The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 231: There’s no such thing as a superior or inferior culture

Chapter 231: There’s no such thing as a superior or inferior culture

On the last day of the year, like a gift, Eruha came with a piece of parchment.

You heard me--not a letter, just a piece of parchment. On it, was a single sentence.

--Come to me before the flower blooms--

Huh. This was...an invitation? But what that have to do with Natha’s request? I looked at them in confusion, but Eruha was smiling and Natha let out a relieved sigh.

"So...it’s a good news?" I asked.

Natha smiled and pulled me, who was standing beside his desk, to sit on his thigh. "Yes," he answered. "That’s her way of saying nothing will happen so we’ll even have enough time to visit her."

"Is that so?" I took the small parchment and looked at it. "What if it means there’s nothing you can do about the result?"

Not that I was feeling unconfident, but I wanted to cover every base, you know what I mean?

"Then she would still respect my request and give out instructions on what you should prepare to at least amp up the possibility," Natha said. "Besides," he tapped onto the parchment’s surface with his finger, pointing at the sentence. "This is written in human tongue."

I gasped. Oh! How stupid of me! How could I just realize it now? Natha was writing the letter in the archaic common tongue, but the answer came with the human letters.

"You mean...this reply is...for me?" I blinked and lifted my face to look at Eruha.

"That’s the only possible reason," the vampire shrugged and walked to the couch in the seating area, seated himself beside Lesta who was busy checking the guest list for the community banquet tomorrow.

Huh--I guessed they were good again for the New Year. It wouldn’t be nice if they were fighting during the sacred festival days after all.

I turned my head to look at Natha again. "So...we’re going to see her before spring?"

"Yes, since you’ll be busy with your druid lesson, won’t you?" he replied while stroking my back, the smile hadn’t been leaving his lips all this while. "Let’s put Gluttony as our first realm visit."

I looked at him as he continued to plan the visit with Eruha, Lesta, and Malta. It was so different, the face he was making. The brightness in his eyes, and the smile that wasn’t restrained. He looked like someone who finally got a vacation after working all year long with no day off.

The trial had really been burdening his mind, it seemed. And he was also repressing a lot of anger toward the Elders. I could tell that he acted colder toward those three who came from the Elders’ families. He already acted cold at them because, I assumed, they were against me so much before. But now, uuh...now it was blizzard. Even Hagai couldn’t meet his eyes these days.

So I was glad that he could be more at ease now. Because, well, tomorrow would be an important day for him and all demons. The New Year was a sacred day for them, so it wouldn’t be nice if there were to be dark clouds hanging above his head.

Talking about the New Year, I remembered it would be a full-blown celebration back on Earth. People would fill the streets partying, and there would be fireworks launched at the stroke of midnight. I heard people even stayed all night to have fun together.

Here, though, in the demon realm, things were the complete opposite. After dinner, it was compulsory to turn off the light. Except for the fireplace--because it was winter--all mana-fueled night light and torch would be snuffed out, even on the street. I looked out of the window after changing into my nightshirt, and it was dark. I wouldn’t be able to see without putting mana in my eyes.

Supposedly, this blanketing darkness was created so everyone would stop doing things at night. On this night before the sacred day, they were supposed to rest, maybe thinking back about everything that happened during the year and reflecting on it. Tomorrow, on the big day, as they ’talked’ to the Lord, they could spell their regrets and resolution for the coming year, and receive a blessing.

For this reason too, we have an early dinner so the servants can end their work early and rest just like everybody else. Those who wanted to come back to their hometown for holidays were given a half-day and already left the Castle after luncheon. There wouldn’t be any service in the morning too, and breakfast was to be provided by the Temple. On that day, no matter what status these demons had, they all ate the same soup and bread, and drank the same water.

"What if people take advantage of this darkness and do bad things?" I asked Natha as I climbed to the bed. Perhaps because of the calm and darkness, I unconsciously whispered.

"There are guards patrolling the street still, they are an exception for the ’rest’ rule," Natha explained. "And if crimes happened during this night, they will receive harsher punishment," he put his arm across the pillow beside him and I lay there, staring at his face in the dim light from the fireplace. "Also, they will receive a brand."

I gasped, and clasped my hands over my mouth immediately because it sounded so loud. "You marked them?"

"Yes," Natha curled his lips, and honestly, it looked rather scary. "It’s a brand of blasphemy on their forehead. And once you receive that, there will be no land in the demon realm willing to accept them."

"So it’s like an exile,"

"Essentially," Natha nodded. "Even normal criminals will resent them, because they also the children of Lord An’Hyang. How could they accept those who soiled the sacred night? The only ones who might accept them were, well, those with the same brand of blasphemy on their faces."

Hoo...that was quite harsh. But then again, how terrible could someone be, that they would sully the calm and serene night with awful thing? I shook my head thinking about it--even crime needed a rest every now and then.

Talking about terrible...

"I looked inside Valmeier’s memory about how the human realm celebrated New Year," I said as I shifted closer so I could lay on his shoulder instead of his arm.

"Yeah? How is it?" Natha asked with a subtle smile.

I was sure he knew already what the New Year celebration in the human realm was, which wasn’t that different from how it happened on Earth. People came to the streets and partied, and festivals were filling the entire nation with joy and merriment. Just like how it happened during the summer festival I went to with Natha.

Why? Well, because it was also summer in the human realm now.

"I don’t like it," I said, snuggling closer to him.

Natha tilted his head to look at me better. "No?"

"Not the celebration itself," I told him. "I just hate how they frame it."

Just like everything, the humans--well, the royals and the church--made the difference of the practice during New Year’s Eve into something awful. Because it was summer in the human realm, and they did in a bright, merry celebration, they painted it as if the human realm was the blessed one.

They made it seem like the demons out in the darkness because they were...evil, so to speak, because their Goddess was known as the Goddess of Light. They told their people that the demons did it because they were ashamed of themselves. Some even made a lot of rumors and assumptions that the demons were doing something sinister in that dark; like some kind of sacrifice ritual or something--and ran it through the bards and storytellers.

And I hated it.

I hated that they spun this peaceful, serene event into something sinister and evil. They should have known that it was a sacred day for the demons because it was when they worshipped and received the blessing from the Demon God. But they still used that to paint this false narrative.

Yeah, I knew they were enemies, and I understood about propaganda. But to use their faith--calm, peaceful, harmless faith--to flare hatred?

That crossed the line.

And even more, they were using it to instill supremacy. That they are the blessed one, the good one, the right one. And thus they were superior.

"Why should people belittle other’s customs to make them seem superior?" I grumbled against his chest. "Why can’t we just respect other cultures and see that they are all beautiful and meaningful?"

Natha chuckled and caressed the top of my head, playing with my loose hair. "I know, right?" he laughed. "Maybe because this is not the heaven?"

What--so conflict is inevitable as long as we are in this mortal world?

Huff. I let out a long sigh and snuggled more to his side, practically latching myself to him. It was dark and in the winter, so although I was no longer cold, I couldn’t help but want to get close to him. And it made me calmer, less annoyed.

Damn--why was I even talking about that?

"I’m glad," he said suddenly.

"Huh?"

Through the dim light of the fireplace, I could see the smile on his face and the gleam of moonlight that was looking at me. "I’m glad that our child will be taught good things in the future."

I slapped him lightly before falling asleep that night. But I was asleep with a smile on my face.

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