The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 371: Oh, to be the center of a drama!

Chapter 371: Oh, to be the center of a drama!

After spending the whole morning rolling around in bed with Natha, I called the residents of the Lair once more to tell them that the humans were close and that the plan had yet to change.

They were to do nothing but watch, and would only make their move if I asked them for help.

Meanwhile, Heraz gave a daily update on the position of the Hero, while I...well, I was just living my life as usual. I didn’t want to leave the Lair in case the humans advanced quicker than we thought, so I merely enhanced my concentration and trained my purification. Jade was getting so happy from receiving a lot of ’yummy balls’ from me, and its wings and tails were getting even more colorful.

"You’re lacking red, though..." I stroked Jade’s tail while we were hanging out in Jade’s bedroom and Ignis, who graced us with its rare presence, hummed in agreement. "Hmm...why don’t we visit some volcanoes when we go to the human realm?"

"Oh?" the little gecko on the windowsill raised its head.

[Are we going to human land, Master?] Jade also perked up at the thought of another adventure; another new place to visit.

"I plan to do so," I nodded and looked out the window. "There’s a land in the human realm that became considerably damaged and polluted because of a war."

Well, to be precise, it was a civil war. The country where the civil war took place was famous for having a lot of magic users, be it magicians or magicswordsmen. As a result, heavy clashes of magic disrupted the balance of the ecosystem, creating clusters of chaotic mana that suppressed the production of the world’s natural mana. I had a guess that they were also draining the leyline because some of those magic users drew mana from the environment rather than from their mana core.

Ignis crawled to my head and patted me with its tail. "So you’re going to help them restore their land?"

"Well...I’m going to try," I shrugged.

Ignis grumbled, saying I was doing unnecessary things. Jade, meanwhile looking all starry-eyed. [Master will make big yummy balls?]

Looked at this gluttonous little bird. But I’m sorry, Jade, I had to break your excitement. "No, Jade. We have to let the purified mana back into the environment so the place can be used again," I patted the green head that was instantly deflated. "So you can’t eat the purified mana."

[Oh...]

I laughed and squeezed the chubby cheek. "You can’t be greedy, Jade. If we visit the volcanoes, you can share the purified mana there with Ignis, how about that?"

The salamander flicked its tail again, and Jade chirped cheerfully, flapping its wings to perch on my head alongside Ignis. "You’ve been given a huge bedroom, so why are you all hanging out on top of my head?"

[Because Master is the best place!]

"Mm,"

Oh, these two flirts!

"Then...should I start to sleep in your room from now on?" Ignis crawled down to my shoulder, and when I leaned back on the vine swing, the salamander moved to my chest.

Of course, Jade followed the big brother.

"I always welcome you sleeping with us, Ignis," I patted the flaming head. "It’s you who prefer to sleep in your cave nowadays."

Ignis let out a sound that was a mixture of a growl and a purr, before laying its head down on my chest. Jade did that too, and their green and red had were snuggling right under Schwa’s pendant. My three little babies who were fully mine, weren’t given by anyone. My sweet babies who pledge to stay with me even if the world forsook me.

And I knew they would stick close to me from now on, and more so on the day the humans came. Hmm...I should tell them carefully to do nothing but observe. Yes, I had to tell them to only provide a shield even if the humans somehow attacked us. Of course, it would be ideal if no one acted aggressively, but we didn’t know how people would act, wouldn’t we?

I patted the three of them one by one, caressing them as I drifted into a nap.

* * *

When a letter came from Heraz saying they finally entered the river, I told Izzi to come and stay in the Lair. He was...more excited than I thought.

"When will they come?" his golden eyes were shining like a pair of suns--or light bulbs. "Today? Tomorrow?"

"Why are you so energetic all of a sudden?"

"Well, you’re the one who told me to think of this as vacation," Izzi snatched a slice of cake from the tea table and shrugged. "It’s just down on me that life has been so boring lately with all the work."

I glanced at the half-naga and told her. "You hear that, Neel? So he won’t help you with anything while he’s here."

She just shrugged nonchalantly. "There’s nothing we need to do together anymore until the mock-up is done, anyway."

I rolled my eyes and threw a piece of chocolate at her. "What I mean is you should also have days off from time to time," I sighed and shook my head. "You said you don’t like workers exploitation, but if you don’t take regular rest and vacation, isn’t that mean self-exploitation?"

The black eyes blinked and fiddled with the chocolate that she caught. It was ironic, wasn’t it? She had been working too hard to the point of exhaustion and death in her previous life, and while she vehemently tried to avoid living like that again, the habit of working hard nonstop had been too ingrained in her soul.

"I guess...since the client asked me to..." she mumbled quietly while unwrapping the chocolate. "Rich people are weird..."

Pfft--what was that supposed to mean? It was Natha who had the money anyway.

"So? What are we supposed to do?" Izzi asked again, leaning into the table with those bright eyes.

"We wait, what else?"

His lips twisted, looking palpably unimpressed. "Just wait? We won’t do anything?"

"What do you want to do when they’re not even here?" I rolled my eyes. "The objective is to let them inside from the start, so they won’t be able to escape until I properly talk to them."

"Hmm..." Izzi tapped on his chin, looking out the window while pondering. "What if they use a teleportation scroll to get away?"

"I’ve asked the elemental birds to restrict movement skills on the Tower--except for Natha."

"They can do that?"

[Jade’s Seniors are great!]

"Jade’s seniors are great," I repeated in agreement. "There are dozens of elemental birds guarding this place; of course, they could do this much."

And of course, I had told them to not treat the ’intruders’ with hostility, just watchful eyes. I even told them to hide their presence as much as they could.

"But..." Zia tilted her head while tilting the teacup. "What if not everyone comes to the Tower? What if some of them stayed in the forest, or perhaps in the river?"

"That’s a possibility--although I doubt they would stay near the river if they realized Vrida’s presence," instead of exploring each other’s bodies last time, I was exploring all kinds of scenarios with Natha instead. "And if they experience the forest...I don’t think they’d be willing to stay there even more."

"Oh, you’re right," Zia nodded. Everyone here knew that the only ones who could safely go through the forest were Doun and me. Even the twin guards only patrolled the inner yards and the cliff, before going back to their cabin near the estate’s gate.

The author girl should know about this too, so she would advise against staying in the forest. Wasn’t that why they went through the river instead?

"So, even if they split up, they would at most stay in the garden or the grass field...right?" Zia snapped her fingers.

"Yep."

That being said, I didn’t think they would split. The Hero would come inside, obviously. If the daughter of Midas was truly my friend, she would demand to come inside just out of curiosity. Most likely, they would bring the inventor too, because she was the one with the connection to Natha.

That leave...who? The priest and the elementalist, I guess? But I reckoned the two transmigrators were non-combatant, so they would need ’bodyguards’ so to speak.

That would be everyone!

Well, they might leave one of the fighters outside to run and tell the news to the others in case the mission failed. But if it was only one person, well...the twins should be able to subdue that person without harming them.

"Hmm...since it’s infiltration, they would probably come at night, right? When they think everyone is asleep?" Zia stroked her chin and narrowed her eyes as if she was talking about something scandalous.

"I don’t exactly know what they are going to do," I said--after all, I only knew they would come here and nothing else. "But if I had to take a guess...they probably plan to take the residents as ’hostage’ and ask them--I mean, us--to contact Natha."

"But, hmm..." Izzi tilted his head while nibbling on pastry. "Do you think they know about you? I mean, that you are the Lord’s bride."

I shook my head. "They wouldn’t have the means to get their hand on Demon Realm’s newspapers. Besides, Natha made sure the news about me did not leak to the human realm, since Lenaar still looking for Alveitya," I patted my buzzing arm before continuing. "And according to our spies, the Hero and his companions had no time to care about the business in the demon realms with all the...hero-ing that they did."

"Pfft--" Neel, for the first time, snorted.

"Anyway, they only have the plan to come here after visiting the magician island, so they won’t have any time to gather additional information about the demon realm, aside from general stuff," it was only my conjecture, of course, but Natha also agreed to this. "And they probably only knew about this place because of the author."

"Oh-ho!" Zia clapped her hands. "That means...it would be a total surprise when they see you then?"

I guess? I just shrugged and nodded.

"Oh, are you sure we can’t watch? Come on, I want to watch!"

"Yes, Val! Can’t we watch? Please?"

"Please?"

Look at this succubus and elf only getting along at a time like this. "Can you turn into flies or something?"

"That’s impossible!"

"Well..." I shrugged and smirked. "If only you’ve finished that video recording device, huh?"

"Aaaargh!"