The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 359: Reasoning with children is an art; and not everyone mastered it

Chapter 359: Reasoning with children is an art; and not everyone mastered it

"Wha-child?!" I clasped the black pendant on my chest tightly in reflex.

"Huh?" Neel tilted her head in confusion. "Isn’t the little one your child? The one with the Lord of Greed."

Oh...that. I was worried for a second that someone managed to find out about Shwa. I forgot that people easily thought Jade was my child since it only happened the first time.

"Hmm...but looking at your reaction, it seems I was mistaken, but then..." Neel moved her head left and right, holding her chin and frowning as if she were in deep contemplation.

"Ah, no. Jade is my--"

"Clone?" she suddenly gasped, lifting her head to look at me with widened eyes. "Is that little one your clone?" she stood up; her demeanor was similar to when she found out about the golems. "Do you find a way to create a--"

"Stop!" I raised my palm to shut her up. Beside me, Zia was trying so hard to not laugh until her shoulder was shaking.

I let out a long exhausted sigh. "Jade is not my child--not in that sense anyway," I told the curious half-naga. "Jade is my familiar."

"...you used human as familiar?" Neel widened her eyes and scooted back.

At this point, Zia could no longer hold back and just laughed heartily while smacking the couch. Again, a sigh escaped my lips. "Jade is an elemental bird."

Neel blinked and looked even more confused than before. "The one...flying up there?"

"Yeah--well, not yet. Jade is still a ba--no, a juvenile elemental bird," I corrected myself in case the little bird could hear it.

"But how..."

"Jade is special," I smiled to close the topic. Let’s just leave it at that, because talking about it would be too long. "Anyway, are you satisfied with the room? Do you have any requests? Is there anything lacking?"

Neel cleared her throat, probably realizing that she had been overly excited about the thought that I might be able to make a clone. "I don’t need much, just tell the golem to not light the fire in my room. I like it cold."

Ah...so it was deliberate that she didn’t ask for fire. It did not matter to me because of Ignis, but Zia was kind of shivering, so I asked her if she wanted to stay here and rest or go back to the drawing room and wait for Izzi.

"Oh, I need to ask the Lord for a few things regarding the contract," she took the papers on the table and followed us out. When she was closing the door behind her, however, I could see she was thinking hard about something. "Hey, umm..." she looked at me with narrowed eyes. "If that girl knows...is that mean the Lord of Greed..."

"Of course, he does," I nodded. "He probably knew about you from the start."

Once again, she paused in front of the door, looking like her paradigm had been flipped upside down.

"Why do you think he would be interested in a ’failed’ product? Just because he’s curious? He’s still a merchant you know."

"Uhh..."

And this was just my conjecture, but...Natha probably came to them with the hope that one of them would be me. He was looking for someone who came from another world, so things like this would be quicker. Of course, he would know at once that they didn’t have my soul, but he still invested in them to build connections.

Because who knew? Perhaps one day they would come across another transmigrator, and that would be me. After all, it was easier for a transmigrator to find another transmigrator, by realizing the other had the same ’common sense’ with them.

Just like how Natha found them.

"But wait--" she closed her eyes and raised her hand like a student, brows knitted hard as she kept getting more confused. "How...how did he? Were you..."

"No, I came here fairly recently," I said. "It’s not even a year yet."

"What?! Then--" she clasped her mouth and continued in a whisper. "Was he actually..."

I smiled and told her to continue walking so we could stop talking while standing in the corridor as if we were conspiring for something. Although, to be honest, what I was going to tell her would probably shake the whole demon realm if it ever came out.

"If you think he’s like us, then that’s not it," I shook my head. "He’s a native, both soul and body, just like Zia."

"Then?"

"But he...hmm, how should I say this? An excursion? Yes, his soul visited Earth for...two months, I guess, like an excursion."

I almost said it was like an exchange study, but then Nathanael’s soul wasn’t inhabiting Natha’s body during that. Natha’s physical body was kept in the King’s Sanctuary, and while it was two months on Earth, it wasn’t that long in the sanctuary.

"Excursion...two months..." Neel mumbled in a daze behind me. "So...that’s how he knew about another world?"

"That’s when he met Valen!" Zia added to the story, giggling while clutching my arm. "It still sounds so romantic every time I hear it."

"Ngh...it’s embarrassing if you said it like that."

"But you like it, don’t you~" Zia poked my cheek with a mischievous grin across his face.

Our poor half-naga, meanwhile, kept mumbling incoherently behind me, perhaps trying to re-align her brain with all of this new information. Based on her personality, I didn’t think she would ever mention this to anyone else, but I should probably tell Natha later to include a clause of confidentiality on the otherworld matters.

Thankfully, by the time we got back to the drawing room, Neel already returned to her composed self. Jade was in the middle of a heated debate with Natha--something about the benefit and the loss of being an adult--but immediately jumped off the Nightmare’s lap and ran to me.

"Master!"

I lifted the little boy in my arms, who immediately pouted. "Nightmare is so annoying!" he immediately reported, while the Demon Lord sipped on his tea with a smirk on his face. "Nightmare say Master will leave with him for a week and Jade can’t come!"

...uh-oh. "Umm...that’s--"

"That’s true, Jade. Val will have to go somewhere with Lord Uncle after the wedding."

The green eyes widened, and Jade looked at me for confirmation. "Yeah, it’s true."

Jade gasped; his face crumbled, and his lips quivered. "Baby, it won’t be long," I stroked the green hair gently, rubbing the trembling cheek with my thumb. "Just a week...or so?"

But Jade only buried his face on my neck while holding me tightly, as if I was about to go right away. The boy even started sobbing. I held him tighter and patted his back, sighing inwardly. Yeah...I knew this conversation had to be made one day. I just didn’t think it would be today.

"Wait..." Neel paused and widened her eyes. "You’re getting married?"

"Did you not read the newspaper?" Zia was the one who replied.

"I don’t have newspapers."

"Oh..."

Immediately, Neel came back to the contract in her hand and flipped some pages to read the content quickly. "Wait...this stipulated time..." she muttered. "Do you want to make the video cam so you can use it for your wedding?"

The answer this time came not just from me, but also from Natha and Zia. "Of course."

"Damn..." she shook her head and took a seat while perusing the contract further. Well...at least she didn’t seem to have any problem with the motivation behind this whole thing.

After that, I walked toward Natha and kicked his shin, glaring at the cheeky smile he gave me. "What? He needs to know sooner or later."

Well...that’s true, but I wanted to convey it as gently as I could!

"He’s a big boy," Natha said. "I told him only children follow their parents everywhere. Kids don’t even wanna be near their parents once they get into school, you know. Thinking it’s lame and such."

"...is it?" I tilted my head while still patting the trembling head on my shoulder. I wouldn’t know, since my parents were already not around me when I was big enough to think.

Natha paused for a bit before shrugging. "I don’t know myself."

Hey!

"It’s just something I pick from observation."

Well...Natha’s circumstances were indeed...different. He already had a different childhood than the other kids, so we looked at Zia for confirmation.

"It’s true," the succubus replied easily. "Once we get to school and have more friends, we just want to spend time with our friends. It’s annoying when parents are around telling us not to do this and that. Besides," she hopped closer to me and poked Jade’s cheek. "You need to be independent if you want to be an adult. And independent people are okay being away from their loved ones for a week."

Slowly, Jade lifted his head and looked at Zia. "What about Master? Master not okay being away from Nightmare for a few days."

I coughed and Zia laughed, while Natha pressed his lips to prevent himself from laughing out loud.

What the hell? You were the one who said you can’t get away from me for too long, my Lord!

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