The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 406: Location awareness is also a crucial skill to have

Chapter 406: Location awareness is also a crucial skill to have

Ah, I said it playfully, but this was actually a serious matter.

Perhaps because I now held the ’Judgment’, I could feel the lingering thoughts buried in this land better. That bitter, sad feeling seeped into my core and crawled into my ear to scream for help. It created a suffocating feeling that was different from polluted mana. I wondered if this was what people felt when strolling into a haunted house or an abandoned hospital.

It wasn’t a ghost or anything. What was left behind was the negative thought; the scream of a son calling for his mother as he was dying, the curse people hurled as they were stabbed and blasted, the cry of a father thinking about his family...

Bitter emotions poured into a place that was once a battlefield and a cemetery for countless people. It might not be ’spirit’ exactly, but these thoughts were still the fragments of people’s souls; leftover regrets, anger, and hatred that prevented those souls from resting fully. And these thoughts, instead of being digested by the world, were trapped in a quagmire of polluted mana.

In the end, they helped each other to grow even bitter, even darker, even more poisonous, like revenge that those souls could not experience.

I let out a long, heavy sigh at the sorrow of the drying land. For the first time, I called forth the priest inside of me, tapping into the power of the Goddess left behind inside my core.

"The world shall judge your soul free," I muttered softly as the unfamiliar power flew to the Scepter and seeped into the land again.

The world screamed and cried; the shadow wriggled. Slowly, I closed my eyes and waited and waited until the sorrow, anger, and hatred that crawled over my skin dissipated bit by bit by bit, evaporating into the vast, autumn sky.

"It’s done," Ignis told me, with a voice that was softer than usual.

Immediately after, I turned the Scepter so the green stone, which had become so deep in color from all the purified mana I saved there, was visible to me. "Go on," I told Alveitya. "Release it."

A bright light, and then a soft breeze. I closed my eyes from the sudden wind and felt a refreshing air wash over me. Ahh...I realized how much I missed this feeling now. The air I always tasted in the Lair, which I took for granted. The scent of stubborn grass and tough wildflowers. The inaudible sound of water sloshing between the cracks of soil. Ah, the bulbs that were taken root, the life that persisted within death.

When I opened my eyes again, I was in the middle of a meadow.

The sole of my shoes had sunk slightly into the softening ground. The grass tickled the edge of my cloak, and the soft breeze played with my hair, carrying the scent of nature; of life. Soon, after more time had passed, the place would be filled with the sounds of bugs and birds and small animals fighting for new territories. The plants would grow higher, trees would go bigger, and the field would yield better.

Aah...just imagining it brought a smile to my face. For now, though, the sound of chirping only came from the singing little bird with colorful feathers.

It took me a while to realize a voice calling my name excitedly, or a set of footsteps running toward me. I also vaguely registered the sound and the presence of many people who were laughing, crying, and cheering around the field.

But immediately, everything vanished. I couldn’t sense anything anymore because right there, on a hill overlooking the meadow, was a man with a proud smile that only belonged to me.

His skin was not blue, and there was no pattern all over it. No beautiful horns were curling on his head, and the clothes he wore now were unfamiliar to me. But the smile he gave me, and the eyes he used to gaze upon me, were all the same.

They were the things that made my heart scream in delight and my legs moved before I even realized it.

The next thing I knew, I was running.

And the moment I ran, he disappeared. I almost thought I was imagining things, but the strong pulse on the base of my ring finger told me it wasn’t. That second of distraction, however, made me stumbled--as always--and fell into a pair of human arms that retained a nightmare coldness.

"I told you to be careful when you run," the low, soothing voice was as beautiful as I remembered, and all thoughts left my mind as I threw myself into his embrace, clutching his back and burying my face in his chest.

Aah...the familiar caress that no one could replicate...the scent of leather and parchment that felt like home...

After having my fill with his scent, I looked up and grinned. "But I know you’ll catch me still."

"How cheeky," he chuckled and pinched my cheek. It didn’t feel as weird as I thought, seeing him in his human guise. Well...he just looked like the young doctor cosplaying as a fantasy aristocrat. "I’m glad to know that you miss me just as much as I miss you."

"What do you take me for?" I pursed my lips and pinched his side. "Of course, I’ll miss my fiance!"

He smiled and kissed the top of my head, before putting on my hood, which had been blown back by the breeze earlier, and whispered. "Good boy."

Nggh! I fidgeted with his lapel and bit my lips because I wanted to kiss him so much. But there were a lot of people around us, including the Regent, so I would hold myself back for now.

"A-anyway, when did you come?" I distracted myself with a question.

"After lunch," he said. "Let’s see...in the middle of you appeasing the land."

"What?! That long? I didn’t even realize..."

"You’re busy, sweetheart. Why would you realize I was here? That means you concentrated well," he patted my head. "And you didn’t even sick, well done."

Heh--so he praised me for controlling my pace rather than turning this place green again? I pulled on his lapel so he leaned down slightly.

"Does it mean you’re convinced now?" I asked, looking into his eyes that were no longer silver, but grey with white sclera.

His lips curled and he leaned even closer to hover his lips above my ear. "About thirty percent?"

"Whaat?!"

"This and that are different," he smirked, flicking my scrunched nose. "I still haven’t heard any words of approval from Teacher and your Aunt."

Ugh...that was right, but...ugh!

Well...thirty percent is better than nothing. I’d make sure to ask for a certificate or something when I visited Amarein in the Tribe Settlement after I was done with this whole purification. Hmm...should I ask Eruha to connect me to D’Ara too while at it?

[Nightmare! Nightmare!]

At that time, the little bird who had been busy flying around and filling the field with its chirping swooped down to land on Natha’s shoulder. Huh...how rare.

How suspicious.

[Nightmare, Jade did good job protecting Master!] the little bird boasted.

"Did you?" Natha stroked the green head, perhaps so he could read Jade’s thought easier. "Including the bugs?"

[Bugs?] Jade tilted its head. [Mm! Flies and mosquitoes and everything!]

"We keep him away from the one you told us," Ignis added from my shoulder.

[Oh! That too!] Jade giggled and patted Natha’s cheek. [Jade firmly said no! No need for you to get closer!] the little bird raised one of its wings high as a demonstration. [Jade did good job, so Nightmare will give Jade the cocoa jelly, right? Right?]

Tsk. I knew you were being bribed! And just for cocoa jelly? I knew it was rare here and really delicious, but couldn’t you at least do it for Gluttony’s expensive candy, at least? I couldn’t help but shake my head at my easily swayed familiar.

"You’ll have it once we get home," Natha said.

[Cocoa Jelly! Cocoa Jelly!]

Ignoring the excitedly jumping bird, I looked at him with pursed lips. "Do you happen to bribe my friends too?"

"That, I didn’t do," he chuckled and once again fixed my hood. "But it seems like they knew what’s the right thing to do."

Hmph! Look at his Demon Lord looking all smug because people just do what he wanted!

Phew...but I couldn’t even refute him because I had to admit that the Hero did seem to make a few moves. And he was so beautiful and I missed him so much that I couldn’t even feel annoyed at him, no matter what.

Puffing my cheek, I decided to just hug him tightly again. Fine, you were an anxious groom just a month away from the wedding, so just do whatever you want. I soothe my mind and all the exhaustion from working by feeling his cold temperature and inhaling his scent again, before pulling on his lapel and kissing him on the lips.

"This is nice," Natha said with a smile once our lips parted. "You don’t even care about doing this in front of others now."

I gasped.

It was then that I remembered I was still in the newly rejuvenated fields, with Zarfa and the others, as well as dozens of citizens behind me.

"Oh, Mother..."

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