The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 368: Preparing for reunion between people you never know before

Chapter 368: Preparing for reunion between people you never know before

Fusing with animals!

Just hearing that already made me excited. Imagining turning into a bird and feeling how to fly with my own body, or...or...turning into a fish and exploring underwater.

"Of course, it will be more difficult than anything you have learned so far," Amarein warned me.

"It’s fine! I’ll work hard!"

My energetic response invited my companion’s curiosity. [What? What will Master do?]

"Jade, you know how Aunty turns into a bird when she comes and goes?" I caught the little bird and held it in my hands. "I’m going to learn how to do it too."

Immediately, a high-pitched chirp could be heard. [Master turn into Jade? Like Jade turn into Master?]

Jade jumped up and down on my palm, colorful wings and tails assaulting the air from how excited the little bird was. But something in Jade’s words caught my attention...

"Umm, Aunty...is it possible to do fusion with familiars or contracted beasts?" I asked Amarein, to which Jade and Vrida responded by becoming completely silent and staring at Amarein in expectation.

Amarein chuckled and replied while stroking Jade’s head. "It is," she nodded. "But it will be more difficult."

Huh? I had this impression that doing a fusion with contracted companions would be easier because of our connected soul, but it wasn’t? Amarein smiled at my confused face and continued while pinching Jade’s plump cheek.

"Creatures who can make contracts with other sentient beings have higher intelligence," she told us, looking into Jade’s inquisitive green eyes. "And higher intelligence constitutes a more complex soul structure."

She moved Jade to my hands and pointed at me. "As the trigger of the fusion, you will need to decipher the target’s soul pattern to infuse your own, so the more complex it is, the harder it will be."

"I see..."

Amarein then continued to explain about this fusion further. Apparently, druids could do it because our body was basically infused with magic. Also, if we wanted to, we could actually do it without the target’s consent, but...well, it would mean we break a taboo. Besides, doing it without consent would be much more difficult, since the target of fusion would actively reject the druid’s soul.

"And you still need to be careful during the fusion, because there’s a possibility of us losing our control and losing ourselves in the process," again, Amarein warned me sternly with piercing eyes. "If that happens, you won’t be able to go back unless someone helps you from outside."

"Like you?"

"Like me," Amarein nodded. "But even people like me need to know that you’re doing the fusion first," she said, further explaining that there were druids in charge of determining that--those who were adept at looking into someone’s soul. "Sometimes, we would find stray animals who behaved weirdly in the forest, who turned out to be a druid."

Whoa...why did all of Druid’s skillsets have a training process with a high mortality rate? I had this suspicion that their small numbers were not because of the war, but because of the dangerous growth period.

[Master...]

"What is it, Jade?" I stroked the little bird’s cheek with my thumb.

[Jade confuse...]

"Oh? About what?"

The green eyes narrowed as Jade was frowning in contemplation. [Jade don’t know if Jade want to play with bird-Master, or if Jade want to be one with Master]

Pfft--ah, what an adorable concern. "Let’s try it first and find out which one you prefer more, Jade."

[Mm!]

Since I was doing so well this time around, Amarein did not stay as long as before. After another session of practice all day, she got back in the night with a teleportation scroll rather than turning into a bird. She also lifted the ban on doing purification without her being there to chaperone me, although I had to exert extra energy to do purification again and again until Amarein gave me a pass.

"Alright, I’ll see you again next--"

"Oh, Aunty..." I paused to ponder for a moment to calculate the days. "I...I think I’ll go there instead."

"Oh?"

"I’m not sure if I can do it right on schedule, but..." I scratched my neck awkwardly. "I think I might be a bit busy starting next week, so...once I’m free, I’ll go there instead, so Vrida would be able to know the way."

I could see that Amarein was curious about what might keep me busy, but she just caressed the side of my head before nodding. "Alright, that’s good anyway. The others will be happy, so there might even be another feast," she laughed and kissed my forehead before tearing the teleportation scroll.

Jade, who was perching on my shoulder, tilted its head and patted my cheek. [Master, Master, what will we do next week?]

"Ah," I pulled on my cloak and walked back to the tower for my awaiting dinner. "Do you remember when I said we’ll have several uninvited guest coming here?"

[Humans!]

"Yes, humans," I patted the green head and glanced toward the forest through the window. "I think they’ll be here soon."

* * *

On the night after Amarein’s first visit, Heraz came to tell me that the Hero and his companions were on their way here. At that time, he calculated that it would take the Hero around a month or less.

Tonight was the twentieth day.

By that calculation, the Hero companions would be here around the time Amarein visited me again. I had no idea whether I could afford to train, since I still didn’t know how long the business with the humans would take. Besides...I wasn’t sure Amarein would be too happy seeing the humans.

I knew she was truly good and welcoming to me, but that was only because I looked more like a druid ever since I awoken the bloodline. The general feeling that I had when I stayed in the tribe was that druids had developed massive trust issues with humankind. That was why no one bothered to purify the land in the human realm, causing the emergence of corrupted beasts to be higher there.

Truly a land fit for a Hero, in my opinion.

Anyway, having her here while the humans were in the Lair might spark conflict. I had enough trying to prevent Natha from slapping the hell out of the Hero’s mug--who, in his opinion, was an active perpetrator of Valmeier’s suffering.

So, yeah...let’s just eliminate unnecessary risk, shall we?

"What about you? Do you want to be there?" I asked Izzi when I visited the Castle for another session of sparring with Haikal--this time using magic inside the dimensional chamber. "There might be another transmigrating soul."

"You mean the friend who wrote the story of this world?"

"Uh-huh,"

From what I gathered through my conversation with Lord An’Hyang and Mother, I found out that the one who caused the author girl to write the story was the Goddess of the Human Realm. But I also found out that none of the Gods had the power to temper with this world’s time, which means it wasn’t the case of them replaying the timeline after a bad ending.

My conclusion, thus, was that the Human Goddess had a clairvoyant ability, and saw the future in which the world disappeared because there was no vessel for the Primordial God due to Valmeier’s death. The whole plan of sending Natha there so he would try to procure Amrita, and make my friend write the story so I would know who to seek after transmigrating here was probably the plan the three Gods concocted together.

Sometimes, I wondered if the Primordial God deliberately caused this situation so the three children would forget their differences and bonded together...

But I digress. Anyway, I looked at Izzi again, tilting my head. "It’s alright for you to stay in the Lair for a few days, you know. Just treat it as a vacation."

And a chance for a proper courting, I added inwardly. But if I said it, he might refuse to come together, so let’s hold back, Val.

"Vacation should be done in a tourist spot," Izzi grumbled.

"And letting you waste the money you should be using to pay for your debt in auction houses?" I rolled my eyes, and he averted his eyes for my on-point accusation.

Well, it wasn’t an accusation if it was true, right?

"What I mean is you can take yourself off your work here and stay in a warmer place," I said. "But if you don’t want to, then..."

As I shrugged nonchalantly, he immediately replied. "I didn’t say I won’t do it," he pursed his lips. "Well, even if that friend of yours is not there, I’m rather curious about the Hero too."

"What is this obsession about the protagonist, huh?" I laughed at the way he narrowed his eyes and stroked his chin like a curious sage. "You still want to become one?"

"Who doesn’t?" Izzi shrugged. "Well, just tell me when the time comes."

With Izzi came, it would mean that there would be three transmigrated souls. And if my friend was truly the Midas girl and she came with the Hero, then...there would be a whopping five transmigrated souls!

Huh...that would seem like a summit for otherworldy souls. How fascinating. I felt like I got even more excited about this event.

And just like that, Heraz was standing on my balcony that night.