Chapter 7: The Monsters’ Money-Making Scheme
“Eeeek!”
The soldier fighting to protect the town from monsters was in a dire situation.
His opponent was a Chimera. A powerful monster with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a snake’s tail. Not only was it strong, but it was also highly intelligent. It saw right through the soldier’s intentions and cornered him, toying with him even though it could kill him at any moment.
(I’m dead. It’s over.)
Just as he resigned himself to death, the Chimera spoke.
“Give me money.”
“Huh?”
For a moment, the soldier couldn’t understand what he had heard.
“Give me money.”
“…Are you saying you want money?”
He hadn’t expected the monster to speak human language in the first place, but the content of its speech was even more surprising.
“That’s right. Hand it over. If you give me money, I’ll let you go.”
The soldier hurriedly searched his pockets, took out some coins from his purse, and threw them on the ground.
“This is all the money I have! Please spare me with this!”
He could have given all his money, but the soldier got a bit greedy. He thought he could trick the monster since it wasn’t human.
The Chimera stared at the coins on the ground for a while, then said to the soldier:
“Jump.”
“Huh?”
“I said, jump.”
“J-jump?”
The soldier jumped as he was told.
The coins in his purse clinked against each other, making a sound.
“You’ve still got more, you bastard!”
“Eek! I-I’m sorry!”
The soldier hurriedly took out his purse and scattered its contents on the ground.
The Chimera looked at the scattered coins and muttered:
“About three times as much…”
“Huh?”
The soldier didn’t understand the meaning of the Chimera’s muttering.
“You can go now.”
The Chimera seemed to have lost interest in the soldier and started skillfully gathering the coins with its front paw.
The soldier ran away at full speed before the Chimera could change its mind.
Stories of monsters sparing lives in exchange for money began to be heard in various places.
Of course, there were cases where people were killed even after paying, but these were in the minority. In most cases, paying money saved lives.
Upon learning this, various countries attempted a strategy of scattering gold and silver coins to buy time and retreat when the Demon King’s army attacked.
This strategy was effective. The monsters rushed to the scattered coins and lost interest in attacking humans. Sometimes, satisfied with the money they had collected, the monsters would retreat on their own.
Some countries tried to counterattack while the monsters were picking up money, but this resulted in fierce retaliation from enraged monsters and ended in failure. The tension of the furious monsters was extraordinary, and they attacked without regard for their own injuries, making it a completely unprofitable strategy.
However, the common understanding that money could ward off monsters spread among countries. Treasures were diligently transported to the front lines and scattered whenever monsters attacked.
Soldiers were issued one gold coin each and instructed to use it to save their lives if necessary.
Most monsters were satisfied with one gold coin and would let people go.
There were also strange developments in the territories occupied by the Demon King’s army.
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“I’ve come to collect this month’s payment.”
A demon arrived at the village chief’s house.
“Oh, welcome! It’s good to see you,”
the village chief responded with a smile. It wasn’t a forced smile. He was genuinely welcoming the demon.
Since the demon’s arrival, this village had been required to pay a certain amount of money each month.
However, this amount was less than the taxes collected by the lord who used to rule this village.
While the lord had only extorted taxes without doing anything in return, this demon properly protected the village from other monsters. For the demon, this village was a valuable asset that provided a steady monthly income, so he took good care of it to ensure its continued ability to generate income.
“Here’s this month’s payment,”
the village chief said, handing over a bag of money.
“Is there anything troubling you?”
The demon checked it and asked
“Recently, wolves have been appearing near the northern mountains…”
As the village chief explained the village’s recent concerns, the demon said,
“I see. I’ll take care of them.”
He immediately headed towards the northern mountains.
The villagers were very satisfied with his work. They had come to believe that it was much better to be under this demon’s protection than to belong to some country.
This trend of monsters protecting humans for money was seen in various places, and even in territories occupied by the Demon King’s army, humans were able to survive.
Meanwhile, the Demon King’s army remained in a state where the Four Heavenly Kings, who were the commanders, were kept in their home country, and war-weariness was spreading.
Furthermore, purple potions became wildly popular within the Demon King’s army, and the monsters were preoccupied with collecting money to buy these potions.
Initially, they killed humans to steal money, but they realized that if they killed too many, there would be no more humans to bring money. A common understanding spread that they would spare the lives of humans who paid money.
After all, only humans could possess and make money. Monsters had no coin minting technology. Considering this, they couldn’t afford to kill all humans.
To begin with, monsters didn’t hate humans that much. If asked whether they liked or disliked humans, they would say they disliked them, but not enough to go out of their way to kill them. Most monsters were attacking humans simply because they were ordered to by their superiors and out of habit.
Even within the Demon King’s army, those with conscience viewed the purple potions as dangerous and began to crack down on them.
However, the factories producing the potions were scattered all over the world, and destroying one or two related factories had no significant impact. The only thing they learned was that there existed a large-scale underground organization that spanned across countries.
The offensive of the Demon King’s army had completely stagnated due to the purple potions.
“It’s going well, isn’t it?”
Trao said, looking at the mass-produced potions.
“Yes, it is,”
Rio answered with mixed feelings.
Indeed, business was booming. Monsters had started collecting money, and there were frequent stories of humans’ lives being saved by paying money. Above all, the advance of the Demon King’s army had visibly slowed down. While things were certainly going well, Rio couldn’t feel at all like they were doing something good.
Countries all over the world were gathering money to scatter on the front lines to avoid battles, monsters were collecting it, and Trao was obtaining that money in exchange for purple potions.
Rio thought that perhaps Trao, rather than anyone else, deserved the title of Demon King at this point.
The factories were constantly operating at full capacity. Money was pouring in at an incredible rate. It was now enough to buy a country.
Trao had hired several tight-lipped adventurers as intermediaries with the dealers and established a system from production to sales.
Rio and the others had also hired on-site managers to replace themselves and were now free to move about.
“Shall we start preparing to defeat the Demon King?”
Trao said casually.
“Really, Senpai?!”
Rio exclaimed, eyes wide with surprise. He had been worried that Trao might not stop the business until he had monopolized the world’s wealth.
“Yes, we’ve gathered quite a lot of money. I think this should be enough.”
(With this much money, you could buy anything),
Rio thought but didn’t say out loud. There was no greater joy than finally moving towards their long-cherished goal of defeating the Demon King.
“For that, we need to go on some adventures with the Garnet members. There are some things I want you to prepare for that. You can use as much money as needed. If you can’t get it with money, I don’t care about the method, just get it by any means necessary.”
Rio nodded silently.
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