The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 410: A lesson of greed by Demon Lord of Greed

Chapter 410: A lesson of greed by Demon Lord of Greed

The round, green eyes stared at me with the brightness and pureness of the world. The fingers fiddling with mine felt so tiny and warm. What should I do in the face of such adorable sight?

"It’s up to Jade," I told him. "You can call me whatever you want."

"Umm--" he almost shouted again, but held back like a good boy and pulled me so he could whisper in my ears. "Will Shwa call Master that too?"

I bit my lips and looked up at Natha, who smiled gently and stroked the black pendant. It might be my imagination, but I felt a slight vibration from the dimensional cage.

"Yes," I said bashfully, feeling my cheeks totally aflamed now.

"Then, then--" Jade grabbed my fingers. "Can Jade call Master that if Jade is in this form?"

"If Jade wants to," I nodded.

"Okay!" Jade nodded, the plump cheeks reddened. "Because Jade is Shwa’s older sibling!"

Ahh...how could I have such an adorable child? I pinched his cheeks and we giggled softly to mind the sound level.

"Hmm, hmm--what a nice sight so start the day," the girl who kickstarted the whole thing nodded in satisfaction.

I had no idea if I should pinched her or hugged her, but she was right. My already nice morning had just become even nicer. And then, to top it off, Natha whispered in my ear. "A practice for the future."

Haa...was he coming here merely to make me flustered all over or something?

The answer to that was...he came here to babysit Jade while spectating me doing the purification. And to teleport me to the next place, because I was more comfortable teleporting with him instead of with the magicians’ magic--perhaps because I was used to it more. They gave him the location’s coordinates and whisked me there, faster than the magician could.

I mean...he teleported to a palace--which should have some kind of degree of protection against spell--so...what’s a polluted mine, right?

"This will totally become a dungeon if left for a year," I looked down into the mine’s entrance, which was half-sealed with a boulder that fell down from the top of the hill.

It seemed like a fight broke out here for the irons," I recalled what Fatia told me. "Thankfully, it’s not a mana stone’s mine."

"That would be disastrous," Natha chuckled.

If it was a mana stone mine, the polluted mana would mingle with mana stones and become bombs. When they exploded, the polluted mana would increase tremendously like what happened in the meadow. Since it was already a narrow underground system, the process would get accelerated.

But well, it’s an iron mine so something like that did not happen. Also...

"This will be quick!" I nodded in satisfaction. A narrow path where I didn’t need to concentrate on a large area. This was like a beginner level in purification. "I don’t even need Alveitya for this."

Right away, my left arm vibrated in protest. Pfft--were you getting stuffy because I left you inside for too long? Seems like my dear Spear-Scepter was thirsty for some action.

"Fine, fine...I’m going to use you till the end," I laughed and took out Alveitya, right when the other finally came through the teleportation--everyone but the Regent. She came back to the Capital after breakfast, since she couldn’t just leave the court for a long time. She probably trusted me enough now, despite her suspicion of Natha’s identity.

"Oh, are you going inside?" Zarfa skipped toward me right away.

"Nah--just to the entrance," I turned to Fatia. "Can you clear the blockade?"

Natha could do it, but why would I make him work? He was already making a makeshift chaize lounge with the boulders around the mine and a blanket he pulled out from his storage ring. Even pulled out a picnic basket with lemonade, jellies, and other foods. He was already relaxing there while Jade was holding our self-made children’s books in his lap. They waved at me as if I was about to do some performance or something.

How trustful. I couldn’t help but laugh at how relaxed they looked.

"I’m going inside," Ignis said while jumping off my shoulder. "I’ll tell you if there’s anything weird over there."

"Alright."

The small lizard scurried inside, bypassing the boulder that Fatia had been moving out of the way. Only after it went inside that Ignis turn into its true Salamander form. Well, mine was like a cave, I guessed. I just hope it didn’t melt any remaining metal inside--or...ate them or something.

Immediately after all the boulders moved away, a whiff of polluted mana came out, prompting Fatia to stagger back. "Not on my watch," I struck Alveitya to the ground and immediately absorbed the polluted mana trying to get out. "Alright, let’s start."

This time, I didn’t need to concentrate too much. All I needed to do was follow the path of the mine and absorb everything there, as well as the polluted mana seeping into the ground. Even though the mine encompassed half of the hill’s underground, it wasn’t as big as the meadow, and the pollution wasn’t as advanced.

With Alveitya’s help, I could even do this while conversing with others--even with Ignis inside, who felt extremely disappointed by the boring conditions of the mine.

[There’s nothing inside] the Salamander huffed. [There is something hard when I dig deeper, though. I think humans and demons like them? I’m not sure. There’s no fire mana here, so boring...]

Something hard? I told Ignis to take some of that hard stuff out without damaging it. It came around an hour later, leisurely, and spit out the hard thing in front of my feet. It looked like a rough crystal, but I wasn’t so sure what that was, so I sent Ignis to summon Natha here.

"What’s wrong? Are you tired?" Natha asked me carefully, standing as close as he could without touching me--since it might disturb my flow of mana.

"That," I pointed at the hard crystal on the ground.

He raised his brow and crouched to take it, moving it around in his hand. His lips curled, and it cemented my conjecture about what it was, and the value it held.

"My, my--seems like this mine was worth fighting for, after all," Natha chuckled as he stood up. "So? What are you going to do about this?"

Hmm...

Ignis, is there any place containing this stone that had been exposed before you dug this one? I asked the Salamander.

[No] Ignis turned small again and crawled onto Natha’s shoulder. [I was bored because there was nothing, so I dug around the place that smelled rather good]

"So you’re the finder," Natha smirked. "Technically, you can claim it for yourself."

"Can I do that?"

"It’s an established mine, so the best way is to buy the right for it," he said. "I can have one of our merchant companies buy it."

Ugh--that ’our’ almost messed up my mana fluctuation. Almost.

Natha tilted his head and looked at my face. "Or you can ask that girl’s help," he said, referring to Zarfa. "And then split the profit."

Split the profit, huh?

If we’re talking about profit then...

"Of course, you can also tell that elementalist and let the kingdom manage it," he smiled, and I looked at him in surprise. "You’re the one who discovers it, so you have the right to decide what you want to do with it."

"Ignis is the one who discovers it."

"And you’re Ignis’s contractor."

The Salamander huffed. "I’m not interested in that boring cave."

Well, figures, but...

I looked at Natha, who just smiled at me and slipped the crystal into his pocket. "Think about it while finishing this up, although...I can already guess which option you will choose."

I bit my lips at how easy he was about it. "Are you...is it truly alright?"

"Why not?" Natha looked at me curiously. "What? Do you think I’ll eat up every valuable thing I came across?"

Well...I mean...you’re the Demon Lord of Greed. Wasn’t that in your blood or vein or whatever?

Natha chuckled. "Greed is like gluttony in a way; it’s not bottomless. Even a glutton has a limit on how much they can eat, and well..." he leaned closer--close enough that all I could see was him and nothing else. "I already got the most precious treasure I had been longing for, so...I don’t need any more treasure to fill my greed."

At this point, I could only be thankful for all the meditation training I had done before, because I was sure my mana would be in so much disarray from how flustered I was at his words.

"So don’t get burdened by it and do whatever you want, alright?"

I bit my lips and nodded. "Okay."

"Alright," Natha chuckled and stepped back. "Your oldest child is starting to sulk so I’ll get back."

I took a deep breath as Natha got back to Jade who was puffing his cheeks back there. I glanced at where the humans were waiting not far from the stone lounge; Zarfa and Aina were there, but Ian and the Hero seemed to be patrolling again, while Fatia was arranging accommodation in the nearest town.

I looked around while at it. The site used to be a battlefield, and then it was plagued by polluted mana. Naturally, it had been abandoned for at least six months. I wasn’t sure what was the conditions surrounding the site, but...I recalled the town and villages near that meadow, the dreary Capital, and the ration that was still in place.

Haa...alright. Let’s finish this and see a way we can all get something out of this.

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