The Demon King's Hero Of Light 17 Chapter 17 Delicious Tarts

"It's about time! Did you have to lick all their boots before we could move on?" roared Paeral, the second demon she had fought in the compet.i.tion. His skin was marked from all of the cuts she had inflicted on him. The healers had stopped the bleeding, but scars covered him from head to foot. His nose was still crooked, too.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Paeral. I had them reserve their boots for you to s.h.i.+ne later. Tezra see to it."

Tezra nodded carefully, motioning to two guards. "Take Paeral to s.h.i.+ne boots until King Aella requests his presence again. If he refuses, flog him until he obeys."

Aella watched them drag the demon between them as he fought against them. She would have thought he was stronger than the guards, but apparently not. Maybe they had magic to a.s.sist them, as the compet.i.tions would undoubtably cause a fair number of insane and dangerous demons. She would have to keep that in mind.

Tezra motioned for her to follow her again, and they made their way through the castle, up stairs and down halls, until they stopped at an overly decorated door. Throwing it open, Tezra stood to the side to allow everyone to come inside.

Aella immediately saw the throne she was supposed to sit on, but she wasn't very interested in it because against the left wall was a long table crowded full of foods she had never seen before. Grabbing a plate, she ignored the servant who showed up, and began to pile her plate high with all different kinds of food. Once nothing more would fit without risking a food avalanche, she made her way over to the table that had been set up for everyone to sit at and eat.

"Would Your Majesty like a drink?" asked the servant, trailing just behind her left elbow. The demon had very short horns and black dreads tied up out of the way. His clothing was consistent with all of the servants she had seen in the castle.

"Who are you again?" she asked, taking a large bite of a leg of meat.

"I am Edgar, Your Majesty. I am to serve you exclusively, any food or drink you desire," he bowed without a hint of a smile, to show her he wasn't joking or trying to make a pun. Aella wasn't sure she liked him, because he was too serious, but then she knew she needed to get more serious about being King.

"Fine, get me a drink. Tezra?" she called, turning to see the counselor getting her own plate of food.

"Yes?" she asked, turning to face Aella.

"When do I get tutors to teach me to be a better king?"

"After you have dealt with the Heroes, Your Majesty."

"No, I don't think so. I want to see the tutors tomorrow. There's no telling when the heroes will show up, and I don't intend to waste time."

"As you wish," she said, bowing slightly, and then turning back to finish getting her food.

Spitting out a chunk of green fruit, she moved the rest of it off onto the table, and took a bite of a yellow piece of fruit. It was pretty good, so she ate the rest of it. Edgar set down a mug of something strong and yeasty. Taking a swig of it, she decided it wasn't bad.

"Edgar, tell me what all of these things are," she said, as the other demons sat down along the table with plates of food. She made sure to keep track of who sat the furthest from her, because they were the ones she needed to keep an eye on.

"The green fruit you have pushed off onto the table is a lime. That yellow fruit you just finished was pineapple. These are oranges, that is duck breast meat, those are fried potatoes, these are peppers, this is bread, this is fish, this is pork, these are roasted nuts, these are various cheeses, and these are blackberry tarts."

She watched as he calmly pointed at each thing she had placed on her plate and named them all off. Just because her food had a name didn't mean she would enjoy it any more or less, but at least she could request more of the things she did like.

"These tarts are delicious!" said Ulrik, the last demon who she had never fought against. He had two tarts in one hand, and was shoving a third into his mouth.

Picking up her tart, she took a bite, and savored the sweet jelly in between the two crispy layers of crust. A hidden flavor made its presence known on her tongue as she went to swallow, and Aella turned quickly to see Ulrik's dark purple face turn almost black as he clutched at his neck. Everyone else at the table froze and watched him struggle to breath as his throat appeared to close up, and he flipped back off the bench he was sitting on.

"The tarts are poisoned," she announced in the silence as he flopped around on the floor, and took another bite of hers. The poison actually enhanced the flavor quite a bit.

Everyone else who had a tart on their plate, or were in the process of biting one, quickly pushed them away onto the table.

"Is anything else flavored with poisons, Edgar?" she asked taking another swallow of her ale. "While the poisons don't bother me, I would hate to lose all of my future generals to them."

"I'm sorry Your Majesty, but I was unaware of any poisons being used. I could send someone to investigate in the kitchens?" he suggested, bowing deeply and looking extremely disturbed.

"Do that."

He bowed again and glanced at a servant standing at the buffet table, who bowed and hurried out of the room.

"Well, I suppose the fact that poisons don't work on you means that they won't try that again, a.s.suming you were the target," said Firion cheerily, taking a large bite from an apple.

"Ahh!" cried Torrod, the first demon she had fought, fanning his mouth as he half rose from his seat. "These small red fruits have to be poisoned! They burn your mouth!"

Everyone laughed as he grabbed up his goblet and downed his wine.

"Torrod, you fool! Those are hot peppers! They're supposed to be spicy!" laughed Seifer.

Aella picked up one of the peppers she had put on her plate. She hadn't known they were supposed to be spicy. Taking a bite, she noted a tiny bit of heat, but it didn't burn her mouth, like it seemed to on Torrod.

"Do they not bother you, Aella?" asked Frederik, watching her eat the peppers with surprise.

She shrugged, finished the last of one, and reaching for the duck meat. "They were alright, but I found them rather tasteless. I think gra.s.s has more flavor."

"And you've eaten gra.s.s to know?" Vesh questioned, taking care not to open his mouth too wide as the gash she had made on his face was still weeping.

"Before I was s.n.a.t.c.hed up and brought to fight, I ate a lot of things to survive," she said, finis.h.i.+ng the duck and moving on to the orange. She enjoyed the sweetness of it, and finished it quickly.

Everyone seemed very intrigued by that. Firion stood up, as everyone watched, and stabbed Ulrik in the throat, allowing him to suck in a deep breath in panic.

"How did you know to do that?" asked Frederik in surprise.

Firion shrugged, "I didn't, but I figured it would be nice if he died quickly, instead of struggling."

"Don't lie," said Aella. "You wanted to kill him instead of letting a poison do it."

He bowed with a grin. "You're right. I won't lie again. I did enjoy watching him struggle though."

"What do you mean, you were s.n.a.t.c.hed up?" asked Kapral, the dagger wound in his chest having been healed to nothing more than a scar. "We were all hand picked from the royal orphanage."

"Really? I was living on the streets when I was captured and taken to fight a bunch of other demon kids. I was the only one to survive the Race," she said, picking through the fried potatoes for the crispiest ones. "Tezra, we need a healer."
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Tezra nodded and a servant rushed off.

"Wait, you were the one who survived that? I heard about that! It was horrid!" exclaimed Seifer, gazing at her in amazement.

"I honestly didn't think I would survive it. I was sure the counselor in charge of overseeing it was going to cut the ropes of the bridge at the end," said Aella with a frown, remembering it in detail.

"Counselor Vita was found to be breaking a number of rules and removed from her position," said Tezra carefully, between bites of stew.

The atmosphere changed immediately after that, and everyone focused on eating their food, or watching Ulrik gasp. Aella wondered if it was because they all knew the last compet.i.tion had been completely rigged against her, and she won anyway.

Spying Rhys and Kapral, sitting at the farthest end of the table, Aella noted that they hadn't contributed to the conversation at all, and kept shooting angry glances her way. She was probably going to need to do something with them, before they tried something they would regret.

"Tezra, it was stated that all of the surviving compet.i.tors would become my generals. What exactly does that entail?" she asked, making a sandwich with the pork, cheese, and bread.

"Previous kings had all of the survivors sent to be trained as generals," she said, wiping her mouth with a napkin.

"Then I get to decide who goes and who stays?" she asked, raising an eyebrow, her sandwich almost too big to hold in one hand.

"You are the king," she said, bowing her head.

"Then Rhys and Kapral are to go immediately after they are done eating. I want them out of the castle. Maybe they can use some of that rage they have, on the battle field against the humans and monsters."

"Of course, Your Majesty," Tezra said, glancing at some of the guards who were standing by the doors. They moved next to the two demons who glared at her before finis.h.i.+ng their food and leaving.

"Does that mean we are not to be generals?" asked Vesh, trying to frown and not frown at the same time.

"I don't want to waste my time having to kill those two," she said, pausing to get another drink. Firion frowned, because it meant he didn't get to kill them. Edgar was doing a wonderful job of keeping her drink filled, but she was going to have to p.i.s.s like a horse after the meal. "The rest of you I find more agreeable, and would like to keep you close, until I decide what to do with you. Besides Vesh, I promised to get your eye fixed."

He studied her for a moment before nodding slightly and returning to his meal. She couldn't imagine how bad his side must be hurting, since she had removed that rib. It was interesting to note that he wasn't using his arm on that side.

That's when the healers arrived.