The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 385: The way to children’s heart is through amusement ride

Chapter 385: The way to children’s heart is through amusement ride

"Whoaa--AAAH--Oh, my Goddess!"

The sound of Illian’s scream filled the air above the Lair as Vrida took off. For the first few minutes, the boy kept shouting and shouting, until the flight finally stabilized and Ignis slapped the screaming paladin in the cheek to get the boy back to his senses.

When he opened his eyes, however, the boy froze in stunned for a whole minute; just staring at the scenery with unblinking eyes.

And then he laughed, and he continued laughing for the rest of the flight. In the end, he became no different than Jade--and I had an inkling he would sit between Vrida’s horn if he was small enough while screaming ’wheeeee’ with both arms up in the air.

"Is it fun?"

"Yes, Sir!" Illian laughed, looking as much as a boy that he was. But then he got startled and clasped his mouth. "Oh--umm...what...uh, what should I call you?"

Ah, right. He used to call Valmeier ’brother’, but it was probably weird for him to call me that without the same attachment. But it also felt weird being called ’Sir’ like a total stranger when I had this attachment--no matter how slight--to him through Valmeier’s feelings.

"You can just call me by my name--my real name," I shrugged.

"That’s..."

"Weird? Well, just do what you want then."

How complicated, just thinking about what to call. I didn’t care anymore as long as he didn’t call me ’Your Highness’ or something--

"Then--" Illian paused and bit his lips, before continuing bashfully. "Is it alright to call you...umm, brother too?"

"Huh..."

"Brother...umm, Valen..." he chewed the inside of his cheek, seemingly getting used to how it sounded. "Yeah, Brother Valen. Can I?"

That was...unexpected. "Well, I don’t particularly mind..."

Illian perked up slightly and added, still with that bashful look. "Then...you should call me Ian."

"...sure, Ian."

He grinned for a second, before hiding his face from embarrassment. Pfft--look at this cute boy. Haa...he should have just become a normal priest or left the church altogether. Why should he follow the Hero and put himself on dangerous adventures at such a young age?

Even though I wanted to lament, I had to hold it inside, because that would be disrespectful to the choice that he had made himself. I could only hope he would be able to survive the Hero’s ordeal as his companion, and reach his own happy ending.

Well, at least right now, I could tell he was happy.

I told Vrida to land on the grass field, where I could see Zarfa running toward us along with Jade. Fatia and the Hero, meanwhile, were following them behind like a pair of babysitters.

"That’s unfair! I want to ride a wyvern too!" the girl shouted as she ran toward us.

The moment he stepped on the ground, Ian crouched down and gasped. "Wow...oh, Goddess...wow! It’s so scary--but fun! But scary! But fun!"

"Did it make you feel like a wyvern knight?" I asked with a smirk.

He stood up and clasped his hands together as he looked at me with clear, sparkling eyes. "Can...can I go again while wearing a full armor?"

"No! It’s my turn now!" Zarfa finally reached them and demanded aggressively.

"Ceci, Vrida is not an amusement ride," I flicked her forehead. "You need to ask for her permission."

The girl puffed her cheeks and clung to me, shaking my arm like a spoiled child. "Help me ask for permission then."

I let out a sound that was half a chuckle and half a sigh, stroking Vrida’s jaw, and looked at her apologetically. It seemed like she had to play with the kids for a while today. Because, by the look of it, the elementalist also seemed to be interested in riding the wyvern, while Jade...well, Jade had already perched on Vrida’s head as usual.

[Jade will fly with Vrida too!]

But Vrida, my bestest girl, gently nuzzled me to show she was okay with it. I promised her that I would order the best lean meat in the market for her--because Vrida did not like her meat with too much fat--and called Gaela to take over. As much as I liked to fly around with all of them several times, I had other things to do.

Including talking to the Hero.

"Oh, right--you were asking about your father earlier, right?" Ian suddenly reminded me of my own disturbed inquiry earlier as we watched Vrida take off again with Zarfa, Fatia, and Gaela.

"Yeah, but didn’t you say you didn’t know anything about that?" I tilted my head, wondering why he brought it up again.

"Well, I didn’t, but...I might know who did."

I blinked and, as something suddenly occurred to me, I gasped. "The nun!"

Ian nodded. "Well, honestly, she might know nothing," Ian shrugged. "But she had been in the church all her life, so...or--or, she might have something like Grandpa Yonah’s journal or old notes of the church--who knows."

Hmm...that made sense. Anyway, there were no other clues aside from that, so there was no harm in checking.

"I could write a letter for her to ask about it, although...it would take a long time until it arrived, and, it might take her even longer to reply, and..."

She fidgeted slightly, perhaps feeling bad because it felt like the notion of writing a single letter for an answer that might or might not be available seemed very wobbly. I patted his shoulder in understanding--it wasn’t like I was in a hurry for that information.

In fact, it wasn’t me who would need that information.

I glanced at the Hero--who had been watching the flying wyvern silently while I conversed with Ian. "You don’t need to worry about it, I can just send someone to ask her about it," I told the young paladin. "Although, it might help if you write a letter to convince her."

"Huh? You know where she is?"

Ian blinked in surprise, and I couldn’t help but chuckle. "I don’t--but I know who does," I shrugged. "How do you think I know when exactly you’d arrive here?"

"So you were spying on us," the Hero, who had been quiet, spoke suddenly. Heh--so he was listening.

"I did," I confessed easily. "Although it wasn’t like you hid your movement carefully."

How much could people hide while they were helping a revolutionary army, anyway?

The Hero narrowed his eyes slightly, but didn’t say anything more. It was harder than I thought, to understand what this guy was thinking. He was just a year or two older than Valmeier when he was getting summoned, so I felt like we were peers in some way. But I couldn’t get this guy--except for how good-leaning this guy was. I didn’t read the novel, so I had nothing about his personality, and he had been mostly quiet and let others take action.

Oh, well. It was time, anyway.

"There’s something I need to talk to you," I told the Hero, who raised his brow in response.

Ian, who remembered what I told him during our walk before, took the signal and told us he would go inside to wear his armor so he could role-play as a wyvern knight, leaving me alone with the Hero in the wide grassland.

Well, there was also Ignis who acted as my dedicated bodyguard-cum-spy, but...

"What...do you want to talk about?" the Hero spoke first, sounding unsure about the direction of our conversation.

"Ah, I want to ask you about the Goddess," I shifted my gaze from the flying wyvern to him. "Your Goddess, I mean."

"You mean the Goddess of Light?"

"Yeah, what do you know about Her? Ah, I don’t mean the general thing that the church is telling you--I have enough of that," I let out a sigh of exasperation as I recalled all the teaching that Valmeier had received. "Tell me something that only you know."

The Hero, who was ready to reply before, closed his mouth again and frowned as he rethinking his answer. "Hmm...I knew that my summoning was using the relics containing Her power, but..."

He stopped and frowned even deeper. I waited for a while, but when he still thinking after a few minutes, I nudged him to another direction. "Have you ever heard her voice?"

He raised his face and blinked at my question. "Her...voice?"

"Yeah, like...when you’re in the church or something," I urged him, but the deeper his frown and the more confused he looked, the theory I talked about with Natha seemed to be getting truer and truer.

"Her voice..." he rubbed his lips and started to tap his foot on the ground. "No, I don’t think I ever..."

He bit the inside of his cheek, probably starting to feel how ominous it was that I asked such a question.

"What about the time you were summoned?"

"I’m...I’m not sure; it’s been a long time, but--" he looked at me with furrowed brows and a sharp gaze. It was the most serious look he ever gave me--more than anything he gave last night. "Why? Why are you asking me about the Goddess? Does it have anything to do with why you were asking about your father?"

Oh--isn’t he a sharp one?

Well, there was no need to prolong this. I stepped a bit closer so he could hear me among the sound of wind and the happy screaming up there.

"Have you thought about why you were summoned here in the first place?"

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