The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 148: Word of wisdom from your personal comfort chair

Chapter 148: Word of wisdom from your personal comfort chair

Izzi flinched at the voice, which was understandable. It sounded calm--calmly agitated.

I took a deep breath, walked to the door, and unlocked it immediately. What greeted me first was Jade’s loud, panic chirpings. It was followed by a blast of wind from frantic wings flapping, and a fluffy white ball slamming into my face.

[Master! Master!!]

The little bird was crying, panicking, sticking to my face and gripping me with its wings. My heart constricted and I felt stupid, forgetting about those who would be worried about the explosion.

I grasped the wailing bird and embrace it, caressing the trembling head. "I’m alright, it’s okay," I tried to soothe the bird. "Don’t cry, baby, I’m okay."

[Master boom! Master cry! Master gone!]

"Oh, baby, I’m so sorry," I didn’t cry, but it seemed like my anguish was interpreted as such by the little bird. "I didn’t get hurt, I promised."

[Hngg--]

Jade sniffled and pressed its little head against my chest, gripping my lapel tightly. I wanted to console the little bird further, but a dry voice suddenly made its presence known.

"You’re sure?" I flinched and looked up, trapped by the gleaming silver eyes. "So you’re not suddenly running away holding hands like an eloped couple hiding in this corner because you’re injured...right?" Natha smiled and tilted his head. "It’s because of something else...right?"

I froze. Izzi froze. Everyone in the vicinity froze too, I think. "El--what do you mean eloped?!" I almost screamed in fright, half embarrassed and half in fright.

I mean...with Izzi?!

"Excuse me, Sir? I loved boobs!" the elf yelled aggressively.

"What?" I narrowed my eyes--uh, yeah, it was a good excuse, I guessed? But...I didn’t think it was something you want to spell out loud in public.

He caught everyone’s stares and just crossed his arms defensively. "What?! I just don’t want to be misunderstood, okay?!"

[Boobs?]

"Ah, damnit! You’re corrupting my baby!" I grasped Jade’s head and covered the child’s ears. "No, no, no, Jade--erase that word from your memory."

"Is that the problem now? Your husband looks like he wants to murder me!" Izzi spread his arm toward Natha, all the while covering himself behind the armchair.

"Husb--" I pressed my lips in a fluster. But this wasn’t the time to concern myself with pedantic, because Izzi was right. I had an upset Demon Lord to take care of.

I looked at Natha, and...yeah, he really looked like he wanted to kill someone. Almost like the time he faced Zir’Kal. He didn’t spread some cold though, and I feel like it was because the cold’s direction was...inside.

"Na..." I wanted to say his name, but I paused, and instead sent Jade to Zia, who was following along. Jade was wailing again, but I told the little bird to be patient for a bit. I took Natha’s hand then, which was colder than usual. "I’m sorry," I whispered. "Can we talk?"

The silver eyes glinted and narrowed and the next thing I knew, he grabbed me and whisked me away to the greenhouse. I gasped at the sudden teleportation, and then gasped again as he hugged me, tighter than he ever did, and buried his face in my hair.

For the next few seconds, I heard a string of curses in demon language that I dared not to translate--because I didn’t know much too, and...

This was the first time I heard him cursing.

I felt my lips quiver and suddenly, I realized that I still had all the tension from the blast earlier, even though I told Jade I was fine. I grasped Natha’s back and pressed my face to his shoulder.

N-no, I didn’t cry. I just...felt overwhelmed and relieved at the same time, okay?

Natha pulled away then, staring at my glazed eyes, and grasped my head to kiss my temple strongly. "God--you scared me so much," his voice was no longer dry or cold. I could feel his worry and agitation from that.

"I’m...I’m sorry..." I bit my lips. The foolishness of fleeing from the site of my screwed-up to somewhere else finally downed on me. "I was...I was..."

Natha rubbed my quivering lips, before leading me to the nice sofabed on the corner. He seated me there and asked me slowly. "What did you do?"

"I’m...testing the...revolver," I told him. "And it’s way stronger than I thought, and I was panicking and...umm..."

"And the elf took you somewhere else so you can calm down?"

That...wasn’t exactly that, but it was also true that I was rather in panic before, and Izzi took me there so I stopped blabbering in front of the other demons. So...it wouldn’t be a lie if I agreed, right?

"Yeah..."

He stared at me keenly, as if probing, and then sighed. Like always, he dragged me to his lap, and I instinctively just slotted myself there, as if returning to my personal favorite chair. For a while, he didn’t say anything, just caging my body with his arms, and kissing my hair, my temple, my cheek, my neck--everywhere he could reach.

And in each of those kisses, there was fear, that I felt through the slight trembling of his lips, and the coldness of his grazing breath. It was my first time feeling him this...vulnerable.

I looked down at the brand he left on the back of my hand; the contract. "You protect me," I whispered, and he paused. "The wings...they came out to shield me."

Now that I looked at it again, the wings on the brand were fading a little bit. I realized then that this brand actually had this function all this time, and my heart was filled with warmth, even though the demon embracing me was ice cold.

I heard another sigh, and he released my torso to hold my hand, covering it with his palm. I felt a slight tickling, and when he let my hand go, the brand was as good as new.

"Thank you," I said, leaning back to sink myself inside his embrace. I stared at the sparkling lake, at the beautiful plants and the rich trees, and bit my lips at the memory of destruction. "I...I decided to stop developing the guns."

He didn’t say anything to that, and just kept rubbing my hand. I took it as a sign to deliberate, and I did. "When I saw the explosion, the...destruction, it reminded me of the war, and how this device could be used to make it even more bloody, and...it might be hypocritical of me to say it, but I don’t want the things I make to be used for that kind of purpose."

I pressed my lips and shifted my hand so I could grab his. "I’m sorry, even though you’ve given me so much fund for it," I sighed, and then gasped as I recalled something. "Oh, God--I’m sorry about the training chamber too! I...even though it’s been only a few da--"

I stopped then, because he sealed my mouth with his lips. When I stared at him in a daze after the soft kiss ended, he finally smiled at me. Not the scary one.

"That’s fine," he let out a sigh, and leaned back on the sofabed, bringing me over with him. "Honestly, I don’t want your hands to be tainted by blood," he stroked my hand again, rubbing my fingers one by one. "It’s too late for me, but...you don’t have to suffer the experience."

I tilted up my head so I could peer at his forlorn smile. "So you don’t want me to do this from the start?"

"Hmm...it’s not quite like that," he changed his smile, now it looked more charming than sad. "Unlike you, I have no qualms about destroying others. But you’re different, sweetheart," he looked down and stroke my cheek, looking straight into my eyes. "You don’t want to hurt others unless you have to, so I hope you don’t go down the path of no return."

The path of no return...

Did he mean that, once I hurt someone, I would be prone to hurt others again? Just like crossing a bridge toward darkness, we might lose the way to cross back, or accidentally burn the bridge.

"It’s just that..." he continued, "When you were working on it, when you talked about the idea with me, you seem so happy."

Oh...did I? I honestly had no idea. I did realize I got excited and too absorbed sometimes, but I didn’t know it would be so apparent.

"I’m happy because I feel like I finally have something to do," I replied sheepishly.

He tilted his head, and I saw curiosity in his eyes. "Do you feel uncomfortable about not having something to do?"

"Not really, just..." I shook my head and paused, before replying quietly. "Because I’m healthy now..."

Since I stopped thinking about the future at some point, I never thought about what I wanted to do. Sure, there were bucket lists, but never something grand like creating something, or saving the world. So when I was finally healthy and should be able to do anything, I was stumped. I mean...since I was able, I shouldn’t be useless.

"I see," he nodded. "Then it’s good that you’ll come with me for the inspection, don’t you think?" he said. When I looked at him in confusion, he added immediately. "You’ll see a lot of things on the way, and who knows, you’ll probably find something you’d like to do during the journey."

"Oh..."

"And even if you don’t, it doesn’t matter," he shrugged. "There’s still a lot of time. You’re still young," he lowered his head and whispered. "I also had no idea what I wanted to do when I was your age."

I raised my brows and twisted my body so I could face him. "Really?"

"Really," he gave me a smirk. "All I’m doing is going to school because I was told to, he chuckled, eyes gazing toward the distance as if reminiscing. "Taking care of the estate in the future was the task given to me, but it wasn’t exactly something that I wanted to do."

I blinked repeatedly. Perhaps because I knew Natha as this legendary mighty Demon Lord that sounded like either a protagonist or a final boss, I could never imagine him as a teenager who questioned his life direction. He always seemed to be the type that was ’born ready’ as they said it. Always knew, always sure, always prevailed.

But I see that he was also just another mortal.

"So it’s okay," he said, pinching my chin. "Life is a journey, not a vacation."