The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 498: It’s not amusement park without thrill and a couple’s fluster

Chapter 498: It’s not amusement park without thrill and a couple’s fluster

[Let’s go! Let’s go!]

Jade chirped loudly, even while being stuck between my chest and my coat. Only the little green head and the colorful wings were out, but the loudness was unbeatable.

"Let’s go!" another familiar voice grazed my hearing, prompting me to look back to see Zia dragging a reluctant Izzi toward the roller coaster where I was sitting.

"Must we do this first thing?" the elf groaned.

"Why are you being such a wimp? Were you not the one making this thing?"

"Ugh--I made it for Valen, not for me!"

"Oh, come on! Just get in!"

With Zia’s persistent dragging and pushing, Izzi got locked up on the seat and Zia jumped on the one beside him--behind me. "Val!" she hugged me from behind before fastening herself in her seat. "Why Jade in bird form today?"

"I can’t spare more mana for Jade’s consumption," I patted the green head apologetically. "I’m sorry, Jade."

[Jade okay! Because Jade still Papa’s child no matter what form!]

"That’s right!" I squeezed the adorable cheeks and kissed the green head. "What a good bird!"

"Besides," Natha slipped into the seat beside me and smiled--which he did a lot that day. "Little boy can’t ride this thing."

Oh, right! There was a height requirement and everything! At least in this form, Jade could fly if anything bad happened, and the little bird could use all of the magic to keep it safe.

"Still, hold on tight, okay?"

[Okay! Okay!] Jade flapped its wings. [Let’s go! Let’s go! Go with fake Vrida!]

And like that, the staff made sure everyone was buckled up properly--including Natha--before activating the ’wyvern lurch’, as they called it. With a jolt, we were moving, slowly at first, and as we climbed through the track, my heart was beating in excitement.

Right on the peak, Natha held my hand. I had no idea if it was to keep me calm or to keep himself calm, but I had no leeway to find out because, in the next second, we rushed through the track. A plethora of ’wheeee!’ and ’aaaaagh!’ and ’ooooh!’ filled the air as the wyvern pod went and went and went like how Vrida was flying; straight and up and down and turning upside down--it was fun!

[Fuun! So Fun!] The little bird who was magically still attached to my chest laughed and chirped in excitement. [Not as fun as real Vrida but fun!]

"Right? It’s almost like the real thing! Good job, Izzi!" I patted the elf’s back, who was grabbing the railing outside the area with a pale face.

"Don’t...touch me..."

The ride’s engineer, unfortunately, got conquered.

While Zia was busy taking care of Izzi, Jade dragged me to ride its ’seniors’. This one was very children-friendly, with the birds going round and round, hovering above the controlled anti-gravity spell. I had no idea why Jade loved flying rides so much despite the ability to fly itself, but...each of their own, I guess?

When we finished the elemental bird ride and flying catbus, Ignis crawled to my shoulder and flicked my upper arm. "Go to the tunnel."

Heh--was it for the tunnel or because the ride was based on him? No matter; we boarded the salamander carriage with Zia, who was once again dragging Izzi, as well as Neel and Arta--it seemed that the vassals had started to enjoy the rides too.

Fortunately for the elf, this ride wasn’t the speedy type. But then again, perhaps that was why he didn’t mind boarding it. This ride, however, was thrilling for a different reason.

"Aaagh! Get that away from me! Get that away from me!" it was Zia’s turn to scream and shriek then, as the tastefully made illusion of wandering ghosts spooked us from time to time.

I had no idea who made those illusions, but they were very good. Ignis scoffed and told us that no ghost would dare to inhabit its lair, but Jade was happy about all the ghosts. The little bird went from wanting to fight it to clapping its wings as the ghost made a funny flip and bumped into the ceiling.

The humor did not console the scaredy cat succubus, who was screaming and clinging to the nearest unlucky elf.

Or should I say ’lucky’?

"Ahem--" Izzi cleared his throat when the ride was finally out of the tunnel. I glanced back and pressed my lips to hold back a giggle when I saw Zia still screaming and hugging the elf with eyes shut tight. "Can you...stop hugging, now?"

It took a few seconds for Zia to realize what happened and immediately threw her hands away as if Izzi was a scalding hot pan, although it was her face that was heating up. "W-who’s hugging you?!"

"Scaredy cat..." Izzi mumbled in return, perhaps to cover his own fluster.

"Who--I don’t want to hear that from someone who gets sick from the je..jet kostar!"

"Jet coaster."

"Whatever!" Zia crossed her arms and pursed her lips. "And I wasn’t hugging you! I’m just...looking for a railing!"

What kind of excuse was that, Miss Succubus?

"Geez--why so much fuss about a hug?" Neel rolled her eyes from the back, while Arta curled her eyes and covered her lips mischievously. "You’ve been holding hands all this time."

"Who...who...!"

Zia opened and closed her mouth like a fish, as her pink skin was completely flushed red. Izzi covered his face and averted his eyes in embarrassment, and with that fun note, the ride ended.

"Ahh, that was fun too!" I laughed and skipped along the way. "Especially the spectacle in the end!"

"Val!"

I laughed and ran to escape from Zia, looking for another ride with Jade. But Natha stopped me and turned me around to the food court instead. "Slow down, sweetheart. Even if you can’t ride everything today, you can do it tomorrow. We won’t open this place to the public until you’re satisfied with it."

Hehe...now that he said it, I did feel a bit parched. My stomach also started to grumble, since we came before the luncheon. The cakes and juice during the celebration in the plaza before weren’t enough to stave away the hunger.

"Can I...really eat anything I want? For lunch?"

"I told you," Natha cocked his head toward the food stalls. "You can do whatever you want today."

I pulled him down and kissed his cheek quickly before running toward the food stalls. Junk food! Street food! Festival food!

With my lovely servants--Mara and Panne--I went through all the stalls and tried a bit of each food and drink. We even tried to mix some food and create some new, bizarre combinations. My mouth felt like a festival at the end, and I wasn’t sure I could remember the taste of all of them, but I didn’t care!

The nearest ride from the food court was the ’relaxing’ ones, if they could be called that; the spinning flowers and the racing carousel. But I didn’t feel like spinning around after eating so much, so I turned toward the racing mount beast carousel.

"Hmm..." I was contemplating if I should try it when I saw Caba and some Castle staff coming from the Wyvern Lurch. "Oh--Caba! Caba! Come here! Try this race thingy!"

And that was how we got the spectacle of Caba, Arta, and Opti who just arrived in L’Anaak Eed racing on top of toy mounted beast, trying to make their ride go forward by solving Izzi’s rhythmic game. Gradually, everyone was coming over to watch and it became as thrilling as a real mount-beast race--which was available on the other side of the city.

[Go, Arta! Go, Caba! Go, Opti!]

Jade, who finally learned the names of the rest of the vassals, wasted no time being a cheerleader, although all everyone could hear was chirp! chirp! chirp! But it got the others riled up and cheered for the slowest race of history, because those three were suck at rhythm game! Still, I cheered on them until I was coughing from a dry throat.

"So enthusiastic," Natha, thankfully, merely chuckled while giving me warm honeyed water. "Is it that fun?"

"Yes!" I replied joyfully after finishing my water, which worked well for my throat.

"I’m glad," Natha smiled softly; the silver eyes shimmered like the gentle moonlight showering us that night.

Looking at him now, realizing how much time and money he had put into this just to make me happy, filled my heart with indescribable warmth and gratitude. And I wasn’t just thankful for what he did, but for him. For his existence. For the fact that we were fated to meet and meant to be. For the fact that we survived what life thrown at us and be united like this.

I held his cheeks and everything in the world seemed to stop, except for our beating hearts. "I love you," I whispered, knowing he could hear me even amidst all kinds of noise I couldn’t hear at that moment. "I’m so happy that I fell in love with you, and I’m still falling now."

Those silver eyes rippled like the reflection of moonlight over the lake, and he leaned down to kiss me, ever so gently, almost as if he was afraid he would break me. I knew he was holding back so much because we were in the middle of a crowd, but he satisfied himself with that kiss and a stroke on my cheeks.

"Play as much as you want," he said. "If you get too tired, you don’t have to go back if you don’t want to. I’ll carry you around, okay?"

"I’m not tired yet," I put my hands behind his neck, smiling sheepishly. "But you can carry me now."

He could carry me whenever, because I knew I would be the safest in his arms.