The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 237: In-laws always have their own ideals

Chapter 237: In-laws always have their own ideals

"Umm...so does it mean I passed?" I asked while stirring the rest of the ice cream with the drink.

"You’ve changed, huh?" he scoffed, but the corner of his lips was curling upward a little bit, so I guessed there was nothing to worry about. "I thought you’d be fidgeting nervously when you see me, but you’re quite relaxed,"

He wasn’t wrong. I think, if it was me from a few months ago, when I was still full of confusion and insecurity, I would have done just that. I wouldn’t be relaxed ordering a drink to a God as if I were in a real coffee shop.

But so many things had happened, and as I experienced more things, trying to go through my flurry of emotions, and finding more about myself, it was unavoidable that I would change.

And I like it that I could change like this.

"Well, I’m just going through a very tense event, so I just kind of want to rest," I shrugged, sipping on the chocolate drink with a straw. Ooh--there was a hint of coffee too there, it was quite nice. "There’s something I had been wondering though..."

The Demon God only raised his brow, but his relaxed gesture seemed to say that I could just spill it, so--

"Was the trial really necessary?"

This was something that had been swirling in my mind. The trial, undoubtedly, was conducted by the Demon God. He was the one who set the challenge as the trial takers entered the water. This means, that for the trial to be valid, he had to approve of it too when the Head Cleric made the proposal based on the Elders’ request.

But...him approving of the request...wouldn’t that mean he also wanted to test me? Wouldn’t that mean he also hadn’t approved of me being with Natha despite sending him to Earth?

Now, as I looked at him inquisitively, he used his little spoon to tap on the side of the coaster in contemplation. "Kid, do you think I’m heartless?"

Do you know how weird it was to be called ’kid’ by someone who was in a kid form?

"Just by the fact that you sent Natha to my previous life, I think you’re very kind, Lord An’Hyang," I told him honestly. I mean...I didn’t know much else about him, so I’d just use my own experience as judgment.

Now, he was tapping the small spoon against his lips as he looked outside the window. It was dark in my eyes, but with the way his eyes were moving, he probably could see something else. The rest of the world, perhaps?

"We gave...a heavy task, to a kid whose life had been nothing but heavy," he said, blinking slowly at the dark window, before glancing at me. "The least I could do for him, is to make sure he can live in happiness even while shouldering the burden."

I didn’t need to be a genius to know that he was talking about Natha. But...did that mean he didn’t think Natha would be happy with me?

He let out a chuckle when he saw the frown on my forehead. "I might be able to see things, but people’s hearts isn’t one of them," he said, as if knowing what I was thinking. "But I could do that to those who stepped into the lake."

"So...you want to see my heart?" I tilted my head. This kind of concept was rather...how do I say this...strange, to me? Because, you know, in my previous life, I had always been told that God knew what I thought, knew what was inside my heart.

So that wasn’t the case?

"What do I look like?" he asked instead.

I raised my brows, blinking at him, feeling my throat drying as I carefully forced an answer. "Uhh...a kid?"

Thankfully, he didn’t look offended. I mean, I knew I was just telling the fact, but...what if he had a complex or something? But he smirked, and, after sipping on his coffee, responded.

"Yes, this is the only form I could maintain now," he said.

"You mean..." my eyes squinted in an effort to work the gear inside my brain. "Did you lose power...or something?"

"I didn’t lose it," he said. "I gave it away, divided into seven parts."

Seven parts...I gasped and exclaimed. "The keys?!" he only answered with a smile and then it clicked in my head. "So that’s why all seven keys had to be unified to be a King?"

And the King was the proxy, so it was essentially offering the power back to the Demon God. But the keys had to be returned to the demon realm again for the new Lords, so he probably could only take back just a little bit at a time.

The kid shrugged, and didn’t give me much explanation other than "That’s one of the reasons," before sighing in frustration as if the topic triggering something unpleasant.

"Anyway, you only need to know that I lost much of my power. But I still want to make sure that the kid ends up with someone who deserves him, regardless of the task I gave him."

This time, I couldn’t help but swallow my saliva. It felt like the kid in front of me suddenly became...a father-in-law or something like that. I wondered if Natha felt this way when he talked with the druid; like the need to put my spoon down and stop slurping the drink in front of me.

"The first thing I tested you on was strength and endurance," he said, and I kind of blinked...blushing, and he rolled his eyes in response. "Not that kind of endurance," he sighed exasperatedly, seemingly wanting to throw his spoon at my excessive promiscuous thought. "I want you to be strong enough to stand by his side, where it could be dangerous. I want to see if you can endure pain and physical hardship,"

Well...fair enough, I think? I didn’t think it mattered much to Natha whether or not I was strong, because he had been treating me like a princess that should never get pricked by a needle. But you know--in-laws had their own ideals, I guessed.

"The second trial was to see your conscience and mental fortitude," he continued. "I wanted to see what you think about your past. Would you just sweep it off as if had never happened? Would you get drowned in perpetual guilt? Or would you acknowledge it and use it as a lesson to grow,"

This was the part where I took a second to take a deep breath and exhaled slowly through my mouth, because the memory of going through the middle of that lake was...

Rather than the cold and the pain, it was much, much harder for me. That feeling of sadness, shame, desperation, and isolation in the middle of a cold and dark water that seemingly wanted to swallow me whole, my body and soul...

It was something I didn’t want to feel ever again if I could help it.

He looked at me and, uncharacteristically, gave me a gentle smile. "The last trial for you, was faith."

He didn’t explain much more here, but I got it. He didn’t talk about my faith to him, of course, but my faith to Natha, to myself, to us. To the bond between us.

After all, it was a trial to see if I deserved him.

That being said...

"It feels easy, though..." I tilted my head. Yeah, it was cold and heavy and painful, and I cried so much, but I had thought I would face something more...gruesome. Something that would make me feel like giving up. "Are you purposely making it easy for me?"

"Is that what you think?" he looked at me amusedly.

"I mean...I kind of feel like you might accept the trial request just to give face and breeze me through it..." I said quietly while stirring the slightly melting drink.

"Are you sure?" he raised his brow and curled up one corner of his lips. "Are you sure you’ll be able to succeed if you were to do it two months ago?"

I blinked and paused to think about what he said, before the realization hit me. "...oh,"

Two months ago...I hadn’t had a contract with Ignis. Two months ago, I still had a blockage in my mana gates. Two months ago, I was still filled with insecurity of thinking that the one Natha was in love with was Valmeier. Two months ago, I was still scared of even saying ’I love you’ to Natha.

If the content of the trial was the same...would I be able to pass it?

Maybe. But I would probably feel like dying and giving up constantly with every step.

He saw my expression and leaned back on his chair, which looked kind of big in his current form. "Well, in the end, I guessed I just needed one thing," he said, crossing his arms like a boss before looking at my intrigued face and continuing. "As long as your love for that child is true and sincere, I’m going to acknowledge you."

...Gosh! Why would he say something like that in this kind of setting? I grabbed my glass and slurped the drink through the straw as if I just come back from a walk in the desert.

"Save your blush, you’re embarrassing me," he grumbled and grabbed his coffee cup which seemed to have an endless amount of coffee from the way it kept on refilling.

"Why are you embarrassed? I’m the one who gets flustered!"

"It’s called second-hand embarrassment, don’t you even know that?" he rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Whatever--just go back now,"

"Wait!"