The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 239: Why does all this drama have to happen when I’m unconscious? I want to see it too!

Chapter 239: Why does all this drama have to happen when I’m unconscious? I want to see it too!

"Start from what happened after I reached the Altar,"

[Jade knows!] The little bird let go of my favorite purple berry and chirped proudly. Oh, right--Jade was there too. [Fire around Master! Ignis said it’s yummy fire!]

Jade turned around and jumped in front of me, telling me the story energetically. [Then Master not move, and Jade is scared. But Nightmare said it’s alright, Master is talking with God]

"Oh, you even know about the Demon God?"

[Jade knows! Like Mother—but for Nightmare and Succubus and Angwi and Darkie and everyone here!]

"Oh, how smart!" I patted the green head, and Jade let out a crips chirping like a giggling sound. "So, what happened after I was unconscious? For how long did I stay there?"

[Big Shadow carry Master from the large stone, give Master to Nightmare!]

...huh? I blinked, and then shifted my gaze to Arta, who had been listening to my conversation with the chirping bird in fascination. "Did you hear anything from Eruha?"

"Of course," Arta curled her lips. "We’ve been gossiping—I mean, talking about it since yesterday."

Why were you gossiping about someone else’s trial? What was there to gossip about anyway?

"So? What’s with this...big shadow...?"

Arta tilted her head in confusion. It took her a few seconds to finally understand what Jade was talking about. "Ah! It was Lord An’Hyang’s shadow," she told me in a eureka moment. "Around half an hour after you finished the trial, the torches went out, and the leftover smoke formed this shadowy figure,"

"Shadowy figure..."

I’m not going to lie--that sounded like a scene from a horror movie.

"Lord An’Hyang rarely came out without His Majesty as a proxy," Arta explained. "But sometimes, very rarely so, He would appear in this kind of way; through the smoke of His sacred flame, a billowing darkness, or a blurry image."

"I see," I nodded—not so horror-y now, at least. "Did He carry me to the shore?"

"Yes," Arta sighed, this time in delight, intertwining her hands as her eyes sparkled in awe and regret. "Eruha said Lord An’Hyang’s shadow brought Young Master back, walking on top of the water, and put Young Master in His Lordship’s arms."

Okay, the story was consistent with Jade, at least. "And then?"

"Eruha said they heard His voice; a tough little one, he’s always been the one—oh, what I’d give to hear it directly..."

Thank God! Thank Mother! Thank you for making me stay unconscious during that totally embarrassing moment!

Oh—but at least now we had a confirmation that Natha was indeed being sent to me.

"And...and then?"

"And His Lordship turned around, looking at Eruha, and told him to announce your engagement to the whole realm," she told me with a wide smile, the annoyance had completely gone from her face. "And that means I can start preparing for the wedding!" she raised her arms and exclaimed joyfully, as if she had just received a paid vacation leave notice.

"Huh? Wait—"

Why does this conversation turn in that direction?!

[Wedding?] of course, of all things, the little bird caught that one. [Master, what is wedding?]

"Uh...umm..." I turned toward Arta, thinking of asking her to explain about the concept of the wedding to this little bird.

But when I saw the sparkling dark eyes, I felt like asking that would open a floodgate I certainly had not yet prepared my heart for. For all I know, Arta might started talking for hours and walking out of here with a guest list, a catering choice, and a wedding outfit design.

So I just stuff my mouth with food to avoid further conversation about this...wedding. Jade tilted its head confusedly because I ignored its question, but all I could do was pat the green head apologetically. Sorry, baby, I really don’t know how to explain this one.

Once I swallowed all the food, I turned to Arta again and returned the conversation to its track. "So what’s with this attacking the Elders about?"

Arta came back from her wedding daydream and shook her head slightly to focus on the conversation again. "Ah, well...you already know about the time His Lordship let you use the Arena so he could observe the people spying on you, right?"

"Ah, yes," I nodded, recalling the day I visited the training chamber for the first time; the day I got angry at Natha for the first time.

"His Lordship had been gathering whatever information he could on those who have bad intentions toward you," she told me. "You might not know this, Young Master, but they had been trying a lot of things, including trying to infiltrate the Lord Castle and trying to get closer to you,"

...huh? Really?

"Fortunately, you spend most of your time with us vassals and His Lordship’s trusted servants, so there’s not much chance for them to do anything,"

Uhh...I didn’t know if I should be really happy about being safe because I was such a homebody, but—yay for the introvert...I guess?

"Unfortunately, it also meant less evidence," Arta continued. "So His Lordship had only been keeping the incriminating things about those families and waited for the right time to get rid of them."

"And the right time is now?"

Arta smiled sweetly, stroking my arm. "Yes, because you’ve been acknowledged by Lord An’Hyang. That means no one in the Demon Realm could repudiate your presence here anymore, Young Master."

"So..." I tilted my head, trying to put everything into perspective. "How did he use that to justify the attack?"

"Because before, when you were yet to be officially acknowledged by Lord An’Hyang, using a reason like they try to harm you would not be enough justification. Because they could just chalk it up as an effort to get rid of...umm..."

"A nuisance?"

"No! No, no—"

"An enemy," I offered an alternative, feeling rather good at the way Arta vehemently denied that I was a nuisance. "Because at the end of the day, I was still the Demon Slaughterer," I shrugged, trying to show her that it was okay to say it, that I wouldn’t get disheartened by that anymore.

Arta gave me a wry smile, but she did not deny my notion. "But now they can’t use the justification that I am an enemy anymore, so Natha can finally use his piling evidence as a weapon."

"That’s right," Arta confirmed with a nod. "To pool even more evidence, His Lordship pretended to leave you here alone last night, using body double to attend the last community banquet at the town plaza."

"A...and they caught someone?" I looked at Arta nervously while clutching my glass of herbal drink, waiting for the next episode of this drama action happening when I was unconscious.

"Not just one," Arta answered coldly, the loathing was apparent in her voice.

Again, it made me feel good that she was this angry about someone—well, some people, so it seemed—attempting to attack me. "They moved fast," I muttered. "And Natha predicted they would move that fast?"

The fact that Natha already devised a body double plan to bait an attack meant he already predicted how things would unfold, right? Or was he just being his paranoid self and merely trying to cover every base?

"Not ’predicted’, Young Master," Arta corrected me. "He knew—we knew. Just like how they planted spies around us, we too planted spies around them."

Ugh—how many people were living in shadows around me, really? The guards, the spies...it was honestly fascinating that there were people who didn’t mind living invisible all their lives for someone.

"So they really wasted no time, huh?"

Arta sighed and smiled with downturned brows, looking as sad as she was annoyed. "Eruha said they might think the security would be the lowest right after the trial," she said. "Because we all felt relieved that you passed the trial, the tension was gone, and all those things."

Well...make sense. I nodded and downed the rest of my drink. Arta waited until I finished drinking before continuing. "It seemed like they also thought it would be the right timing to make it seem like you endured too much during the trial and..." she paused in time to glance at Jade, who was listening keenly to our conversation.

She did not finish the sentence to censor the brutality, but I got it. They probably wanted to poison me or make it seem like I died a natural death from exhaustion or an aftereffect of the trial. Should they succeed in doing that, not only would they avoid suspicion, but they could also spin confusion in people’s minds—something like whether or not I was truly passed the trial if I ended up dying because of it.

Phew...the way people’s mind works...

I looked at Jade who was trying to follow our conversation but ended up being confused instead. Don’t be like those guys, okay? I patted the little green head and gave Jade candy from my nightstand drawer.

"So they apprehended the attackers?" I asked after making sure Jade was busy with the candy.

"Yes—ah, don’t worry, Young Master. His Lordship did not leave your side until we got everyone," Arta added. "But he had to confront them by himself, so he departed at dawn."

...pfft—I couldn’t help but chuckle at that. He confronted them at dawn? This petty Nightmare...

And as if he could read my thoughts, a flurry of black feathers suddenly swirled in the middle of the bedroom. I straightened my back in reflex and grabbed the breakfast tray to move it aside. Thankfully, Arta took the tray away so I didn’t have to struggle with it, and I could move more comfortably—or so I tried, but my body still creaked in agony, so I slumped back to the pile of pillows while taking a deep breath.

I didn’t have to move, though, because the moment Natha manifested, he immediately moved to the bed and cupped my face. "Are you okay?"

Oh...his voice...I didn’t realize how much I wanted to hear his voice the moment I opened my eyes. That was why I was disappointed that the first person who came to see me was Arta and not him.

I took another deep breath, and, like a flood, the things the Demon God told me filled my mind again; the reason why I wanted to see him immediately.

"Nat," rather than answering his question, I grabbed his arms tightly. "We need to talk."

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