The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 318: It’s natural to be defensive about your partner, right?

Chapter 318: It’s natural to be defensive about your partner, right?

After much fuss and scolding from Amarein, we finally seated calmly around the room. Amarein led me to sit in one of the comfortable armchairs while the other Chiefs took a seat around me.

The Chief of Alnin, Amarein’s mother, sat on the chair beside me, holding my hand with both of her hands. Her deep green eyes were sparkling, and I even suspected there was a glaze of tears there.

"Amarein is so bad," she sighed. "How could she keep us from seeing you."

The same grumble and whine could be heard from the other Chiefs, who were mostly middle-aged druids. Apparently, Amarein told them to stay put and never come close to her house. How powerful, to be able to tell all of these Chiefs to follow her order.

And now, Amarein just smiled casually from my other side while sipping on the tea that was being served to accompany our ’talk’, whatever kind of talk it would be.

"How have you been, Your Highness?" the Chief of the Alnin tribe, Tiralein, asked again.

"Oh, I’m good," I nodded, feeling awkward now that I had my hand on hers. "I had a nice meal and slept comfortably, and everyone had been careful not to approach me," I said with a smile. All in all, aside from not being able to sleep with Natha, my stay here was nice and comfortable. "Thank you for the hospitality umm...Chief--"

"Oh no!" Tiralein cut me off, frowning slightly. "How can you call me that when you call my Amarein ’Aunty’! You have to call me Grandma!"

Uhh...suddenly?

As I blinked in astonishment, Tiralein continued to stare at me with waiting sparkling eyes, almost like how Jade would look at me when the little bird wanted an extra candy.

"Umm...G-Grandma?"

"Oh!" Tiralein clapped her hands and sighed, which freed my hand. I immediately snatched Jade from the top of the backrest to busy my hands so no one would grab them again.

It wasn’t awful or anything, but it was weird and awkward to have my hand grasped and caressed by someone other than Natha.

Right after I called Tiralein that, the other Chiefs chimed in, asking me to call them more intimately too. So in five minutes, I had a bunch of Aunties, Uncles, Grandmas, and Grandpas, which technically...well, they were.

All of the chiefs had royal blood in their veins, the same as me. They were the extension of the royal family, no matter how far. So technically...yeah, they were all my cousins, aunties, uncles, grandmas, and grandpas. This was why I felt like coming to a family gathering rather than the Council of Chiefs.

"Umm...in that case, can you stop calling me with a title?" I glanced at Amarein, who had used to call me by my name at this point. "Just use my name, please?"

"You mean...Valen?" Tiralein asked, blinking.

"Yes," I fiddled with Jade’s plume, realizing that it wasn’t a name that was commonly used here. "Mm...my grandparents named me that," I added.

"Oh! Princess Yura did?"

Well, it was my grandfather, but he was the second husband that they didn’t know, so I couldn’t say that. Besides, he decided on the name together with my grandmother. "It means healthy."

Amarein, who only heard about it now, raised her brows slightly. Meanwhile, Jade raised its wing and patted my hand. [Master is healthy now!]

"It’s a beautiful name, Valen."

Tiralein said while caressing my arm, smiling softly as she uttered my name gently. Then the other Chiefs started to introduce themselves while also calling me by my name, and it became more and more like a cozy family gathering.

They proceeded to ask me a lot of things; about my childhood--which I told them I couldn’t remember much aside from the interaction with my grandmother--about my adolescent days--which rather than talking about my sickness, I told them about Valmeier’s story--and eventually, it came to the tale of me after the war and reaching out to Natha for the cure. Naturally, it came to the part where I lived under Natha’s protection and...well, how we came to our relationship and this talk about marriage.

The moment the topic shifted to that part, I unconsciously tensed up. This was the most concerning step in today’s objective, and I kept stealing glances at Amarein to ask for support if need be.

But then I remembered she was the one who told me I couldn’t sleep together with Natha before we were officially wed.

So I didn’t expect much.

"Hmm...Matsa Ra Natha is a good choice," Tilarein nodded.

...oh?

"Well, at least he is wealthy enough to pamper our Valen for the rest of his life,"

"A lot of houses and assets too--did he tell you he will let you inherit those?"

Uhh...

"Wealth is wealth, but what about the wealth of one’s heart?"

"He at least got Valen that cure, so while I’m not sure about anything else, I guess he’s at least willing to go that far for him."

"He did come all the way to Ushu to request help regarding Valen. What do you think, Amarein?"

"Oh, I’ve met him, so I can at least tell you that he does love Valen. I think he’s even willing to wage war for Valen."

T-thanks for the support?

"No, no, let’s not wage war," the Chiefs shook their heads immediately in unison.

"So he has wealth and heart--for Valen, at least," Tiralein nodded. "But his appearance is..."

"Natha is very handsome!" I cut them immediately, frowning. All of them were the same when it came to his appearance--ugh. "People just can’t see it because they’re afraid of him, but he’s very handsome!"

They blinked in surprise at my sudden outburst after being mostly silent once the talk about marriage came up. Unfortunately, this made me keep on going without any brake.

"I didn’t say I wouldn’t want him if he’s not handsome--I’m sure I’ll love him however he looks--but he is handsome!" I continued to argue. "And he’s very kind; he’s gentle and very patient with me, he’s so generous, overly generous; he’s also very knowledgable and skilled--he’s incredible, okay?"

They still looked at me in surprise, blinking--even Jade and Ignis looked at me in surprise. Only after receiving their stare did I realize what I had done; what I had said. My hands were curled into fists defensively, and my voice was quite high. Immediately, heat crept into my cheek, my face, my neck, everywhere.

"My...I didn’t know you could be this passionate, Valen," Amarein said with a smile.

"I...I’m sorry!" I sunk myself deeper into the chair and buried my face in my palm

Aaagh! I couldn’t believe I was blurting all of that. I hadn’t even told Natha about all of that, about how I thought about him! But when I heard them saying something about his appearance again, it just came out reflexively. I recalled how people said he was scary and far from beautiful, which I guess could be subjective and relative.

But...but my heart was itching because I could see how beautiful Natha was. And I didn’t like having others think less of my beloved demon.

"It seems Valen truly fell for him," an aunty from Timat Hill said with a chuckle.

"I--I wouldn’t decide to marry someone I don’t love," I replied while slightly pursing my lips.

"Well, I’m glad after knowing you have known him before that horrible war," Tiralein shook her head, speaking with restrained sorrow. "Our main worry is that you only fell for him because of circumstances," she added with a sigh. "Because you feel indebted to him and so couldn’t help but fall when he pursued you."

Hmm...honestly, I didn’t know about that. Perhaps, at first, I did fall for him due to circumstances--because he was the only one appearing in my life. But the reason my heart opened up easily for him was probably because he looked so much like my first love. Well, in the end, he truly was my first love, so...

"I truly love him," I said. "And don’t worry; I make this decision after much consideration."

They looked at me with mixed expression; some with a smile, some with a solemn look in their eyes. But in the end, Tiralein said while patting my hand. "As long as you’re sure, my dear."

"I’m sure," I nodded firmly. When the number of smiling faces increased, I asked carefully. "So...it’s okay, right? I can marry him, right?"

At my question, Amarein shifted to face me, taking my hand gently. "Of course, you can, as long as you’re sure."

When she said that, I let out a relieved breath, and my tensing shoulder finally loosened up slightly.

"Were you worried we would oppose it?" Tiralein widened her eyes. "Why?"

"Well..." I glanced at Amarein. "I was worried you would oppose it because...umm...my age."

The room went quieter then, and for a second, I was worried that saying it would make them revisit their decision. But then, Tiralein let out a gentle laugh and reached out to pat my head.

"Ah, our little Valen is indeed still young," she said. "But we understand that you’re also a human, and you’re already an adult as a human. We can’t..." she paused, shaking her head and smiled wryly. "We can’t keep seeing someone who had gone through war as a child."

Oh...I didn’t physically go through war, but...

"T-thank you,"

"We...don’t think we have the right to strip you of your happiness," she continued. "So now that we witness it ourselves, that we know you are happy, of course, we don’t have any objection."

I pressed my lips and hugged Jade a bit tighter. "Thank you,"

Oh, that was such a relief. So we wouldn’t have to fight it out. Of course, I would still marry Natha no matter what, but it would always be sweeter to have everyone bless your union. A smile slowly crept into my lips, before someone spoke suddenly.

"But I heard you sleep in the same bedroom with him?"

...Uh-oh.