The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 166: By flags, I mean the fun one, not the bad one

Chapter 166: By flags, I mean the fun one, not the bad one

"Ooh...there’s nothing here!"

[Nothing!]

I leaned slightly over the railing, looking down at the dry, cracked ground. There were signs of plants trying to survive, but their wilted remains told me they weren’t succeeded. But because it was an empty field with nothing but the dried ground and occasional rocks, the airship could glide close to the land, and Natha allowed me to peer over the railing slightly.

Of course, his arm was still tightly securing me by my waist.

"Is it so bad that you can’t use the land for anything?" I asked him while propping my elbow to the railing.

"It’s hard to do anything without a water source," Natha explained. "Until we find a way to efficiently secure a waterway here that wouldn’t cost too much, it’ll be used as a buffer zone."

"A buffer zone?"

"In case of a conflict breaking out--like war," he stared into the horizon, the empty land filled his silver eyes. "It’ll be good to lead the enemy here, so the citizens wouldn’t get caught in it."

Oh, there was that way...

I shifted my gaze back to the dry land, where everything was painted light brown and orange. "Was there a time like that? A conflict or war?"

"Not in the last couple of centuries, but..."

He paused, and I waited patiently for him to continue. The silver eyes flickered a little bit, as if he was remembering something. But it was clearly not a good memory. I tried to recall his long list of bad events during his early life, and whispered carefully.

"Like...corrupted beast? Monster?"

He looked down, staring at me while blinking slowly at first, before he gave me a smile. "You’re very smart, sweetheart."

"But..." I tilted my head in confusion. "You were young, then. It wasn’t something that happened in the realm of lust?"

"Yes, but it also happened in these plains," he looked to the right, where, if we followed it, would lead us to the realm of lust eventually. "Our realm is located in the middle, so the rampaging monsters ran everywhere, including to the realm of lust."

"I see..."

I laid my head on the railing, looking at the cracked ground while blinking. ’Our’ realm, he said--it made me giggle slightly.

[Master! Master! Colors!]

Jade’s loud chirping made me look up, and there it was, on the horizon; an array of colors. The air was blurry from dust and heat, but I could infer that the colors were from tents. Tents of various sizes and styles. There were also tall structures like watchtowers, connected to each other by makeshift bridges and colorful strings of luminous stones.

Ahh...it was obviously a festival.

I heard the Captain make a signal for the crew to prepare the docking, but since we were already close to the ground, we didn’t have to come inside the cabin to avoid turbulence.

The closer we were, the clearer the colorful area was. A big oasis with refreshing water and trees was surrounded by many temporary structures. There was what seemed to be a residential area on one side of the oasis; the tents were simpler in color, sand beige or dark brown, with what looked like carriages and coaches lined up making a half-circle wall.

On the opposite side was the source of the colorful scenery; tents in bold and bright colors to attract buyers, a big half-circle elevated stage, and what seemed to be a place for a bonfire in the night. By concentrating the mana on my eyes, I could see the throng of people around the tents, either dressed as little as possible, or covering up their whole body. As the airship got closer, their attention automatically shifted to the flying behemoth that slowly descending not far from the oasis.

Natha let go of my waist then, and carefully pulled up a hood over my head. The coat that I wore today was one with special enchantment. It would regulate the temperature around my body so I wouldn’t have to feel too hot in this area. It would also protect me later, when we went to the peak of eternal flame.

As we landed, however, I could feel that something was wrong. There were a group of people, who seemed to be the leaders of the merchant groups, running toward the airship hurriedly. I looked in the direction of the colorful tents, and realized that the people there had a tense expression--not exactly one would wear as they go shopping.

Besides, didn’t Arta say those people were supposed to be easygoing?

Natha seemed to realize it too, because he immediately ordered Opti and Caba to go down and talk to those running leaders so we didn’t need to wait until the airship completely landed.

"Is something wrong? Is there a conflict?" I asked Natha, who narrowed his eyes toward the colorful tents too.

"They brandished their weapons," Lesta muttered. "They looked in the direction of the mountain."

"There seemed to be a commotion on the north side," Natha told me further. "There’s a possibility of a corrupted beast and monster’s appearance."

My eyes widened--I was more surprised because we just talked about it earlier. "So suddenly?"

"No. The remnant of the fight with those creatures still scattered here and there, so a group of them might manifest out of the burrows from time to time after bad mana gathered enough,"

A case of bad mana again? I almost hiccuped because I thought Natha would lock me inside the airship because of that. I stared at him with anxious eyes, and I guessed he caught that, because he smiled subtly and grasped my hand afterward.

"Don’t stay away from me,"

I nodded and gave him a salute. I’d chain myself to you, Sir, as long as you didn’t confine me in a room.

He chuckled, and we proceeded to walk towards the stair so we could climb down as soon as the ship landed. But before we could even step into the stairs, I felt a vibration.

No--not the bad mana again. More like...an earthquake?

[Master! Big Fire!]

Yes, just as Jade said, I felt something from the peak of eternal flame. There was nothing as I looked up, but I was sure the legendary beast was doing something there.

"Why is this year’s trip full of surprises?" Lesta muttered right behind me, and for some reason, I felt kind of guilty.

I knew it wasn’t my fault...probably, but since they happened in the year that I joined the inspection, I couldn’t help but think it somehow had something to do with me--like I was triggering some flags or something.

"Is someone disturbing the Salamander?" Natha asked with a frown.

"Someone and something," Opti answered, just coming back from questioning the merchants. They were now standing nervously below the stairs--not because of Natha, but whatever happened over there.

"Start," Natha commanded as we climbed down the stairs, and Opti filled in the information he got from the merchants.

So it seemed like a group of mercenaries who were about to visit the oasis market encountered some monsters on their way. Just like Natha had predicted, they were creatures who manifested underground due to years of accumulated mana pollution coming out of mana-fueled carriages and similar vehicles, which reacted to the remnant of mana havoc from the war decades ago.

As for the timing of this appearance...

"Could it be the mana havoc yesterday didn’t just pollute the air but also seeped to the ground?" I asked Natha, and they all got quiet suddenly.

When I looked around confusedly, Natha gave me a stiff smile and said dryly. "You’re not doing that again."

"I’m...I’m not saying I will..." I pursed my lips and averted my gaze from the others.

"You’re still banned from using any magic,"

"I said I won’t!" I turned to look at Natha and gave him a glare. Annoyingly, he just chuckled and rubbed my pouting lips with his free hand, while the other one tightened his hold on mine. I huffed and shifted my gaze back to the colorful tents--chaotic tents. "So what happened next?"

"The mercenaries couldn’t kill the monsters, but they fought well enough to drive the monsters away," Opti continued in his report. "Unfortunately, the mercenaries didn’t drive the monsters to the burrow where they came from, but instead--"

"To the mountain," I finished the sentence with a gasp, which received a nod from Opti and the merchants.

No wonder the mountain felt like something was rampaging inside.

"Wait...but there was no way those monsters couldn’t feel the presence of legendary beast in the mountain, right? Why were they moved there instead of looking for a safer place?" I tilted my head. We had arrived at the Oasis now, in an empty plot that would be the place for the Lord’s tent.

But now, well...there was something more urgent to think about.

"The best-case scenario would be that they were too stupid," Natha said, eyes staring at the mountain.

"And the worst?"

He didn’t answer immediately, but took a deep breath first as if he wanted to deny the possibility drawn in his head. "The worst case would be a lot of groups manifesting together and deciding they would band together to conquer the mountain."

I had to shake myself in disbelief before responding. "Why...would they want to conquer the mountain?"

"To be its new ’King’, or..." the silver eyes narrowed, focusing on the fiery peak as if trying to see past the rocky exterior. "Might be an inherent grudge, because the Salamander destroyed all the beasts that dared to step inside the mountain’s shadow."

Hmm...in that case, there would be nothing to worry about, right? Certainly, the Salamander could just annihilate those monsters.

But if that was the case...then why did everyone look anxious?

Lesta, who saw my confused expression, explained quietly. "We found out that the Salamander was gravely injured after the war, and around two decades ago, had died."

"So the current Salamander is new?"

"Yes, and it might not be able to face all the monsters alone,"

"Even if it does--" Natha said, letting out a rare sigh. "--it might think that the monsters were driven to the mountain by the demons,"

And so, it might see this place, the oasis society and the people who participated in the festival, as an enemy who deliberately sent it harm?

Welp...

"Then..." I looked up at the narrowed silver eyes, tightening my hand on him. "Will we--" I paused, and swiftly changed my question. "Will you go to the peak?"

I wasn’t asking for me, alright? It was just that Natha was the Lord, and he couldn’t possibly stand idly when the life of his people was in jeopardy. So he had to go there, right?

And he told me to never stay away from him, right?

He looked at me dubiously, but I just put on my innocent, questioning eyes.

Slowly, Natha sighed, looking like he was aging a few years.

"Yes, we will go to the peak."

’We’!

What a wonderful word that is.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.