The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 46: What in the conspiratory stuff is this flag?

Chapter 46: What in the conspiratory stuff is this flag?

"Royalty?" it was such an unexpected inquiry that I stopped walking altogether. Where did that even come from? "No, I don’t think I’m even qualified as a proper commoner..."

Valmeier was an orphan, and in that kingdom, orphans usually ended up in slavery—someone positioned below even the lowest commoner. He was just lucky to get picked up by a priest in need of a successor.

"Ah, not the human part, Young Master," Doun shook his hand. "I mean your druid’s bloodline."

Now that—I knew that even less. Not even Valmeier knew where he came from. Who was his parents, and where did the priest pick him up. So naturally, I had no idea either.

"I don’t even know who my parents are, but..." I kind of smelled something suspicious here. What was it...a flag? Yeah, smelled like a flag. "Why do you think I have royal blood?"

Doun rubbed his chin with a tilted head, eyes looking up like searching for a memory. "It’s what grandmama told me a long time ago. Druid is the shepherd of nature, and that means they guided the existing force of nature around them. But they don’t absorb it into themselves."

Well, I knew that much from the book I read about children of nature. And I also realized that what I did was different from that explanation. But I just thought it was because this body was part human.

Was it actually signified something else?

"From what I know, Young Master, that thing you did earlier is a purifying process—you did refine the mana, didn’t you?"

I just nodded since I had no idea what to do, and he added with a keen gaze. "The only one who could do that purification process is the royals, Young Master."

Ah, fuck—what a cliché development.

Was this body...was the blood of druid flowing inside this body...was the mysterious, unknown parents of Valmeier actually of royal blood?

"But..." I started to walk again, just because I felt like standing in place would make me even dizzier. "Is there even a druid royalty?"

There were three elvendoms as far as I knew, but I never heard about a druid kingdom. I thought they were all living in nomadic tribes and nowadays become even more elusive, residing within the deepest forest and mountain.

Hmm? Wait...I felt like I had read something about it, though...

"Actually, the tribes’ leaders are considered royalty too. There’s a bit of story behind it, but—"

"It’s okay, please tell me,"

"I heard this from my grandma, not from an actual druid, so please take it with a grain of salt," Doun started to give his explanations while we were reaching the edge of the forest.

He told me that druids weren’t always nomadic like now. There used to be a kingdom, whose royal family was blessed by their God with the ability of purification. Hundreds of years ago, as the land started to become corrupted, the members of the royal family spread out to purify nature, along with their knights and vassals. These royalties formed what was now called tribes, moving from one place to another to bear their missions. The leader of the tribes would always be the one with the blessed blood of the former royal family and the purifying skill, so it would be right to consider them royalty.

"That’s why I thought you have royal blood, Young Master," Doun continued with his story as we get out of the forest and entered the grass field. "But the druid kingdom itself is no more."

Right, that was why I never heard of a druid kingdom before. "What happened?"

He let out a sigh before answering. "A war happened. The kingdom was situated on the border with a human kingdom, and when they lost the war, the territory was getting absorbed by the human kingdom. The residents either fled or got annihilated."

I stopped walking again at that point, feeling something stirring inside my mind while my spine got involuntary shivers. "When was that war?"

Doun turned and looked at me with confusion as to why I was stopping again. "About seventy or eighty years ago? My grandma used to bring supplies to the kingdom about a hundred years ago, so she always told me this story begrudgingly."

Suddenly, like a bolt of lightning, I remembered one of the entries from Natha’s notebook. He had written about a war between humans and druids. If I remember correctly, the year was overlapping with what Doun told me.

"And the human kingdom’s name?"

Doun tapped on his chin in contemplation, eyes narrowed to search for his memory. "It should be an Empire now. I’m not really good with the human realm’s geography. Let’s see...Baelly...Beary..."

"Baeilliz?"

"That’s it! I think? Hmm...the Young Lady probably knows more about it," Doun snapped his fingers as affirmation.

I chewed the inside of my cheek, and ended up taking a deep breath. The Empire of Baeilliz had a moniker; the Crossroad Empire. It was because the Empire bordered both the demon realm and the realm of nature. And in another side, it also bordered another human kingdom.

Yep—it was the kingdom where Valmeier grew up in.

Both the empire and the kingdom bordered the realm of Wrath, but after Baeilliz absorbed the druid kingdom, it also bordered the Lust territory now.

Ah, damn it. It was all checked out then. There was a possibility that a member of the royal family survived and had a child with a human. And for whatever reason, the baby ended up in the old priest’s hand, being raised in a secluded mountain right at the border between the kingdom and the empire.

"Wait..." I stared at my palm then, at the tiny stigma and a very thin scar in a shape of cross there. "Do you happen to know if that druid kingdom has an artifact or something like that?"

"Artifact?" Doun tilted his head. "Well, there’s a lot, of course. Their treasury was practically plundered. I heard they burned down the ancient druid scrolls since they are useless for humans. But things like artifacts and weapons are still circulating to this day, I believed..."

"Like...a sacred spear, for example?" I gripped my hand tightly, and curled it into a tight fist.

"Maybe, I wouldn’t know about that," he shrugged, but I couldn’t help but think that the spear embedded inside my palm, the Spear of Judgment, came from that plundered treasury.

Because then, it would make sense why the spear flew toward Valmeier at that time. It just eagerly came back to the hand of its rightful owner; the one with a druid’s royal bloodline.

I looked up at the sky, and heaved a heavy breath. Mm—the sky looked good, even as my mind churned up so much.

"Young Master?"

At Doun’s voice, I let out a chuckle. Eh—who cared? So what if this body was of royal blood? Aside from the fact that I got a new skill, it shouldn’t really affect me much.

"Ah, it’s alright. Do you have any literature talking about that?"

"I only heard that from my grandma, so I’m not sure, Young Master. Maybe if you visit the elvendom—"

"VAAALL!!"

Before Doun could finish his sentence, we were startled by a loud shout, and the next thing I knew, something—someone—was flying at me. It wasn’t Jade, but another winged creature.

"Uff—" Zia almost trampled me to the ground, but I was getting help from her flapping wings. She grabbed my face tightly and I felt like my cheeks were getting squeezed.

"What are you thinking?! You had a fever just yesterday!" she yelled right at my face, and I couldn’t even answer with my mouth getting squeezed between my cheeks. "Do you know how worried we were? We couldn’t even enter the forest to check because Doun had to stay to keep an eye on you. Do you know how many times Angwi wanted to burn the forest to look for you?!"

At this point, the only thing I could do was to open my eyes widely in surprise. I mean...I knew they would be worried, but I never thought they would be this worried. Thankfully, Doun came to my rescue.

"Miss, it’s the first time Young Master did this, and he had no idea that a druid meditation could last that long,"

I nodded fervently at that, serving my most innocent face. ’That’s right, Miss, it’s an honest mistake,’ was what I wanted to convey.

But she still glared at me. "That’s why I told you not to do things like that right after you got a fever!"

And that scolding went on and on even while I ate my late dinner. But rather than Zia’s incessant scolding, Angwi’s fierce, silent glare scared me even more. I felt like she almost broke her silent pledge just to scold me too.

Like angry mother hens, they kept pestering me about not going to the forest during breakfast the next morning. I thought hard about it and thought that Jade would just fly back after it finished digesting the energy, so I was about to agree to their demand.

But then, I felt something.

Like a bolt, a feeling of sudden excitement seeped into my cell. My heart began to pound fast, like that one time my previous life’s body showed rejection toward a blood transfusion. And I felt like there was something foreign flowing through my veins.

No—not my blood veins. My mana veins. My circuits.

But it felt different than when an Amrita filled my system. This new feeling was vague, like it was happening in my astral body. It must be because nothing actually flowed there—just a feeling. Because right now, I was connected to someone.

Jade.

Abruptly, in the middle of Zia’s lecture, I stood up, fork clanking into the table. Zia, Angwi, and two other maid golems looked at me in surprise, but I wasted no time bolting out of the room. I didn’t even bother with the magic elevator, and just climbed down the stairs. In my frenzy, I didn’t even realize I was utilizing a wind attribute to propel my movement.

I ran with all my might, bypassing the worker golems and the two twin guards. I vaguely heard Doun shout at me near the forest, but I kept moving without heading his voice, the unrelenting connection guided me towards the clearing.

When I reached the clearing with bated breath, however, I couldn’t see my familiar. I knew Jade was here though, and I circled the stump while looking up at the sky. Soon, a colorful comet flew toward me, screeching in a delightful melody.

Jade was no longer a little round ball of feathers that fitted in my palm anymore. The little guy grew as big as a dove now, and while the tip of its wings still retain the green color from yesterday, the fluttery tail that grew as long as a foot long was painted with various colors, as if representing the blend of different mana attributes that got condensed yesterday.

As soon as Jade flew into my chest, it nuzzled into my neck with a happy chirp. Compared to other elemental birds, Jade was still just a child, but growth still growth. It still couldn’t make any spell, but Jade was now big enough to grow mana circuits—it was the source of flowing feelings I had earlier.

"You did it!" I couldn’t help but yell out loud and laughed, as Jade chirped energetically in tandem. "We did it!"

And then, as if on cue, I heard a voice. The low, gentle voice that I had dreamt of and yarned for the past days.

"Congratulations,"