The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 110: There are all kinds of surprises in this world, I guessed...

Chapter 110: There are all kinds of surprises in this world, I guessed...

"Umm..."

This inability to describe the cocoon and the prevention to hear the Egg’s name was definitely the same kind of censorship system. It got me flustered for a while, because I didn’t want to come across as if I had no intention to tell Natha about it.

"It’s alright," his hands came back to my cheek, this time to stroke soothingly. "I understand. It’s divine restriction."

Huh...a fancy way to say God’s censorship, I guessed.

But I nodded frantically in response, before pausing in stun. Wait...so did that mean my little space detour was a work of divine power? Some God’s mischievous prank?

I let out a gasp at that realization, and Natha finally let out a smile. "Alright," he nodded and started to pat me all over. "You don’t feel anything weird?"

"Not...anymore," I shook my head in response, since any queasy or dizziness had been gone at this point. I also felt better since Natha didn’t seem to be angry or worried anymore. "Do you know what exactly...?"

"No," he continued to check on my condition with his eyes. "But at least I don’t think it meant to hurt you."

"Oh, I know that much," I nodded in agreement.

Yes, I knew that I didn’t have good judgment, but it wasn’t like I’d dive headlong into a place that gave me bad feelings. It was because the place didn’t particularly give me the bad vibe that I could just saunter forward unhesitatingly.

[Master! It was scary!]

Oh, I forgot about Jade! I turned to the side and held the bird in my arms. Jade had been stroking my side with its head since earlier, and now it turned small again so I could hold it in my hands. Jade nuzzled my cheek immediately, little wings stretched out so it seemed like the bird was hugging my face.

"Alright, I’m fine, I’m sorry..." I caressed its head with a sigh when I realized Jade was trembling. "It must have been scary, yeah?"

I felt worried when my connection with Jade was getting cut off, but for Jade, it might as well felt so scary, like I was dying. Familiars felt stronger about their connection than the Masters, so the fact that it couldn’t feel me should have been devastating.

"My office’s window was suddenly getting blasted with waterspouts, and the plants in the room were acting wild," Natha started to explain while helping me stand up. "And then I saw this brat screaming outside, alerting the guards. It’s good that no one tried to harpoon this one."

[Master is gone! No longer there with Jade! Jade looks for Nightmare to help!]

"Yes, good bird," I patted the screaming head, but got to pull the bird away from my face because it started to get hard to move my face with Jade clinging to it. I looked at Natha and smiled wryly. "It’s good that you recognize Jade."

"No bird screaming so impudently to me but this one," Natha smirked as flicked the little bird’s forehead. "Of course, I’ll recognize it."

[Don’t touch me!] as expected, Jade chirped loudly in annoyance at Natha. [Nightmare sucks! Nightmare helps nothing!]

Natha tilted his head at the incessant angry chirp. "I felt like you just talking shit about me," he muttered.

"Oh? You can’t hear what Jade’s saying?"

"I can sense the brat’s impudent thought," the silver eyes narrowed and immediately engaged in a staring contest with the green beads. "So the child can talk to you clearly now?"

I nodded excitedly in response. "Yeah, it’s fun," Jade chirped aggressively again then, and I laughed. "Jade doesn’t want you to call it a child anymore."

Pfft--Natha sneered and smirked mischievously. "Still a brat,"

[Jade no child!!]

With a loud chirp, Jade flew from my hands and transformed into its juvenile form, flapping its beautiful turquoise wings and swinging its mesmerizing colorful tail around. I heard a series of gasps, and it was then I realized we weren’t the only ones there.

I was too focused on getting back my bearing, and then finding out what happened, that I failed to sense the presence of the other demons. And there was...quite a lot.

I saw Eruha, standing beside a demon I didn’t recognize. There were elves too, three of them, standing not too far away. And then other demons in uniform, as well as guards.

The ones who gasped the loudest earlier were the elves, and even now, they still looked at Jade with sparkling eyes. "Oh my, a multicolor elemental bird..." I heard one of them exclaim with a sigh.

Their eyes trailed over Jade’s form, which meant, when Jade flew to perch on my arm, their gaze fell on me too. And I, of course, couldn’t help but look at them too.

It wasn’t my first time seeing elves, since some of them also come to visit the festival during summer. But these ones felt significantly different; the quality of their mana and appearance was in a different league than the wanderer elves I saw in the town. Their eyes, golden like the sun, sparkled as they saw me. One of them stepped forward, but a very beautiful female elf with blinding golden hair stopped him.

She looked at me, who was unconsciously half-stepping back behind Natha, and smiled; an elegant, subtle smile that screamed noble. She shifted her gaze at Natha then, and nodded courteously, before taking the other two elves to walk away.

Looking at my expression, which shifted from surprise to uncomfortable, Natha held my hand and lead me along the stone path as if nothing happened. "Just because you’re steady enough to follow your Master around, doesn’t mean you’re no longer a brat," Natha spoke to the bird in my arm, who immediately made an angry sound.

"Okay, okay, don’t fight," I shook my head and let out a sigh. "It’s loud in my head."

Jade made a sound akin to a gasp, before nuzzling its--now--bigger head to my cheek and whining an apology. "Just tone it down a bit, okay?" I patted the nuzzling head, and Jade nodded. As the path was made so we could see the lake, I told the bird it could fly around to inspect the place, and Jade left my arm after pecking me lightly on the cheek, soaring in a pretty flash above the Lord Castle.

"That brat only becomes noisier and naughtier with its growth," Natha shook his head, looking at the soaring elemental bird with a smirk.

"Jade is jealous," I told him with a laugh. "Said it wanted to show you that it was no longer a child,"

"Figured," Natha replied with another smirk as we approached Eruha and the other demon. "It’s fine now, so send back the guards and the magicians."

The demon, who wore plated armor over his deep grey skin, nodded. "By your command," he bowed to Natha, and then glanced at me. From his gaze, I knew he was one of the factions who weren’t really ’friendly’ about me being in the Castle. I was close to panicking there, since it was my first time meeting one of them. But Natha still held my hand, so I was able to hide the fact that I was flustered, and returned his gaze with a smile.

I didn’t know if I was able to leave a favorable impression, but the demon immediately nodded his head. "Young Master," he spoke in a firm, flat tone that was typical for soldiers, before retreating to the guard.

I turned toward Natha with questioning eyes, but the one who answered me was Eruha. "Um Haikal, the Chief Commander of the Lord Castle’s Guard."

Ah, no wonder he used armor and sounded like a soldier. As I watched the retreating guards, Eruha spoke again. "He’s the one in charge of the castle’s safety, so he’s naturally suspicious of everything. You don’t need to take his attitude to heart, Young Master."

"Everything...like humans?" I glanced at Eruha, who only replied with a smile. Well, I understood though. I didn’t think everyone would just instantly forget that Valmeier had slaughtered a lot of demons in the war. "But...you’re calling the Guard’s Chief Commander here?"

"Young Master," again, Eruha responded to me as we resumed our walk. "You disappeared for hours after walking through the gate. If I had to tell you what kind of chaos your familiar and His Lordship caused earlier..."

I turned to look at Natha and asked in intrigue. "What chaos?"

"You don’t need to know," Natha, unfortunately, just brushed it off.

"Whaaat?" I pursed my lips in disappointment, but Eruha continued his explanation, so I gave my focus to him again.

"We tried to go into the portal, but there was an unknown barrier preventing us from doing so," the demon said. "We thought it was the deed of a sorcerer, or an enemy wanted to cause ruckus. So we called the guards, and magicians to find out what was wrong with the portal."

I see...so I was stuck in that place for hours. Of course, Jade would be scared. And Natha too, with the way he never once let go of my hand since. Something like that happened to the Lord’s bride, so of course some forces would be moved to solve it.

"And the elves?"

"We asked the elf’s representatives to calm your familiar, but you came out before they could do it."

I looked up at Jade, who was now flying around the greenhouse in interest. The bird had been sending me images of the Lord Castle’s view from the top with so much joy, and seemed to be enjoying itself already.

"Well, at any rate, I’m glad you’re alright, Young Master," Eruha said with a smile, but added in a slightly sharper tone. "Although maybe a little heads-up next time?"

His face was full of smiles, but again, I felt like being scolded by my teacher. So I just laughed awkwardly, and fiddled with my coat.

"I just wanted to give you a surprise..." I muttered quietly, gripping Natha’s cold hand tighter. He’d been so quiet after we started to talk about what happened while I was ’trapped’ and it was quite...scary, actually.

"Oh, it was a surprise," Natha responded with a smile, but it didn’t reach the silver orbs. "A surprise indeed," he nodded, speaking in a casual tone, but the words were somehow piercing my conscience hard. "It was so surprising that my heart almost stop beating."

Uhh...well...oops?