The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 360: All depressing talks should end in note of hope

Chapter 360: All depressing talks should end in note of hope

"What is this?" was what Izzi said the moment he entered the drawing room, looking bewildered.

Well, it was understandable; Jade was crying on my shoulder, and I was in the middle of pinching Natha’s cheek. Zia was laughing her ass off on the couch, and Neel was in her maniac mode around a maid golem.

"Oh, you’re finally here," I let go of Natha, observing the elf that looked neater than usual. This man even took a shower, huh? Look at that luscious bright hair.

"Why is the bird crying?" he asked in confusion while naturally taking a seat on the couch in front of me.

"As usual," I glanced at Natha while patting the distressed little boy, but the Demon Lord just gave me a sweet, innocent smile as if he had nothing to do with the weeping mess on my shoulder. "Duesi, please get me a sweet cocoa with milk."

"Oh, me too! Me too!" Zia raised her hand, and Izzi silently raised his.

The maid golem, who had been standing still while Neel hovered around her, blinked and moved. "Yes, Young Master."

Neel pursed her lips as the maid left the room to make the cocoa for Jade and the other two. She went back to her chair and picked up the contract again to peruse the last two pages--the most important one, Natha said, because it contained penalties for contract termination and such.

Naturally, the elf’s golden gaze fell on her, and for quite a while, he kept staring in interest, while Zia stared at him with narrowed eyes. Cute. Izzi then shifted his gaze to me with a silent question, which I only replied with a quick nod.

Jade finally stopped sobbing when the maid golem came back with a sweet scent of cocoa and milk wafting all over the room. Neel turned her head to stare--not at the golem this time, but at the cocoa. Thankfully, Duesi brought a big jug of the warm drink, as well as many cups, so there was enough for everyone.

"Chocolate?" Jade shifted his head, peeking at the cup that Duesi gave me.

"Yep, a sweet one," I patted the green hair and Jade squirmed to turn on my lap so he could hold the cup. His eyes were swollen and his nose was red. I wished there was a picture of my child self crying so I could compare it. It was weird to say it to my face, but Jade looked really adorable right now.

I still shot Natha a glare though. See if you make him cry again!

As if escaping my gaze, Natha turned to look at Neel instead. "How about it? Are you going to sign the contract?"

"Ugh..." Neel bit the end of her pencil. She had been looking for a point to complain about, but so far, she found none--and she looked rather disappointed because of it, probably because she couldn’t grumble about how exploitative the rich were. "Fine."

In the end, she pricked her thumb and gave her blood seal on the bottom of the contract. The papers flew to Natha after that, and he skimmed over it quickly. With a spell, he made two duplicates of the contract, and gave the original back to Neel. One of them he gave to me.

"Alright, it’s time for me to go back," he placed the contract inside my storage ring and kissed my lips quickly before Jade shoved him on the jaw.

"Right away?" I looked at the silver eyes, couldn’t even hide the disappointment in my voice.

Natha chuckled and ruffled the glaring little boy’s hair. "Your kid looks like he wants to fight me," he said, although I guessed, he just didn’t want to hinder the mood.

Right. The Big Boss should never attend employee gatherings.

Still carrying Jade--who didn’t want to get away from me after Natha’s provocation--I walked Natha to the portal so I got another kiss. This time, Jade really shoved the Demon Lord’s face away from me--although it was also because Natha was covering his face with his cold hand.

"Go!" Jade stuck his tongue out while clutching his cocoa mug. "Nightmare go!"

Haa...and I thought they’d be in a good relationship now after seeing them reading the picture books together. Natha left while laughing out loud, but when I returned to the drawing room, the atmosphere was rather...awkward.

Those three sat wordlessly, looking at anything but each other. Not even Zia tried to make any small talk. She perked up when I came back, relief shown all over her face. "Val!"

The moment she called me, the other two turned toward me again, and I pressed my lips on Jade’s hair so I wouldn’t let out a laugh. Damn...not even me was this socially awkward.

But then again, all of them were people who spent their working hours being confined in their rooms creating things. I took a seat on the couch again while introducing the two inventors to each other. "Well, as I have told you in the letter, this is Izzi--and Izzi, this is Neel," I looked at them both, before training my gaze at the half-naga. "Ah, can we call you Neel?"

"Sure," she shrugged.

"Since you’ve already signed the contract, it means you’re a part of the team now," I nodded, taking Jade’s empty glass and putting it on the table. "So we need to figure out the working arrangement."

"Wait, before that..." Izzi raised his hand and glanced at Neel. "Is she...like us?"

Again, I nodded. The elf hummed and turned his head to look at Neel better. "Were you transferring mid-way like our boss here, or...?"

Neel considered the question for a while before answering. "I’m not sure," she said. "I recalled my previous life when I was seven, but I also remember all the memories of this body, and feel like I’m the one who went through all of that," she shrugged.

"Hmm...in that case, you were probably reincarnated in that body, and only regaining the memory of your past life when you’re seven," Izzi stroked his chin, suddenly looking all serious.

"I...think so too," Neel nodded slowly. There was a hesitation on her face that I presumed was born from her feeling weird about having someone to talk about this reincarnated in another world feeling. "Did you..."

"Oh, I gained my memory as soon as my brain gained cognitive function."

"I see..."

Izzi pressed his lips and asked carefully, almost in a whisper. "So, umm...were you...died, or...?"

Neel flinched for a little bit, before nodding and replying quietly. "Overwork, I guessed..."

Ah...so that was why she was so sensitive about being exploited and had no trust in corporations. But then again, she was right--no one should be exploited and a lot of corporations were indeed untrustworthy. Natha told me himself.

"Ah, I was hit by a car...or a truck? I didn’t remember."

"Ouch?"

"Oh, but it seemed like all of us were dead before coming here," Izzi turned his gaze in my direction.

Ah...true. "Perhaps...it’s a prerequisite for a soul transfer? Maybe that’s why Natha could only stay for two months there while the hero was summoned with his whole body--existence--whatever."

"That’s plausible..."

"That’s depressing," Zia, who had been left out of the conversation about being dead and moving to another world, pursed her lips.

I laughed and reached out the hand I didn’t use to caress Jade, patting the succubus’s head that was scooting closer to my side. "But we all get a second chance in life, so isn’t that nice?" I glanced at the other two. "Not everyone is lucky enough to have that."

Neel bit the end of her pencil again. "Well...if you put it like that..." the black eyes stared at me for a few seconds before she asked me carefully. "What about you?"

"Me?" I felt Zia gripped my sleeve tightly. "I just died...naturally, I guess?"

"Naturally..." Zia grumbled.

I laughed again. And the fact that I could laugh it off was a good thing for me. I didn’t feel bitter about my first life. The unluckiness of having a druid body in a place with mana scarcity like Earth; I had thought of it as fate. I truly meant it when I said all the misery I experienced was the thorny path I had to go through before meeting Natha.

I mean, death was death. Be it from illness, from getting hit by a vehicle, or from overworking, we died in the end and got to relive our lives.

Wasn’t that the important part?

"Well, now that we got our second chance, we could try to make it better than the previous one," I shrugged, carefully cradling Jade who finally fell asleep after all the exhaustion from transforming, crying, and arguing with Natha.

I looked at my worker--I mean, my partners in front of me. "First, by making that recording device and getting a lot of money."

Finally, I saw Neel grin.

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