The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 288: All children are entitled to their freedom

Chapter 288: All children are entitled to their freedom

"So...that’s what happened," I ended the report about my decision to have the wedding in the spring. "And, umm...I want to do it here, in the Lair."

Angwi looked at me with her unchanging, expressionless face that sometimes made me wonder if she was actually one of the golems. It was such a rude thought, however, and I had told myself to stop thinking like that.

After all, the golem wouldn’t walk toward me and patted my head for a full minute, caressing my hair gently. They wouldn’t look at me with soft eyes, crouching in front of me, and held my hands.

Angwi didn’t talk, as usual, but I had learned to read her eyes. She rubbed my ring and the rune circling the base of my finger, her lips stretched into a smile. She reached out and touched my chest, and I nodded.

"Yeah, I’m happy," I said. "I get to marry my first love, so I want to do it in my first home."

For the first time since I came here, I could hear her voice as she chuckled. A brief one, and it was the sound that I had always been imagining; firm and dignified, but also warm.

"It’s alright, isn’t it? Doing it here, I mean..."

She tilted her head and pointed at me in response.

"Well, yeah, I know this place is mine, but...you’re the one who is taking care of it," I shrugged.

She replied with a shrug, and made a circle with her fingers, which translated roughly to ’the pay is proportionate to the effort’. I couldn’t help but laugh and hug her.

"Mm...you’ll probably have to get busy, right?" I bit my cheek in guilt.

The Lord Castle had many people, and they were still running around in a frenzy. Angwi, meanwhile, only had herself--because I didn’t think Doun or the twins would help her much in things like wedding preparation.

Angwi, however, simply pointed at one of the maids bringing me refreshment. Aah...right. She had a troop of golems ready to do anything and everything--without a chance of exhaustion, even.

Whew...knowing that the event wouldn’t bother her too much made me feel better. Now my heart didn’t feel as heavy, flooding people with more work just for my selfish indulgence.

"Oh, it should be possible to make a wyvern keep here, right?" I asked, just in case. Vrida would be here during the ceremony, so I thought about making her nest too, somewhere in the estate. What else...hmm...ah; "Natha’s teacher would be there for the ceremony too; she’ll be the one to marry us! Isn’t that wonderful?"

The smile retracted from her face faster than Jade could fly toward a candy pile.

* * *

Different from Angwi, Doun looked at me with sparkles and fireworks in his eyes. "Wyvern?!"

"Yup!" I nodded with the same enthusiasm he had. "Is there any suitable place in the estate?"

"There’s a lot, Young Master," he told me delightedly while we walked towards the river. "The forest is vast, and there’s a cliffside, or you can just make one in the yard," he tapped his chin in contemplation. "But if you ask me, I think it’ll be better to let the wyvern choose the place and make the nest by itself."

Oh! I didn’t think of that, perhaps because Vrida had a keeper already. But wyvern essentially live in the wild; the keep and the keeper were there because most of wyvern owners didn’t live in a place like this, somewhere with an abundance of wildlife.

"If we let her do that, would the ecosystem get disturbed?" I muttered in contemplation. When I saw Doun’s confused face, however, I corrected myself. "Umm, do you think her existence here will disturb the forest’s original residents?"

"Ah...are you afraid about the pecking order?" Doun chuckled, before spreading his hands, pointing at our surroundings. "Young Master, you know it yourself; the trees here are the mightiest in this place, not the beasts."

As if agreeing to his words, the trees let out a murmur through the movement of their foliage. "If there’s anything amiss in the forest, they’ll be the ones to take action to right it," Doun continued. "And your wyvern would instinctively know the moment she steps in, so you don’t have to worry about her being a disturbance or anything."

"Oh, in that case..."

But now, I was rather worried that they would do something to Vrida. Looking up at the colorful leaves, I still remembered how long it took me to be friendly enough with them so I wouldn’t get lost every time I ventured deeper inside the forest. Hell--I hadn’t even explored the whole forest at this point, because I had to move to the Lord Castle before I could manage to do so.

In a way, it was fascinating that the strongest entity in the forest was the tree itself. I wondered if there was a correlation between that and the fact that the wood elemental mana was the most abundant here.

"Alright, I have to check the place over there," Doun pointed at the path I never threaded before. "Will you be alright on your own, Young Master?"

"Hey, I know this place well enough already, okay?" I huffed. If it was just this far, I would be fine even if I was alone. Besides, the trees here were already friendly toward me, so they’d give me directions easily even if I got lost somehow.

Doun laughed and nodded. "Alright, alright; but I’ll still check on you in a few hours, okay? And if you’re not done before tea time, I’d drag you back no matter what."

"I know," I pursed my lips, and he laughed again while I walked away to the river. I called Jade over through our soul connection, and the little bird came swooping down the moment I arrived at the riverside, chirping energetically.

"Do you have a nice chat with them?" I patted the bird that looked especially happy after spending the whole time on the rooftop with the other elemental birds.

[Mm! Jade tell them about Teacher!]

"You mean about D’Ara?" the green head nodded, and I asked further. "Did you tell them about the secret too?"

[Yes!] Jade replied cheerfully, but gasped at the next seconds. [Jade...Jade sorry!] the little bird flew to my shoulder and hugged my cheeks. [Jade will tell Master soon! Promise!]

My, my; I did feel a bit disappointed that I wasn’t the one Jade told about it first, but how could I get upset when the little bird was this adorable?

"Is that so?" I laughed and stroked the panicking little bird. "I can’t wait then."

Jade chirped loudly and flapped its wings in delight. [But Master, can Jade ask for something?]

Hmm? My little bird wanted something? That was rare. It didn’t look like it wanted something like candy or jelly too with how serious Jade looked right now.

"What is it?"

[Jade want the yummy thing Master make here]

"Oh, you mean the purified mana? I’m about to give you some anyway."

But the little bird spread its wings wide. [Jade want a lot. A looot of it]

Now, that was interesting. I took a seat on the boulder by the riverside, looking at the little bird more seriously this time.

Just so you know, I had always been giving Jade a lot of purified mana. Every time I digested elemental mana in a place, the little bird would consume about seventy percent of it. The rest was given to Alveitya and cleansing my circuit. Even then, sometimes, Jade would still feel hungry and ask for more.

So here was the question; how much would I need to make for Jade to consider it ’a lot’?

"Is this about the secret too?" I looked straight into the beady eyes, and Jade nodded sheepishly.

Everything was about this secret nowadays, and it made me itch with curiosity. I had thought it was something about Jade’s next evolution phase, but if that was the case, then there was no need for Jade to keep it a secret.

"But will you be alright?" I asked worriedly. "Won’t you get too bloated if you consume too much?"

[Jade made the core bigger!] the little bird told me, patting its belly. [Jade work hard!]

"Huh? Is that what you have been doing these past few days?"

[Yes!] Oh...so it was true what Natha was saying? Jade wasn’t with me much because it was doing self-training. [But Jade will sleep a lot...umm...long time!]

"Because you need more time to digest it?"

[Yes! But Jade will be alright!]

"Promise?"

[Promise!]

I stared at the beady eyes deeply, and Jade folded its wings to make a fighting stance. Gosh...my baby had grown this much it could train itself to get stronger? I felt conflicted about seeing Jade grow and keeping it in this adorable state.

But in the end, your child has the right to decide things for themselves.

So I nodded and put Jade on my lap, as I started to gather not only the mana from the river, but also from the forest surrounding us. Fortunately for Jade, the place was very rich in mana because it had been a while since I extracted it. Waves and waves of mana entered my system, and the expelled product gathered above my palm. Gradually, it was getting bigger and bigger, glowing in iridescent light.

I had planned to only be here for a bit before going back, but thanks to Jade’s request, I ended up here until the afternoon, and it was only because Doun picked me up that I stopped. At that point, the condensed mana was so thick that it looked more like a floating crystal than a bubble.

"Is this enough?" I asked the little bird.

[Yes!] Jade jumped onto my shoulder and nuzzled my cheek. [Thank you, Master! Jade will sleep a lot, and show Master the secret!]

And with that, the little bird jumped inside the condensed mana ball.

It wasn’t until eighteen days later that it woke up.