[A timid, slow-witted demon king who loves to complain x a retired hero who acts like a domineering CEO when he actually speaks, and is a pretentious tough guy when he stays silent]
(Told in third person)
I, Xilin, am more or less a demon king.
The hero who sealed me away three hundred years ago is sitting right across from me, dressed in a suit and putting on the airs of a domineering CEO. The first thing out of his mouth is that I owe him a hundred million.
According to the law as it stands, if I can't pay off this debt, I, box and all, will belong to him. The only thing I can do is work as his personal assistant and pay it off.
He must know that I've been broke for a thousand years, doesn't he?
He's even exploiting what little labor I have to offer. Looks like the hero has fallen from grace, too.
Ah, money. The woes of capitalism!
*
That's what I say, but in truth, I'm not panicking.
After all, I'm a low-level mixed-blood demon. I may not have any special abilities, but at least I have a long lifespan.
It's only eight hundred and thirty-three years and four months of saving every penny without eating or drinking. I'll endure it to pay off the debt and buy back my little house.
Besides, there are a few things I haven't told Sir Hero.
When I was eighteen, I had just signed a partnership contract with a human mage when the mage tower shut down the very next day. The mage himself disappeared without a trace.
When I was one hundred and eight, I snuck into the most prosperous human city and found a steady job as a tavern server. Before I could collect my first month's wages, the owner somehow ended up in jail.
When I was one thousand and eight, all the powerful demons died in the war between humans and demons. As the only surviving old-timer, I was elected the next Demon King.
I took an advance on twenty years of my Demon King salary, bought a little villa outright, and then... Sir Hero showed up at my door and blew the entire Demon King's castle sky-high along with it.
In short, I have the kind of career luck that brings down every place I work for.
I hear the hero has retired, put down his holy sword, and built a business empire that controls the lifeblood of the global economy. Let's see what happens first: I pay off my debt, or his company goes under!
*
Life as the chairman's assistant looks glamorous, but only I know how utterly perilous it really is.
That awful hero is always ordering me to attend to him in person, or dragging me around from place to place. He even keeps forcing all sorts of junk he doesn't want on me.
He must be trying to taint my soul with his actions first, wear out my body with all this running around next, and finally insult my dignity as a demon with money.
After thinking it over, I decided to rally my remaining followers and scrape together some cash to get our leader out of here first.
I really wanted to slap a hundred million right onto the hero's face, but I didn't dare.
I was afraid he'd beat me up.
After secretly wiring him the money, I hid at the home of a former trusted subordinate and imagined the look on the hero's face.
But then a golden holy sword blazing with flames cleaved through the door. Its tip pointed at my utterly bewildered subordinate, but the speaker stared straight at me:
"Do you like him that much? You were like this before, and now you still... I knew it... He'd be better off dead..."
Well, this is awkward.
My boss, Sir Hero, the former hero...
I was hoping to watch him go bankrupt.
But it looks like he lost his cool first.
#What do I do, I think my boss is going to kill all my subordinates
#I only owe you some money, why are you always watching me
[Reader's Guide]
1. The bottom is nonhuman: a winged kitty with weak combat skills. The top is human: a tsundere tough guy who keeps his jealousy bottled up and acts like an arrogant CEO at first, then becomes a loyal little servant;
2. They are each other's one and only;
3. All the worldbuilding exists to serve the romance.
Theme: Work hard and earn money
