Chapter 19 – Customers

“Goodness. Shiny, I feel as though you could have used just a bit more… care,” spoke Kairon. He said that last word carefully, not sure if it would really be understood.

“Heavy. Seemed this was best.”

“You felt making this into an art project was best?”

“Art?”

“Nevermind. Just. I hope the feeding pit accepts limbs and… other bits without diminishing returns.” He gingerly poked at a pile of pulped organs and bloody corpses. I really can’t complain. He did manage to get all of those corpses over here by nightfall.

“Okay. Let’s do this. I want you to keep moving these remains into the feeding pit until I say to stop.”

Kairon watched carefully, one claw pressed firmly on the stone maw, watching the capacity.

First heap went in.

The moment the stony maw gulped down the body, a chime sounded. Was that a confirmation tone?

The demon motioned hurriedly for the brood imps to continue.

Two-thirds of a body was thrown in. Again, the same chime sounded. It is. I don’t know the last time I heard one of those. It must have been back at The Bureau. But why didn’t the other food do this? Or the timber? Hmm…

With thirty corpses, this was going to take some time. Curious that the processing time is tripled what it normally is. That change, however, should be a good one. More processing time means more to chew through.

Kairon looked up at the evening sun, and then down at the warm sand. “Best bits first. Anything that’s more intact should be pushed into the pit. If anything spoils, I want the good stuff in first.”

It took about an hour to get through the bigger corpse pieces. By this point, the brood imps were absolutely covered in blood. Their claws were painted crimson, skin marred with viscera, and faces splotched with bits and bones. He could have helped, but honestly, he just couldn’t stomach the idea. Maintaining a professional look is a key part of any supervisor’s job, after all.

“Now for the small stuff.”

What followed next was half an hour of workers shoveling in organic matter blended with sand. He directed them to use their little claws like shovels and bulldoze heaps inside the maw. When the last of it was pushed in, Kairon checked the final output.

Interesting that no matter the capacity, the processing time is consistent. That has some interesting implications.

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“Huh. You’re sure that’s everything?”

“Everything not shiny. Yes,” came the reply from his little supervisor.

Looking around, Kairon saw the imp was right. There were still spatters of blood in the sand, but nothing bigger than a claw was visible here or with Sovereign Eye outside the walls.

“It seems that the condition does affect output. Thirty corpses, but only twenty-three units worth made it in the maw.” He rubbed his scaly chin, the motion helping him think.

“Master?”

“Hmm?”

“If pit full, how we eat?”

Kairon waved the concern off. “All in good time, Shiny. All in good time.”

He was about to give his next set of commands when a wrath imp burst into view. “Master! Master! Visitors! To the north!”

Only now did the city lord look up.

Memories of what happened from the first time ran through Kairon’s mind. “Oh dear. What did you say to them?!”