The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 405: Girlies shouldn’t spill tea out of nowhere!

Chapter 405: Girlies shouldn’t spill tea out of nowhere!

"Give me your hand," I grabbed Zarfa’s hand on our way back to the edge of the corrupted land, sending my mana into her system. "Why are you recklessly going inside this place when you’re just a regular person?"

"Huh? What are you doing? Are you healing me?" she blinked while swinging our hands together. "Oh, wow...it’s like someone pouring mint inside. What did you do? What did you do?"

She looked at me with sparkling curious eyes while jumping like a kid who had too much sugar in their system. Was I invigorating her too much?

"I sent my mana to boost the work of your cells," I told her. "They need to work hard to eliminate the polluted mana your body ingested."

"Ooh...so you can heal too..."

"I’m a priest and a druid. Healing is like...a basic skill, isn’t it?"

"That’s true," she giggled, and even though I no longer needed to heal her, she still held onto my hand all the way to where the Regent and the others were.

On that side, I could see the Mayor approaching from the bridge with the horses. I couldn’t see his face clearly, but from how energetic he was while riding his horse, it was safe to say he was happy enough. The Regent’s face was hidden beneath her hood though, so I had no idea how she felt.

Anyway, Aina was busy jumping and waving at us when we were getting closer, and I couldn’t help but wonder. "What did you do while waiting for me?" I asked while looking up at the now-darkening sky.

"Fatia and Jin were patrolling the surrounding place to make sure no one accidentally strolled in," Zarfa replied. "I talked about what kind of food we should prepare for you with Aina."

"Oh..." I looked down and patted my stomach then, which suddenly groaned at the mention of food. Right--I skipped lunch for this purification. And since I used a lot of energy, I was hungrier than usual. Glancing at my old friend, I asked in embarrassment. "Umm...and what is the result of that discussion?"

Zarfa grinned and patted her chest. "Don’t worry! I had sent a message to people in Midas to send a lot of good ingredients to feed you!"

"Huh? You can do that?"

"Of course, I can!" she scoffed proudly. "Who do you think I am? I am the Gold Princess of--"

"No, not that," I tugged her hand and leaned down to whisper. "Would it be alright, considering everyone still struggles and everything?"

Zarfa looked at me and smiled while patting my back. "It’s fine, young man. You don’t need to be considerate about it."

"You’re younger than me."

"Whatever. Anyway, the reason why people still have to live on rations is because even if there’s a supply of goods, the economy has stagnated so much during the war that the general population no longer has money to buy stuff," she said. "To prevent those who still have money, like nobles, from monopolizing the goods and creating scarcity, the rationing system is still in place until the economy can be stabilized."

"Huh..."

Haa...this was why some people said that there was no winner in war. A champion, maybe. But not a winner.

"It has nothing to do with me, the distributor, who will use it for my own consumption," she winked. "After all, the ingredients were purchased with my own pocket solely to make sure our savior gets treated adequately."

Behind me, I could hear Fatia exhaling heavily. "I’m sorry..."

"No, no--no one blames you, Fatia," Zarfa shook her head. "I just want to provide an adequate meal for Valen, or else his fiance will think that I’m inadequate as his friend."

"That’s too much," I pursed my lips in disagreement. Natha wouldn’t go that far.

Right?

Zarfa clicked her tongue and wiggled her finger. "Tsk, tsk--do you not know how selective your fiance is?"

Uhh...was he?

I guessed he only allowed specific people to touch my food, or be near me, but...that was for safety, right?

"You don’t know, do you?" Zarfa smirked. "I was only in your Lair for two nights and a day, and I can see that he filled the place with things that you like, in your style. Everything is carefully picked to be of the best quality, including your meal. The way he looked at us when we were leaving--phew..."

Did he? I looked up to recall the moment but all I could remember was his smile and how much that made my heart skip.

As if reading my thoughts, Ignis replied from my shoulder. "It’s true," the Salamander said. "But it’s fine if you don’t realize. Everything’s for your own good."

Hey--why were all my kids being converted into Natha’s team? Not that I mind if they could be on good terms with Natha, but...

What is this feeling of betrayal?

Suddenly, Zarfa giggled, and when I asked her about it, she told me quietly. "Did you know that he used to think I was your girlfriend? I mean...back then?"

"What?!" I couldn’t help but shout and immediately clasped my mouth when Fatia and Jin looked at me in surprise. I leaned down and whispered sharply. "What are you talking about?"

"I’m serious! Back when you and the doc had just started talking for...two weeks, I think?"

"Did he--"

"He wasn’t confronting me or whatever, but I know that look," she covered her mouth and giggled again, glancing at the Hero before continuing in a real quiet whisper that no one but me could hear. "It was the same look he had been giving Jin."

"Ugh..." I bit my lips and once I made sure that the Hero wasn’t eavesdropping or anything, I whispered again. "So...ugh...you really think he has a thing for me?"

"It’s so obvious, ugh--" Zarfa rolled her eyes. "He’s either fidgety or acting cool when he’s around you. So quiet too, when he used to talk all the time. I guess he didn’t want to say the wrong things in front of you."

Was...was that the case? I guessed...since I had never been in a relationship before, I didn’t know how to pick things like that. Before Natha, no one had expressed any interest in me, be it men or women, so...

If Natha wasn’t so direct with his advances and flirtatious acts, I would probably never have come to that moment of asking him whether he liked me or not.

I pressed my lips to stop myself from screaming for the absurdity of it, which Zarfa expressed adequately as she started to giggle again.

"I mean...me? Your girlfriend? Pfft--" she cackled openly. "Me? The person who had been hearing about all of your fantasy men--"

"AAAAH!"

I clasped her mouth tight and did not release it at all until the horses came.

Damn, girl--not in public!

* * *

Zarfa did not lie when she said she wanted to provide me with a meal that was adequate to Natha’s standard. Angwi still had the best cooking, but Zarfa tried to make food that was similar to the food back on Earth, so I was hit with a lot of nostalgia.

Not nostalgia of the taste--since I couldn’t eat them in the past, and if I did when I was a child, I had already forgotten the taste--but nostalgia of the desire I had to suppress because I could never fulfill it. Just like the popcorn.

Now, even if I was in a different world, I could try some food that felt like it came straight from Earth. Turned out, that was where Midas’s success came; Zarfa created a new revolution in the food industry here, making stuff from dried noodles to canned food, as well as introducing the concept of ’franchise’.

Superb, girl.

Thanks to that, I slept peacefully even when I was alone. With an exhausted body and full stomach, I didn’t even dream. The next thing I knew, I woke up with a refreshed body and mind, and armed with another delicious nostalgic breakfast of pancakes and waffles, I did my second purification with so much ease.

Well, it was natural since the worst part had already been handled yesterday. The leftover was just...a little heavier than my usual purification around the Lair. The polluted mana in the land had been absorbed through Alveitya, so what I needed to do now was absorb the pollution in the air. I still take out Alveitya though, since I still needed to store the purified mana.

As I calculated, the purification was done in just a few hours, right before midday. I stopped and rested for a bit by having a picnic with the others at the edge of still-dried-but-no-longer-blackened land. The Regent still hold herself back from talking to me, despite being there all the time.

Casually, I found out that there were onlookers this time; curious villagers and townspeople who had heard about the purification. It couldn’t be helped, since something drastic had happened to the ’evil meadow’ that had been haunting them for the past few months. I couldn’t exactly tell them to not look, but the Mayor did a good job of telling them to not get too close to the field.

Well...I reckoned it was fine at this stage since I already finished with the absorption.

"I still can’t believe this..." Fatia muttered for the...I don’t know, fourth time already, I think. "Just in two days..."

"Technically, one and a half," Zarfa said.

"If we go by hours then...not even a day," Aina added.

Oh, stop it! Don’t make me blush before I even finish my job! I stood up before my cheeks and ears got even more aflame and left the picnic mat while summoning Alveitya again. This time, not in the spear form, but the scepter form.

"Aight; let’s play priest this time."