The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 228: If someone gives you a lemon, you eat it in front of them and spit the seed right into their eyes

Chapter 228: If someone gives you a lemon, you eat it in front of them and spit the seed right into their eyes

"Nat..."

I wanted to call him loudly, but I found my voice dwindled into nothing because of the fierceness in his eyes. I knew he wasn’t angry at me, but this strong of an expression on his face when he used to repress his emotion in front of others only told me that he brought bad news.

Only...what kind of bad news?

I felt my throat dry inside the cold emanating from his body as the black feathers evaporated. My voice got stuck in my tongue while he moved to the couch, still with the boiling fury underneath his cold eyes. And I guessed it was true for everyone else because the office was dead silent.

Wordlessly, he pulled me as he sat down harshly, prompting me to fall to his lap. Still surprised at the sudden movement, I could only freeze when Natha pressed his head on my shoulder.

Instantly, it felt like the icicles around me melted, and I instinctively wrapped my arms around him and caressed the back of his head. I had no idea what happened in that tower, how bad was it to make him like this. But for now, I just wanted to comfort him.

Belatedly, I realized that most of the vassals scooted out of the room, probably to give us space so Natha could manage his emotions again. The only ones staying behind were the twins--who held my little companions--and Eruha, while Caba and Haikal seemed to stand guard outside the doors so no one could come inside, including the servants and Natha’s aides.

"Nat?"

After a while, and I felt the cold surrounding him subsided, I whispered his name. His arms, which had been wrapped around my waist, tightened slightly. And then, slowly, he raised his face and asked with utmost seriousness.

"Should I just stop being a Lord?"

...huh?

Once again, the room was dead silent. It was so quiet that I could hear my own confusion. My lips parted, but I could only speak after a minute had passed. "Well...I don’t really care about your status, but...what happened?"

Arta, who always had been the emotional one, asked agitatedly. "Did they tell you to abdicate?!"

I stared at his eyes and repeated the question. "Did they?"

Surprisingly, he shook his head slightly. "No."

"Huh?"

Whether it was me or the other vassals, we were all looking at him in confusion.

"But I’d rather step down than do what they want," he said with such a deep furrow that I couldn’t help but stroke his brows to soothe him.

"Uhh...so what do they want you to do?"

Break up with me? Banish me? What made him skip all the options and go straight to fuck-this-shit-I’m-out approach?

"They don’t want me to do anything," he pulled me closer again; not to do anything, but just to get me even closer to him, although I was practically on his lap and caressing him. "They want you to do something."

"...me?" my hand paused and I pulled my upper body away a little bit to look at him better. "What...they want me to...leave you or something?"

Natha sighed and shook his head. "In that case, they’d call for you."

"And they knew Your Lordship would never let that happen," Lesta commented.

"Yeah, so..." Natha leaned back to the couch, sighed, and got silent again.

I was getting confused about what really happened, because Natha still hadn’t told me what exactly those Elders wanted, and now he was being quiet again. I looked at the twins and Eruha, but they just shook their heads and smiled wryly.

So the only one who could pull it out of him was me. "What is it?" I asked, rubbing his ears to bring him back. "What do they want me to do?"

The silver eyes opened, but he didn’t immediately answer my question. I could see the distress on his face, so I waited patiently. Slowly, while I stroked his cheek, he opened his mouth and said a single word.

"Trial,"

"...yes?" I blinked in confusion.

"They want you to undergo a trial," he said, with a low tone and a clenched jaw. I could feel his anger as he said those words.

I tilted my head slightly to digest what a trial entailed. "To...prove myself?"

"Yes."

Huh...well, that didn’t seem bad? At least they still gave me a chance to be accepted, although it wasn’t like they had any right to put their nose in the business of our relationship. But...why did Natha look so upset?

As I pondered about this trial matter, Arta suddenly asked nervously. "Which...which trial?"

Again, Natha paused first before answering it with gritted teeth. "The Kan’ine Lake."

"Fuck--" I flinched as Arta cursed out loud. She immediately clasped her mouth and apologized. "Forgive me, my Lord..."

Natha didn’t seem to care, though. Instead, it seemed like he wanted to curse himself. "Umm...what’s that?" I asked carefully.

"The Lake of Acceptance," the one who answered was Eruha.

"Rather than a lake, it’s more like a pond, around fifty meters across, and only around a meter deep," Lesta explained. "There’s an altar in the middle of the lake, around thirty meters from the edge."

"That’s not too far," I looked up to try and imagine the shape and size of this lake. It seemed like a perfect place to play around though, instead of doing a trial. "Do I just need to cross the water to the altar?"

The room grew silent, and Natha’s arms around me were tightening again. "That’s not..." he started, and then paused and sighed again before continuing. "Yeah, you have to cross the water to the altar, but...it’s not ’just’ crossing the water."

My brow arched because it was rare for me to see Natha being this frustrated and exasperated and tired. He was being so emotional, just like the time I woke up from my three-day coma.

"It’s called the Lake of Acceptance because only those acknowledged by Lord An’Hyang could cross the water safely," Eruha told me instead of Natha, who seemed to have a hard time explaining it to me. "It’s usually used to see if the Lord’s candidate is eligible to sit on the throne, legitimately."

"Oh..." so it was like a sacred site. Well, I should have known that the moment I heard there was an altar. And then something clicked in my head as to why Natha looked so distressed. "What will happen...to the one who don’t get acknowledged?"

"It could be anything from pain, sickness, passing out, or even..."

Eruha didn’t finish his sentence, but I could see where was this going. "Oh, okay," I muttered, stroking my distressed Demon Lord again. He had to be told this before having anything to eat too, my poor Nightmare...

"Why? Why does Young Master have to do that?!" Arta yelled while punching the cushion she brought from the couch.

Her angry voice seemed to snap Natha because he retreated his hand from me to cover his eyes as he started to speak exasperatedly. "Haa...those fucking old coots..." and then he let out a series of curses in ancient demon language that I hoped Jade wouldn’t pick up. "They didn’t even bother to argue about Valen being human and all that," he continued. "They straightly tell me to do my responsibility as a pure-blooded Demon Lord!"

Oh, so it was just as Eruha said. Culturally, they could demand that, especially because Natha had an alpha seed. As long as he kept the pure blood, even if he didn’t become the King, his descendants might, because the chance of them carrying this alpha seed was greater.

So this was why he told me he would just step down as the Demon Lord. Natha didn’t care about being a Lord--in hindsight, he only did it because he thought he should have power and authority to make sure he could guarantee my happiness.

With a disgusted tone, he continued. "They told me to either marry a pure-blood, or Valen has to prove himself good enough in Lord An’Hyang’s eyes."

Hmm...l guessed some of the Elders’s family members were pure-blooded demon girls? I don’t know, maybe. But that was such a likely scenario, right? Getting Natha to marry into their family so they could enjoy his wealth? And the child who would inherit Natha’s wealth could become the next Lord of Greed too. And perhaps, someday, the King.

This thought, honestly, made me angrier than the whole trial thing.

"When it would be?" I asked Natha.

"You’re not doing it!" he hissed, straightening his back and grabbing my arms instead of my waist.

Strangely, I felt very calm at that moment. I looked into his eyes and spoke with my firmest voice, making sure I enunciated every word clearly. "When it will be?"

"Val--"

"Then what?" I cut him, started to get annoyed now. "Are you just going to step down to avoid their challenge? Telling them that I’m not eligible? That the Demon God does not accept me?" I grabbed his lapel and stared him down. "Are you going to let them win?"

"That’s not--"

This time, I cut his words with a harsh kiss that I made with raw emotions and annoyance. And then, when I parted our lips, I asked him. "Aren’t we fated?"

The silver eyes widened and Natha blinked, looking stunned at my remark.

"It was your Lord who sent you to meet me," I reminded him.

"That’s--"

"We believe it to be so, and so it is."

Yes, I knew we didn’t know for sure. He might be sent for me, he might be sent for the author girl. But in the end, I was the one who heard the seed--the child’s voice. It was our child.

Our future.

"Do you think He would reject me after going as far as sending you through time and space?"

This time, he didn’t respond. He just looked at me, eyes slightly widened, breath slightly strained. I took a deep breath and held his face, stroking his cheeks. "I’ll be fine,"

"Sweetheart..."

Natha sounded like he wanted to cry, and I whispered firmly. "We’ll do it," I said, never strayed from his silver eyes. "I’ll do it. I would never let other people doubt and question what’s between us."

We had been separated for far too long, and went through so much to finally be together. A trial? Did they think a trial would make me back down? Did they think I would tuck my tail between my legs and run?

Hah. Joke on them. I had no tail.

I leaned forward and kissed him again; softer this time, with all my love for him. "We, are fated."

For a few seconds, he just looked at me silently with shaking eyes, before he pulled me into a tight embrace and buried his face on my neck. "We are," he whispered against my hair. "Yes, we are."