The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 373: The Lair of Greed

Chapter 373: The Lair of Greed

Stealthily, they ran across the bluegrass field and entered the beautiful garden with flowers that started to bloom.

How pretty the place would be if they saw it during the day? Zarfa sighed and tried to focus on their mission. If they didn’t have to hurry and be as secretive as possible, she would have enjoyed the place as much as she could before doing anything.

And, looking at her partner, it seemed like she wasn’t alone in her thoughts. The elementalist had been repeatedly glancing at the top of the tower with yearning eyes. In the end, however, she just sighed and conjured a soft wind around their body, making themselves lighter so they could climb the wall of the tower.

"There doesn’t seem to be any alarm magic on the wall," Fatia told the girl.

After making sure it was safe enough, they took out a pair of gloves from their pocket. The pads of the gloves contained a magic formation that would help the gloves stick to a flat surface, helping them with their climbing effort. The mana stones fueling the formation, however, only had enough power for fifteen minutes at best--so they couldn’t hope to use it to climb something too tall like the cliff on the other side of the Tower.

But it should be enough to reach the balcony.

"Good thing I’m not afraid of height, huh?" Zarfa muttered.

"But are you afraid of falling?"

The girl pursed her lips at the chuckling elementalist, before finally starting their climb like that one bug superhero. Thankfully, the outer wall of the tower was flat and devoid of obstacles, so they didn’t have to waste time and energy to avoid random structures. They just needed to stay away from the windows, which were dark all over.

It didn’t take too much time for them to reach the balcony, and they carefully climbed over the railing, making sure they didn’t produce any sound when their feet landed on the floor.

This place is also beautiful--they thought. Like a mini garden, there were vines with blooming flowers crawling on the railing, as well as potted plants and small flower beds. A nice-looking swing and sofa bed was situated in a corner, with a pretty little tea table that invited them to have a relaxing time.

Was this truly a place that belonged to a Demon Lord? They were exchanging gazes in fascination. Even Zarfa couldn’t see things in too much detail in her ’foresight’, so she was just as confused.

But they had a mission to do, so the fawning could be done later. With shoes that contained silencing formation on the soles, they approached the balcony door, only to find out that a dark curtain had been drawn on the other side. From here, it didn’t seem like someone was staying there, and the door was locked when Zarfa tried to open it.

What now? the girl mouthed. the door seemed to be locked with magic and not a regular key. They wouldn’t be able to open it without Jin--unless, of course, they were willing to bulldoze their way through and create chaos.

Not now, though. They shouldn’t incur the owner’s wrath. Yet.

Fatia bit her lips before pointing up, which made Zarfa parted her lips. But the elementalist just shrugged and mouthed that they should try it at least. She pulled the hood of their cloak down even more and shrouded themselves in soft elemental mana to blend more with their surrounding.

Let’s go--she gave an encouraging nod and started climbing again. Zarfa could only sigh and wondered if Fatia really wanted to look for another door or just wanted to see the elemental birds from closer proximity.

Either way, she was right--they had to try. Logically, a rooftop would have a door. But this door was located right below the elemental birds’ territory, so maybe the residents of the Tower would not bother to lock it. With that hope, they jumped onto the Tower’s roof and held their breath in one corner.

They stayed still, like a cornered rat, as dozens of glowing eyes in a myriad of colors trained on them. Are we caught? The two humans waited with bated breath, praying that their little stealth was successful. Only after a few minutes passed without the birds doing anything, they carefully moved toward the rooftop door.

Bless the Goddess, it was unlocked!

They hurriedly came inside and closed the door, taking their time to regulate their breathing. It was truly unnerving, to be stared at by dozens of magical creatures--each was as big as an average human. Even Fatia had no leeway to admire them, despite her initial excitement.

"Didn’t it seem like they were watching us?" Zarfa whispered.

"Yeah," the elementalist nodded. "But they did nothing...like the wyvern."

"Right..." the girl of foresight frowned. "Why do you think so?"

Fatia pondered about it. "Perhaps...because we don’t exactly ’attack’ the place? Maybe they don’t think ’infiltration’ is an attack," she shrugged. "Or maybe they don’t really ’see’ us, just feeling a strange cluster of mana."

"Oh..."

"Either way, I’m glad we don’t have to fight any elemental bird," Fatia breathed out a sigh of relief. Regardless of win and lose, she just didn’t want to hurt those birds if she could. "Okay, let’s go down."

Revamping their caution, they walked down the stairs that felt strangely luxurious; with polished wood and intricate carvings on the railing. It led them to a wide space that seemed to encompass the whole top floor. There were only two things there; something that looked like a huge empty frame and a big orb.

"This is...an emergency long-distance communication orb, right?" Zarfa tilted her head to observe the big orb, while Fatia looked at the empty frame and the runes carved all over it.

"This is...a portal gate," she said. "There’s no slot for mana stones to activate it, though. How weird."

"As expected of the Lord of Greed...to put such expensive things in his Lair..." Zarfa whistled, before clasping her mouth swiftly and throwing the elementalist an apologetic gaze.

Fatia shook her head exasperatedly and pointed at the stairs leading down again. There was nothing else on the top floor aside from a few comfortable-looking benches, so there was no need to stay there longer. They found out that there was a way for the Tower to contact the outside quickly--probably to the Lord Castle--and that was the only thing that mattered.

As they climbed down the stairs, they heard a slight rustling sound and froze, before crouching to hide in the shadow. But soon, they saw the familiar figure of Jin and Aina, and immediately exhaled. Those two were just coming up from the lower floor, and looked as tensed as them.

"Oh, it’s you guys..." Zarfa patted her chest as they congregated in the small lounge facing the only door on that floor.

Jin, who was also almost taking out his sword, tilted his head. "Why are you coming from there?"

"The balcony door is locked," Zarfa said. "Well...that’s not so surprising. We should have known that they wouldn’t just let the master suite open for anyone."

"So we came from the roof," Fatia added. "Quite nervewracking, but the elemental birds didn’t give any reaction."

"Huh..."

Jin stroked his chin as he started to feel weirded out. "We didn’t find anyone on our way," he told them. "There were signs of life from what seemed to be the bedroom gallery, so I think they are all asleep. But...it’s kind of weird that we didn’t meet any guards and the creatures that we saw just...watch."

They looked at each other as worry and doubt started to appear. Fatia once again told them about her theory--which she shared with Zarfa earlier--and then added. "By the fact that there are only a few demons stationed here, don’t you think they just never thought anyone would be stupid enough to come here?"

"Hmm...that might be true," Jin nodded. "I’m just wondering why they don’t use golems to patrol the place."

Zarfa patted their leader’s arm. "Hey, do you think operating golems are easy or cheap?" as the daughter of Midas’s guildmaster, she had a better grasp of how much things cost in this world. "They probably programmed to only react when there’s an attack--just like Fatia said. You know; when destructive spells and weapons are being used?"

Jin mulled over what the girl said. Indeed; from how this estate looked--the beautiful garden and interior, the lack of defensive measures--it seemed like the Lair was used for a vacation home, kind of like a villa. In that case, not having much security wasn’t that weird.

Perhaps, they should see it as a sign that their effort was being blessed by the Goddess, instead.

"What should we do now?" Fatia asked. "Should we go to the bedroom gallery and take them...umm...hostage?"

A flash of uncomfortableness could be seen on their faces. They didn’t like the sound of it, honestly, even if they had no intention of hurting the demons.

"Hey..." Zarfa rubbed her lips as she looked at the door standing before them. "Since everyone seemed to be sleeping anyway, why don’t we go over the master suite? Who knows...maybe we can find something to leverage our bargaining chip?"

"You mean...blackmail?" Aina squeaked.

"It’s not so different from taking hostages," Zarfa shrugged.

Jin let out a sigh. When he first came to this world, he had never thought he would end up committing crimes. But what was the use of thinking about it now, when he was already breaking and entering someone else’s home?

Just think of it as doing it for the greater good.

Chanting such thoughts in his mind, he nodded at the other three and put his hand on the doorknob. Surprisingly, the door wasn’t locked, and they wasted no time to be doubtful anymore. They could regret it later, but now, they had a mission to carry.

Closing the door quietly, they crept through the dark foyer toward what seemed to be a sitting room. Jin swept his gaze around to decide where they should do their search, but suddenly, the room was brightened by the fireplace that was suddenly lit.

"What--"

Before they could eke out much reaction, they heard a sound coming from the armchair in front of the fireplace.

"Welcome to the Lair of Greed," the armchair slowly turned, and they were greeted by a sweet smiling face. "What took you so long?"