The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 366: There’s a lot of paths leading to Rome...I hope

Chapter 366: There’s a lot of paths leading to Rome...I hope

"Most of them are working, so you’ll have to wait while I call someone," Natha told me as he walked me back to the portal after lunch, following a hovering spear and two little companions perching on its staff.

I just nodded obediently, since it was already good enough that he let me train to fight. "What about doing it with Caba or Haikal?" I asked. "Or...you?"

He did not answer, but his hold on my waist tightened. When we reached the labyrinth garden, he finally spoke again. "Do you remember the time you were panicking when you found out about my wound?"

"Oh..."

Instantly, I knew what he meant. Just like how I was scared and disgusted at the thought of wounding him, he was afraid of the thought of wounding me. Even if it was accidental, or was done in a good sport.

"Okay, I got it," I nodded. "But what about the others?"

He chuckled and pinched my cheek--perhaps a response to my persistence. But at least he didn’t seem to mind it. "Haikal might do it, being a challenge-lover that he is, but Caba..." his lips curled. "I don’t think he would have a heart to do it."

"Why?"

"Because his power lies on him going berserk," Natha explained. "Do you think that puppy will have the heart to let himself lose his mind while fighting you?"

I couldn’t help but giggle when Natha called the bald vassal a ’puppy’, although it fit the demon tremendously. "Well, Haikal said he doesn’t mind as long as you give permission, so I’ll tell him the next time I come here."

"Tell me too," he leaned down and gave me a peck on my cheek. "I’ll watch."

"Okay!"

I kissed his lips briefly before crossing the portal with my three companions. Now that I had Natha’s permission, I could do the training without any burden. Hmm...yes, it was indeed better if we had our partner’s support.

With this, my days were filled with tampering with my body and mind. As soon as I woke up, I did my breathing exercise before ingesting any substance--including the usual herbal drink. I would have liked to do it as long as I could, but Amarein told me to set a fixed time every day, so that was what I did.

Something about how it was a marathon and not a sprint.

She said I shouldn’t exhaust my mind on a single day, just to become too tired to do it the next day. I wasn’t sure if it would increase my endurance, but..well, she was the teacher, wasn’t she?

After having breakfast and talking to Shwa with my other companions, I would train with Alveitya to move my body around as per Arta’s instruction. I got hungry easily that way, but I also burn that many calories to balance it out.

When Haikal finally had free time, we sparred inside the Colosseum. At least, we were at first.

As expected of the Commander, he was on another level compared to the other soldiers. We agreed to not use any magic, just poor cold weapon; me with Alveitya, and him with his sword.

And oh, it was thrilling.

I could feel that he still held back at the start, probably an unconscious reaction because he was facing his Lord’s betrothed while the Lord was watching. For that, I responded with brutality, attacking him without any inhibitions. Since Natha had insisted on bringing a healer, I chased for blood, and soon, Haikal could no longer afford to be careful.

He shed his armor, along with his hesitation, and we duke it out, filling the arena with the sound of clanking metals until sparks were flying around. And Gods...was it exhilarating! His movement turned faster, and the swing of his sword became heavier, even without infusing any mana. I’d say he was as good as one of Wrath Generals in Valmeier’s memory.

I had no time to think of other thoughts but the battle, keeping my eyes on Haikal’s movement and gaze as we engaged in a deadly dance around the arena. The interesting thing was that...none of our attacks landed on the others. We attacked and parried ferociously that the one who got wrecked was the arena instead.

In the end, though, the quality of the weapon spoke for itself, and I managed to deflect Haikal’s sword from his hands, ending the battle with the tip of Alveitya a shy away from his neck.

Both of us were panting heavily, staring at each other. There was a small commotion when the audience was clapping and hooting from the side. I could hear a loud chirping too instead of a disappointed ’boring...’ like last time. Despite all of that, however, I gasped.

"No!" I let go of Alveitya--which instantly hovered around me in concern--and held my head, crouching down in devastation.

"Sweetheart?" a worried voice called out, and I felt a cold hand on my back. "Sweetheart, is something wrong?"

"It is!" I gripped Natha’s hand tightly as I looked at him. The corner of my lips lowered by themselves as I felt so, so stupid. "I’m supposed to try controlling my mana while fighting, but I forgot!"

The whole reason I did this training was so I could train myself in multi-tasking--controlling the mana inside my body while my brain was focusing on something else. But I was so engrossed in the fight that I forgot about it.

Natha blinked slowly, before bowing his head and stifling a laugh. "Don’t laugh! This defeats the whole purpose of training!"

I smacked his arms, but Natha continued to laugh while pulling me into his embrace. Behind me, I could hear Haikal mutter while letting out a relieved sigh. "Whew--thought my head would fly for a second."

I pushed Natha away from me and looked at the guard commander. "Hey, hey, let’s do it again! Perhaps if we also use magic--"

"Sweetheart..."

"Uhh, perhaps not now, Young Master," Haikal scratched his neck, glancing at his sword that ended up slightly chipped. "If I pushed mana into my sword before fixing it, it won’t be able to hold through the fight."

"Oh..." I pursed my lips in disappointment.

Natha patted my head and made me look at the gentle silver eyes. "Remember that it’s not a sprint, sweetheart."

Phew...I took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah, okay...sorry," I muttered as I tried to suppress my impatience. "And thank you, Haikal."

"It is my pleasure, Young Master."

Natha pulled me up again, still with leftover laughter in his brightened face. Well, at least, he looked even more beautiful like this. "Don’t get too disappointed," he whispered while we were walking down the arena. "You can still train on the real-life simulation, can’t you?"

I tilted my head in confusion at first, but the glint in his darkened eyes gave me the answer already. Again, I smacked his arm and hissed. "Pervert!"

But well...I wouldn’t refuse the offer.

* * *

"Eruha..."

"Yes?"

"When you drink Lesta’s blood, does your body automatically process it, or do you need to manually absorb the mana?"

It was a purely educational question, but Lesta was spraying water from his mouth on the side. Whatever. After failing again last night during the...simulation time, I suddenly thought that I probably should ask someone who needed to absorb foreign substances on a regular basis.

Who else but my dear teacher I could turn to?

Not to mention, I knew that sometimes...they did while having sex, so...

Kind of a similar situation with me, no?

"Depends," Eruha answered my question seriously--because, again, this is an educational discussion. "Normally, I just let my body process it--there are other things I need to put my mind to, after all."

Lesta threw him a cushion, which he easily caught in the air with a small, playful smirk on his lips. Geez--I thought this was an educational discussion!

"So, what’s the other condition?"

"If I have to use the mana immediately, I need to manually separate the mana from the substance, and instead of letting it be absorbed in the vessel, I push the mana directly to the mana circuit."

"Oh-ho!" I straightened my back. "And how do you separate them?"

"Why? Are you trying to drink blood too, Young Master?"

"Of course, not!" I pursed my lips. "There’s other kind of...substance, that I wanted to...well, rather than separate, I guess I’m trying to fuse them? But I also need to catch the essence of those substances before fusing them, so..."

I realized then that I was kind of blabbering, and when I lifted my face, I was greeted by Eruha’s pondering face and Lesta’s cheeky smile.

"What?" I glared at Lesta, who only curled his lips before responding with a shrug.

Eruha, however, mulled over my words seriously. "Does this perhaps have something to do with your dryad heritage?"

Lesta’s lips curled even higher, and this time, I was the one who threw a cushion to his face. "...yeah," I decided to just focus on Eruha. As expected, he was very perceptive.

"Hmm...this is something I never thought I would impart on other people," Eruha stroked his chin. "I shall think it over and come up with a plausible lesson."

Ugh...I was just asking for some advice, but...he was trying to turn it into a whole lesson? Not that I had any objection.

As long as it would help me with my end goal.

I stroked the black pendant over my chest with a smile.

"Oh, right," I looked at Lesta then, because Eruha was busy thinking about the vampire method of absorption. "Are you going to live together in the end?"

The cheeky smile on Lesta’s lips vanished then. Or rather...it was replaced by a bashful expression. Hehe...I got a taste of teasing people now and I would not stop!

"I heard from Arta that you were all sitting down to talk about it over dinner."

Although, from the way Arta told me, it sounded more like Lesta and Eruha arguing while Malta became a referee. Arta? She just watching while eating some popcorn.

And I mean that literally.

I glanced at Eruha then, and by the small smile on his lips, I knew he had won.

"We...are planning to move after your wedding," Lesta said with a tinge of red on his ears, and this time, I was the one who gave him a wide, cheeky smile.

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