The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 259: It’s mighty fun to tease other people for change

Chapter 259: It’s mighty fun to tease other people for change

"So...why blood?" I asked Natha as we walked to our breakfast.

Usually, guests didn’t have to join the Lord for breakfast and could have it on their own in their room, but Sada insisted we ate with her. Natha whispered to me that she was actually lonely and wanted to eat with other people. Not many had enough wit to eat with a Vampire Lord comfortably, after all.

So now, instead of leisurely having breakfast in our room, we walked to the garden pavilion where the Vampire Lord had her breakfast.

Oh, well, at least it wasn’t the courthall.

Since we had to go to the garden anyway, we decided to have our morning stroll around the garden before heading to the place; a nice little date before Natha had his work and I had my city tour. But strolling around the garden in the winter wasn’t exactly the most exciting thing to do, since there wasn’t much to spectate.

Which was why I ended up asking him more about the vampire.

"There are four kinds of parts in our body that contain a high concentration of mana; brain matter, bone marrow, blood, and seminal fluid," he answered me in this nice, smooth voice in this educational tone that made me wish he wore his work glasses. "Taking mana from the brain and the marrow would practically kill the source, and the amount of seminal fluid one can produce at a time is not much, which leaves the blood."

Which could be extracted up to 800ml without causing death, if I recall correctly, and would replenish by itself. Pretty sustainable resource, not gonna lie.

Nata added while patting his chest lightly. "It circulates through the heart, which is located parallel to the astral body’s mana core. So it’s the most efficient resource for them."

"I see," I stroked my chin and nodded like the good student that I was. So it wasn’t just a kink--okay, okay. I looked at him and leaned closer to whisper, in case it was a sensitive topic for the vampires. "Is it drawn through biting with their fangs too? You know...like those vampires on Earth..."

"It doesn’t have to be a bite, but a puncture wound is indeed the cleanest," Natha replied with a chuckle—I guessed it wasn’t a sensitive topic since he answered me normally. "It only left two small holes that could easily be erased. The round wound acted like a straw; less messy, if compared to a slash wound."

"Ooh, that makes sense!" I hit my palm with my fist. So once again, it wasn’t a kink, folks. "Ah, I heard vampires also have some kind of poison in their fangs?"

"Ah, yeah," Natha smiled rather mysteriously, like he found our conversation to be funny. "It’s called poison, but it’s actually a relaxant and a painkiller, because who would want to consent to it if the process is painful?"

His mischievous-looking smile made me think of something else though. "...some people have that kind of kink," I muttered.

"Are you?" he looked at me with a raised brow.

"Don’t kink shame,"

"Are you?"

Averting his gaze and fiddling my fingers, I replied quietly. "I...might be curious?"

I glanced at Natha and saw the curl on the side of his mouth. "Noted," he said, totally smirking, and totally made me blush.

It was a good thing that Jade was having its morning flying exercise around the Vampire Castle so the little bird didn’t have to hear our conversation about this--because I was sure Jade would ask what kink was.

"Ah, the ’poison’ also contains an aphrodisiac property to elevate heart rate so the blood flows smoother," Natha added, the curl of his lips felt even more mischievous now.

You’re sure it’s only for that?

Welp--now it sounded even more like a kink.

Natha continued breaking down how the magic was absorbed, and the different qualities of blood from several sentient beings. There was also a matter of compatibility, which not only influenced the ’flavor’ but also the absorption rate. Apparently, drinking blood from someone with high mana purity--like me--wasn’t all that good; kind of like drinking liquor with high alcohol content, harder to digest since it was more intense.

Well, something like that. Honestly, I was so focused on Natha himself than what he said at this point, just listening to him quietly.

At the end of his explanation, he paused and looked at me, who had been staring at him all this time. "What?"

"I just...reminded of the time you were a doctor," I said, feeling somewhat like I was in a daze. Perhaps because it was also winter.

He raised his brow and smirked. "Should I make a white lab coat?"

I put my hands over my mouth and gasped. Natha in a doctor’s outfit?

"My Lord!" at his arched brow, I leaned closer and whispered. "Please do, it would be my pleasure to receive your interim examination."

"Your kink is showing, sweetheart."

"It’s my first love! Of course, I would have a fantasy about it!"

"Oh? A confession so early in the morning?" he smirked and ruffled my hair--which would anger Arta if she was here.

I giggled and wrapped my hands around his arm. "Speaking about confession..."

"Hmm? Are you thinking about Lesta and Eruha?"

"Yeah, do you know about it? The Eternal thing, I mean..."

"Hmm...Eruha told me when our working contract was up that he’d stay working with me for as long as Lesta did," he said, before shrugging slightly. "Since I already know about Eternal from Teacher, I could easily make a guess."

"Huh..."

So, while Natha knew, funnily enough, Lesta was never privy to this at all despite being the Lord’s right-hand man. I didn’t think he was the dense type, but...I don’t know, it wasn’t like I knew much about their relationship to begin with.

"You know...I thought they were lovers already, but..."

I knew being a lover and being an Eternal to a vampire was a different thing. But don’t you think you’d at least tell your partner about your intention to bind them in an eternal relationship? I mean...Natha only proposed not long ago, but he already called me his ’bride’ from the start.

"I think they already are lovers," Natha chuckled and shook his head like a man seeing his clueless friends in love. "It’s only them that don’t know about it--I mean...even you realized."

My eyes narrowed and I pinched his side. "What do you mean even me? Are you saying I’m dense or something?"

As if my pinch had no effect on him, he just turned his face to look at me and smiled charmingly. "You’re adorably dense sometimes,"

He ruffled my hair again, which I had painstakingly fixed because I didn’t have my hairstylist La Dhuarta here this time. Was I really that dense, though? The smirk and the mischievous glint in those silver eyes felt kind of annoying for some reason.

I pursed my lips and let go of his arm. "Hmph!"

"I said adorably,"

"Hmph!"

He laughed softly and wrapped his hand around my shoulder, kissing my hair and temple and cheeks until I stopped pouting and giggling as we reached the pavilion.

Which was probably why the Vampire Lord looked at us with rolled eyes. "Why are you giving me dog food so early in the morning when there are a lot of other delicious things on this table?"

She spread her arms at the round table that was filled with food already. It didn’t include all the other trolleys with even more food behind her.

Natha held my hand and led me to the pavilion while responding to Sada nonchalantly with a shrug. "Then don’t eat the dog food."

"Then don’t give me one in the first place, you brat!" the Lord snapped, but my only reaction was to giggle.

"It’s kind of weird hearing someone calling you a brat," I told Natha.

"Oh, you like that, boy?" Sada raised her brow and smirked. "You’re going to like it even more in Mother’s place then."

"Oh? Oh?!" my eyes widened in excitement, looking back and forth between Natha and the Vampire Lord.

Natha clicked his tongue in annoyance, muttering with a slight blush on the tip of his ear. "Shut up."

I couldn’t help but giggle again, since it was rare to find people who could make Natha flustered or exasperated. If my observation was correct, it was mostly those who knew him from way before he became the Lord, or when he was still a young adult.

When he was still more or less like the young doctor I fell in love with.

After satisfying myself by giggling at Natha, I took a seat beside Lesta, who was already there first with Eruha. Seeing that they were here together, it seemed that at least their talk went well? Lesta looked like he was lost in thought, however.

I leaned closer to him and asked carefully. "Lesta, are we still going to tour the city?"

He finally lifted his gaze from his empty plate, and flashed me his usual smile. "Of course."

Whew--he didn’t look like he was distressed or depressed. "Okay!"

[Candy store!] suddenly, the little bird swooped into the pavilion and landed skillfully on the table between me and Lesta, bringing an uplifting chirp into the garden.

"Jade wants to go to the candy store," I told Lesta.

"I know that, so I already put that in our itinerary," he smirked, patting the green head with his fingers.

"Yay, Jade!"

[Yaay!!]

For that, Jade even let Lesta squeeze its cheeks lightly, and the demon didn’t look like he was lost in thought again as he played with the little bird.

Hmm...well, I’m glad he looks alright.