The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 476: Never assume you’re the only one with the shock factor

Chapter 476: Never assume you’re the only one with the shock factor

"I’m kind of nervous," I told Natha as we walked down the stairs for dinner.

"Why?" Natha narrowed his eyes.

Pfft--was he thinking I was nervous because of the Hero? How cute. "I’m worried about the nun," I explained quickly so this silly husband could stop being so feisty. "I mean...considering Ian’s initial response, she might not take it well that I wasn’t Valmeier."

"But you are..."

"You know what I mean," I rolled my eyes and glanced upstairs, where my exhausted child had fallen asleep in Zarfa’s bedroom. "I’m glad Jade is asleep. I don’t want him to get agitated when things go wrong."

"Nothing will go wrong," Natha stroked my slight frown and looked at me with a reassuring gaze.

"I hope so," I nodded.

I knew that the nun’s reaction wouldn’t affect me much, but I still wanted everything to go well. Was I being too greedy for such desire?

Oh well, I am the bride...no, I am the consort of greed.

Zarfa already waiting for me in the drawing room, but no one else was there. "They are entering the driveway right now, so it’ll be soon," she told me. Perhaps the anxiety was palpable in my face, because she held my hand as if she knew I needed some moral support.

The mansion wasn’t very big, so I could hear the sound of the carriage rolling into the front yard, followed by alighting steps and then an opened door. Perhaps because I was nervous, the time they took to walk from the front door to the drawing room felt so long, so slow. Belatedly, I realized that they walked slower because of the nun, and I had to scold my heart into calmness.

Natha stroked my shoulder gently, but I could see him pressing his lips to subdue his laughter. Tsk--just because it wasn’t your problem!

Finally, the drawing room door was opened by the butler. "The Hero and his companions, Madam."

And there they were; the Hero and the Paladin, escorting an old blind nun. With a veil over her head and covering her lower face, all I could see was her eyes. They were blurry, as if glazed by an opaque crystal; and yet, for some reason, I felt like they saw right through me.

My immediate attention, however, was to the fidgeting Paladin. Ian was biting his lips, looking nervous--even more than me. Instantly, I realized that this kid hadn’t told the nun about me at all; about how I was Valen now, not Valmeier.

Ugh--do we have to really make a reveal in this place?!

Catching my glare, Ian flinched and--look at this kid! He actually hid behind the Hero! Jin was looking at me awkwardly, caught between my glare and his people-pleaser tendency--which he still hadn’t shed fully.

"Mado, please vacate the room," Zarfa broke the silence by telling her butler to leave; who, upon the order, immediately bowed and closed the door.

Thank Gods my friend was so quick-witted!

...but now, I had no idea what to do. Where to start? Should I say hello? Should I say sorry? It was fine saying whatever to Ian since he was young, but I couldn’t bring myself to be brass in front of this delicate-looking lady who seemed to be in her fifties already.

While I was busy half contemplating and half panicking, the nun had already beaten me on the word game. "How weird," she said. Her voice was...very soft and smooth and relaxing; like a poet, or a flowing water.

But what was weird?!

"You’re Valmeier, but also...not Valmeier."

?!

I hadn’t even said anything? We hadn’t even interacted?! I flicked my gaze toward Ian, but the young Paladin was as confused as I was.

The one who managed to reply amidst the shock and confusion was the nearby Hero. "You...know?"

"Oh, I can see it," the nun said, walking slowly toward me as if she truly saw me. "I can see the boy inside, and the one who completes him," she raised her hand and touched my chest gently. "They intertwined beautifully, as they meant to be."

The breath I inhaled was sharp. There I was, thinking hard about how to break the news without shocking her, but it was me who got shocked instead.

She lifted her head and I could see her smile through the softly curled eyes. "Would you tell me about it, boy?"

Gulping in both relief and nervousness, I nodded and, after we took a seat, began my story. Just an abridged version of it, without divulging the ’why’, since we still weren’t comfortable about telling anyone of Shwa’s origin. Her expression barely changed during my deliberation, and after I finished, she just nodded.

"Yes, I see..." she clasped her hand on top of her walking stick. "It makes sense."

"What is?" the one who was the most curious among us was actually Ian. "Are you not surprised, Aunty?"

She smiled and closed his eyes as she chuckled quietly. "Did you?" when Ian only answered with guiltily pressed lips, she let out a sigh. "I’m sorry, boy. He must have been very rude."

"Oh, it’s...quite alright," I blinked dazedly. "But...you really aren’t surprised? Did you perhaps...know it before?"

"No, not about...this," she shook her head and chuckled. "However, I already know that Valmeier is an incomplete soul."

Did I say I was shocked? Nuh-uh--I shook.

"Are you perhaps a soul meister?" Natha asked.

Huh? Was that what D’Ara mentioned before? People who could see and communicate with souls and spirits and such?

"No," she shook her head. "Well, I used to aim to be one, but..." she gestured toward her eyes. "This is the result; I was punished for my lack of perseverance. But I do retain some of the ability I gained during that time."

This was something that even Valmeier had no idea about. All his life, the nun was already blind, which meant it must have happened before he was born.

"Is that why you become a nun, Aunty?"

"Oh, no--silly boy," she waved her hand. "I came to the church because the Priest needed a woman who could breastfeed."

I was so fortunate that I didn’t have any tea in my hand because surely, I would have either choked or spilled the whole drink all over the floor. And so would Jin and Ian. Zarfa too, although from giggling.

"Y-you mean, you are Val...I-I mean, my..."

"Yes," she smiled again. There was a part of me that thought she quite enjoyed this reaction.

Wouldn’t blame her, to be honest.

"I was quite...lost, at that time, and the Priest offered me a way out, which I took gladly," she explained. "I decided to pledge myself to the church--no, the Goddess--after staying for a few years."

"Ah..." I muttered quietly, before widening my eyes. "Wait--did that mean...the Priest also knew?"

"Why, of course," she nodded. "I couldn’t very well hide it from him."

This was...surprising discovery after a surprising discovery.

"Was that why he told Valmeier to go to the Capital?" Natha tapped his armrest in contemplation.

"Yes, because he thought Valmeier would be more...complete if he saw the world outside our secluded church," she replied. "Of course, I knew it would be unlikely since an incomplete soul becomes incomplete because the other half wasn’t in this world in the first place, but..." she sighed heavily. "I knew that he did it because he wanted Valmeier to find something to live for after he passed away. Naturally, none of us thought that..."

She did not continue, but she didn’t need to. Oh, gosh...this is...

"Phew...I think I need a bit of a drink," I leaned back and exhaled slowly to stabilize my shaken mind.

"Before dinner?"

"Of water," I corrected, to which Natha responded with a smile as he went to the side table to fetch it. "But...umm--what should I call you?"

"You can call me Aunty as well...Valen?"

Oh, right--she was my wet nurse, technically. "Yeah, let’s do that," I nodded. "Umm...if you were there to be a wet nurse... did that mean you never met his parents?"

"No," she shook her head. "Although I remember a mysterious person who gave a strong aura of the Goddess--just like Jin--came to visit a few times when Valmeier was a baby."

"That..."

"I believe the Priest wrote about that in his journal," she turned toward the Hero.

I looked at Jin then, who finally took out a leather banded book tied in a cord. His expression, however, was a bit complicated.

"I had read the journal since it came to me a few days ago, but..." he looked at me carefully. "I couldn’t find any explicit mention of your father, or the location of the church in which he gained the blessing."

If he did.

"But," he continued while opening the journal. "Now that Madam Hya mentioned it, I do remember reading several entries about a man coming to the church. The Priest always wrote ’he came alone again’, ’he came alone this time too’, until lastly..." he paused his flipping and read. "’...now, he too, no longer going to come’..."

"Oh..."

"So we can assume that the Priest was questioning why only Valmeier’s father came and not the mother?" Natha returned and put a glass of water in my hand, which I instantly gulped.

"I think so," the Hero nodded and frowned as he flipped the page over and over again. He stopped to compare several entries and raised his brow. "Also...this man only comes once a year."

My glass dropped--thankfully, Natha was there to catch it.

"For three years, every fifth month on the twenty-third, he would come."

I swallowed the remaining water in my mouth.

My birthday...was on the twenty-second.

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