The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 118: Demon Lord of Greed? More like Demon Lord of Trickery

Chapter 118: Demon Lord of Greed? More like Demon Lord of Trickery

Matsa Ra Natha was many things, and among them, vengeful was one of the most notable ones.

The first thing he did after he gained enough power and money was to hunt down every single entity that marauding his house and killed his mother. He dragged those who smeared his father’s name and branded him as a traitor through the mud. And he proved to those who mocked and ostracized him how wrong they were.

One of his targets of vengeance, as it happened, was the Lord of Pride: Auddha Ya Jigisu.

It stemmed from the young Natha’s academic days. The Lord of Pride, at that time still the headmaster of the academy, was for unknown reasons, always trying to sabotage Natha’s accomplishments. He was the one who always put Natha into the hardest trials during tests, instigating a club of scholarly students to discredit the young Nightmare.

Rumor said that Natha was breaking all of the Lord’s records in the past--from becoming the youngest entree, to the leaderboard scores. Others said that it was because the Lord couldn’t take it that someone who wasn’t a resident of the Realm of Pride was beating everyone else, including the Lord’s disciples.

Of course, I heard all that from Eruha, not reading it from the book.

The book only said there was a sense of rivalry between the two Lords who were crowned around the same time. And during the septennial meeting among the seven Demon Lords where they met again for the first time after being crowned, they were engaged in verbal battles--which, as Eruha told me, was scarier than exchanging swords.

These verbal battles, eventually, led to the main events; the competition and the bet, which happened roughly fifty years ago. The competition and the bet were different things, but also started around the same time.

The bet happened before the meeting, and stated that Natha, as the king of commerce, would be able to establish the biggest trading company in the realm of pride. It was akin to declaring that he would conquer the economy of Jigisu’s realm, which of course, inflamed the Lord’s old insecurity.

The competition, on the other hand, was the result of the verbal battle, flamed by the Lord of Pride’s attempt to put Natha’s down. It was a silly competition too. They compete to build the highest structure in the demon realm.

Could you see where this was going? Yup--the Lair.

Was the Lord of Pride stupid, to compete in something that required money with Natha? Not really, because the Lord of Pride, a temperamental lich, was already in the process of building the biggest, tallest magic tower.

Natha, being the way he was, did not build the tallest building; he built a tall building in the tallest location possible. After all, it was a competition for the ’highest’ building--they measured it from how close the top was to the sky. Could always count on Natha for exploiting a loophole, I guessed.

Enraged, the prideful Lord Auddha decided that the only way for him to defeat Natha was to...build a flying castle.

"Flying..." I paused as I read the words on the page, even going for the dictionary to make sure it wasn’t a mistranslation. "Is that possible?"

"It is," Eruha nodded and explained right away. "There’s an old scroll depicting the way to build such a thing from the ancient civilization. It was said that the scroll came from a Sacred Guardian."

"Ooh..." I looked at Eruha with wide eyes, asking him to tell me more.

The book mentioned that the Lord of Pride, somehow, was able to build that flying castle and won the competition. A stupid competition where the only reward was for the opponent to admit defeat in the next septennial meeting, which was also the deadline for the building competition.

For the Lord of Pride, it was the moment of glory, when Natha bowed his head and admit that the Lord Auddha was superior (Natha did not say this, however, according to Eruha, just that he was lost). What the Lord of Pride couldn’t understand, however, was the bright smile on Natha’s face, as if it didn’t matter if he was lost.

Auddha Ya Jigisu realized what that bright smile meant not long after.

The problem with building a freaking castle-in-the-sky wasn’t the blueprint, but the capital required for it. Acquiring the blueprint from the black market’s black market already cost them so much, but the material to build it--gosh! Almost all of them were material of magic property, which meant they would be expensive. From the materials to build the base and the castle itself, to the materials needed to carve the complex formations that allowed the castle to stay in the air, to build the corresponding portal gate to transport the visitors from the ground to the sky...everything was monumentally pricey.

Building a magic tower was one thing, because they had been doing it anyway. But a freaking magic castle? Their money had been used to build the magic tower, but then the Lord suddenly asked for more money, all to fulfill his own desire. That money didn’t come from thin air, but from taxes, tributes, and donations. The Lord ended up increasing those, and even borrowed money from anywhere.

Including from one of Natha’s companies.

At first, the resident of Pride had no idea what the flying castle was for. They thought it was a defense mechanism; a flying fortress to up their firepower in case of war or invasion. But little birds told them that the building, in fact, was only for a competition with another Lord. Of course, the public was enraged. The realm of pride’s financial situation hadn’t been good for the past seven years because of their Lord’s silly competition, and because it wasn’t a venture that brought profit, the Lord didn’t even have any way to return the money he borrowed.

Within that chaotic situation, they had no leeway to realize that someone had been establishing themselves in their realm; injecting money into those who almost went bankrupt because they lent money to the Lord, lending money to their bank, and even helping the small business uniting under a trading company so they could survive.

"There was a lot of unsatisfaction, and riots happening everywhere, even in the magic tower where the Lord resided," Eruha explained further. This kind of detail was something that I couldn’t get from the book. "When the situation was over, the biggest trading company in the realm of pride was owned by His Lordship, half of their bank’s capital was coming from His Lordship, and until now, His Lordship still holds into a quarter of the Pride’s realm bonds,"

"You mean...the realm of pride had to pay Natha every year?" I gasped as Eruha answered me with a smile.

In short; Natha lost the battle, but won the war. Did he already plan that ever since he made the ’bet’?

Damn--that was so sexy of him.

But that wasn’t the extent of it. "Since His Lordship also won the bet, he had the right to ask the Lord of Pride for three tangible things."

"Ah!" suddenly, a light bulb went on in my head. "So you’re one of those things?"

"Yes," Eruha chuckled in response, and even though he didn’t say it, I had a feeling that Eruha had a part as an ’insider’ during the whole debacle. "I could not tell what the other two, however, since His Lordship never revealed them."

In other words, he told me to ask Natha directly. Fine--I scribbled the questions in my notebook.

The entry after that wasn’t as exciting as this whole bet/competition thing. I did find out that an overseer council was established in the realm of pride to watch over the Lord, and I bet my mana core that Natha had his own people among those overseers.

So, long story short, Natha was a petty demon who would drag his enemy through the mud and financial debt for revenge. Good for him. He was also a demon whose wealth would probably never end, with all the royalties and debt people owed him.

It was exciting reading and hearing about his past adventures, and I hadn’t even delved into the more detailed ones. Like I still wanted to know what he was doing in the elven kingdom when he met the three siblings, and why he was suddenly turning into a merchant.

It was also funny to think that my first home, the tower, his Lair, was a product of competition. Although, just like the Lord of Pride, he was probably already thinking about building one before.

Talking about the Lair, I also wondered how he came upon the mountain the first time, how he made the contract with the elemental birds, or even how he was battling that big tree in the clearing I used to practice in. It was quite a historical site, in its own way.

Hmm...so the Lair had been standing there for about fifty years already? But why...did I find this strange? I had no idea why, but something itched at the back of my head, as if my brain was trying to remember something Natha had said not too long ago.

Oh well, if I forgot about it, it was probably nothing important.

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