The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 299: Honesty is the best policy, I guess?

Chapter 299: Honesty is the best policy, I guess?

"A confession?" Natha tilted his head and pulled away slightly.

His eyes were still calm, but also guarded--perhaps because of my serious tone. Natha stepped back slightly so there was a little space between us. His hand did not leave mine, however, carefully holding my fingers.

"Alright, let’s hear it."

I felt my throat was drying and swallowed before starting my confession. "Umm...so, we go to the Lair with Vrida, right? And then, on the way, I was thinking of feeding Jade an energy ball so the little bird could turn into a child again,"

I paused to check his reaction, and just as I thought, Natha stiffened. The smile had disappeared from his lips, and the silver eyes turned sharp. Of course, someone as smart as him wouldn’t need me to spell it out. He already knew what I had to do to acquire that energy ball.

Once again, I felt my heart shrank. My tongue felt like they were losing strength in front of his cold face. I couldn’t speak again, and in my silence, he spoke; "Go on, tell me the rest."

The hiccup came reflexively out of my mouth at his dry tone. He wanted me to continue? Even though he must have known what happened already?

I took a deep breath and clenched my free hand to gather courage. "I...I absorbed the air elemental mana and..."

"And?"

"And...I...I floated a little bit."

The hand holding me tightened, not that I didn’t expect it. The air felt colder than before for a second, so I immediately added. "The other immediately held me down and I stopped, so..."

I bit my lips and stopped. Telling him about it was one thing, but that wasn’t the essence of my confession. Biting my lips to strengthen my resolve, I squeezed his hand and looked up. "I’m sorry, Nat. I know you had warned me to avoid purifying air elemental, but I carelessly forgot about it, and..." I took a deep breath and lowered my head. "I’m sorry...you must be so disappointed in me."

Honestly, rather than angering him, I was more scared of disappointing him. It was like I still hadn’t changed after all this time. Still careless, still worrying him--

"Okay, good job," he patted me, and I became too astonished to react. With his hand still on my head, I looked up, blinking at the smile on his face. "Good job of being honest and telling me yourself."

Oh...

"Well, I guess expecting you to not act carelessly is too tall of an order,"

Oh.

"But good job on addressing that you’re at fault," he nodded, the patting hand moved to my face and stroked my cheek. "I guess we can call it progress."

Even though I felt guilty, I couldn’t help but purse my lips in annoyance. It kind of felt like he was mocking me, but I also had no audacity to feel too upset about it. I mean...there was nothing wrong with what he said too.

I could hear his soft chuckle when I turned my face away, and his cold lips could be felt next at the top of my head. Well...since he wasn’t angry or disappointed, I guessed it was the best result I could hope for. It was a good thing asking Zia to not tell Natha about it before I did.

Still with pursed lips, I looked up and stared at him wordlessly until he leaned down and kissed my lips, laughing into my mouth. "Since you have been a good boy, what do you want for a prize?"

"Huh? I wasn’t confessing for--"

"I know, but you never ask me anything, so I have to do it through tricks like this," he shrugged. "I’m just looking for a reason."

"That’s not true--about me never ask anything, I mean..." I argued, but he made a face like he didn’t hear me, eyes glancing up and lips pursed in defiance.

Damn--so there was a time when this demon could act like this too.

Hmm...seemed like he wouldn’t budge about this, so might as well. "In that case, can you get me a clothing artifact for Jade?"

"I see...it’s indeed concerning if he continues getting naked every time he turns," Natha stroked his chin. "It should be something that the bird could always wear, so...a choker? Or an anklet?"

"Jade would probably like a choker more since I wear a necklace."

"Heh--he just copying you all the time," he chuckled. "Tell Dhuarta to make a design for the clothes. Seeing how picky that brat is, it’s better to make something cater to his preference than buy something already made."

Oh...so detailed. And so easy...

"Thank you!" I reached out to grasp his face and kissed his cheek, before jumping off the table.

"Hmm...but that’s a prize for the brat then, not for you," Natha sounded dissatisfied as he followed me out of the bedroom to our awaiting dinner.

"I don’t have anything I want right now, though," I shrugged, turning slightly to look at him with a grin. "You see, my Lord, if you constantly showered me with presents, I wouldn’t have anything to wish for anymore."

I mean, he gave me things I needed before I even asked for them. And he gave me enough allowance to buy anything he hadn’t bought me, so...what’s there to ask anymore?

For a second, I could see his slightly flustered face, which gave me a sense of triumph for some reason. Only for a bit, though, since our ever-creative Demon Lord came up with something immediately.

"In that case, let’s get you one of those clothing artifacts too," he said. "You talking about the side effect of absorbing elemental mana made me remember the time your body engulfed in flame and your clothes all burned down."

Oh! There was also the time when I transmorph into water and...well...

"Sure, that sounds good!"

Well, if I had to receive a gift anyway, better to get a practical one.

But wow...I thought I would get scolded for sure. Why did I receive a gift instead? Was this the result of being honest?

Hmm...at least my effort of gathering wit and courage amounted to something.

The next day, Izzi showed me a note stating fifty percent of his debt had been waived, and three days later, I received a report from Zia that the room next to hers in the Lair had been modified into a personal study and small library for her, with a connecting door to her bedroom.

As expected of my Demon Lord, his gifts were extendable.

* * *

"Stop squirming, Young Master," Lesta scolded me for a bit, holding my head in place as he drew a spell formation behind my ear.

"But it’s ticklish!"

"Hold it in," he grabbed my head tight, eyes squinting behind a monocle. The monocle itself was carved with a magnifying spell formation like the one surgeon would use back on Earth. "This is a complicated formation, so I have to be precise."

Ugh--I pressed my lips to hold myself from feeling the tickling on my skin. But I knew he was right--it was complicated. All spell formation did. It was basically putting the spell we used verbally into a drawing format, so the spell could be attached to an item or person for a certain period of time rather than recasting every second. Not everyone could do that, of course, just like not everyone could brew potions. And in this Castle, no one was better in formation than Lesta.

Like right now. He was putting an interpretation spell formation behind my ear.

Everything started when I realized I knew nothing of elvish. I learned the druid language a little bit so I could understand the scrolls, but I had no idea they spoke a different language with the elves. And then Izzi told me they also had different accents depending on where they lived and their status. So I was whining about how nice it would be if there were those translator devices they had on Earth.

And that was when Lesta came up with this formation.

"Most likely, they will speak in human or demon language while addressing you--and it’s fine because they like to brag about how resourceful they are," Eruha told me.

"True," Izzi nodded in agreement.

"So you don’t need to worry about not being able to communicate," the vampire continued. "And I would advise you to use the formation sparingly. It would not contribute greatly to your learning process if you rely on such things."

Such an Eruha thing to say. "It’s just because I can’t speak elvish. I’ll try to use what I know when I’m with the druids."

"Well, it’s fine to use it when there’s a lot of people, because it might get confusing," Lesta said. "And if you see people talking about you in a language you don’t know."

Hmm...so he basically told me I could use it to find out if people talked shit about me in their mother tongue. If I looked like I didn’t know their language, they might do that. I would have nodded in agreement, but my head couldn’t move right now.

"But honestly, there’s no need for you to cater to them. You are to be His Lordship’s consort, and the Prince to the Druids," Eruha said. "You don’t have to try to make them like you."

"Perhaps not," I shrugged awkwardly. "But there’s something I want to request from them, so it’ll be better if they have a good impression of me."

In front of the fireplace, Izzi looked at me and made a face. "My Boss, My Captain..."

"Shut up and bring me more money."

The elf chuckled and gave me a salute. He had been in an incredible mood after having his debt halved as a reward from Natha--for preventing me from floating away.

"Alright," Lesta finally let go of my head just before I felt my neck would grow stiff. "All you have to do is tap once on the formation to activate it, and twice to deactivate."

"Understood. Thank you, Lesta."

With this, my preparation to go to the realm of nature is complete!

Before that...

"Hey, don’t you think we can commercialize this?" I looked at Lesta and Izzi. "Make the formation smaller and carve them on a device that could be worn in our ears."

Izzi blinked. "Like...earbuds?"

"Uh-huh," I wasn’t sure, but I think Izzi died before the creation of wireless earpieces with auto-translate functions delivered in real-time.

Lesta raised his brows; the eyes he made right now were the same as Angwi’s when she made a circle with her fingers. "I don’t know what ear...buds are, but I’m listening."