The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 470: Know your enemies so you can avoid them

Chapter 470: Know your enemies so you can avoid them

Like everything good in this world, this private vacation too, had to come to an end.

After spending the last day doing some adventure--and by that, I meant exploring the island too, not just...ahem, playing with stuff--we finally bid our little nice cabin goodbye. This time, I managed to do what I was meant to do before--tidying up the cabin while Natha cooked.

Another list of my ’married life’ had been crossed!

Granted, it was only two times, but...I still did it! Yay! Because, you know...there was no way I could do this in a place with dozens of servants tending to me, right? They would be horrified if I started doing something, even just preparing my own clothes, thinking that I was not satisfied with their service. I once decided to bring some books from the library by myself, and the servants were crying, asking if I was going to sack them since I didn’t call them for help...

Anyway, I did everything I wanted to do and then more. I got to spend time with Natha the whole day--the whole week! Which had never happened before. Even while living together, we had our own activities; Natha with his work, and me with...whatever I had in hand. And once we returned, we’d be back to do our own thing, so...I didn’t think we would have another time when we could be together all the time like this.

Right. That was what a honeymoon was for, right? To give time for us to be together before they started our life as a...ahem, m-married couple?

"It’s kind of sad..." I muttered as we gazed upon the cabin one last time. The lantern had been snuffed, the curtains were drawn.

It was time to say goodbye.

"We’ll come here again some weekend if you want to get away," Natha stroked my shoulder in consolation. "Now, shall we go?"

"Mm...alright," I nodded and turned to hug him. Half so I wouldn’t need to look at the house, and half because we needed to teleport.

The usual black wings enveloped us, and I closed my eyes to wait until we arrived.

And I knew we arrived because I immediately heard a loud chirping. [Papaaaaaa!]

Even before the black wings completely uncovered me, the bundle of colorful feathers already tackled my chest. [Papa! Papa! Papa!] The loud chirp filled the entire courtyard, enough to make bystander stop.

Well, they also stopped to bow and greet the Lord, so...

[Papa so looong! Jade miss Papa so much!] big drops of tears falling from the beady eyes along the chubby cheeks.

Ah...if we truly prolonged our stay for another day--or days--I could already imagine the extent of chaos that would befall the Castle. But gosh--my child was so adorable too! I hugged Jade tightly and patted the green head. "Oh, I missed you too, baby!"

[Papa...] Jade rubbed its chubby cheek against mine, but quickly turned toward Natha. [Nightmare, give Jade a yummy stone! Hurry!]

"We’re just back and you already extorting me?" Natha chuckled.

[But Nightmare promise Jade!]

I could only raise my brow as an unknown transaction happened in front of me. Natha conjured up a high-quality elemental stone out of nowhere and threw it in the air, which swiftly caught by Jade’s beak.

Well, there was only one reason why Jade would want an elemental stone right away--he wanted to transform. He could just ask me for some energy, but I guessed it would take too long, or...

Oh--was Jade thinking I might be too tired from the journey?

Aww...

I watched with glazed eyes as my little bird transformed into a little boy, who immediately jumped into my arms again. "Papa!"

"My baby!"

Ahh, this Jade is easier to hug--although so much heavier. I carried him all the way to the Lord’s quarters while he clung to me like a koala and buried his face in my neck, rubbing his face there. Oh, it seemed that I missed this child more than I thought because even after we arrived, I didn’t want to let go of Jade.

"Hmm..." Ignis muttered quietly and patted me with its tail as a greeting before crawling away inside the fireplace.

Natha ruffled mine and Jade’s hair--seemed like he was already expecting that I would immediately get snatched from him. "Let’s have afternoon tea and some sweets."

Jade gasped and lifted his face from my neck. "Candy for Jade too?"

"Sure."

Again, Jade gasped. "Why Nightmare so nice today?"

"What do you think?"

The green eyes narrowed in deep thought. "...Nightmare is happy?"

"Good boy," Natha smiled and ruffled the green head again before walking away, making Jade watch him with a blank, surprised look.

"...oh," adorably, Jade retreated to my neck, hiding his bashful face behind my hair.

Oh, how cute. It was so rare to see Jade getting flustered by Natha like this. I patted the green head while wondering how adorable it would be to see Natha and Shwa together...

* * *

Just like the process of my move to the Lair, the process of moving back to the Castle was easy; all I needed was to move my books and stationery.

Clothes? I had more clothes than before in my Castle closet...for some reason. Jade’s room had also gotten wider--even wider than the one in the Lair, because this one also had a walk-in closet full of children’s clothes and all kinds of accessories from shoes to hats and gloves.

Was this...the ’bribe’ Natha promised Jade? Aside from the elemental stones, I mean.

Phew.

Ignis, however, chose to stay in the Lair as I had thought. After all, its nest was over there. Well, unlike Jade or Vrida, Ignis was never the clingy type anyway. Our independent Salamander only came out whenever it wanted, but it also would appear whenever I summoned it. No biggie.

Vrida, naturally, moved back to the Castle. I had asked her if she would prefer to stay in the Lair, but the wyvern did not want to be too far away from me. Oh, well...as long as I took Vrida to fly a lot, she should be fine.

The most complicated thing about the move this time was...yep--the gifts.

More gifts still came after the wedding; some even came from those who had given me one before. Seemed like they felt their gifts were inadequate after attending the reception, so they sent ’additional’ gifts. Thankfully, I didn’t need to send them thank-you notes--there was no such culture here, apparently.

Not that I didn’t want to do it, but do you have any idea how many gifts came? Hundreds! Thousands!

At any rate, managing the storage for those gifts was dizzying. It occupied my first few days of getting back to the Castle. Of course, all I had to do was merely decide which stuff to put in which room or which cupboard, but still...

Sometimes...having too many things was not a good thing, folks. I shall live in moderation if I could, but alas--I was the spouse of the Lord of Greed.

Ah, aside from the gifts, there was also a stack...of chests, filled with correspondence. For some reason, people wanted to talk to me, building some connection.

Why? Did they think they could butter their way up to Natha through me?

"Of course," Arta, who had seemed to be my caretaker more than taking care of the Castle’s logistics these days, told me in her confident voice. "Everyone with functioning eyes would be able to see how much His Lordship adores you--be it at the parade, or the banquet, or the soiree."

"R-really?"

Phew--why was the room getting hot all of a sudden?

"No--at this point, everyone with functioning ears would have already heard about it too from those who saw it with their own eyes," Arta wiggled her fingers. "They knew His Lordship has a veeeery soft spot for you, and would probably grant everything you ask him for."

I...didn’t think that was true. I mean...I still danced around him every time I wanted to make a request.

"Anyway, with that assumption, of course, people would try to curry favor with you," Arta shrugged. "They thought if they asked for something through you, His Lordship might be generous and grant it."

"But even if they don’t ask you, just maintaining a good relationship with you will become a plus when facing His Lordship," Lesta added.

I turned toward him and tilted my head. "When did you come?"

I found out that Lesta finally moved to live together with Eruha in that mansion opposite the house where Great-Aunt stayed that one night. So now, instead of during breakfast, I saw him later in the day.

"Just now," he shrugged. "Anyway; that’s why from now on, you should learn more about politics, Young Master."

"Eeeeh? But..."

"No, no--not to jump into politics," Lesta shook his head and grinned. "It’s to know how to avoid it altogether."

I clapped my hands. "A-ha! So it was like studying about scams so we wouldn’t get scammed?"

"Precisely."

Thus, my life in the Castle began by studying how to avoid getting dragged into a court drama.