The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 256: You shouldn’t drop a spoiler in the middle of a meal, Sis!

Chapter 256: You shouldn’t drop a spoiler in the middle of a meal, Sis!

When you’re in Rome, do what the Romans do. When you’re in the land of gluttony, stuff your mouth with food as often as possible!

That was my impression of the culture here.

There was a reason why there was a dining table in the court hall. It was because they liked to do everything while having a meal, whether it was just a snack or a full-course dinner. From conducting negotiations to policy making, most important talks happened surrounding the dining table, and of course, the food on top of it.

And when they had a feast, it was a FEAST.

I wasn’t just talking about the amount of food, but the quality. It was a gourmand’s wet dream, I imagined, seeing all of these foods made of rare ingredients such as the ten-thousand-something root, the meat or something brewed in hundred-essence something, or the wine made of a fruit that only appeared in one island once every fifty years.

Look, I wasn’t a gourmet, okay? I couldn’t remember all of this fancy stuff. My only job was to put them in my mouth.

But they were as tasty as all the magic property inside. The mana in the raw ingredients itself was enough to give a boost to someone’s core and circuits, but after being processed in the right way, both the flavor and the benefits increased.

How do I say this...

It was like having a feast of food buff in the game?

No wonder this Vampire Lord opted to receive rare ingredients as...umm, visitation tax.

The feast wasn’t like the big banquet Natha held in L’Anaak Eed, however. It was just us, the Vampire Lord, and her vassals, who were born of her blood—so they called her ’Mother’ and it felt weird, but who am I to talk about the otherworldy law of creation when I have a whole seed bearing my child hanging around my neck.

The Vampire Lord was a progenitor to seven vampires, but four of them were running the territories outside the Capital, so there were only three presented during the feast. All of them were tall and beautiful, just like Eruha; two males by the name of Sango and Essan and one female who looked like a more mature version of Sada called Atoye.

While the amount of food itself was probably enough for a house party, there were only eight participants; the four of us from the land of greed, and the vampires. I was glad that it wasn’t a big banquet or anything, and it felt more like a family dinner.

And technically, it was a family dinner.

Natha and the Vampire Lord, Sada, were disciples of the same teacher, while Eruha was practically the Lord’s blood brother since they came from the same Vampire, which was the Teacher whose name I still haven’t heard. The three vassals were the Lord’s ’children’ and...hmm, I guessed we could say I and Lesta were an extension of a sort.

So yeah, it was nice and fascinating, to see how the Vampire Lord ate ten portions at the same speed as my one.

After dinner, which was when the two Lords started to talk about business between the two regions, we still had this after-dinner coffee in the Lord’s drawing room, where we had a light talk with coffee and sweets to cleanse the heavy palate. Jade finally got its jelly too, which I gave while the Lords continued talking.

"So, you’re here to see Teacher?" the Vampire Lord frowned after finding out our main destination, to which Natha replied nonchalantly with a shrug.

"Why else would I go here myself?"

"Jerk," she clicked her tongue and shook her head while sighing, before looking at me with pity. "And here I thought you wanted to take your sweetheart to a vacation in another land."

Oh? I didn’t even think about that. But she looked like an older sister getting disappointed in her younger brother and criticizing his dating plan. Which was rather funny, especially because Natha looked flabbergasted.

"...I should do that," he said in a daze, clearly looked taken aback.

Wow, to make Natha acknowledge he made an error in his planning; she really was his older sister. But I did want to look around the place, since I had never gone anywhere but the realm of greed.

"We can do that before going there, right?" I asked Natha, who immediately looked at me with a smile and nodded.

"Right—"

"We have a meeting tomorrow," the Vampire Lord cut him, arching her brow and curling her lips in a sneer. Oh, she’s loving this, isn’t she?

Natha pressed his lips, because he was a demon who always upheld his promise, including those work-related. A scheduled meeting could be said to be a promise too, and it was part of his work as the Lord, so his integrity was on the line.

Which was why he immediately looked downcast. "Right..."

"You can come with me, Young Master," Lesta, who was holding the jelly bowl for Jade, said. "I have to go to the bank tomorrow. We can tour around the city if you want."

"...oh, okay," I replied and nodded in agreement. But it was clear that my reply was late and rather stiff, which the Vampire Lord instantly picked up.

She chuckled on her chaise while taking the cup of coffee from one of her vassals. "Look at him clearly disappointed."

I gasped slightly at the failure of putting on a poker face and looked up at Natha, shaking my head. "N-no! No! I’m fine going with Lesta!"

"Thanks," Lesta smirked teasingly.

[And Jade!]

"And with Jade!" I nodded and busied myself with the little bird to hide my fluster.

Well, I did feel disappointed that I couldn’t have a date with Natha, but I wasn’t a kid, I know when I should concede to a more important thing. While I might be here for a little vacation, Natha came here with governmental work.

"Sorry," Natha took his coffee cup down and sat on my armrest, stroked my hair, and kissed my crown. "I’ll make it up to you later, okay?"

"Mm!" I nodded and grinned at him. Natha was a man—I mean, demon—of his word, so if he said he would make it up to me, it meant he would do something even better than a simple date.

"Right, while you’re at it, show Young Master the rope," Eruha said to Lesta, dampening my excitement. "It’s time he learned about the business more thoroughly."

I turned toward the vampire and pursed my lips. "Eeh..then it’s not a vacation!"

Shouldn’t a vacation consist of walking around in leisure without thinking about anything serious?

"That’s right, Eru, that’s not a vacation," the Vampire Lord shook her head, tutting at her younger brother. "Do you know how much studying lowers one’s appetite?"

Yea, yea—tell him, Sis!

But Eruha, in his usual nonchalant manner, just replied dryly before sipping on his coffee. "They can do it moderately."

"So stubborn," the Lord rolled her eyes. "Is that why you haven’t made him your eternal even after half a century? This boring kid..."

Natha paused his stroking, I paused patting Jade, Eruha stopped sipping on his coffee, and everyone just suddenly stopped doing anything.

Eternal. I didn’t know much about it other than that it was a bond the immortal vampire made with their mate. I knew Natha made our engagement mark based on this. But that being said, I understood well enough that the Lord was referring to Lesta.

Lesta, who looked up confusedly because the room had become quiet.

"Haa...I let you work for Natha because you want to stay with him, but you haven’t even made any progress after all this time?" the Lord clicked her tongue and shook her head. "What’s the point, then?"

Again, more silence. I looked at Eruha’s tensing hand and wondered if he would throw the cup at the Vampire Lord. I subconsciously scooped Jade into my embrace and straightened my back slightly, looking back and forth between the Lord, Eruha, and Lesta.

This is juicy.

"Sada..." Natha called out the Vampire Lord with a careful tone.

"What?" she looked at Natha, who was in turn glancing at the still-confused Lesta. Apparently, the concept of ’eternal’ was a guarded secret among the vampires that only a few outside of their community knew about.

And it was clear that Lesta didn’t know anything about it. Nor did Lesta know any intention from Eruha to make the demon his eternal.

Juicy.

Sada looked at the confused demon, and then back at Eruha. "Don’t tell me you haven’t even told him?" she widened her eyes. "After five fucking decades?"

Whelp—that was a big ass spoiler you just let loose, Sis. However, it gave me a clearer picture about the reason behind Eruha’s stay in the land of greed, despite how close-knit Vampire’s community was. And it surprised me more that the ’reason’ himself wasn’t even privy to this.

And then the Vampire Lord began to laugh, and I felt like Eruha would truly throw the cup at her. But my worry lay not in the Lord’s fate, but in Lesta’s reaction.

Being the clever demon that he was, it was easy for Lesta to gather what was being said and understand the context. But also being Lesta, he didn’t give much reaction other than his signature calm smile, cool as a cucumber as always.

That being said, he also turned to look at Eruha and very calmly said in a dry tone. "Let’s talk later," he said quietly before returning to feed Jade the rest of the jelly.

Was it my imagination, or did I see Eruha getting slightly paler? He was already pale, but...

Hmm...I smelled drama.

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