The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 233: You know how people talk to their womb when they are pregnant?

Chapter 233: You know how people talk to their womb when they are pregnant?

The community banquet was nice. After the blessing was done, Natha picked me up and took me to the venue of the banquet at the foot of the hill. Long tables were placed on the ground and filled with warm food. There was no designated seat, so anyone could sit anywhere.

The food was not fancy, but bountiful. The Lord Castle provided each Temple with funds so they could arrange a nice community banquet in each place. And during winter, this warm and nutritious meal would be something nice, especially for those less privileged with access to fresh ingredients.

On this day, anyone could come up to Natha to talk to him, and a lot of people did. Perhaps this was why I was sitting between Eruha and Lesta, with Caba and Haikal not far from me because...security? It was still nice, though, seeing him interacting with the surrounding citizens, and it reminded me of the time we were in the oasis. Even Jade and Ignis were having fun although they didn’t eat.

And then, because it was supposed to be a rest day, we spent the rest of the day together, just relaxing and talking about everything and nothing. We walked through the frozen garden and around the lake, having lunch together with the other vassals, and spending the night in front of the fireplace.

It was so nice, this holiday.

The night no longer needed to be dark, but on the second day, there was supposed to be a sermon in the middle of the city. We didn’t have to wake up at dawn again, though, so we had time to feed the egg, who was growing hungry because we hadn’t given any mana for two days.

"I want to stay here for a while," I told him after we were done. "I want to talk to the child."

Natha raised his brow, perhaps because it was the first time I called the seed a ’child’ out loud in front of him. He patted my head with a wide smile and then left me there after telling me to have fun. I watched as he walked away and waited until I could hear the hidden door slide and click before turning back to the egg.

I dragged a chair to the front of the platform so I could sit down and have some conversations with the silent egg. Yeah, I still hadn’t been able to hear that voice again, but sometimes I would sneak here and talk to the egg for a bit. Just a quick five minutes to tell the egg about my day.

But today...I kind of want to talk about something else.

I laid my head on the platform side and reached out to touch the egg’s surface, following the pattern with my finger just like how I liked to trace Natha’s patterns before bed.

"You know...we should really start to give you a name--just a nickname, you know, so we can stop calling you seed or egg or child," I told the egg. "Make it more personal, don’t you think so?"

I never visited the maternity ward, but sometimes, I heard the mothers in the children’s ward talk about how they called their children jellybean or peanut or dumpling--why were they mostly food? Hmm...

Anyway, yeah, I should talk about it with Natha soon, perhaps after the trial.

"Oh, right, the trial," I spoke again. "I want to talk to you about the trial I need to go through tomorrow."

And so I started to tell the egg about it; about how it all started and about my thoughts regarding why they wanted to do it, that they might just want to put their own family members as a candidate for Natha’s bride.

Yeah--I spent about twenty minutes actually ranting about my annoyance with this future child of mine.

"People seemed to avoid talking about the trial at all, and I just acted like it was nothing, so...it was almost like the trial wasn’t there," I shrugged and paused for a minute, before letting out a sigh. "You know...I’m no stranger to pain, I’m not even a stranger to death, so...I think my confidence partly came from that."

I put my chin on the platform and stared at the dark egg. "I mean...yeah, I didn’t like it, but...I didn’t think it would be any worse than what I had experienced before, right?"

Natha explained it more to me once, and he told me that the Lord would test the trial taker as they crossed the lake, and most of the time, it would be multiple tests. No one knew what the manner of the tests was, and what kind of effect one might feel from it. Natha said he felt stings and heaviness in his body and then he started to choke that he couldn’t tell me anymore.

Yeah, so I guessed he got censored.

So, all I could find out was that those who couldn’t pass the trials ended up with different kinds of effects. Disorientations, pains, there were cases of death too; although those were a trial for criminals.

But hey, what would I know? Perhaps intending to marry the Demon Lord bearing an alpha seed as someone who wasn’t a demon could be considered a crime?

So I was kind of expected to experience pain, probably an excruciating one. Because, you know at times like these we tend to think of the worst so when the real shit hit we were already equipped with a mentality to face it?

"But...I realize now that...a lot of people are worried about me," I sighed. "They didn’t like to see me hurt or in pain--I mean, one day, I had a papercut from the new book that I ordered, right? And Arta, and Panne and the servants went into a total panic!" I threw my hand out. "It’s just a papercut, it’ll heal naturally in a few minutes, but..."

I recalled that moment again and laughed. "They took the medical box and bandaged me like I got stabbed or something!"

Truly; it was a papercut and they bandaged my entire finger. I had to press my lips hard at that time because I wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, but I also wanted to cry because they were genuinely worried about me and I felt so happy.

"Oh, and I stumbled a lot, somehow, I don’t know. My balance is wack. And Panne and the guards would rush to catch me, even though I wasn’t really falling down,"

Do you know how weird it was as I slipped for a few inches and three pairs of hands all grabbed me?

"It’s like they hated the thought of me having even a single scratch," I chuckled, and then exhaled heavily. "They’re so nice, aren’t they?"

"So I don’t want to make them worry," I shrugged. "That’s why I can’t say things like that, and that’s why I talk to you like this," I leaned forward and brought my face closer to the egg. "I just feel like I have to let this out before the real thing so I can perform my best."

I tried to let out a smile, but then I remembered that I talked to this egg, this future child of mine alone, so I could be honest and let go of the things I couldn’t show or say in front of others--even Natha. So I stopped trying to smile courageously.

"Honestly, I feel scared too," I told the egg. "If it’s just pain, I’m confident I can hold it well. But...from the way they told me about it, there might be something else that...you know...I might not be able to stand physically?"

I couldn’t help but grimaced, because I didn’t remember being very good at this mental thing. I was easily riled up and easily thinking too much, so I was prone to internal panic. What if that were to make me fail tomorrow?

Yeah, so I was scared, sometimes, and I was glad I learned a bit about how to control myself.

"But getting scared is normal, right? I’m more scared of the uncertainty than anything, to be honest," I continued. "But--but! I won’t back down!" I promised the child, feeling the annoyance filling me again. "I won’t let those old coots who think they can just say whatever they want win! Whatever the lake throws at me, I will endure it."

It was a promise I made to myself every night before bed, and the determination I chanted inwardly during the morning meditation.

"Because I still want to live my life with Natha and everyone, with Jade and Ignis," I confessed. "I still want to explore the realms, and I still want to see if that girl is here."

You know--the author girl?

"So I’m just going to do it," I pulled back, straightened my back, and clenched my fist, nodded to fill my entire being with confidence. "But yeah...sometimes I thought about it and got scared, but I don’t want them to know about it," I leaned forward and whispered. "It’s our secret, okay?"

I laid my head on the platform again, feeling the cold of the marble pedestal against my cheek. I looked at the egg, stroking the hard surface and started tracing the pattern again, thinking about how much I missed that voice I only heard three times before as I felt the pulsing vibration.

"It’ll be fine, right?" I asked the child quietly. "I’ll see you in the future, right?"

I continued to enjoy the soft pulse that almost felt like a lullaby, but Natha’s voice woke me up from the daydream.

"Sweetheart, aren’t you going to have your breakfast?" he walked inside the room again, already in his formal black clothes for the sermon.

I almost jumped, my heart racing as I questioned inwardly whether or not Natha had caught my rant earlier. But he looked at me with a light smile and normal expression, so...perhaps not?

Natha patted my head and offered a hand for me to stand up. "The little brat thinks I was hiding you somewhere and making a fuss."

I laughed and stood up, clinging to his arm as we left the room, and flinched when I heard a whispering voice.

[secret]

And then silence. Before the egg completely got out of my sight, I turned around to glance at it and sneakily put my finger on my lips.

Well, now that I heard the child’s voice, there was no way I would fail.