Chapter 7

EPISODE 3 LET’S LEARN ABOUT THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE SACRED BLOOD EMPIRE! “In what was once the city of Akinomiya, over ten thousand residents have been taken as slaves called ‘minions.’ Despite not recognizing the Sacred Blood Empire as a sovereign country, the government is supplying them with copious rations each day with the intent of protecting our citizens. However, there is no doubt that this is only delaying the rescue of those imprisoned. Is it now time for our nation to take decisive measures?” The image on the screen changed from a studio to show a Sacred Blooded house, indicated by the on-screen text. All the faces in the house were blurred out. The voices were also distorted to add a layer of privacy. A male minion was placing soup bowls before a whole family of Sacred Blooded in a very wealthy-looking dining room. For some reason, the man was wearing nothing but a pair of briefs. “Today’s soup is matsutake mushrooms in a clear broth.” “Let me see. Ugh, awful!” The Sacred Blooded emptied the bowl onto the mostly naked minion. The man gave a cry and leaped back. “You think I can have soup that tastes like sewage?! Call the landlady!” Just as the minion started bowing his head, Shiren shut off the TV. “Once it gets this bad, it’s actually pretty entertaining.” That was a documentary from a Japanese public broadcast, called Now in the Sacred Blood Empire. However, the point seemed to be to insult the Sacred Blooded and their empire. “That was staged, wasn’t it?” “Obviously. Where are you going to find an upstanding butler who only wears underwear? If word of a Sacred Blooded abusing their minion got out, it’d damage their reputation. Minions are treasure to us, not something to be treated so roughly— Ryouta, get the tea. I’ll empty the whole pot on you if it’s not hot enough.” “I’m noticing a bit of hypocrisy here!” He poured out the hot water from the pot and placed it in front of Shiren. “Phew, what a good meal. The mushroom-loaded curry you made today was delicious, Ryouta. I shall commend you. I’ll gladly pay for you if you want to go to culinary school.” “You will? But you’re just living on a pension—that wouldn’t be enough to get you to college.” Ryouta looked with a tired expression at Shiren, who was lying down in the living room after dinner. This was how it always was in the evening. There wasn’t anything particularly important for them to do, so they would spend their time lazing around after dinner. That was why they had been watching such a boring TV program. It was Thursday. After school was finished the next day, it’d be Ryouta’s first weekend. I sure got used to this quickly… He’d been living in the Empire for a few days now, but it wasn’t much different from Japan. It wasn’t a hell where minions were doomed to a miserable fate, at least, but it wasn’t exactly perfect. The Sacred Blooded were serious about getting their own minions. Even if a butler was treated and paid properly, anyone would rather be the master than the butler. And if getting one was as easy as sucking some blood, of course they’d want one. It was even the same in Ryouta and Shiren’s class. Their classmates acted nice on the surface, but they were ready and willing to bite him if they had the chance. The girls were especially polite and friendly with Ryouta. And by friendly, we mean on a dragging-him-into-the-gymnasium-storage-room level of friendly. And that had happened twice already. Almost every other day now.