The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 132: It’s not a family meeting without complaining about that one distant cousin

Chapter 132: It’s not a family meeting without complaining about that one distant cousin

Luncheon with the Lust delegations felt like a family meeting where they force the youngster to attend and gave said youngster a lot of questions regarding the youngster’s life.

The youngster in this story was Zia.

I guessed this was the part where they try to find out what she had been up to, while also not-so-sneakily trying to persuade her to go back home. And Zia was answering them coldly, dryly, just because she must, without even hiding the fact that she was annoyed about it.

You know, like a teenager.

Not that I would know, since my relatives never barrage me with questions like that. I mostly conversed with Natha and the one playing prank earlier, Aleena, who didn’t seem to have any interest in ’interrogating’ Zia. She only butted in when the questions went too far and when Zia looked like she was about to explode.

Afterward, we walked in the garden to digest the food, since three of the delegations had never been here before, apparently. At some point, the conversation stirred to a topic about Aleena’s disguise, and it seemed like she used to do it a lot in her adolescent days.

"It’s been a while since I did it," she said in satisfaction as she recalled the shenanigans she pulled in her younger days. "Perhaps that’s why I’m getting rusty..."

To that, I finally asked the thing I had been wanting to ask since earlier. "Why are you doing it today, though, if I may ask?"

"The disguise?" she glanced at me and replied nonchalantly. "Oh, I just want to play a prank on Zia," and then proceeded to hug the little succubus.

"Me?" Zia blinked in surprise while Aleena pinched her pink cheek. She raised her brows while looking at me, perhaps because she thought Aleena did it mainly to prank me.

"Don’t you know you looked absolutely devastated when you know she wasn’t here?" I told the girl, reminding her how much sulkier she became.

Zia widened her eyes, before exclaiming softly in embarrassment. "Oh..."

"That--and I want to play a prank on you too," Aleena teasingly leaned into Zia while pointing her finger at me, as he added with mischievous curled eyes. "I wanna see who this person that captivated Lord Natha so,"

Whoa...hold it there, Lady. The way she said it with that Succubus allure and suggestive gaze made it seem like I was actively trying to seduce Natha or something.

I didn’t...right?

I pressed my lips and scooted closer to Natha, who chuckled and scoffed at the Succubus. "In conclusion, you’re just bored."

"Well, I am here for a vacation," Aleena shrugged, readily accepting the accusation.

"Milady..." the rest of the delegations who walked behind us sighed in lamentation.

"What? I am," she threw her arms in the air, totally looking and sounding like a worker on the verge of handing in her notice. "I’m sick and tired of taking over all the work that the Lord should be doing!"

Well, perhaps she did want to hand in her notice.

"Seems like he never changed," Zia made a disgruntled little comment.

I think this would be the best time for me to explain their relationship. So, from what I heard, Aleena and Zia were supposed to be real sisters, only that they came from different mothers. Zia and the current Lord of Lust were the children of the first wife--main wife, if you must. Aleena was the second eldest of all fourteen children, came from the third wife, and kind of acted like Chief of Staff.

It was a position of considerable authority and prestige, which would be nice if you had a Lord like Natha--who actually worked. The Lord of Lust, unfortunately...not doing so much.

"Oh, darling," Aleena grabbed Zia and embrace the girl again, pressing their cheeks together as we made a stop beside the lake. "You should have come back if you truly love me. The stress I have to face alone!"

"And this is how you convince me?" Zia rolled her eyes. "By telling me that he’s still a prick and the job is stressful?"

Indeed, that wasn’t such a convincing strategy--I nodded as Natha took me to lie down on the pile of picnic mats and blankets. The servants had arranged a little viewing set beside the lake; blankets with lots of pillows, outdoor chairs and benches, picnic tables, and after-meal coffee. Jade jumped off Zia’s shoulder and landed on one of the pillows beside me, sunbathing.

"Oh, you’re right," the Succubus groaned, almost throwing herself to one of the lounging chairs under an umbrella. "See? I’m so tired I can’t even seduce a girl."

"You’re not supposed to do that to a minor," Natha commented shortly. He put a pillow on my lap and laid down on it.

"What are you saying? You’re seducing a teenager yourself!"

"...I’m twenty-four," I told her while tilting my head. And last time I check, I looked twenty-four too, or at least well over my teenage years.

But she parted her lips and gasped at that information, for some reason looking absolutely morbid. "A child! He’s even younger than Zia?!"

Ah...I see. A twenty-four-year-old in demon age was basically like...fifteen or sixteen; almost adult but not quite. Prone to silly, foolish decision-making. A vulnerable age. A rebellious one where they usually ended up running away from home, like Zia.

Unless you were a genius like Natha, where you spend your adolescent days being the top of the class in the academy. Pfft.

"He’s a human," Natha replied nonchalantly, even closing his eyes as if he was there to sunbath like Jade. "It’s been nine years since he’s considered an adult."

That was true, however cruel that reality was to teenage humans in this world. That was why they could easily throw Valmeier, and the even younger Hero into a war they started on their own for greed.

But even if I didn’t follow this world standard, I was already considered an adult by the Earth’s standards too. The same age as when I kicked the bucket.

"He’s a druid too!" Aleena argued. "He wouldn’t even be allowed to step foot outside of his tribe if he were there,"

Oh?

"Would the same thing happens to Royalty?" Zia asked while taking a seat beside me and cuddling with the sunbathing elemental bird.

"Even worse," the Succubus laughed. "Royal Children can’t even leave their palace until their coming of age, except when they go to the temple."

Ugh--so strict?

"I’ll...stick to being human,"

Not that I ever left the Lair or the Castle in the first place, but it wasn’t like Natha confined me there. I just had no desire to go out...yet.

Natha laughed from my lap, humming contentedly while stroking my hand. "So he says."

"Yeah? Say that to the elves," Aleena scoffed in response, and I raised my brows at that.

Natha opened his eyes and looked at me. He reached out and stroked my cheek as if to say I didn’t have to worry about them. I wasn’t really worried, but it did make me wonder if the meeting with the elves would be less than cordial. I knew children of nature had a naturally longer lifespan than other races, so they might even think that I was no more than a child.

"Why are we talking about this again?" Zia tilted her head at the bit of silence that overcome us.

"Because you lot can’t accept that I need a vacation," again, Aleena groaned, staring at her cup of coffee, probably wishing there was liquor in it. The red eyes squinted and stared at Natha. "Can you like...say something to him, Lord Cousin?"

"Like what? That he should give the Key to someone else?" there was a sneer on Natha’s face that only I could see.

"Wouldn’t people think you’re twisting other realms’ politics if you do that?" I tilted my head, recalling the story about how there were those who thought he was kidnapping Zia as a hostage.

Natha smirked and pinched my cheek lightly. "See, my sweetheart gets it,"

"A demon can dream," Aleena sighed, shrugging her shoulder in defeat.

"It’s your problem, deal with him yourself," Natha said dryly. "Unless he does something that will jeopardize the Demon Realm, that is."

"Don’t give me ideas,"

Looking at her sharp eyes, I could almost see her making a plan to manipulate the Lord into doing something foolish just so she would have justification for mutiny. I mean...she did look the part of a beautiful, ruthless villainess.

I turned my head to Zia and asked carefully. "Is he...that insufferable?"

"Don’t make me start!" the juvenile succubus grunted. Well, I did know that he was the one who mocked Zia’s view of ideal, true love the most.

"What is it? Does he have bad decision-making?" I looked at Natha next, hoping for a more concrete answer.

Natha chuckled, looking so unbothered by it, and answering me in a way someone talked about unruly relatives. "It’s not so much as he made bad decisions rather than...he made no decisions at all."

"He just doesn’t like--doesn’t even want--to think," Zia added. "He’d rather spend his time playing around and letting others do the heavy lifting."

Hmm...like the king in chess? All the pieces did the work, and yet the end of the story was decided by his survival.

I wondered though...with that kind of personality, you would think he’d rather be the one going here for the banquet. Or perhaps, he was afraid Natha would chew him out? Or he just didn’t want to quarrel with Zia?

"He’s just...there," Aleena said, shrugging her shoulder at the other delegations that were making difficult expressions. Perhaps they were torn between loyalty and their first-hand experience on the misery train. "But the Elders think he’s rather easier to manage like that so they just let him be," she huffed, slamming her cup to the table. "It’s us, the staff, that have to deal with it."

Whew...didn’t know the ’meeting’ would be a complaint fest. "Why make him the Lord at all?" I asked in confusion. Yeah, I knew they wanted to have someone easy to manage, but couldn’t they choose someone who was at least willing to work?

"Because Father chose him and gave him the Key," Zia shrugged.

"And because he’s the best-looking, and has the best inherent charm," Aleena added casually as if it was the most normal thing to make someone a Lord based on their appearance. "A perfect face for the government, you know, easy to win over the citizen’s heart."

"More than Natha?" I asked, probably too innocently, because they paused to look at me with this stunned expressions on their face.

I kind of felt belatedly embarrassed of my remark, because I was essentially asking who was better looking, the Lord of Lust of my lover.

But then, for me, Natha was easily the most handsome man...demon...entity I ever met. Not that I had met a lot of people, but! I could hardly imagine anyone better looking than him, really.

Was I down bad? Yeah...I thought so too...

They continued to stare at me blankly for a while before belatedly reacting. "...what?"

"He thought I was an incubus the first time," Natha chuckled, stroking my blushing cheek while at it.

Again, they paused, staring at me as if I was a lost, innocent lamb. "What exactly have you been putting on his drink?"

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