The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 492: Please do not plant your child on the ground; it’s strictly for dryad only

Chapter 492: Please do not plant your child on the ground; it’s strictly for dryad only

"Are you alright?" Natha asked me the moment we entered our bedroom.

Well, since he asked...

I turned around and hugged him, burying my face in his chest. Without needing me to ask, he lifted me and carried me to the bed, patting my back as I clung to his shoulder. I felt very childish when I was like this, but was there really any need for pretense in front of your spouse?

Leaning my head on his shoulder, I let out a sigh that only Natha could hear. "You know, sometimes I think it’ll be nice if they like me because of me, not because I remind them of Grandma..."

It was such a childish complaint, but I just had to let it out somehow. It didn’t feel like much at first, and I was glad that it made people look at me in a favorable way. But...

Haa...was this because I used to have a complex about being inside someone else’s body? All those times I felt bitter when I thought Natha treated me well because he loved Valmeier...the feeling was coming back in this way.

Really, it wasn’t even something big--certainly not bigger than finding out your only remaining blood relative was the cause of your family’s downfall.

But I just couldn’t help it.

Sometimes, these questions would creep into my head unprovoked; would they still treat me this well if I was just a regular half-druid without royal blood? Would they believe who I was if I didn’t look like my grandmother? I would never know, and I was also too scared to know.

Because I genuinely like them, and know they were good people. But I just couldn’t help this kind of thought as someone who was hovering between two realms.

Perhaps I was getting greedy for affection and affirmation, huh?

"I’m sorry..."

"Why are you sorry?" Natha caressed my hair gently. "Did you wish for something wrong? You’re not, and I agree with you."

He climbed to the bed; still with me in his arms, still while caressing my head on his shoulder. "You are your own person, not your grandmother’s substitute. This is why..."

Natha paused and although it was faint, I could hear him clicking his tongue. Curiously, I lifted my face and pulled away slightly so I could look at him. He looked pissed--even more than me.

"What is it?" I asked curiously, cupping his cheeks.

He twisted his lips for a second before closing his eyes as he answered me with a sigh. "This is why I don’t like any notion of you staying here for a long time."

Oh...

So it wasn’t just his concern about me not going back. Perhaps...perhaps Natha already knew this side of me--no, he should know. After all, he was the first witness of my distress about being seen as someone else.

"But you seemed to be happy spending time among your kin, so I can’t really bring myself to tell you," he smiled wryly, leaning into my palm. "How should I say it anyway? ’Sweetheart, I think they see you more as the Princess’s grandson, so let’s get the hell out’?"

Pfft--I muffled my laugh in his shoulder, circling my hand to his back before sighing in satisfaction. Ah...indeed, something stuffy needed to get thrown out.

"It’s not that I dislike them because of it, just..." I shrugged. "I don’t know--I mean, I understand their longing for the royal family, so I can’t exactly blame them, just...ugh, it’s hard!"

Natha chuckled and patted my back softly, rhythmically, as if he was trying to put me back to sleep. "But you do know that you also have people who genuinely see you as you are, don’t you?"

"Of course, I know!"

Why else would I call it my ’home’? The Lair was my safe place, just like Natha’s chest...

Ahem--that came out wrong.

Anyway, I didn’t have this kind of thought when I was in L’Anaak Eed. While most of them knew me as Valmeier at first, they treated me more as me than as a war veteran. They always worried about me tripping as if this body hadn’t spent five years plus on the battlefield.

And I had lots of people who knew me as Valen.

"More than anything, you should never forget that I always see you as Valen," Natha lifted my face so we looked at each other again. "The person I feel in love with."

"Don’t seduce me in front of my child," I hissed while glancing at the flower inside the protective glass enclosure.

"I’m not seducing you? I’m making a love confession, also--" he squeezed my cheeks and whispered. "It’s our child, not just yours."

I blushed and giggled while he put a blanket over us. But I couldn’t sleep since I had just woken up from a nap, so we ended up just spending time watching the stationary flower.

"Nat, do you remember what I told you on the island?" I asked him quietly. "About Shwa?"

"Of course," he tucked my hair behind my ear and kissed the top of my head. "I promise you we’ll be giving Shwa all kinds of experience that a child should have."

"Yeah," I grabbed his hand and tucked it beneath my chest. "I don’t want us to see our child as a Primordial God or anything. I want us to see Shwa as Shwa, as our child, and nothing more."

It might be an empty anxiety, but I felt like I still needed to voice it out.

"Alright," he rubbed the hand I used to hold his. "Shwa is our child and nothing more. I’ll make sure to remember it, and remind anyone who will think otherwise."

"Mm," I nodded, feeling strangely relieved. And probably because of that, I gradually drifted to sleep.

* * *

"You should rest here more," the Grandmas and Grandpas let me go with a heavy sigh.

"Valen needs to plant the Flower as soon as possible," Amarein scolded them lightly. "Do you want his energy getting sapped because of it?"

There were saying that people became childish again when they aged, and I could see it in the sulking elders who pursed their lips and puffed their cheeks. Ah, the place was truly lovely, and I hoped one day I could feel like they were welcoming me as Valen, and not their ’Little Prince’.

"I’ll come back when Shwa is born," I told them with a laugh, before I had my farewell with Amarein. Well, it wasn’t really a farewell since she could still visit me in the Castle. I hugged her and whispered sincerely. "It must have been hard."

She did not reply for quite some time, but I felt her arms tightening around me. "Don’t feel pressure to see him one day. It’s fine even if you don’t."

"I know," I nodded and pulled back, smiling at her. "Like you said, I’ll just focus on Shwa for now."

"I wanted to tell you to take good care of yourself, but..." she shifted her gaze to Natha. "I think your husband will do a better job at it."

"Aunty!"

"But that’s true," Natha whispered behind my ears and laughed as I elbowed his side. "Alright, let’s get your other kids and go home."

Home. What a nice word it was. I called for Jade, who was in the middle of his own teary farewell with the children. It was so adorable seeing them sharing a jar of candy with big tears flowing from their eyes. Perhaps because I told Jade that we wouldn’t be able to come again until Shwa was born, and he told the children, and then they all started to cry.

Was there a word to describe a sad but cute scenery?

But no matter how adorable it was, we still had to pick Jade and return home, so I told them they could write letters to each other before climbing onto Vrida’s back. Thanks to that, Jade no longer cried on the way home, and once Vrida sped up, there was no longer a trace of sadness in the excitedly shrieking little boy.

Oh, Jade also gained new friends, who were as excited as him about the wyvern’s speed.

Three fairies buzzed strongly as they held onto Jade’s hair. The tiny figures got thrown around by the wind, but they were buzzing as happily as when they received candy--the normal one.

Yep--the fairies had decided that we were more fun than the jungle, and followed us around since then. They did not exactly say he’d stay with us, but well...they were fairies, anyway. Perhaps they were afraid they couldn’t taste more candy in the future.

My bad...

But thanks to that, I received little watchers for our little flower--at a small expense of candy! What a bargain. They proved to be quite loyal and useful for the right price, so that was an extra layer of security for Shwa’s new home.

Immediately after Vrida landed on her old nest, Natha grabbed the rest of us and teleported to the pavilion across the greenhouse. When we entered the forest, the guards were already stationed there and greeted us, including Haikal. Eruha was there too, as the overseer, and even he was surprised about the fairies, who giggled mischievously around him.

But we did not waste more time and swiftly proceeded. After instructing the safety measures of the chosen guards, we went to the unassuming but indestructible shed. Just me and Natha, as well as my companions and the three tiny watchers.

Carefully, I took Shwa out of the black pendant, and placed the flower above the center of the druid rune formation I had drawn before. As I poured my mana into the formation, it glowed briefly, spreading light across the ground.

As if waking up, the light manifested, surfacing at the center of the formation and crawling toward the flower as if forming a cradle.

Ah...as I watched the cradle manifesting into stalk and roots, the more I saw the similarity with the cradle inside my dream--the one holding the cocoon. And then, after firmly attaching itself to the ground and the formation, we could hear it--

The thumping sound of pulsing heart and mana core, vibrating across the room and inside our soul.

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