

Is it a trap?
She wondered if this food might be poisoned, but this was a poor village.
Would they go to such lengths for a poorly defended, remote village like this?

Even as she pondered this, her instincts told her that the vegetables in her hand were food, and her stomach rumbled, signaling her hunger.

A vegetable she had never seen before.
However, her instincts recognized it as food.

If this is food from the Demon World, something terrible might happen if she eats it.

The priest had also said that the Demon World is a frightening place.

If she ate the food of that country, would she also become a demon, a monster? Fear arose within her.

But, despite that, could she slam these vibrant vegetables onto the ground?

The woman’s inner conflict flickered for a moment.

As a result.

Hesitantly, the woman took a bite of the red vegetable, the tomato.

There is no spice greater than hunger.

“Delicious.”
As the taste, which was not imagined from its appearance, spread through her mouth with a perfect balance of sweetness and slight acidity, tears streamed from her eyes.

After that, she couldn’t stop.
Without caring if her hands or face got dirty, she devoured the tomatoes as if she were starving.

“Ah.”

More than regret for having eaten it, the happiness from eating it was immense.

And looking at the remaining food, she felt a sense of relief that there was enough food to survive for a while.

She didn’t know why the demons had left the food.
But, it gave her hope that she could survive for some time with this much.

“Mom, are you crying? Does it hurt somewhere?”
“No, no, it’s different.”

Considering common sense, this food should be thrown away, not touched.

She understood that.

But she also understood that to live, certain things were necessary.

Wiping away her tears, she turned to see her son looking at her with a puzzled expression.

And, looking closely, she saw that the same amount of food was distributed to the houses of her neighbors.

At first, they were hesitant and suspicious, but hunger was overwhelming.

One by one, they touched the food and shed tears.

While grand causes may stir the human spirit, they do not fill a person’s stomach.

It is absurd to demand patience and consider it normal.

The act of distributing this food, albeit temporarily, saved this village.

The hope of being able to live tomorrow undoubtedly brought a sense of relief to the hearts of the villagers.

“Is this… food?”
“Ah, yes. Let’s eat our fill today.”

Out of love for her child, she never mentioned who gave it to them.
But in her heart, for the first time, the woman thanked the demons.

She thought that perhaps there were good demons in the world.

She thought it might be an unconventional act to thank the demons who left food without saying anything, rather than those who spoke of grand causes and forced them. However, she felt that was fine.

“Eh, I can eat a lot!”

As long as her child was happy, that was enough.

Resolutely, she carried the food into the house.
Perhaps there were some villagers who refused it out of caution.

But this village was already close to its limit.
There were houses where people had starved to death.
In such an extreme state, where they could not help each other, there were no residents in this village who could refuse this food.

“Ah, Mom, I’ll put my whole heart into making delicious food for you.”

And so, in a small border village, a new common sense was born.
Perhaps good demons exist, a common sense mixed with a small doubt.

At that moment, the woman was unaware that this common sense was slowly spreading.

The act of war placed a great burden on the people in the world of Isal.
In a great nation, they could have reduced the burden on the people by calculating and shaving down reserves.

However, small countries that merely boasted could not afford to do so.

They declared, “It’s alright,” believing that if the people worked hard, there would be no problem, starting with a rushed decision. They convinced themselves that if they could do it once, they could do it again, and imposed heavy taxes.

They did not consider how much national strength would decrease as a result.

And then, a certain demon discovered such evil deeds and would not forgive them.

The demon traveled, distributing food to the poor and those in need, distributing medicine to those suffering from illness, and punishing corrupt officials.

People watched, bewildered.
Demons, whom they had considered evil, were helping people.
People, whom they had considered good, were committing evil deeds.

The bewildered people spun rumors, wondering which was right.

There is a demon who helps those troubled by war.

Isal started the war.
And there is a demon who helps the people of Isal.

As this repeated, a brave villager opened their door and asked the demon who was placing food there.

“Why are you doing this?”

The villager had heard the rumors beforehand, and had hesitantly expected them, and then had witnessed it in reality. It was a question born from the collapse of their common sense and the confusion about what was right.

And fate, it seems, has a penchant for surprises.

The person they questioned turned out to be none other than the King of Oni.
The King of Oni, who listened to the human’s words, simply said, “Because I don’t like it.”

He felt anger towards those who waged war and oppressed the weak. He intended to leave after saying only that.
The villager, wondering if they should just let such a demon leave,

“Thank you!!”
The villager spoke these words to the King of Oni, words that were equivalent to a grave sin.
The King of Oni did not reply.

He simply waved goodbye silently to the villager and walked away.

Today’s Word
Rumors and truths can differ.

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