The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 267: Isn’t it nice when our imagination is finally on point?

Chapter 267: Isn’t it nice when our imagination is finally on point?

"So it was true? The stagnancy I felt in this place was because it was a suspended space?" I gasped and tilted my head to look at Natha.

"Well, not truly suspended, since time still flows for her and for us," Natha explained while looking around the space he hadn’t visited in a long time. "The land just kept repeating each day."

Repeating each day but only for a select point? It would mean that anything growing during the day would revert back to the condition twenty-four hours before; the weather, the sky, the wind blow--everything would be the same. Even if I came here and purposefully spread pollen so more plants would grow, everything would return to how it was supposed to be yesterday.

Everything that was blanketed by those nets of mana.

What kind of magic did she use? It must have been so complex, to separate this space from the rest of the world, and forcefully prevented it from changing. And then putting on a barrier that made people see it as another part of nature. There were probably dozens...no, hundreds of spells woven together to keep this place like this for hundreds, maybe thousands of years.

"...why?" I asked quietly in confusion.

Why would someone want to live in a place that never changed? Of course, I loved spring too. But watching the season change, watching things grow and pass...it was the joy of the living. Perhaps it was because I had been living most of my life inside an unchanging hospital room, but...this paradise almost felt like a prison.

"Maybe because she wants something that wouldn’t change no matter what, even when the world is destroyed again," Natha caressed my hair, and I remembered then; who she was. She was the First Vampire, the First Blood, one of the Sacred Guardians.

She had been here before the world was destroyed and rebuilt. I shouldn’t use my own perspective because there was no way I could understand the thoughts and feelings of someone who had lived for thousands of years.

"A space where everything is just perfect."

"It does look perfect," I sighed and leaned back on Natha’s chest again, deciding to just enjoy the scenery rather than thinking about the philosophy of it all. "It would be a nice place for Vrida and Jade to fly around."

[Master! The place is pretty!] Jade’s green head poked out of my coat, looking around the place for the first time since we passed the barrier.

"That’s right, it’s pretty," I nodded in agreement, before looking down at the little bird. "But let’s ask permission first before we’re flying around, okay?"

After all, we were in the home of someone who was basically almost a deity.

[Okay!]

"Good bird," I patted the green head and after chirping joyfully in response, Jade wriggled out of my coat and jumped back to Vrida’s head, sitting between the wyvern’s horns.

Natha, chuckling behind my ear, patted my head in turn and whispered; "Good boy."

Hey--you shouldn’t flirt while we were airborne, my Lord! I pressed my lips to hide my embarrassment and glanced at him. "Umm...Nat, what kind of person is your teacher?"

"Hmm..." Natha put his head on my shoulder and tilted his head so I could see his pondering face. "She’s just...normal, I guess?"

Huh...didn’t sound like a description befitting someone who controlled this kind of space.

"She likes to be left alone to do whatever she wants, so she created this space," Natha added with a chuckle.

"Won’t she get bored, though?"

"Then she just needs to step out once in a while," he shrugged. "Which she does all the time."

Oh? I had thought she was like a mysterious figure who never left her abode, and wouldn’t see anyone unless she invited them first. You know, like the legendary hermit. "Where does she usually go?"

"Wherever she feels like," Natha laughed shortly, before his eyes opened in what seemingly a sudden recollection. "Ah, probably over there too."

"Over there?"

He straightened his back and said with a little smirk. "The place you’re curious about."

I tilted my head, because there were a lot of places I was curious about—the rest of the demon realm and the realm of nature, above all else. But Natha wouldn’t bring it up if it was a place that we could easily have access to.

And then, after a full minute of pondering while listing all the places I was curious about, a conversation we had not too long ago struck me, and I gasped while turning my head to look at him with widened eyes. "The...the dragon island?!"

Natha smiled in response, which gave me enough confirmation. I looked to the front again with lips parted in awe, my curiosity rising even more. I knew we already had Vrida, but wyvern was different from dragon, especially after hearing about their brief history from Natha the last time.

"C-can I...can I ask her about them?"

"You can ask, but whether she would answer it is a separate matter," Natha chuckled and patted my head in consolation.

Uhh...hmm...in that case...

"Will she answer if I give her candy and chocolate?" I asked him, recalling the extra premium package of high-quality candy, chocolate, and cookies I bought in the Capital.

Natha blinked, looking at me with parted lips and a dumbfounded gaze--perhaps because I had never mentioned buying sweets for his teacher before.

Uhh...so, not good? No dice?

--I might

"H-huh?" I almost jumped when I suddenly heard a voice in my head, a little bit different from when Jade talked to me. And before I could even recover from the surprise of the first one, the voice spoke again.

--Your sweetheart is an interesting one, kid

I gasped and flinched again, because the voice brought a ticklish sensation inside my mind--if that even made sense. Natha had to tighten his hold on me since I suddenly became jumpy.

"Haa..." he sighed and grumbled inaudibly before pointing to a relatively flat stone platform in the mountain, just outside the castle gate. "Let’s land over there."

Nestled between the L’Urda Musko mountain range, was a castle built right into the cliff wall, with white blossom trees flanking the path leading to its gate. It was built with the same architectural style as any other vampire castle, but this one had a warm beige color that almost made it seem like a fairy tale castle where a princess was trapped inside, instead of...you know, a legendary witch.

"Oh, there’s someone there?" I spotted a figure on the field where we were supposed to land, and after a further inspection, I realized the figure felt familiar. "...a golem?"

It was a humanoid golem in a livery, just like the one roaming around in Natha’s Lair. "Well, where do you think I get all those golem for the Lair?" Natha told me with a slight chuckle, giving me an answer to two questions all at once.

Ah...I see. No wonder I hadn’t seen any service golems in the city despite their high practicality, except the bulky guardian golems that would only get activated in case of emergency. I thought, at first, it was to not close the employment source for the demons, but now that I thought about it again, it was probably because the creation of the golem itself was a guarded secret.

While I mulled over this, Vrida landed softly on the stone platform, and kindly lowered herself so we could go down easier.

"Master is in the drawing room," the golem told Natha casually, as if talking to another resident of the castle instead of a guest. "I will be taking care of the wyvern."

"Vrida, be good and follow him, okay? He’ll feed you and give you a place to rest," I patted the dark, ash-brown head and gave the wyvern a rejuvenation wave. "I’ll ask if you can fly around later."

Vrida nuzzled my cheek and purred deeply, while Jade jumped over to my shoulder. We bid her farewell, and Natha led me through the castle gate, walking along the corridors like it was his own home.

Well, I guessed he did live here for at least five years.

The castle was huge, and actually consisted of several buildings lined up along the mountainside, connected by corridors that acted like an indoor bridge. The ’drawing room’ that the first golem mentioned was in the second building. But since Natha knew the way, it didn’t take long for us to reach it. Two golems were waiting outside the arched door to take our coats, and I had to tell my heart to calm down before Natha opened the door.

Ah...now I understand where Natha based his library on. The entire side of the wall that made of transparent glass, allowing the sunlight to flood a seating area surrounded by bookcases. It definitely didn’t seem like any drawing room I know, but also way more casual than a library. In the fluffy-looking sofa that received the most sunlight, sat a tall vampire, with jet-black hair cascading her shoulders and deep red eyes reading a book from the pile beside her.

She lifted her gaze from the book as we approached her--or rather, Natha approached her and I hid behind him, peeking my head slightly behind his larger frame.

"Aren’t you looking vibrant, kid?" her lips curled, and I almost gasped at how pretty she was.

She was everything I thought about when I heard about a vampire’s progenitor; tall, elegant, with a slightly mysterious aura that was sprinkled with mischief. Even while she was simply lounging on her sofa, bathed in sunlight, she looked like a painting. Perfect, like the rest of her abode.

So this was Natha’s teacher, the First Vampire; Dur D’Ara