"Since no one's volunteering..."
The Rat Demon extended a sharp-nailed finger and pointed casually through the air, his gaze like that of someone choosing pork at a market:
"Then this general will just pick at random."
"Whoever I point to, that's who it'll be."
At those words, the deathly silent crowd erupted!
With the shadow of death looming over them, no one cared about friendship anymore.
"No! Don't eat me! I'm no good!"
Someone in the crowd shouted first, and then the scene spiraled completely out of control.
"Eat him! My lord, eat him! He's a cripple! He won't have the strength to mine even if you keep him!"
A burly man actually shoved his frail neighbor forward, his face full of terror.
"Don't take my daughter! Take this old bastard! He told me himself that he'd lived long enough!"
"If you're taking anyone, take the family next door! They have plenty of children!"
To stay alive, neighbors who had known one another for years became utterly unrecognizable.
Some even shoved the people beside them out of the crowd with all their strength to avoid being chosen.
They tried to fill the demon's stomach with other people's lives!
"Hm?"
Watching the chaotic farce below the platform, the Rat Demon froze for a moment.
He seemed bewildered by this sudden infighting as well.
But then he burst into wild laughter:
"Squeak, squeak! Hahahaha! Good! Wonderful!"
"So this is your true nature!"
"The paragons of all creation?"
"You're only fit to rot in the mines and become our food!"
He rocked back and forth with laughter, tears almost spilling from his eyes!
Below the raised platform.
The middle-aged man in hemp clothes watched the crowd frantically shoving one another, an indescribable bitterness welling up in his heart until he could barely breathe.