The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 150: The romance of magical fantasy setting

Chapter 150: The romance of magical fantasy setting

"Oh!"

I stared at the bustle of activity in front of me, excitement filled my chest.

The banquet had ended and the hall had been emptied. But that didn’t mean the castle workers were at ease. After the bore of cleaning up after the banquet, the whole castle was now getting busy with the preparation for our journey. And Natha had brought me along to observe it.

The piles of provisions to be used during the journey, the crates of mana stones, things to be given to the citizens, and many more. They were laid on the court to be inspected by Natha before getting packed.

And then, there was the row of carriages. What fascinated me was that they didn’t have the part to be attached to beasts, like a normal carriage should. It looked more like a car; the area for the couch was covered while the cabin for the passenger at the back looked like a normal carriage.

"Is that..." I pulled on Natha’s sleeve while staring at the carriages.

"Do you want to check it?"

I turned my head to look at him and replied enthusiastically. "Of course!" What kind of people had no interest in flying cars?

"Go on, then."

With that permission, I wasted no time running toward the carriage with Jade in tow. They were being inspected by the members of the research tower, some of which I recognized. I went to the carriage that those demons were in charge of so I could ask them things.

"How does this work? What kind of formation is this? Is there any book writing about this?" I blasted them with questions and tried to decipher the hidden formation.

Fortunately, the demons were willing to answer my question calmly, even if I couldn’t fully understand everything. But I committed them to my memory so I could find out more later--or asked Eruha for a dumbed-down version. I might scrap the gun project, but working on it made me realize the fun of researching something, and absorbing knowledge.

[Why Master happy?] the little bird asked from my shoulder. Jade was flying around the carriage because it was strange looking, but the bird had no idea what it was.

"Jade, Jade--this thing can fly, you know," I told the bird with a grin.

[Fly?] the little bird tilted its head, before exclaiming loudly. [Like Jade?]

"Like you!"

[Woow!!]

"Yes, wow!" I laughed as Jade took off and circled around the flying carriage once more. "Natha, Natha, are we going to use this to go around?"

The Demon Lord, who followed me around while listening to Arta and her team’s report on the logistic, chuckled and patted my head--probably to stop me from getting so hyper. "No, it’ll be troublesome if all the carriages have to fly across the realm in convoy."

"Oh? Then?"

"We’ll only use this to go down and get around the town we stopped in," he explained.

"Get down...from where?"

He looked at me with a deep smile, and the next thing I knew, we proceeded to walk toward the southern side of the castle. There was a hill there, with a flat top where a stone platform was built. We climb the stairs there, and what greeted my vision was no longer an empty stone platform.

It was a ship.

A big one, with dark reinforced wood that gave it a pirate vibe--if a pirate ship had a lavish finish. The hull was crammed with runes and spell formations, so intricate that my brain couldn’t keep up even if Eruha dumbed it down for me.

But who cares?

"Flying ship?!" I gasped, loudly, clasping my cheek. The peak of magical fantasy technology! "Holy mother of nature!"

"You speak like a true druid now," Natha laughed softly.

[Master, what is that?]

"It’s a ship, Jade," I answered with an awed sigh, trying to take the whole ship within my sight. "But this one will fly too..."

[The big thing fly like Jade too?]

"Yes!"

[Woow]

Natha patted my head again, and took the hand I unconsciously used to grip my clothes in excitement. He pulled me toward the stairs leading to the ship, and we had another bout of q&a session on the way.

"...there will be a barrier deployed to keep the air pressure stable on the surface, so you’ll be able to take a walk even while we’re flying," Natha finished his explanation as we approached the railing on the deck.

Just like in the courtyard, there were workers walking around to prepare the ship for tomorrow’s journey. Natha introduced me to the ship’s Captain, and then we walked around the deck so I could look around.

"I thought we’ll be going through the land route because you said inspection," I muttered while peering down from the railing, wondering how it would be looking down from the sky tomorrow. I had never traveled with an airplane before, so I was extra excited.

I knew there were flying ships in this world, but somehow, it didn’t occur to me that Natha would have one. No--actually, Natha had three, but the other two were for military purposes. How stupid of me; there was no way the Lord of Wealth didn’t own this expensive stuff.

But anyway, I didn’t think inspecting how his territory fared would be effective using this.

"Hmm...I understand what you mean," Natha responded while grabbing my waist to keep me from falling. "How could I inspect thoroughly from the sky--is what you’re thinking, right?"

"Well..."

"You’re right," he said. I turned my head then, to listen to him better. "But if all the convoys go through the ground, it can disturb the traffic and daily activities, not to mention damaging the road,"

Ah...that made sense. I had no idea how many people he’d bring, but with the cargo, it would take up at least a dozen carriages. It might be okay for big cities and towns, where the road had been paved and reinforced. But if the journey was being done on the ground, we would have to go through villages. Most of the villages were not designed to withstand such traffic and weight.

"What we do is send someone through the ground route to check the condition and give me a report about the region once we made a stop, he continued. "And then we can try to solve the problem there, with the representatives of the town and villages around."

"And it would take longer than a month if we take the land route," Eruha added.

"I see..." I nodded and as I looked at the vassals, I was reminded of something. "Who’s coming with us?"

"I will!" Arta, who had finished relaying her report, answered immediately with a raised hand. "Lesta too! Oh, and Opti will join us in the first city."

"I-I’ll come too..." a timid voice chimed in from the side, of the bald hound that I hadn’t seen lately. It seemed like he was still being careful around me, and it was getting rather cute.

"Oh, are you going to guard us?"

"Y-yes!" Caba almost yelled his reply, but managed to control his volume in the end. So I guessed that was what he tried to be careful about; the volume and the tone of his harsh voice.

"Ah, is that mean Haikal will stay behind?" I shifted my gaze to the Chief Guard that was standing at the back.

The demon nodded with a subtle smile that decorated his stony face in slight disappointment. "Unfortunately yes, Young Master."

"Someone has to guard the house, right?" Natha gave me a teasing smile. "And supervising the restoration."

I gasped, recalling the mess I did the other day. "I’m sorry for messing up the training ground..."

"No, no, please don’t," he shook his head immediately. "I’m just glad you’re alright, Young Master."

"Thank you," I gave him an apologetic smile and sighed. "I’m sorry for the soldiers and the workers that have to clean up the mess too..."

As I lamented, my smart teacher offered me a solution. "You can always gift them something nice."

"Oh?" I turned to look at Natha, who merely replied with an easy smile.

"It’s your money," he said, as if it wasn’t the money that he gave me. But he was right, I could use the allowance he gave me for anything, and since I didn’t really need anything anyway, might as well use it to show my gratitude.

I made an appointment with Arta to talk about it later, and the conversation came back to the tour. "Are you going to come too, Eruha?"

"Malta and Eruha will take care of the castle," Natha was the one who answered. Which wasn’t a surprise, since the Lord’s Chief Secretary and advisors would make a reliable proxy.

"Eeh? Even though Lesta come?" I turned to look at the male twin.

"I’m His Lordship’s lackey, of course I have to come, Young Master," the demon shrugged with a smirk.

"But who will feed Eruha?"

My question brought a sudden silence, in which Lesta pressed his lips and Arta snorted before stifling her laugh, while the other looked at us in confusion. Eruha, meanwhile, tilted his head with a pondering face.

"Hmm...it seems he thinks you have to drink blood regularly like meals, Eruha," Natha gave them enlightenment.

And now I was the one who got confused. "Huh? You don’t?"

Honestly, I didn’t know much about vampires, just a general myth from Earth. And based on that information, I thought blood was the only staple for vampires.

But then, Eruha was doing fine under the sun right now. So I should have known the vampires here were different.

"No, Young Master. I can survive well with regular meals," Eruha said with a smile that showed amusement on his face.

"Huh...then?"

"I only need blood to draw power," he explained. "Us vampires can’t produce mana by ourselves, but absorb it from other beings. The best source of it would be blood, which is why it became our favorite, and throughout millennia, it became the norm."

"Animal’s blood too?" I asked curiously.

"That would be difficult in terms of compatibility."

"Ah, because the mana sequence is different?"

Eruha nodded, the amused smile persisting on his face. "Precisely."

And then something occurred to me and I asked him in a quiet voice. "Can you get it from something other than blood?"

Eruha smiled deeply before answering. "We can,"

"Oh? What--"

"Young Master, would you like to check the command room?" Lesta suddenly spoke loudly and cut my question, and my curiosity easily diverted to that words; command room. So I followed the flustered demon to the other side of the ship.

"Yes!"