Chapter 3

“I see. Making a big jump after raising your reputation by working hard for a very long time on the bottom is one way to do it.” “Maybe it’s like trying to become the strongest by only killing slimes.” Wait, wait, wait—why are they okay with this…? The new demon king placed her right hand against her right cheek and sighed theatrically. “Sigh~ I also thought of a more orthodox personnel selection, but we discovered corruption as well as embezzlement from both the vice minister and employees in similar posts, so we asked them to resign~ I was truly lost as to who I should make the minister of agriculture~” The new demon king eyed me again, chuckling softly. Oh, so she’s a prankster… This was just a big experiment using me, a low-ranking employee… Give me a break! I don’t want to be your guinea pig! “Then I thought that perhaps this was our chance to use someone who’d spent their career at the bottom and yet maintained an excellent reputation.” After she said that, the other bureaucrats around me offered more comments. “Ohhh, I get it now.” “That’s one way of going about it.” Why are you okay with this?! Calm down; calm down. I’ll be doing just what the new demon king wants if I get worked up here. I was still a civil servant, so I should calmly refuse the offer as was afforded in the rules. “Your Majesty, in this instance, I would respectfully recommend that I remain a low-level employee.” I bowed my head politely and folded my wings. They had spread in my excitement, and it’d be rude to keep them out. “Oh, no. It’s normal to appoint people who’ve shown great achievements.” “However, I’m the daughter of a humble greengrocer in the countryside. What I want to say is, I don’t have any noble status or any similar rank. It has been the long-standing practice that those of noble standing take the position of minister. I am completely undeserving of this post, and I am terribly sorry to say that I can’t accept it.” Despite how quickly the bureaucratic organization had developed in the past two thousand years, there were still slight traces of a class system among the demons. Depending on the era, minister-level demons would sometimes command their subordinates to carry out massive wars against the humans, so it required someone with a rank worthy of such responsibility. “I see now. What a pickle~” “Yes, so if you would kindly choose someone else to—” “Then I will give you an empty manor belonging to a former noble family. And I will also give you a title. You may introduce yourself as Lady Beelzebub. Problem solved.” “……What?” She decided on that far too easily… Then the new demon king stepped down from the stage and, for some reason, started walking toward me. The civil servants on either side of her naturally parted the way for her. I also courteously knelt before her. “Beelzebub, this may seem unreasonable to you, but had you climbed up through the ranks normally, you would truly be a talent on par with the minister after working so hard for fifteen hundred years. The score that the personnel department gave you was unnaturally high. In reality, plenty of other posts requested you, but agricultural policy stopped them all.” “Th-that’s because a clerk’s work is easy, so it probably just looked like I was working hard…” “Raise your head, Beelzebub.” I had to obey when she commanded me. There stood the new demon king, smiling with royal dignity. She then plopped her hand on my shoulder. “It was the previous demon king who settled the war with the humans. But there are a heap of problems yet, and the agricultural department is full of them. Right now, we require new forces without prior obligations tying them down. This is a request from me, Demon King Provato Pecora Ariés.” The new demon king graciously bowed her head to me. All my options for excuses were gone. I’d shame her if I turned her down now. Not only would I not be able to keep my easy low-level job, I wouldn’t even be able to live in Vanzeld Castle town. “I—I humbly accept the appointment…” And so I, Beelzebub, suddenly went from entry-level clerk to the minister of agriculture. I had to bid farewell to my run-down apartment and its proximity to the market, which was really the only good thing about it. It was a sudden good-bye. I was moving to a stout three-story building outside of the Vanzeld Castle moat. It reminded me of the main branch of a bank. The yard in front of the manor was even big enough to play sports on. There was a garden with a large pond in the back, and I’d heard that rocs sometime came to drink the water. Behind it was a whole forest, like a sea of trees. When I stood before the building, I stared at it in blank amazement. “If there was a coup tomorrow, I’d probably be one of the first to die…” I checked every single one of the large, abundant rooms. One room was already bigger than my old apartment. There was even a ballroom. I’d have to employ some kind of help in the future. Otherwise, I’d have to take off every day to clean if I wanted to keep up. Or I could just use the minimum amount of rooms needed for my day-to-day life… Then I saw something in the enormous mirror in the changing room before the chalky-white bathroom. I was terrified. Standing there was a woman with no hope of getting ahead, with no prospects for entering society, with no money—with nothing, because she’d thrown it all away. It wasn’t a ghost, of course. Demons weren’t scared of ghosts. The only thing in the mirror was my own face. Indeed—standing out wouldn’t do anything for a low-level employee, so I’d had no qualms about it. I’d treated my appearance as a good way to keep as many people on my side as possible. But now I was a noble and a minister. Someone in those positions couldn’t look this plain. I wouldn’t be mistaken for a minister’s secretary, much less a full-blown minister. Even if the new demon king acknowledged me, that didn’t mean the other ministers from real houses wouldn’t snicker behind my back. And my staff would undeniably laugh at me, too… I made up my mind. It’s time I change my character. I placed as many gold and silver coins into a bag as I could fit and went out onto the main avenue. I bought everything that caught my eye at a women’s clothing shop and returned to the manor. Then I carefully tried on each item before the mirror. It would have been nice if I had had friends for a time like this, but I didn’t have any. Seriously, zero. In reality, after working at a low-level position for 1,500 years, I had watched all the people I’d joined with go to higher ranks, and there was no one in the workplace I got along well with. It was all my own doing. Glasses didn’t fit my character, so I took them off. I didn’t have bad eyesight in the first place, so it was no problem. I chose my outfit. It was a little revealing, but ministers were like dungeon bosses, so I figured this was fine. Next up was my style of speech. I couldn’t stay as a bottom-ranking employee—I had to master an appropriate style of speech. Your word choice clearly changed depending on your status, so I had to learn how to speak like a minister. I underwent a strange, intensive training. I practiced all through the night until the sun rose, and I established my form. “Ha-ha-ha! My name is Beelzebub! I am the great Lord of the Flies! Prepare yourself, for I will make you painfully aware of what agriculture should be!” I recited, striking a pose in front of the mirror. No—I introduced myself, taking my stance before the mirror. “I am Beelzebub, demon noble and minister of agriculture. Adequate results will not be enough for those of you beneath me. Oh, talking like this might end up putting pressure on my subordinates, so I’ll have to be careful… Oh shoot, now I’m talking like I used to…” I’d been practicing my transformation this entire time. Ten out of ten people might think I was joking around, but— I wasn’t joking around at all! I was super-serious! Without these drastic changes, I didn’t have confidence that I could carry out my work from now on… And I wasn’t the great Beelzebub, Lord of the Flies, of course. I could use magic that could turn me into a fly, and I did sometimes eat the bruised fruit at my parents’ greengrocery back when I was working there. Actually, they were tastiest just before or just as they were beginning to rot. Oh, no, no… I mean… Oh dear. Sheesh. I have to keep my inner voice consistent with my character. I stared at myself in the mirror. My clothes left my shoulders bare, and my hair was straightened to give me a more powerful image. All I needed to do was show confidence on my face and hold myself high. “I am Beelzebub, minister of agriculture. I am Beelzebub, minister of agriculture. I am Beelzebub, minister of agriculture, and so I shall act as of today. My inconspicuous self is a thing of the past.” And so I went to work at the Agricultural Policy Organization for the first time as the new Beelzebub. ’Twas my debut as the minister of agriculture! “Good morning. How fare my underlings?!” My coworkers stared at me blankly. Surely they were surprised by my noble carriage! Perhaps they thought I was a pure-blooded noble! A lowly woman who was once my coworker slowly raised her hand and said— “Beelzebub, you’re the minister of agriculture; I don’t think this is where you’re supposed to work…” “……Indeed. Old habits die hard.” I left the room, my face bright red… “I should not have left my comfort zone…”