The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 508: A masterspy is not your personal postman, okay?

Chapter 508: A masterspy is not your personal postman, okay?

"It’s quite thick," I stared at the letter that Heraz gave me.

Well, I said ’letter’, but it was almost like a document. A package. Heraz wrapped it in a leather case, and when I opened it, I saw three letters, a small box of candy with a cute little bird’s drawing on the lid, and a pretty cord accessory for tying hair.

I glanced at Heraz, who looked as expressionless as ever. But I knew him well enough now to know that he was rather annoyed being treated like a common postman. I pressed my lips to avoid laughing at that--still gotta respect my spy’s hustle, you know.

"Have they departed to that accursed kingdom?" I asked him while sorting the letters; each was from the Hero, Fatia, and I guess a combined letter from Zharfa and Aina.

"No, Young Master. They decided to go to the hidden church."

I paused my sorting and looked at the shapeshifter. "You mean...the place in my...father’s...map?"

Heraz lowered his gaze to the floor. "Yes, Young Master," he paused, before adding hesitatingly. "They wrote the letters in the church."

"Oh..."

Then...there was a high possibility that the letters would talk about their finding. I put the letters down on my lap, feeling my fingers weakening. I knew I said I wouldn’t go with them, and I knew I already decided not to care very much. But...

Was it because I didn’t have good memories with my own parents? There was this hope that Valmeier’s parents would be better and actually love him--loved me too, by extension.

Even if they couldn’t stay with him.

But hope birthed expectancy, and there was always a possibility of disappointment waiting at the end of the tunnel. So I guessed...I became rather scared. Perhaps, actually, I decided not to go with them because I was scared.

Any other time, I wouldn’t mind waddling through this fear, but now...I already felt my heart was wobbling badly.

"Jade!" I called out the little bird that was about to take a peck at its jelly before dinnertime. Jade flinched and scampered to my side.

[J-Jade only take a look at the jelly!]

Yeah, sure. Fortunately for the little bird, I wasn’t calling for inciting discipline. I grabbed the plump colorful feather ball and squeezed it against my chest, and then nuzzled it against my cheek. Jade was confused, but immediately nuzzled me back while giggling and laughing, unaware that I used it as a stress ball.

Forgive me, my child...but Papa needed to charge himself before storming through this letter.

"Phew..." I exhaled slowly after blessing myself with Jade’s cuteness and patted the bird’s head. "You can have your jelly now if you want.

[Really?] The little bird perked up and pecked my cheek lightly. [Thank you, Papa!]

While my little bird flew back to the table, I picked up the letters again. Alright, here we go...

I didn’t know about the other two, but I felt like the Hero would definitely talk about the Temple and whatever he found there. Zharfa...would probably write about random stuff and the development of her new company to take my mind off things.

Hmm...I’d start with Fatia’s then. Simply because I had no idea what she was going to write in her letter.

Ah--it turned out to be a thank-you letter; very flowery and poetic, maybe because she was a born noble. She told me about the diamond mine and said that she would send me some products next time.

Well...diamonds looked like Natha’s eyes sometimes, so I didn’t mind.

A pretty good start, setting me in a neutral mood. It was a good time to go with the Hero’s letter next, and I opened it after taking a deep breath.

Let’s see...

Greetings, greetings, uh-huh...they decided to pursue the map first because the location was close to their informant’s place--clearly, they couldn’t just charge into the kingdom. And--oh? Oh!

"This is interesting," I glanced at Heraz. "A hidden priest Order, huh?"

"It seems like they are priests who are loyal to the humans’ Goddess instead of the church," Heraz explained. "They were waiting to see if the Hero truly separated himself from the church’s influence and could be trusted before contacting him."

"By giving information about that kingdom?"

Heraz nodded. "It was a little bit of bait, and they planned to tell him about themselves once he arrived in their settlement, but..."

...wait, don’t tell me--

"Their settlement actually...on that church?" I raised my brows.

"To be exact, it’s in the valley surrounding the hill where the church is located."

Ah-ha!

Indeed, it was weird that no one, no clergymen ever felt weird by the direction that the church took. There must be some who thought the church’s executives went too far with their interpretation of the Goddess’ words. There must be people who thought what those people in authority did was wrong.

And yes, there were. They were just hiding themselves because they had no power to go against the church and the royal families. The Hero, who should be a power to them, was summoned inside the palace and instantly under the influence of a royal family and the church. So...

What could they do but keep hiding?

...heard from one of the older priests that the High Priest (that is, your father) sent you away because he was afraid the church would find their hiding place.

I see...

At least I knew he wanted to protect Valmeier.

There was also suspicion about a traitor, and that some of the priests did not like the fact that the High Priest had a child with a druid.

Well, damn--seemed like even those who were free from the church did not free of the humans’ long-skewed xenophobic view.

But alright, I understood his decision more. Perhaps he wanted Valmeier to grow up well first, strong enough to protect himself, and then, maybe, go back to the Order someday.

Who knew he would die before we grew up enough, right?

I continued to read, looking for the reason for his death or about the Goddess, but I couldn’t find it. The Hero said he was under oath not to divulge classified information about the Order to someone else, and the only way for me to find out about it was to be told in person by the members of the Order themselves.

Hmm...at least he was allowed to tell me this in the letter because Valmeier was the rightful owner of the map and the High Priest’s son. In a way, it was an invitation for me to go there and join their cause.

Which I couldn’t do, and would never do.

Visiting the church, maybe. Joining them? No. As I said before, it was not my story; it was not my fight.

"Oh..."

But I liked what he wrote at the very end;

They were buried side by side.

Okay. Okay, that was pleasant information to know. At least, I knew they loved each other to the very end, unlike my parents.

"What is this?" a low voice startled me, and I felt Natha’s cold fingers on my cheek. "Why is my sweetheart crying?"

"Oh, you’re back?" I blinked and wiped my cheek--didn’t even realize I was crying until he mentioned it.

Was that why Heraz suddenly fidgeting? He looked flustered, and it was rather funny that I laughed while drying my cheeks.

[Papa cry?] Jade jumped into my lap and patted my stomach. [Hmm...but Papa is not sad. Papa is happy, right?]

"Yes, Jade," I caressed the adorable green head. "I’m rather happy."

"Oh?" Natha sat down beside me, and I gave him the letter that the Hero wrote.

He was frowning at first when he found out that it was from Jin. But he quickly set his irk aside and focused on the content of the letter while I opened the last one from Zharfa. The content was just what I imagined; a random essay about random stuff they encountered on their way to the settlement.

It looked more like a diary entry than a letter, which was why it was the thickest. There were even some doodles on the side and drawings of sceneries and funny stuff they found, which I was sure drawn by Aina.

I was right to read this one last, because it was so entertaining.

When I finished, I belatedly realized that Natha had finished reading the Hero’s letter and was waiting for me. "Oh, I’m sorry!" I grinned and folded Zharfa’s letter--or rather, journal. "It’s interesting, isn’t it?"

"I’m just glad it’s nothing serious," Natha said while rubbing my cheeks to get rid of the tearstreak.

Well, if he said it like that...it wasn’t something serious for us, indeed. But Heraz was still here, so I wondered if there was something more.

Like the good spy that he was, Heraz answered my curiosity before I could tell him to. "They would like to ask if you’d visit the church, Young Master."

"Ah..." there was indeed such a question in the postscript; Natha just came in before I got to it. I didn’t think about it long, though. "No, I won’t be going anywhere for a while. I’m going to visit, maybe..."

I turned to Natha, and he shrugged. "Next year? In a few years?" he lightly drummed on my shoulder. "It depends on Shwa, isn’t it?"

Of course!

Well, I should at least show Shwa’s grandparents’ tombs, right? Which reminded me...Natha’s parents should have them too. So...should we visit then after Shwa was born?

While I was making a plan to visit dead family members, Natha said with a wry smile. "Besides, we have more serious problems at home."

"Oh?"

That evening, I heard the news that the war’s horn had been resounded.