The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 169: Playing with fire in a non-arsonist way

Chapter 169: Playing with fire in a non-arsonist way

"What is this?"

The Salamander answered while licking its lips with a flaming forked tongue. "We make a contract."

I blinked and paused for a few seconds while Natha rubbed the flame stigma on my wrist. "...what?!" I belatedly reacted, standing up so fast Jade was wobbling and jolted off my shoulder. "What contract?"

"You don’t know about a contracted beast?" the Salamander looked at me in surprise.

"No," I replied dryly.

The one who responded to me was Natha, who uttered it with an annoyed sigh. "It’s like an annoying pet."

"Hey!" the Salamander protested again. This time it didn’t stomp the ground, but whipped the air with its flaming tail.

"But can you just do it like that?" my brows furrowed and I looked disapprovingly at my apparently new contracted beast. "Contract should be two-sided, you know! You didn’t even ask for my opinion before hand! Even Natha asked me first--even if I was drunk at that time!"

"Umm, sweetheart--"

"Y-you--" the Salamander raised its head, eyes blinking wide and flame blazing around it. "Do you know how many people want to make a contract with me?"

"I don’t know, and I don’t care! You can’t just do it like that!"

I didn’t know if it had something to do with the fact that it was now contracted to me, but the flame didn’t affect me, didn’t feel hot or anything. So I became daring and added with hands on my waist.

"Besides, I already have Jade!"

[Yes, Master have Jade!]

"That’s different!" the lizard protested--whined? "Familiars rely heavily on their master in terms of power, but contracted beasts have no such limitation."

Was that so? I turned to Natha for an explanation as usual, and my Demon Lord kindly explained it. "You don’t have to grow a contracted beast with your mana, but you can share magic to strengthen each other," he shifted his gaze to the Salamander and continued. "You can command him, but his power comes from himself, and he can still operate even if you’re unconscious."

"See, you have to feel honored--"

"But you’re right, sweetheart," Natha stroked my hair, and said with a smirk. "Contract should be based on agreement."

The Salamander grimaced--this time it really grimaced--at our gazes. It might be a legendary beast, but it was still merely a twenty-year-old. And in legendary beast terms, the lizard was still a child.

Tsk--it clicked its tongue and scrunched up its face. "Fine, I won’t do anything weird okay?" it then proceeded to slam its body to the ground, laying its head using its short front legs as pillow. "I’m just feeling so bored here all alone! I want to come out and play too!"

Aww--look at it sulks! Seeing as the Salamander was acting like a child, my annoyance quelled instantly.

Well...I didn’t like how it made a contract with me without asking for my consent, but it didn’t seem to be malicious. And now that I thought about it, there was really no disadvantage for me. I’d get a formidable--umm...pet?--who could teach me about elemental fire...probably.

Almost made me feel like I was a protagonist or something.

But I recalled something and tilted my head in confusion. "Huh, then what about the volcano if you leave?"

"What about it? I was born because of the volcano, not the other way around," it answered nonchalantly, still laying on the ground. So I crouched down again as it continued. "Even if I leave, the volcano will still be a volcano."

Oh, was that the case? I had thought that it was the legendary beast that birthed this peak of eternal flame, and thus it would need to stay here to maitain the phenomena. I glanced at Jade then, who bravely hopped onto the laying lizard. Was it a similar method with elemental bird? The highly pure fire elemental gave birth to the legendary beast specialized in fire.

The Salamander flinched when Jade landed on its front leg. Perhaps because they were ’family’ now, a part of me, Jade also didn’t get hurt by the flame. The crimson eyes followed the bird’s movement for a while, but didn’t told Jade to get off.

"But there wouldn’t be anyone to absorb the fire elemental emanating from the lava," Natha tapped on his chin. Now that he knew I wouldn’t get hurt by the flame, he took his time to observe the crater better, including the pool of molten rock and liquid fire. "The volcano will expand and erupt one day."

"Huh? Isn’t that bad? What about the people who use this place to travel?" I gasped, remembering the anxious face of all those merchants earlier.

"What about it?" the Salamander replied in relaxed tone, poking Jade’s belly gently with its finger. "We can just absorb all of the elemental so it becomes an empty vessel. It’ll take years for the mountain to feel full again, then you can return here to absorb it some more."

I looked up at Natha with a gasp and widened eyes. "I can do that?"

"Huh? Aren’t you here for that?" the Salamander asked confusedly, now finding itself in a headbutt competition with a little bird the size its snout.

"That’s...true, isn’t it?" I pulled the hem of Natha’s clothes since the demon didn’t reply earlier. "Can I?"

I could see his frown forming from below. "Absorbing that much elemental mana...wouldn’t it be dangerous for him?"

"Normally," the Salamander picked Jade up and threw the little bird to its back. The crimson eyes then proceeded to stare at me with a cheeky twinkling inside. "That is if he doesn’t have me."

While Jade was rolling around its flaming spine--truly playing with fire--the Salamander started to walk around me. "I’ll help you regulate it, but you need to know your own limit."

Know my limit...

I clenched my fist and closed my eyes, trying to remember the feeling I got when I was purifying the northeastern region. There was a point when I felt bloated before I purified the forest village, and I guessed that would be my limit.

"Okay, I think I know when to stop now," I nodded firmly, but not to the Salamander. I looked up, waiting for permission.

"You sure you can stop?" Natha narrowed his eyes. It was really hard getting past his approval.

"Yeah. I didn’t know before, and so kept on pushing myself," I let out a sigh, realizing my foolishness. But thanks to that, I now knew where my limit was, where I should stop before my system got overload. "But I know when to stop now, for real!"

Natha closed his eyes and took a deep breath. I knew I didn’t have good track record, but...was it that difficult to trust me? In the end though, he opened his eyes and stroked my cheek, before planting a hard kiss on my forehead.

"Be careful,"

His approving voice sounded so melodious. I tiptoed to kiss his cheek, shouting my promise. "Okay!"

"Take that coat off, you can’t feel the flow of fire with a suppression tool," the Salamander said as soon as Natha let go of me, as if it had been tired of waiting. When it saw Natha’s furrowed brows, the Salamander scoffed. "He can take it."

"...fine," Natha muttered begrudgingly while helping me shedding the temperature regulating coat.

"Ah, but once we start, those uglies might follow the flow of mana to find their way here," the Salamander paused and stared at the far end of the craters, where a hole--which I assumed to be an exit--could be seen.

The Demon Lord, of course, only replied with a nonchalant smile. "Don’t worry about it."

"Good," the Salamander responded swiftly, as if it didn’t truly care either way. The crimson eyes gazed at me then, and the lizard grinned. "Let’s start, New Master."

* * *

Jade was right--playing with fire was indeed fun. Providing it wasn’t burning you, of course.

It was more for the impossibility of walking across the fire without getting hurt than anything. Magical, wouldn’t you say? wasn’t something that could be done back on Earth.

Actually, it couldn’t be done even here, unless...well, you know, you were being contracted with a legendary beast.

I hadn’t got clear on what this contract entailed in its entirety, but we had to postpone that discussion at a later time because I needed to concentrate on this stuff--no matter how fun it was.

Now...remembered the incident of me turning liquid and flowing with the river after I slipped off my clothes?

Haa...

No, no--I didn’t turn into fire, or combusted. But--but!--while the heat and the flame did not affect my body...it affected my clothes.

Yeah, you got it; my whole clothes got burned.

This business of becoming a druid took ’natural state’ literally, huh?

So at the end of it, I was once again, buck naked. Thankfully, I was properly with Natha this time, so while it still felt embarrassing, I didn’t have to feel guilty.

[Master not wear clothes! like Jade!] and the little bird had to giggle about it. Natha, who saw my flustered face, chuckled and made a very obvious move of looking me up and down. When I bit my quivering lips, however, he stopped and magically conjured my clothes from his storage ring.

"You have my clothes there?" I looked at him in surprise as he put the clothes on me.

And the Demon Lord, ever the mischievous one, whispered his reply; "I have your everything here with me,"

What the hell was that even supposed to mean?

As I stared at him dumbfoundedly, he kissed my still-flushing cheek. "Good job for stopping."

"Well...I did promise," I muttered sheepishly, before turning my head to see Jade rolling around inside a blazing white energy ball. That was half of the purified mana I managed to produce, while half of it went to my newly contracted beast.

I didn’t return the purified mana to the environment since that would defeat the purpose. Besides, there was still enough elemental mana, since I stopped the moment I felt bloated--like drinking too much water.

The Salamander, who had swallowed the energy ball at once, suddenly came closer and snuggle at me. "Hey, hey, can you give me that again?"

I raised my brow as the lizard licked its lips. So it was tasty for this Salamander too?

"Well...if there’s enough fire elemental,"

"No more of that for today," Natha warned me sternly as he tied my hair again.

The Salamander clicked its tongue, but seemed to understand that I was already past my limits. "Eh--if I go with you, there’ll be more of it, right?"

The crimson eyes stared at Jade, who still giggled happily inside the energy ball. They narrowed, and then, to my surprise, the flame coming out of its scale got bigger, enveloping its whole body. I had to close my eyes because of the glare, and when I opened them again, the Salamander had vanished.

As I confusedly looked around, I heard a voice right next to my ear. "Hey, give me a name."

There, on my shoulder, looking like a flaming gecko, was what was supposed to be a legendary beast.