"Tip?"
Three seconds after Yila gently asked, a cute figure appeared in Yila's room, becoming clear from a blurred state and kneeling on one knee before her as she read.
From the direction of the training ground, he had captured Yila's call from the Void Realm and had appeared in front of her. The whole process took only three seconds.
*Again, it felt like a waste of talent to be just a butler.*
Tipcapu waited for Yila's instructions, but after a long while, she still hadn't spoken. The demon then lifted his head and found Yila just staring at him... His face involuntarily turned red.
"Sorry, I was just thinking if your Mana might be different from that of ordinary demons, given your innate talent for Void Travel."
Realizing Tipcapu's face had turned red, Yila quickly explained, walking behind the cute, somewhat stiff male demon and said, "Please don't resist."
Realizing her words could easily be misunderstood, Yila quickly clarified before he could think otherwise: "I'm going to touch your demon features and extract some of your Mana."
As soon as she said that, Yila grabbed Tipcapu's tail...
"Ouch~"
"....."
Ignoring his strange yelp, Yila released his tail after extracting some Mana. She also chose to ignore Tipcapu's flushed face, not dwelling on how he might have felt.
As Yila felt the Mana flowing through her wings, she didn't notice anything different—it felt the same as that of any other demon, no matter where she placed it.
"Tip?"
"Yes!"
"Where's Hilena right now?"
Tipcapu, with his face still red, paused for a moment at Yila's question, then virtualized and disappeared in place. About six seconds later, he reappeared and said, "In the kitchen, discussing ingredients with Mr. Lime."
"Thanks. You can get back to your duties."
Saying this, Yila walked out of the room. She was starting to find servants useful, though perhaps only Tip... *Void Travel* was indeed a very convenient ability.
"Ha~ Hoo~"
Tipcapu calmed his racing heart by taking deep breaths and rubbing the spot on his tail where Yila had grabbed. His body gradually faded and disappeared from the room.
*Honestly, the feeling of having one's Mana extracted was peculiarly strange for a demon...*
——————————
The kitchen door wasn't closed, and as Yila approached it, she heard Mr. Lime's voice speaking with a helpless tone: "The mini-slimes reported that the food reserves in the territory are critically low."
"The ingredients within Demon King City can barely hold out, but the residents of the Demon King Territory have no surplus food left. Eggs, milk, and meat are almost completely consumed!"
From Lime's tone, Yila gathered that he was not just the head chef in the castle. His slimes seemed to be involved in cooking for the entire territory, not just rationing part of the ingredients for the residents.
However, there was a crucial point in his words—the fact that the magical residents could actually have a chance to eat meat, even in limited quantities?!
*What kind of divine place is this?!*
Yila was a bit shocked. In the Empire, the poor or the slaves would weep with gratitude if they could get white bread bestowed by the nobles.
But the residents of the Demon King Territory could eat meat?
"Not only that, only carrots are left for vegetables. The castle's share is also down to just carrots and cloud vegetables. Meat, eggs, and milk need to be rationed, and the residents of the Demon King Territory will have to survive on blue gui mushrooms and carrots until the caravan arrives in six days."
Lime's tone sounded frantic, as if the Demon King Territory was in a state of *abundant main staple (blue gui mushrooms), ample carrots, and everything else in short supply.*
*But you all really care about the residents of the territory...*
Thinking this, Yila squinted her eyes and felt a growing fondness for the Demon King Territory... *Even if the concern was due to "protecting one's assets," it still felt nice.*
*Six days until the caravan arrives?*
If a nation's food supply had to rely on a caravan to be sustained, the nation's structure was extremely unhealthy… No, it didn't seem to be the case.
*Food is sufficient, but the variety is lacking?*
In Yila's previous world, nations that were both major food exporters and importers to ensure food diversity were quite common... But in this world, at least the Empire didn't need food imports.
Dwarves had to import food continually since many crops couldn't grow in their lands.
Also, if the Demon King controlled the region and the territories under various races didn't adopt a non-responsive stance, then they should be providing their yields to the Demon King Territory.
If there was no war, there would be stable trade routes with elves, dwarves, and beastmen, so waiting for a caravan shouldn't be necessary… In general terms, the caravan might not even bring enough trade food.
But it was possible to feed the demons in the Demon King Territory with just blue gui mushrooms.
If it were humans, degrading from high-quality living to low-quality would lead to rebellion, but with the mysterious loyalty of demons, unless their leaders rebelled, they would obediently starve to death.
*That's the concept of races.*
The leaders of each race in the Demon King Territory, those seen at the morning council, didn't seem like the type to rebel, so there was no need to worry about this.
At least, Yila thought it was perfectly reasonable to let the residents endure hardship temporarily in such times.
"It's indeed a dire situation."
Hilena said seriously as she faced the situation. "I'll report this to the Demon King. It seems the formation of the hunting team needs to be prioritized. I'll inform everyone at tomorrow's morning meeting."
"Understood."
Lime, seemingly thinking of something, asked, "When can we use Mr. Yila's fertilizer? What about the harvest next season?"
Unfortunately, Hilena wasn't very certain about this either. As she walked towards the kitchen entrance, she responded, "Not sure, but next season… at the latest, the season after next, the harvest will definitely be much better than now."
Hearing Hilena's words, Lime sighed in relief and said, "Thank Mr. Yila for me… No, I will thank Mr. Yila personally later."
"The entire Demon King Territory should thank... Lord Yila?"
As Hilena walked out of the kitchen, she saw Yila waiting outside. First surprised, she then regained her maid composure and greeted, "Good afternoon, Lord Yila. Are you here to see Mr. Lime?"
"No, I'm here to see you."
Yila said directly, "Let me touch your tail."
"....."
"What?!"
"No, I didn't mean that. Please give me some of your Mana."
Yila corrected herself calmly while Hilena, sounding a bit shy and surprised, responded.…
Although, even saying that was a bit strange.