How could I not know about half of the transactions that happened under my nose? Yeah, the last part left a bitter taste in my mouth as I changed back into more… proper attires before asking one of the soldiers to tell the general to meet me at my desk. The day left me not really exhausted, since it wasn’t that hard, but the constant screaming in my ears, the bags of so many different things and the demons here for ‘’me’’ I didn’t quite like it, as much as I couldn't care less about having a good image. I rule the underworld after all. I could hardly be an angel anymore. A knock at my door and a kneeling general soon after, he didn’t even look me in the eyes yet. I rest my head against my hand as my red eyes pierce through the fiber of the man in front of me, contemplating the moment he would hear my voice.

- Do you know why I asked you today?

- I am at your ser-... YOU!? What are? What?

He stood up quickly, shocked at the big reveal as I couldn’t help my laugh from pouring out this time. He kneeled again, so low it was quite sad.

- Please stand up. So, did you like our encounter? Was I a good recruit?

- I-I… He stuttered as he stood up again, slowly, without making eye contact.You were excellent my king. I am so sorry, I didn’t recognize you.

- So you bad mouthed me to your little recruit to scare them? Do you even believe those rumors?

-No. Of course not!

- No? So you don’t think I would punish you severely for this little… confusion?

My eyebrow were raised as I took a disappointed look, as if to say it was the wrong answer. I could see the sweat pouring out of his thick leather like skin. Let’s just say demons didn’t sweat often anymore.

I meant yes! I believe it!

YES!? You believe I am a hungry bloodthirsty beast who ravages even my own kind for fun?

No! Yes! I-.. He went back into kneeling down, tears visible in the corner of his eyes, I am sorry, I will make up for my errors, please spare me…

Stand up, I said before approaching the pleading man as he stood up. Look me in the eyes.

His eyes slowly met mine as I channeled all the authority I had in me to make it believable I was pissed. And who wanted to see a demon angry.

- I guess there’s only one thing left for me to do with you…

- Please… he said before seeing my hand in waiting for a handshake. wha-...

- Hi, I am Lucifer, the demon king. Thank you for taking care of training recruits and for the fun day I had in a long while. I was just messing with you.

He slowly, cautiously shook my hand as I pull him closer to me to calmly whisper in his ear:

- But the beast can come up if you shit talk about me. Try to draw the line at fear and not ridicule, okay? I let him go before returning to my desk. So, I’ll need you for something in fact, take it as a punishment if you want, but I need you to do an inventory of everything that comes and goes on a regular basis, who uses what in the castle and has it by the end of next month. If I see things that are not on the list, I might not be as kind and gentle, understood?

- Y-yes your highness.

- Please, call me Lucifer. Titles like this are worthless in this world.

What are demon? Demons are, for humans, selfish creatures who seek violence and wreak havoc to all they touch. Demons represent everything that’s bad in the world, the human fault doesn’t exist, only demons that have so much time under their hands to manipulate the mind of the weak, to encourage them to sin for them to go down in hell. Sometimes, people remember that demons were once angels, sometimes they even go as far as to say demons were protecting a lower part of a hash world.

There was some truth in those statements. After all, it was indeed a hash world, where the sun was beneath us and our capacity to adapt was crucial. Cold didn’t exist in this world, only a burning excruciating heat that only our hardened body could support, now as much live. We were all surviving here and helping each other out didn’t really work in those conditions. You should try kindness, when you are at the lowest point, where every fiber wants you to breathe, to get out, to drink or feel anything other than pain, to be complacent, to have empathy, to not let your body numb your feelings of compassion, of anything. The eternity of suffering for a new project of the one above all that couldn’t make mistakes and offered trials to strengthen the bond. What first came to a blessing of them, a gift bestowed upon a selected few quickly became an insufferable poison, all of it to punish humans that couldn’t follow their cryptic rules. Yet, everyone was suffering together before the project of the new life began, the real problem began when they came to us.

Human’s soul lowered the temperature, giving us a nice break. But giving one piece of meat to a horde of starving beasts is doom to end in a massacre. This is where factions started, legions separated in 666 came to life. The weak and greedy were thrown into the lake of lost souls, everyone wanted their piece of land, dominating it to get closer to the cooler air as much as possible and it was, for the most of it, a blood bath. I wasn’t proud of myself, but someone had to do something before no demons would be left to keep the souls inside their punishment chamber. They were tricky creatures, bargaining, manipulating and slithering around as soon as our backs were turned, they even found cracks to their world we never encountered ourselves. Yet, when that fact came to my ear, in fear of receiving worse punishment from the one who abandoned us, I took action.

Decimating as low people as I could, I gathered a little troop of loyal people to the cause and together we reunited the land by a firm and violent hand: me. I retrieved every last soul I could get and separated it evenly around, created a chart for upcoming souls, having them sorted by name and place they had to go. Taking care of the people that help me, I nominated them generals and have the land have a few more souls to be more able to interrogate them. With some organization and a bit less burning sensations, it was a lot easier to focus and build a society based on optimizing the ‘’gift’’ of god. I made the rift secured and guarded. I did so much that time went so fast. If I were mortal, I would be dead millenia ago. So I guess I didn’t properly introduce myself to the world as much as I thought I did. Even if I was the king of the underworld, and my work was renowned and even feared, they never, for the most part, saw my face. Wish made a funny situation.

I got out of my cave to enjoy quietly the landscape, sighting as I thought of taking myself up for a stroll, looking at the nice architecture they were able to build, looking back at all the danger we faced and the work that was always in progress, but the conditions were getting better as more and more people came here and the space began to lower at a nice 60 degree. The air was finally breathable, the world could work and share and even if it wasn’t as pleasant for other lands, we weren’t struggling as much and only greed were stopping us to achieve greater accomplishment and truly make this place feel like a home some of us once longed for.

I watch, to a piece of something we managed to grow after centuries, a leisurely I was happy to see shared with more common people. It was great, yes, we all really did a great job.

- What are you doing as an intern, in THAT attire? Go put this and change quickly, we need to be ready to serve the demon king!

I got thrown some military garments, which granted me some fond memories and accepted the offer. After all, when have I taken a real break since? This could be fun. I executed myself quickly, but my amused smile wasn’t pleasing my ‘’general.’’

- Why are you so happy to recruit? Don’t you know who you’re working for?

- The demon king? I thought he was quite lenient.

The minor general laughed out loud and put a hand on my shoulder in a compassionate manner which made one of my eyebrows raise.

- Didn’t they tell you anything at the training camp? The legend of the bloodthirsty demon king? Let’s just say if you screw up, even a minor fault could get you centuries of torture, or even an eternity in the lake of lost souls.

I pretended to be frightened as I looked right into the eyes of the general. I can understand why Belzebuth or Amon could have spread those rumors about me to keep everyone in check, but the reality was far less thrilling. I just like to talk and know different opinion, I wouldn’t torture anyone if it wasn’t for crucial reason, the lies were… cute and I couldn’t help but decide to play a bit with it.

- Oh no! I am so sorry, because of me you had to bad mouth him in his own castle!

The general turned a bit red and squeezed my shoulder a bit harder. This was a way to… threaten me I think and I hardly retained my composure towards this. But he soon screamed some order toward me that I tried to execute. I kind of like having a new perspective, and this was something I’ve never done before. It has been a while since I’ve done some physical work. Most of the time I am trapped inside my chamber, writing, approving, listening to the same five people or the casual use of magic to obtain some books to far to reach, now I had to put bag after bag of heavy metal like part, then grains, then it was transporting some souls, then, the most shocking, was to accompany beautiful demons toward another room, which cough my attention, how could it not?

- Is it for the King?

- Who else could it be for? I told you, the king is a beast, but at least he has taste.

- I don’t- … I have to go, I’ll be right back.