The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 390: Great inventions come with great responsibility

Chapter 390: Great inventions come with great responsibility

"Oh, you tamed His Lordship already?" Lesta greeted me with a casual diss to his boss as usual.

"He’s not a beast, Lesta," I wiggled my finger. "But let’s just say I did. Anyway, are you done?"

"Who do you think I am?" the demon scoffed, flicking the scroll in his hand before showing it to me. "The materials used in making this are too crude for my taste, but that makes it easier to tamper, so I won’t complain."

Pfft--look at this posh former street demon. Of course, the material used in the Castle of Greed would be miles better than the one used by an almost broke magician who had been troubled by mana deficiency for years.

"So we can use this for six people now, right?" I took the scroll and looked at it. The change couldn’t be seen with untrained eyes, but I could still understand the pattern. But this...

As my eyes widened slightly, Lesta explained with a deep smile. "I make sure it could carry eight living beings," he said. "Surely you won’t go without taking your companions with you?"

Jade gasped--or rather, chirped--and flew over to hug the demon. [Jade also like Blacky very much!]

"I don’t know what you said but you’re welcome."

"Wait...Jade and Ignis need slots too? I thought they would count as a package with me--you know...since they’re contracted to my souls and all."

"That is if you count them as normal contracted beasts," the one who replied was Eruha. "Entities in their level, however, have the same soul complexity as you. The magic will count them as individual rather than an attachment."

Oh! Thank Gods for Lesta!

"I’ll be expecting huge housewarming gifts," Lesta smiled at Natha with curled eyes. "Maybe you can throw a vacation or two while at it?"

"You can only choose one."

Lesta clicked his tongue and looked at me, but I just shrugged and grinned.

"How stingy--even though I made sure your bride is surrounded by his little spies."

"Hey!"

Lesta scoffed at my protest and gave the nuzzling bird on his shoulder a piece of candy, before going over to the inventor tables. He was probably the only vassal close enough with these runaway investors since his ability was closely linked with magic tech--if that was a thing. It seemed like he would check on the video recorder’s magic formation while he was here.

Ah, well--I turned toward the four humans huddling on the couch and waved the scroll. Fatia hurried over to take the scroll carefully from my hand, looking at it in awe. She was also glancing at Lesta cautiously, before looking at me and smiled wryly.

"Thank you," she said, rather heavily. I reckoned it wasn’t just a thank-you for the scroll, but had something to do with the fact that she didn’t have to fight Natha and his vassals.

"You’re welcome," I nodded and pointed up. "Would you like to go there and meet the elemental birds?"

The sharp gasp she let out almost made me think she had a heart attack.

* * *

"This is what I want to show you," Aina said in a low, quiet voice--although there was no one but me and Natha here.

After I took Fatia to see the elemental birds, Aina tugged my sleeve and whispered that she wanted to talk to me alone. Natha could come too, however, and it easily told me that it had something to do with her invention.

And so here we were, in the library, surrounding a clear orb. I tilted my head and touched the orb, observing all the parts that I could. It was quite similar to the communication orb--the red one--only that the base platform holding the orb was larger and waaay more complicated than the red communication orb.

So I took the red communication orb and put it side by side with Aina’s. "Are they cousins?"

Aina grinned and nodded. "But--but! I made it so it can be used between realms."

Natha coughed--which was rare--and looked at Aina with slightly widened eyes. I could only blink because I didn’t have adequate knowledge to understand how significant it was. What made me surprise was Natha’s reaction.

"You’ve made something extremely dangerous," he said. "I see now why you’re keeping this a secret."

"Umm...I haven’t tested it yet, though..." she chewed her lower lips. "I was about to call your contact in the human realm, Lord Natha, but..." she let out a sigh before continuing in a whisper. "Well, as you see, I caught up in something."

I tugged Natha’s sleeve and looked at him curiously. "Why? What’s dangerous?" I asked with a frown. "Isn’t it good that we can communicate better?"

Natha smiled and told me in a conspirative tone. "Because it would allow easier spying activity," he said. "Being able to communicate between realms is only good if all of us have good relationships with each other. But as of now, the only use for this is to ease communication between spies."

...huh. Perhaps because I had once lived in a peaceful world--at least the quiet part where I lived--I had never thought about it that way. Now that I think about it, I had heard that most communication technology on modern Earth started from the military, including the Internet.

"The problem with secret communication in this world is that it takes a long time and was easy to be intercepted because the messenger had to cross the border," Natha explained further. "People with the skill to relay messages through secretive means--like an elemental spirit--is rare."

"What about Heraz?"

"His system is spreading as many people as possible and relaying messages from one place to another quickly," Natha turned toward the window, as if Heraz--or one of his people--was there. Perhaps they were. "He himself could shapeshift into speedy animals, but still..."

"It’s prone to be intercepted," I nodded.

Once again, I was reminded that the paradise Natha painstakingly made for me did not represent the whole world.

"When I said dangerous, though...I’m talking about the humans," Natha smiled deeply, fingers knocking gently on the clear orb that reflected Aina’s face. "Demons can go over because we can shapeshift, but it’s not the case with humans."

"Oh..."

Which means, there were no human spies in the demon realm?

"What if they use a tool to disguise themselves?"

"They might, but..."

"That kind of tool is very expensive, Boss," Aina told me. "In the human realm, a magic tool or artifact that could change someone’s race is usually worth a whole tower."

"...tower?"

Like...not even worth a mansion, but...a whole tower.

"A whole magic tower," Aina nodded. "Especially if it can be used for a long time without the need to supply large amounts of mana. If it’s only a light makeover like changing hair color or eye color, it might be purchasable in auctions. Changing body shape and face contour will be as expensive as the big mansion in the city. And if it’s changing a whole race, then..."

Ugh--alright, enough. Now I wondered how much those disguising artifacts that Natha used for me cost.

Natha chuckled at my gaze and stroked my shoulder in his usual way of saying that I should just let him spoil me. "The point is; it’s hardly likely they would waste so many resources to spy inside the demon realms when it’s so risky. I could afford it because I just employ those with a natural ability to disguise themselves."

And then he scoffed while adding mockingly. "Besides, if they had spies here, they would have known that it’s a foolish endeavor to wage war between realms."

I pursed my lips at his words. "Perhaps they think it’s doable because my kingdom fell."

Natha’s hand stiffened on my shoulder, and he swiftly tilted my face gently to look at him. "I’m sorry, sweetheart."

I pouted and Aina giggled at the spectacle, as if she hadn’t just listened to how Natha had a whole army of spies infiltrating the human realm. Well, I guessed she already knew about this since she knew who Natha was.

"Anyway, about this?" I cleared my throat and pointed at the orb again.

"Well, I made this, and I think it should work. The only way to know is to put one in another realm though, so..." she took out another clear orb, the pair. "Since Boss Valen will come with us, Lord Natha should hold onto one. We can try it once we reach the Magician’s Island, or when we arrive in Fatia’s country."

"...an inter-realm phone," I gasped.

"Oh, but it’ll need a huge amount of mana," Aina said with a sigh. "That’s the drawback. I want to fine-tune it more to reduce the mana consumption, but I need a few trial runs first to study it more..."

"Huge mana is all I have," I giggled and grabbed the new orb that Aina just took out, rubbing the complicated rune at the base. "But you’re really great Aina...I couldn’t tell all of the formations used here."

Aina flinched slightly and pressed her lips, before leaning forward and whispering again. "Umm...actually, I’m not working on this alone," she said. "But my friend is really really shy, even though they are really really smart. I can’t really take it out in front of the others lest they ask. And if they ask, they might find my friend, and...my friend might leave me..."

Hmm...yeah, as I thought, all of these inventors were fascinating.

"Alright, I won’t ask about your friend," I chuckled. "But if your friend wants a nice secluded place to live, you could bring them here. There’s Neel and Izzi visits from time to time too."

She giggled again and nodded, so I was glad that the poaching option was not closed.

"Will you permit me to show this to Lesta?" Natha took the orb in his hand and put it inside his coat.

"Oh, the demon who edit the scroll earlier? Sure," Aina nodded. "Just...don’t ask about who makes it, or..." she glanced carefully at Natha. "Would that break the contract?"

Natha patted the clear orb with his fingers, lips stretched into a deep smile. "If this works, I’ll give you enough to free you of your debt for making this and live a nice life with that friend of yours."

Her eyes sparkled before she let out a silent giggle, but all I could think about was that by the contract, Natha--and that means me--would have the right to the invention made with his money.

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