The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 429: Druids might be stricter in contracts than demons

Chapter 429: Druids might be stricter in contracts than demons

Speaking to animals wasn’t a hard thing to do--it was an innate ability of the druid to understand nature. Especially for me, who had royal blood.

But ’conversing’ wasn’t just about speaking to those animals. I had to converse with the objective of understanding their habit, their way of life, their movement, their psyche...

This was done so I wouldn’t get culture-shocked during fusion and swept away by the animals’ consciousness. Of course, normally, understanding that kind of thing would need a lot of time; but with Mother’s blessing on the druid, we could converse through our souls and exchange minds, easily deepening our understanding with each other.

Another thing that I needed to converse about was consent. This wasn’t just done by asking if they were willing to do it, but I had to explain what it really meant. What the process would be like, what the risk was, the whole thing. You know--like laying in terms and conditions.

The main reason, of course, was ethics. But it also prevented the animals from going berserk in the middle of fusion. If we fused with them without their ample understanding, they might panic in the middle of the process, and well...that would be ugly. Their mind and soul would struggle, and might even attempt to dominate the druid instead.

At any rate, it was complicated from the get-go. Phew. Nothing good is easy in this world, Valen!

Anyway, Amarein made me converse with all kinds of animals--from ants to butterflies, squirrels and foxes, rabbits and birds. Start from small-sized animals, she said. Not because it was easier, but because I could easily hold them in my hand. You know, for intimacy purposes.

But conversing, whether it was with animals or bipedal creatures, sapped my energy faster than purification. It was hard to maintain a connection and interpret their thought. Each one of them had their own unique way of thinking, and things to be thinking about. Food, rest, big creatures chasing them...

Ahem.

The biggest challenge in this process, however, wasn’t the practice. It was my children’s jealousy.

Ignis wasn’t there, because the Salamander refused to fly for two days in a row. But even if Ignis was here, it wouldn’t care much. Jade, however, was upset that I spent all of our time there to talk with other animals--and especially, when I talked to other birds. Perhaps because I conversed with them rather intimately; through our minds, and I held them gently in my hand as I touched their head with my own.

But, well...Jade was always been like that. The child even got jealous when I was concentrating too much on my research or study. What surprised me was Vrida.

The wyvern was sulking--eyes scowling a little bit, and tail whipping the ground rather harshly. And the moment I approached her when the sky started to turn orange, her tail grabbed me and dragged me close, and she started to nuzzle me more than usual.

It was...rather cute?

Vrida was always a cool girl, and this was her first showing me her jealous side. But then again...she was the one I left behind the most, since she couldn’t follow me everywhere like Jade and Ignis.

"Let’s stop this and continue tomorrow morning," Amarein chuckled as I appeased both of my companions. "We’ll try to connect your soul and ask for consent first. If you do well enough, we can try the real thing in the afternoon, before we go to the underground city."

"Let’s pray I won’t make a mistake then..."

Because I might not only be unable to visit the underground city, but also attending my own wedding.

* * *

The training on the next day...was where I thanked Eruha for all his lessons.

I was basically doing a presentation and negotiation at the same time with the animals. Animal. In the end, I choose one to focus on, because...hahaha, contract offering is not meant to be done in just ten minutes, folks!

And so, I was trying a rabbit we found in the meadow--yeah, not flying anymore because Vrida needed full energy for the journey back home the next day. We just walked to the meadow where we met the fairies for the first time, and...

I was about to choose a bird--because I wanted to travel fast like Amarein and Halurean--but Jade, who was still in a human form thanks to the extra extra yummy ball the day before, looked at me with narrowed eyes.

Who are you copying that from, Jade?!

So...yeah, we ended up with a rabbit. It was extra fluffy with cotton-like fur. Apparently, the fur could be shaved like sheep’s and made into clothing. It wouldn’t kill the rabbit too if we were to do that. The one we found had white fur, exactly like a cotton ball, and so we called it Cotton.

While I was engaging in an interview and partnership offering, Jade was having fun putting his small hand in and out of the rabbit’s fur. He did it for about half an hour, until he got bored and ran around the meadow by himself. Not long after, Vrida came after her morning hunt and they played together; Jade used Vrida’s tail and back as a slide, rolling around the soft grass and poor small flowers.

See? Vrida was the OG amusement ride.

The rabbit, meanwhile, was very docile. It wasn’t hard capturing it earlier, because it gave no struggle at all. And once in my hands, it just looked at me with calm, lazy eyes, as if telling me I could do whatever.

Even sheep were more aggressive than this.

"It’s because this type of rabbit only lives where there are no predators," Amarein explained. "They are very pacifist; not exactly friendly, but more of doesn’t care about its surroundings."

But thanks to that, it was very easy to converse with Cotton. The white, extra-fluffy rabbit was very cooperative. It answered everything, even though the drawn-out, lazy voice made me work extra hard to interpret.

And here I thought rabbits were supposed to be agile and active...

But then again, this was a rabbit in another world--which, for all I know, might be half-sheep!

"You’re kind of adorable," I laughed as I interviewed the rabbit.

It spent its time munching on herbs instead of grass, which was why it stayed near the druid settlement. After eating leisurely, it would look for a place to sunbathe--a flat boulder near a shallow river would be the best, since it could just take a short water break anytime it felt thirsty, before getting back to sunbathe. Then it would play with the other rabbits--if it felt like it, and back to eating before going inside its burrow for the night.

Such a leisurely luxurious life, I must say. The only thing it found to be a bother was when some fairies would come and buzz around, trying to make the rabbit chase them.

Of course, Cotton never bothered to do it.

A peaceful life without any challenge but an occasional mischievous neighbor kids.

What a dream.

"I kind of want to take you back home," I muttered while fiddling with the rabbit’s white fur.

How could this fur stay this pristine white color anyway? Barrier? Detergent magic?

"But it seems you’re still a rabbit in the end," I squeezed the chubby cheeks. "You’ll get lonely if I take you alone, right? And then your peaceful life will become stressed."

I glanced at Amarein, who nodded in agreement. "I don’t advise taking land animals through the air at high speed for a whole day."

And then there was that too.

"Well...it’ll be better for you to live in your natural habitat, anyway."

"You can just visit us from time to time to meet the rabbit."

I glanced at Amarein and chuckled. Look at her casually telling me to visit often by using this rabbit I only knew for two hours.

But enough about that. Now that I had finished the interview and screening process, it was time for the contract. I held the rabbit up until our eyes met, and I gave Cotton all the terms and conditions and any possible fine prints I could find from Amarein’s explanation. The beady eyes looked at me somewhat keenly, as if Cotton was finally focused on what mattered.

Huh...perhaps this rabbit was actually clever.

"How about it? Do you understand?"

Corron raised one of its front legs and tapped my nose with it.

"Would it be alright with you? It won’t be long--well, I’ll try to not be long. It’s just a practice after all."

Again, the rabbit tapped my nose.

"Really? Really really?"

Another tap.

"Seems like we have its consent," Amarein smiled and patted my back. "Let’s take a lunch break and continue with the fusion."

"Can’t we do it now? I don’t think I can concentrate on eating this time," I looked at her while pleading and hugging Cotton.

The good rabbit was being very cooperative right now, but who knew if it would reject me later if we took too long? Cotton really treasured its sunbathing time, after all.

Amarein chuckled and ruffled both of my hair and the rabbit. "Alright, then; but you have to do it calmly and carefully no matter what."

"Shall we start?" I nodded and shifted my gaze to the rabbit. "Let’s do it nicely so you can go back to your sunbathe, okay?"

This time, the tap came from two front legs.