The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 255: You don’t mess with petite people doing mukbang

Chapter 255: You don’t mess with petite people doing mukbang

"Where might this person be, who has an appetite like me?"

Ah, I knew she wouldn’t just let it go. I hadn’t even finished my first cake when she came back to that topic. There was Natha here, the Lord of Greed; there was Eruha, technically her younger brother by the same progenitor. But it was as if they were air for her, the blood-red eyes focusing on me all the time, making me feel like I was the main dish or something.

Whew--well, it was my fault anyway. Perhaps I should have just acted surprised earlier.

I ate the cake slowly to stretch the time for me to contemplate the best way to respond to this. It wasn’t like I could tell her about those big eaters back on Earth, and if I randomly mentioned someone in some place, this vampire might look into it for real since she seemed a bit unhinged.

What to do...

"Hmm...she’s not in this world," I said in the end, with a quieter voice.

"Oh my..." she gasped, putting her hand over her chest and smiling. "My condolences,"

Yeah, you don’t look a bit sad, Lady. The corner of her lips even twitched, seemingly glad that her rival was no more. Kind of scary, but also kind of funny, seeing a Lord obsessing over who could eat more in this world.

"Is she a human?" she asked, and I nodded in affirmation, pushing another slice of cake into my mouth so I wouldn’t say anything that would give me out. "My, my--any special skill?"

Now it turned into an interrogation? Seemed like I had to crank up my bullshit skill. "I think it’s just a fast metabolism, it’s definitely not as mighty as your ability," I shook my head, trying to appear humble because...well, it would be easier to just feed her ego. I looked around the dining table, sighing in awe. "And she wouldn’t be able to enjoy such a rare delicacy as this..."

"Ohoho, of course!" she laughed merrily, and I held back from exhaling in relief. From the corner of my eyes, I saw Natha holding back his laugh and Lesta gave me a thumbs-up below the table.

Eruha...well, just like the usual Eruha, he was just calmly sipping on his unsweetened tea, as if he was already so used to this.

The Lord of Gluttony, Praga Sa Sada, clapped her hand and pointed at me suddenly. "Natha, I quite like this one!"

"What can you do if you don’t like him?" Natha scoffed, putting his arm casually on the backrest of my chair.

The Vampire Lord clicked her tongue, and it became more and more like a reunion than a state visit. Not that it was a bad thing. But it means, rather than talking about something substantial such as the relations between the two regions, she just focused her attention on me!

"Can you eat a lot, boy?" she asked, stacking another empty plate on the tower beside her, as if the cakes were conveyor sushi or something.

I do hope there was no buffet restaurant in this land, or they might go bankrupt. That aside...

"...boy?" I groaned a little bit. But well, I guessed in her couple of century-old eyes--and everybody else--I was just a boy. I swallowed my sigh along with the rest of the cake while shaking my head. "No, I can’t."

"Why?" she tilted her head. She probably wondered why it took me so long to eat just one cake--as long as it took for her to have twelve, apparently, and however many he already had before we arrived.

"Ah, I used to have organ failure, so I can’t really eat anything solid," I explained. And while I was already healed, my stomach was too used to not receiving much food, so even if I wanted to eat a lot, my tummy would start to hurt if I ate too much. "I’m still in the middle of building my appetite."

Gasp! She covered her mouth and widened her eyes, looking at me as if she just watched a horror movie.

"I can’t eat a lot in one sitting, but I try to eat often," I shrugged to lighten the impact because it seemed like she was genuinely horrified and concerned about my condition.

"To not be able to eat," she almost choked on the nightmare of imagining my situation. "What a tragedy!"

Uhh...no? It wasn’t that serious--

And then, suddenly, without realizing it, she was no longer in her seat, but beside me, who looked at her with startle.

"Such a poor, poor soul," before I could even digest my surprise, she was already cradling my head and caressing my hair. I could tell from his surprised face that even Natha did not expect this. "Does Natha feed you well?"

"What kind of question is that?" the Lord of Greed, my fiance, sounded annoyed by the question. The notion of someone thinking he did a bad job of taking care of me seemed to offend him, so I responded immediately, as cheerfully as I could.

"Yes! I’ve already gained a lot of weight since Natha took me!" I swiftly said, and Natha pulled me--along with my chair--closer to him and away from Vampire Lord.

She narrowed her eyes though, and looked at me even more keenly. "This is you gaining weight?"

"Yes?"

Uhh...well, it was. It was a painstaking journey, but I was far from skin and bone now, after trying to eat as often as I could. She looked at me again and huffed, before teleporting back to her seat. Whew.

[Master plump!] Jade suddenly chirped, peeking out of my coat.

"P-plump? Am I that fat?" I whispered to the little bird, which of course, was heard by Natha since we were basically stuck to each other after he pulled me away from the Lord of Gluttony.

"You’re just perfect," he said, stroking my cheek before pinching it slightly. "And it’s okay if you’re fat, as long as you’re still healthy," he smiled and patted my head. "It won’t make me love you less."

"R-really?" I whispered sheepishly, feeling my cheek burn from his affectionate gaze.

"Ugh--this couple talk," Sada clicked her tongue and stabbed her fork into another slice of cake. "In my court? Blegh--don’t make me lose my appetite now!"

Uh-oh...

* * *

She didn’t, in fact, lose any appetite. At least, if that was how she lost her appetite, I could only imagine what she was like at her peak.

After the whole tea time which was actually just us watching her cake mukbang, we finally did something more formal-like; inspecting the gifts that we brought for her. Right after the dining table with all of those dessert plates was cleaned by the Lord herself, the servants came and got rid of the table. I wondered if they had to do that during every meal...

But anyway, Lesta took out all of the ’offerings’ and laid them down in the now empty court hall; crates upon crates of ingredients, gems, and magic materials protected by preservation spells and cooling formation that could fill a mansion’s warehouse. Bur Arta had diligently labeled everything based on category, and Lesta had made a detailed list of everything down to how they should be treated, so everything would be easy to inspect.

Of course, the ones making the inspection were the Lord’s attendants, while Sada herself was looking from the court podium with us, nodding in satisfaction as the attendants announced their findings from time to time.

"Oh, this one could only be acquired in the summer! How marvelous it is to find them now,"

"To think we can see so many fresh rare herbs in winter..."

"Look at these gems, everything is of high quality,"

"Wait--I thought this one is no longer in production?"

"Wait, what is this? Something new? I’ve never seen something like this..."

"Hmm...as expected of the Lord of Greed,"

I listened to them in fascination, even learning a lot while at it. After all, I still had little knowledge of what was considered precious in this world. All of my need was provided without a hitch by Natha, from a miraculous Amrita to the cookies I always snack on when I read my book and work on Eruha’s homework.

I had no idea the ingredients for the herbal drink I drank every day were that expensive, or how rare those gems Jade wanted to eat before were. I never realized how expensive fresh fruit and vegetables in winter could be, the ones always ready during all of my meals. And those rare meats full of nutrition and life force? It wasn’t only expensive, but hard to find.

Truly...I had been living in such luxury that even a prince and princess of a kingdom might not have without realizing it. Damn...I really was a sugar baby, huh?

It felt weird that I used to think it was too much. Perhaps because I felt like I did not deserve it, that it should be Valmeier who enjoyed it. But not now. Now I know Natha did all of that, making sure I was comfortable and enjoying everything good in life, because he wanted to. Because it made him happy to see the money he had amassed until now could finally be used to pamper me.

And rather than feeling uncomfortable about enjoying things without working for them, I could see it as me respecting Natha’s intention. Well, as long as it wasn’t something too grandiose like making an artificial hot spring in the Lord Castle.

Other than that, it felt good; to be pampered, to be spoiled. To be loved.

I giggled as I realized it, and I felt Natha’s cold hand on my hair, caressing. Ah, I wanted to kiss him right now, but I worried the Vampire Lord would smite us in annoyance, so I held back and only scooted closer to him so I could hold his hand.

"Mm, mm, looks good," the Lord of Gluttony, meanwhile, nodding her head. "Well, I could always rely on you if it’s about procuring things."

The blood-red eyes looked over the crates while the Lord was rubbing her hands, licking her lips, and muttering. "Now, which one should we use for tonight’s feast?"

Wait...we’re going to eat again?!