The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 238: If you have no negotiation skill, make sure you can act cute

Chapter 238: If you have no negotiation skill, make sure you can act cute

"Wait!" I stretched out my palms before he could swoosh me away from his abode.

"What?"

I put my palm flat on the table and narrowed my eyes as I looked at him. "You make me go through all of that, so shouldn’t you give me something, at least?"

All that I got so far was a drink and an explanation about the trial, which honestly...I could live without knowing about it. Still nice, but Natha and Eruha always taught me to get whatever I could get.

The blood-red eyes twitched and he let out a scoff. "Look at this audacity,"

"Hey, aren’t you the one who needs me?" I argued, crossing my arms and praying inside that he wouldn’t smite me for blasphemy. The red eyes narrowed as if he wanted more explanation, so I swiftly elaborated. "You went all the way to send Natha to me, and Mother sent my grandmother over--wasn’t that because you need me?"

"How bold," the blood-red eyes narrowed. "Do you know it’s called narcissism?"

"Nuh-uh," I shook my head firmly. "It’s called being analytical," I added, leaning forward to the table. "Because I don’t believe you can just do it out of pity."

He did not reply for quite sometimes, and I just stared at him while sipping the rest of my drink--didn’t want to waste it, you know, since I had no idea when I could taste something like this again.

If he threw me out for being shameless, at least I had my fill first.

"...pfft," suddenly, he covered his mouth and stifled a laugh. I had no idea whether I should feel relieved or offended by this. He leaned back again and let out a sigh. "Haa...is this why that child is so fixated on you?"

"Maybe, I don’t know," I shrugged, putting the empty glass back to the table. "I don’t care about the reason anymore, as long as he loves me,"

"I think there’s a song that sounds like that?"

"Yeah, I think so too--wait! Don’t distract me!"

Again, he laughed quietly and leaning sideways, propping his temple with the back of his hand and the red eyes were staring at me. "She’s right, you’re kinda cute," he smiled, and I immediately knew he was referring to Mother.

Well, that was good, right? He didn’t seem to be angry, although he also hadn’t responded to my request. And then, while I was still feeling positive, he added;

"You know, like a pet?"

"Excuse me?" I pursed my lips, and he scoffed while waving his had admissively.

"Whatever," he sighed then--and let me tell you, seeing a kid sighing so much felt really weird. On the other hand, I kind of felt good about making a God sighing so much because of me. "Haa...fine, what is it that you want?"

Oh! Green light! I straightened my back and, as politely as I could muster, inquired what I had been curious about. "Please tell me why you did all of this; arranging for me and Natha to meet, and the whole thing about...about the Primordial Seed."

I looked at him with hopeful gaze, but he made this troubled look while tapping on his armrest. "That’s...too big," he said, looking deep into my figure. "I don’t think your body has enough energy to listen to everything,"

Huh, so the information itself wasn’t something forbidden? Well, in that case...

"Then make it concise, geez," I leaned back and scoffed. "You dressed like a businessman but you can’t compress things into a simple one-page summary?"

To be fair, he dressed like a kid, but...

"This cheeky brat--" the Demon God in a kid form made an exasperated groan and massage his temple while I grinned secretly. "Ah, fine--get ready for it."

Suddenly, he reached out his arm toward me, and the slit in the middle of his forehead twitched as if it was ready to open.

"Huh? Wha--ugh!"

* * *

I was expecting an altar bathed in flame, but the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was a pair of green eyes and a weight on my forehead.

[Master is awake!]

The loud chirping assaulted my senses like a blaring alarm. I grabbed the little bird and dragged myself up to lean on the headboard. Immediately, I felt my whole body groaned; my muscle felt sore, as if I had just finished a week of manual labor.

"How long have I been out, Jade?"

[Only one night!] the little bird answered while flying to the rope beside the bed and pulled it down to call the servants--what a good kid.

Hmm, so it was only a day? Or perhaps even less? I couldn’t see the outside because all the curtains were drawn--probably for security, because I also could feel the presence of my shadow guards outside the balcony and around the Lord’s quarters.

But even after a good night sleep, my druid constitution still couldn’t keep up with the aftereffect of the trial. That goes to show how painful it would be if I was just a normal human. Or perhaps because I used up all of my energy to store the information that Lord An’Hyang gave me--

"Young Master!"

The door burst open when I was in the middle of assessing my physical condition, and Arta came inside, sighing in relief when she saw me sit on the bed.

Huh...I thought it would be Natha. I swallowed my disappointment as Jade flew back to my shoulder. I patted the little bird as a praise while Arta walked to the bed.

"How do you feel, Young Master?"

She pulled a chair closer to the bed so she could sit there, at the same time as my stomach growling loudly. "I’m hungry..." I started. "And thirsty, and my muscles feel so sore..."

"Wow..." she blinked and put on a worried face again. "It must be so hard. You weren’t even fazed after three nights of se--"

"Nuh-uh!" I shook my head while pressing my hands on Jade’s head. Is she worried about me or want to tease me?!

But her face was straight up worried, so I guessed it was just her way of emphasizing how tough the trial was. But yeah, it was the hardest thing I had to do in a short amount of time.

"The servants is coming up with a food and your herbal drink," Arta told me after smiling apologetically at Jade who had to suffer being pressed by my hand.

"What time is it?"

"It’s not yet noon on the fourth day of the New Year," she said, and after glancing at the drawn curtain, scooted closer to me and lowered her voice. "Please bear with a tighter security for a while, we have to make sure there’s no attempt at you, Young Master."

So it was true that the security had been tightened. Pulling my knees to my chest, I leaned toward her slightly to inquire about what happened yesterday after the trial.

"So what’s with the security? Did something happened yesterday?" I asked in a whisper.

I mean...shouldn’t everything be fine now that I passed the test? The fire lit up and even the kid--ahem, I mean Lord An-Hyang himself--told me I passed, so the voice of dissent should be gone, right?

At my question, Arta sighed and immediately looked annoyed. "Haa...well, as you know, Young Master, some of those Elders only wanted the trial as a way to get rid of you, not to really see if you have any qualification,"

"Hmm...yeah, I can see that much," I nodded in agreement, recalling the faces of those Elders yesterday.

Suprisingly enough, I did not suspect the one who showed me blatant annoyance and discontent. As veterans who had been playing politics for a long time, these Elders should know that Natha would have a legitimate reason to attack them back if I got acknowledged by the Demon God. Which means, the one who had hidden intentions most likely would not blatantly show their emotion like that.

In fact, those angry grandpas might be the purest ones, the honest ones. They did not think about the aftermath, which means they were truly meant to accept the result whatever it was. Just like Hagai’s grandfather, who was cold before he knew me, but change his stance after.

Or well, that was what I thought.

There was also a possibility that those Elders were just arrogant--what would I know?

As I ponder about this thing, the door opened again and Mara came inside with another girl, bringing me a breakfast tray. Oh, nice--since I didn’t think I could move much for now. Mara kindly fix me a breakfast that did not require utensils, and told me that she mixed some herbs that would work nicely for recovering strength in my drink, which I greatly appreciated.

"So, what you’re saying is that now they see me as an even more of an obstacle, right?" I started the conversation again once the servants retreated from the bedroom. "And the only way to get rid of me now is by..." I paused, glancing at Jade who was pecking on my bowl of fruit, "Umm...physically removing me,"

Again, Arta let out a sigh. "As you said, Young Master. And His Lordship meant to get rid of all of them now."

My sandwich almost fell from my hand when I heard that. "You mean...he wants to...attack them openly?"

"Oh--no, no," Arta shook her head to correct me, and I almost exhaled in relief when she added joyfully. "Not ’want’, Young Master. His Lordship already attacked them."

...Oh.

"Is...is that why he’s not here now?" I bit into my sandwich nervously.

"Yep!" Arta nodded with so much confidence and pride and joy that I might think she actually talking about preparing a big important event.

Wait--this too, was a big, important even, right?

But how could he just attacked Elders like that? Wouldn’t that mean he had to attack their fiefs? Internal conflict should be the great bane of economic system! How could he--

I paused my thinking and took a deep breath. Slowly, after swallowing my food, I turned to Arta and let out a sigh. "Can you tell me everything from the start?" I asked her. "Tell me what happened after I reached the altar..."

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.