The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 178: Even in vacation, studying is a must

Chapter 178: Even in vacation, studying is a must

"Sweetheart, you may have to play on your own today," Natha whispered against my nape the next morning, while pulling me closer against his chest.

Still a bit dazed from waking up, I squirmed beneath the blanket and his arms, replying drowsily. "Are you going to take all the vassals today?"

"Mm," I felt his lips on the crook of my neck, which tickled me as he continued his explanation. "There’s some situation further down the river."

Further down the river...

He didn’t say anything again, but I kind of able to see where his mind go now. "Are you afraid I’m going to do something again and get lost in the river?"

His answer came in an apologetic chuckle that he followed by a rain of kisses on the side of my face.

Right--so he was still wary of my impulsive tendency. He probably wouldn’t ever let me do that until a druid teacher came to give me proper training. I prayed every day that a letter from Issa would manifest out of thin air.

"I won’t be alone," I wriggled out of his arms to stretch my body. "I have my two unruly children."

"Don’t let them hear you," Natha whispered with a laugh, and it was so ticklish I couldn’t help but laugh.

Yeah, I had a baby bird that didn’t like to be called a child, and a temperamental lizard that got angry if people called it that.

But I tilted my head because I felt weird. He didn’t mind leaving me here alone with all those courtesans? Hmm...perhaps because the worst had passed? Since I already knew they used to tend to him during his rut and everything, and he knew I wouldn’t misunderstand about it, he seemed to think it didn’t matter anymore.

Also...he seemed to be fascinated at how flustered I got from their...umm, lecture.

Hmph. Sorry for being a virgin!

"In return," he kissed my cheek before climbing down from the bed, "I’ll get back faster, and we’ll have dinner with just the two of us," he looked back as he put on his nightrobe. "It’s been a while, isn’t it?

Oh--It sure had! We had been having our meals together with the others throughout this trip, and aside from our bedroom before we got to sleep, we rarely had a quiet time together.

This woke me up fully, and I rose my re-energized body. Natha came back with my usual herbal drink as I sat on the edge of the bed, and it felt like we were home. Maybe because this place used to be his home. I also heard this bedroom was the same room he used in the past, and it had been left as it was, unlike the rest of the house that got...Rubha-ied, so to speak.

Oh--this gave me an idea. "I think I’ll use the chance to take a look around the house," I told him after sipping a third of my morning drink. "I meant to do that yesterday, but I ended up getting dragged everywhere..."

I groaned and sigh at yesterday’s memory. As proof, the orders that Arta made yesterday had to be put in a whole separate room because it would take up too much space if we put them in ours.

Were they trying to make me wear a different outfit each day?? Although to be fair, it was indeed a cast improvement from a hospital gown.

"It might be boring," Natha said. "It’s not nearly as interesting as the Castle, I reckon, though I also didn’t venture this house much."

I tilted my head in confusion. "Even though it’s yours?"

He chuckled while sipping on his tea, and explained to me after. "I only bought this place to keep up appearance, because it’s important for a merchant to look like they had reached a certain level of success."

Ah...right. Because others would trust people who looked like they knew what they were doing more. Like, ’Look, I have this big mansion from the money I made myself, so why don’t we become a partner so you can be rich too’ kind of thing?

"But it’s still the house you used to live in, so I still want to look at it more!"

He leaned down and kissed me, laughing softly against my lips. What? Did you like it so much that I want to do it because it had something to do with you?

"Ah," he suddenly tapped his chin, brows frowning slightly as he tried to remember something. "I recall there’s a hidden passage somewhere in this house."

My back straightened at that, and looked at him while blinking in rapt attention, waiting for more explanation.

"But I’ve never used it, so I don’t remember where it is," he said, prompting me to deflate in disappointment. "I never told Rubha about it, so I’m not sure she knows."

Oh, that was too bad. But as I fiddled with my cup, I shook my head slightly to get rid of that disappointment. "It’s fine, I’ll treat it as a treasure hunt!"

He raised his brow and laughed again, ruffling my bed hair and pinched my cheek in response. Well, a hidden passage had never been in my plan when I decided to look around the house anyway.

"Ah, I also want to study the common magic from the human book we bought at the Oasis market," I added after finishing my drink.

I had been focusing so much on elemental magic that I forgot about the common ones. As a priest, Valmeier had never learned common magic too, so maybe that was why. I didn’t plan to learn anything big or offensive--just mundane, daily stuff like levitation, or temperature control.

"So diligent," Natha smiled and combed my hair he messed up earlier, before dropping a bomb on me. "In that case, don’t forget the homework Eruta gave you."

Oh, shoot!

* * *

Why did I have homework on this trip, you ask? Because my stupid ass told the teacher that this trip is not a vacation, but a journey to find myself.

I know. I’d beat my cringe-ass self too if I could go back to that time.

But let us think about that homework some other time. It was always better to work on that when Lesta was around. So instead, I pulled out the book that I bought in the market, the one from the human realm.

"Which one do you think I should learn first?" I asked my two companions. Jade was peeking at the book from the other side, and Ignis was perching on my head to not accidentally burned the book.

The Salamander said it had been trying to adjust the new body and pulled the flame inside its body so it wouldn’t have to be too careful to its surrounding anymore, or latched to me and Jade--the only ones who wouldn’t get burned by its flame. It peeked down at the content list and commented with a scoff.

"Don’t try anything hard, just choose one that is closest to your root."

"And which one would that be?" I rolled my eyes at the gecko--I didn’t even know anything about my root.

The flaming lizard let out a smoking puff from its mouth, which I reckoned was a form of a sigh. "You’re a druid, so pick something that has something to do with manipulating the environment," he commented while creating a hot air that flipped the book’s pages one by one. "Oh, this one might be good."

Never thought I’d learn things from a little gecko. I looked at the page and raised my brow. "Stealth?"

"Yeah. It’s different from the invisibility spell that required manipulating light around you. This stealth, rather than a spell, is more like a trick to blend yourself in your surrounding so people wouldn’t be able to detect you."

"Because they would perceive me as a part of the background?"

"Exactly,"

Hmm...blend myself huh? It was indeed close to the root of druid magic, without going as far as turning myself into an elemental form. As I read the description, the spell only played with others’ perceptions so they would not perceive me as something that stand out. Of course, it would mean the spell would be broken the moment I made a movement that made me stand out; like attacking or screaming.

Basically, it was a spell for sneaking around.

Perfect.

And as Ignis had said, since the root was close to how druid magic operated--kind of like the super-lite ultra-thin version of getting one with nature, I could do it pretty fast. I tried to test it on the guards standing at the end of the corridor leading to our bedroom, tiptoeing past them to see if they recognized and greeted me.

They didn’t. I even walked back and forth in front of them, and they dutifully only looked forward with a straight back that I almost mistook them as a statue.

Ooh...this was kind of fun. But I did feel a bit guilty about sneaking out past Panne and the guards, so I decided to just go out a bit to test how much the ’stealth’ could fool people and get back before they realized I was gone. Just a few minutes or so.

I planned to go downstairs to see how the servants worked, something that I could only do while in this stealth magic. Because, you know...they were all nervous in front of me it seemed, knowing I was the Lord’s bride and everything.

So I went down the corridor, tiptoeing down the stairs in reflex although they shouldn’t be able to hear me, and while I was about to slip past the door beside the stairs, Jade and Ignis nudged me hard.

[What?] I asked them telepathically, in case the spell broke.

[Master! Wall empty!]

Jade chirped loudly, and I had to shush the little bird hard. Ignis, meanwhile, explained it to me better. [I think there’s a hidden way that the Nightmare told you about over there]

Oh? Oh! My Jadector was back!

[Can you trace where it starts from?]

Since I told Jade not to make noise anymore, the little bird wordlessly flew toward one point, energetically so. It flew along the wall, probably tracing the hidden corridor, and we followed the colorful flash until we ended up in an empty bedroom. It was in a deep corner of the west wing, perhaps only filled when the capacity of the house was full--which...I think never happened?

Hmm...I wondered if there was some kind of special mechanism like the one in the Castle’s library. But Jade immediately swooped inside the fireplace and...crashed into the wall.

I had to crouch down and stifled my laugh as Jade scolded the stone wall and kicked the brick in annoyance.

...and stumbled into a hole and rolled down with a chirping scream.

[Wha--]

I stared dumbfoundedly at the disappearing stone wall at the back of the empty fireplace. Did this bird just accidentally trigger the mechanism while kicking the wall in anger?

Again, I crouched down and laughed silently for a whole minute before following the little bird inside.