The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 384: We should always expect character development

Chapter 384: We should always expect character development

My lips curled as he brought up the topic himself. "I am--after all, we were raised in different circumstances."

He stopped talking again for almost a minute. "I heard from Zarfa that...that he was supposed to be dead."

"Perhaps; I didn’t exactly read her...vision. She just told me bits and pieces."

"Did you really..." he stopped walking then, which prompted me to stop so he wouldn’t get left behind. "Did you really meet his...his soul?"

I turned to look at him; he was staring at me with reddened eyes--perhaps it had been like that the moment he mentioned Valmeier’s supposed death. I guessed he really did love his ’Brother Valmeier’.

"I did," I told him sincerely, looking into his eyes with a clear gaze. "I don’t know how to convince you, and I don’t think I need to. But if you want, I can tell you about all of his memory--although, you can also reason that I just read his memory rather than meeting him."

Saying it as ’meeting’ him to ’hear’ his story was also rather misleading. It wasn’t like Valmeier had ever gone--he was always inside of my soul space, waiting. Even now, it wasn’t like he was gone. The part of his soul was used to fill the crack in my incomplete one--no, it had gone back to where it belonged.

That being said, I knew the concept would be hard to digest for someone who never experienced it. I could hardly explain it well to other people because it was so...abrupt and personal.

So, I didn’t really blame him for feeling suspicious. Just that...for Valmeier’s sake, I didn’t want Illian to think he was robbed.

Because that would be disrespectful to Vailmeier’s conviction.

I waited, and Illian finally shook his head. "No, you’re right--I would still question it even if you tell me. I just..." he bit his lips and blinked his unshed tears away. "Do you think she was right? Would Brother Valmeier die if you didn’t...come?"

"Honestly? I’m not sure," I replied with sincerity. We were here so we could clear up all misunderstandings, so I didn’t want to lie to him.

He looked startled, perhaps because he thought I would answer the other way, but he waited for me to continue rather than cutting like last night.

"If he did nothing, then yes, he might die," I nodded. "I only survive because I remember the foresight about this event--that the Demon Lord of Greed had an Amrita. The foresight made me seek for him, and I got the cure. Valmeier, in another hand, had no such knowledge."

"Ah..."

"But," I nudged him forward so he would start walking again as I continued. "As you may heard earlier, Natha acquired the Amrita because of me, and he had an inkling that I would come someday through Valmeier’s body. Perhaps..."

This was only a conjecture that I tried to come up with through a lot of ’what if’ scenarios.

"Perhaps he would come and save Valmeier if he knew Valmeier was dying."

That was one of the scenarios I came up with. He had his spies all over the human realm, so he must have heard about Valmeier’s conditions. But at that time, even if I didn’t come, Valmeier would still be going around as if he was healthy. Compared to me, Valmeier was even better at hiding his pain, so no one would know he was dying until literally the day he was going to die.

"But that was only--only if Natha had fallen for me," I told him further.

I glanced back and saw that he looked at me in confusion. Ignis took it upon himself to create a harmless fiery rope that tied the young paladin’s waist like a guideline so he wouldn’t get lost. As we walked up the slight hill leading to Vrida’s nest, I told him about what the deities did.

"What Ceci--I mean, Zarfa--saw, was the Goddess’s vision of the future that had yet to come. It was a future that would end up with the end of the world--though I can’t tell you the details," I explained. Well, I didn’t want him to suddenly faint or something from the world’s automatic censorship. "But because of this vision, they made a few changes--one of them was by sending Natha to the other world so he could meet me."

I let my brief explanation be digested by the young paladin for a little bit. As we arrived at the top of the hill, he finally spoke.

"So...you mean...because he met you in that other world, he--umm--fell, for you?" he asked timidly, and I simply nodded in response. "And because of that...he acquired for that--that Amrita--that we’ve been looking for...?" he tilted his head and stopped walking again. "But in that vision...didn’t he already have the Amrita?"

"Ah yes, that..." I nodded, applauding that he recalled that fact. "Well, he was fated to be the Demon Lord anyway, and he probably acquired the Amrita merely for collection."

It was such a beautiful piece of art, after all. Just like how fate worked, nothing much would change--just a slight alteration in motive. Even without falling in love with me, Natha would still have his revenge, and he would still climb up to be the Demon Lord just for that revenge alone.

Hell--he might still build the Lair just for his petty fight with the Lord of Pride.

"But in that case, he would never meet Valmeier," I said. "And Valmeier would most definitely die."

After all, I recalled that one of the things that made the Hero decide to leave the kingdom was because he found out about Valmeier’s fate. He even found Valmeier’s corpse if I wasn’t mistaken.

Once again, I did not read the novel.

But yeah--without Valmeier and me being there, Natha might not be able to find anyone to give birth to the vassal of Primordial God. But a little twist in the fate’s spindle, a little rendezvous, and the butterfly flapped its wings.

"How...how do you know all of this?"

The light blue eyes of the young paladin blinked slowly--was that astonishment I saw? I smiled and shrugged as I replied nonchalantly. "Why; the one who tweaked the fate told me themselves."

"Wha--you mean...the Deities?"

I chuckled at his bulging eyes and turned around to resume our walk. "Well, yes; the Demon God Lord An’Hyang, and Mother--I mean, the Goddess of Nature."

"Y-you’ve met them?!"

"In my soul space, yes--rather abrupt, I must say. Weird experiences, but they told me things, at least."

"What--what about our Goddess?" he made quick steps to match me, catching up like a puppy.

See--he was still just a boy. I couldn’t help but smile at his sudden enthusiasm, but unfortunately, I had to give him the bad news.

"Not her," I shook my head, and he deflated. "There’s something...no, I’ll talk about it with the Hero."

"With Brother Jin? But...oh, right. Yeah, you should talk to him if it’s about the Goddess," he agreed easily. "But wow...so you have talked with the other Deities..."

He sounded so in awe, almost like a child. Well, he was younger than me, so he still felt like a boy.

"Right; there’s something I want to ask you," I glanced at him.

"What?"

"Do you know anything about my--I mean, Valmeier’s father?"

He raised his brow, probably didn’t expect this kind of question. "How would I know? Why did you ask about that anyWAAY!!"

Illian jumped back in fright when he saw Vrida’s incoming head. He was so excited asking about the Goddess that he didn’t realize we had arrived in the wyvern’s nest. I quickly stroked Vrida’s cheek so she didn’t get startled.

"You shouldn’t react like that," I told him with a chuckle.

"B-but--"

"Even if she’s a beast--no, especially when you encounter a non-tamed beast, you shouldn’t show that you’re surprised or scared; they’ll see it as aggression."

Vrida was a tamed wyvern, but even my girl still felt surprised--and just like how a startled human could smack the nearest person by accident, so would a beast. Especially the one with a big build like a wyvern. If I didn’t calm her right away, she might flap its wings or flick its tail in reflex.

Even now, she was growling a little bit.

"O...oh, I’m sorry..." he put his hands behind his back and bowed his head a little bit, like a disciplined soldier.

"You should learn to be steady. Aren’t you a paladin? How could a tank get startled by unexpected things, Illian?"

He flinched when I called him with his name, and lowered his head even more. "Y-yeah, I’m sorry--I mean...thank you..."

O-ho? Look at this boy saying sorry and thank you easily now. And he didn’t stop there.

With pressed lips and a slightly reddened cheek, he looked at me carefully. It reminded me of the time Caba came to me on his knees in the library.

"Umm, I...I’m sorry," he apologized again, this time with a full bent of his waist. "I’m sorry about...what I said to you last night. I know it’s not your fault that you came here, but I...I’m sorry!"

Well, well...I didn’t expect this. I wanted to clear any bad thoughts he had of me, but to receive a full-blown sincere apology...

What a character development in a single night.

I stroked Vrida’s jaw and looked at the yellow iris that was blinking slowly. How about it, girl? Should we reward him? Vrida let out a soft purr in response, nuzzling my cheek gently.

"Illian," I looked at the young paladin and asked him with a smile. "Would you like to try flying?"

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