The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 224: Having wealth is only good if we have life to enjoy it

Chapter 224: Having wealth is only good if we have life to enjoy it

"You seemed excited," Eruha greeted us as we were discussing about how much we could sell this tool for, and how much it might net us.

"Talking about money is always exciting," I turned around and grinned, welcoming my teacher I hadn’t met for two weeks except during breakfast.

He actually offered me a break until New Year, but I got bored with nothing to do but playing with Jade and Ignis, or reading book. And while there were still a lot of book for me to read--especially because I started to read the one written in demon language--I also had a lot of questions regarding what I wrote. So I asked if it was alright for us to start the lesson again.

And here he was. He took one glance toward the craving tools and made a nod. "Give them realistic numbers," he told Lesta, who rolled his eyes in response but said nothing.

What? They fought again? Ah, whatever--I didn’t want them to argue so I left Lesta with Izzi and approached Eruha in the couch.

"Eru, Eru--can you teach me how to keep a poker face?" I finally asked him after mulling over it for two weeks.

He raised his brow and observed my face. "I think you’re pretty good at it already," he said, to my bewilderment. "Your face barely changed when you hear people talked bad about you, or making sarcastic remarks."

Oh, that...well, that was because I had used to hear people bad-mouthing me, whether it was in my previous life, or when I lived as Valmeier in the kingdom. It didn’t affect me because it got boring after a while, and it was such a waste of time to worry about the words of people who was set on hating you. So rather than because I control my face, it was more of the case that I truly didn’t care.

But...

"No, no, no--this is different," I insisted. "I can’t control my face when I get flustered...umm, you know, when people are teasing me?"

"I hardly think it’s a bad thing," he remarked.

Ugh--these people with natural control over their emotion were so hard to talk with. "Well, yeah, it’s not. But I’m getting tired of being teased. Or...can you teach me how to not reacting much to people teasing me?"

Come on, vampire! You’re supposed to be my teacher!

"Hmm..." Eruha leaned back and crossed his arms as I waited for his verdict anxiously. He looked at me and tilted his head slightly, again observing my face. "Indeed, you will be attending more events with his Lordship, so controlling your face is a must."

"His Lordship likes it that Young Master expresses his feeling honestly, though," Lesta commented from the other table, and I looked back to glare at him. Zip it, you! I’ll tell Eruha to suck you more, hmph!

I looked back at Eruha and gave my sweetest smile. "I don’t have to hide my expression when I’m alone with Natha, but don’t you think I need to appear decent in front of others?"

Eruha chuckled amusedly, perhaps because I was acting desperate. "Alright," he said. "The easiest way for this is to make you getting used to exciting thing. Try to hold back from getting flustered as we get through today’s topic."

I blinked in curiosity as I looked at the huge ledger in his hand. "What is...today’s topic?"

"Well, Young Master," he put the plain ledger with blank cover on the table and beckoned me to shift closer. "It’s time for you to know the details of His Lodship assets."

...oh, God.

* * *

Did he say it would be a good practice? Yeah, I thought it really would, from the many times I had to stop parting my lips or coughing in suprise.

Yes, I had seen this ledger before. I had seen the estimate of Natha’s wealth. But before, it was just a glance, a teaser if you must. Now, Eruha put me through hours of detailed explanation. He didn’t just showed me; he explained each trading company, what they trade with, and their annual revenue.

Natha was no longer active in day-to-day operation of course, but he set his trusted man in each company which he had taught with his own technique. Technique he learned from Earth, I guessed.

I knew now that he was the one introducing the concept of shares and profit sharing. He was also the one who introduce intellectual rights, registering his own invention to be patented--including the mana-fueled carriage that looked like cars. Well, I could also guessed where he got all those ideas from.

Wow...he was only there for two months and he could change things this much?

If he couldn’t do it by himself, he invested in people and told them to realize his idea. Investing to people like Izzi was one of those process.

All those money coming from the trading company and merchant guilds, as well as the money he got from his patents, were already overwhelming me enough. But then I had to hear Eruha talked about the bank. Banks.

This freaking Demon Lord is the Rothschild of this world, huh?

For the finale, Eruha pulled out the map of the demon realm and made various marks all over the place. "This is where His Lordship assets are," he said. "You need to at least know this much, Young Master."

"...why?" I looked at the red dots that Eruha made all over the map. There was no region in the demon realm that was free of those dots. I pressed my lips in an effort to mantain my expression.

Don’t get surprise, don’t get surprise. You know he’s the wealthiest being in the demon realm, Valen. There’s no use of getting surprised...

"Why? Because you’re his sole beneficiary, of course."

I coughed, even if there was nothing in my mouth. Even my saliva ran dry at this continuous surprises. But this one...this one took the cake.

I mean...I was what?

"His sole...huh?"

"You’re his heir, Young Master."

Again, I coughed. So I was failing this poker face game, but...who could after hearing such a bombshell?!

"You mean...all this assets would become...mine?"

"If anything happens to His Lordship, yes," Eruha nodded. "Which is why you need to know about all of this."

I swallowed hard, desperately wanting to ask why--but I knew why already. Of course; it was just the kind of thing Natha would do. He said it already--he did everything for me. It just...God, Mother--it felt so excessive Everything felt so excessive. Having someone did things for me this much was just...

I guessed, even after months, I=it was hard for me to get used to it.

I shook my head to get the nonsensical number out of my head. "But it’s not like I will outlive him or anything..."

"Who knows," Lesta shrugged, joining us in our table. "You’re not just a human, aren’t you, Young Master? You’re a druid."

Well...that was true...

I put my head in the table, pondering about the fact that I might have a longer life span than average human when I barely passed adulthood before.

Wow...rather than the mind-blowing wealth I just learned earlier, the fact that I might live for a long time took my mind instantly.

Right--money and wealth and all of those things were good and all, but what good it would be without a life to enjoy it. Technically, I had enough wealth to make people green with envy from my grandfather’s inheritance. But I couldn’t even enjoy it to do what I wanted. I couldn’t buy the food I wanted to eat, clothes I wanted to wear, or go to places I wanted to visit.

Well, at least the wealth was enough for me to acquire good treatment, however useless it was. Enough to support my life force so I could live long enough to meet Natha.

[Master! Master!!]

As I pondered about my life, Jade suddenly chirped loudly and landed on the table, quite literally smacking my head with its wings so I would raise my head immediately.

"Hmm? What is it, Jade?"

I raised my head and the little bird did not stop smacking me. This time it landed on my cheek. I could see how excited the little bird was.

[Master! The rain is white!]

"Huh?" I blinked in confusion, and the little bird chirped again, pushing my cheek to face the window.

[Rain not water!] Jade yelled loudly, excited and confused at the same time. [Rain white and cold!]

As Jade was pushing my face to look at the window, I saw it clearly; the white ’rain’ outside the window that made me gasp.

"Mother--it’s snowing!" I grabbed Jade and ran toward the window, pressing my face there. The ground wasn’t white yet, so it must have been starting just now, but it was clear that the snow was falling. "Jade, it’s snowing!"

[What is snow?]

"It’s this cool, wonderful thing!" Ignoring the imps that told me it would be too cold, I opened the window and received a blast of cold air.

But did I care? No! I reached my hands out and caught the falling snow, shuddering from the cold feeling. Jade walked along my arms and let the snow touched its green head. Similarly, the little bird shuddered at the weird sensation, but as we looked at each other, we knew we were excited about it.

"Isn’t it fun?"

[Fun!!]

I gasped and retracted my arms, putting the little bird on my head. "Should we play outside, Jade?"

[Play!!]

"Uhh, wait, Young Master. You shouldn’t--"

"Let’s play! Izzi, let’s play!"

"No way!" the elf shook his head and shrunk closer to the swaying flame in the fireplace along with Ignis.

I pursed my lips and turned around. "Whatever. Let’s go Jade, we’ll play by ourselves!"

[Play!!]