The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 52: A peaceful morning is always a luxury

Chapter 52: A peaceful morning is always a luxury

Another new thing I realized; ingesting Amrita made my body feel hot no matter what. Even if it was no longer painful, nor was it as intense as before, it still felt like something hot coursing through my vein. Although at this point, it felt more warm than hot.

As a result, my body would unconsciously seek something cold to offset the sensation.

Surely, you see where I was going with this?

Yup. Again, I found myself waking up in his arms, clutching into his cold skin while embarrassingly sighing in delight. I was pretty sure that I slept on the other side of the bed, but somehow I always rolled toward his side, nuzzling on his shoulder and chest. It wasn’t until I heard his voice that I even realized what I had done.

"Is it like your habit or something?" my eyes, which had been closed in the bliss of the cool sensation, startled open. I looked up, and he was staring at me with a smirk, fingers playing with the tips of my hair. "Hugging people in your sleep?"

No, no, no—I swore it was because my heated body carved coldness.

It wasn’t because I had always laying alone all my life in a hospital bed dreaming about being embraced before.

...I think?

"I don’t...know," I somehow managed to respond, even as his sturdy arm caged me. "I never shared a bed with anyone before."

He laughed softly, a low voice that was slightly hoarse from sleep and making my heart skip a beat. He gave me a forehead kiss and pulled me closer, hugging me tighter.

"Good, don’t share a bed with anyone but me," he murmured against my hair while stroking it.

It made me remember his not-so-subtle show of possessiveness yesterday. Perhaps I was dumb, but I suddenly had this urge to taunt him. I didn’t even know where I got the leeway to do it, but I responded provocatively. "What would happen if I do?"

His stroking motion halted for a second, before the fingers gripped around my nape. It wasn’t harsh or anything—in fact, it was quite gentle. But my body still stiffened in his hold, cursing my own stupidity.

"Nothing," he said, in a gentle, casual tone.

That was unexpected. Nothing? After showing me how possessive he could be sometimes? That was quite hard to believe...

"Nothing will happen to you anyway," he said easily while rubbing my nape and back.

Ah, the Lord of Greed was truly never disappointing. I didn’t have enough courage to ask what would happen to the other person at this point, and pushed my body up from the mattress because I felt like it was getting dangerous.

Thankfully, he let go of me without a fuss, and I saw his usual lazy morning smile, as if our short conversation earlier never happened.

Hmm...I truly had no idea how to feel about all of these. He always acted like a gentle lover around me, but he also would show his possessive side from time to time. Should I feel worried? Should I feel glad about how much he treasured me?

Ah, how complicated.

I leaned down and gave him a light peck on his cheek. I didn’t like complicated things. It was complicated enough with the many things I needed to hide from him.

It wasn’t like I had any strong attachment to this world anyway, so I didn’t really care if he imprisoned me by his side. In the first place, this demon was my world.

"See, you keep seducing me," he smirk, rubbing my lips with his thumb.

"I told you that wasn’t my intention..." I pursed my lips, heat creeping into my cheek.

I straightened my back and he rolled on his stomach, circling his arms around my waist and putting his head on my lap. "Whatever your intention is, I like it,"

Hmm...and then there were times when he acted like this—like he wanted to be spoiled. Unsure of what to do, I put my flustered hand on his hair and stroked it, careful not to accidentally touch his horn.

He sighed contentedly, nuzzling my stomach as if telling me to keep at it. As I stroked a bit harder, and my fingers scratched his scalp, I heard a deep purr coming from him, and my hand stopped in reflex.

"Mmh—keep going..." he murmured sleepily, and my hand moved before my mind gave any command, as if I was in a trance.

He kept humming in satisfaction and muttering praises, and I was getting more flustered with each comment uttered in that sultry voice. My face, which had been cooled by his temperature overnight, was heating up again.

Was...was this what he meant by seducing me?

And then, as if to spare my poor heart, I heard the familiar loud chirping. Accompanied by a soft breeze, the little colorful pigeon came flying at me through the window, perching on my shoulder and nuzzling my cheek with the top of its head—the usual morning greeting.

"Mm, good morning for you too," I scratched the green pattern on the top of its head, and just like the one on my lap, this little one too, purred in satisfaction.

But...staring at Jade like this, I couldn’t help but think that it was cuter before, when it looked like a ball of feathers, round and fluffy. With a startled chirp, it hovered an arm away, shaking.

"No, no, it’s not like I don’t think you’re cute anymore, don’t worry..."

Despite my assurance, Jade shook its head in the air. Its body kept trembling and it brought its little legs up, head down and wings folded as if trying to make itself into a ball.

"Oh, no! Jade, it’s okay—you don’t have to ma—"

Before I could finish my words, however, the trembling became more severe, and the green pattern glowed brightly, illuminating the bedroom. In the moment I took to shield my eyes from the bright light, somehow, Jade transformed again, and as I opened them...

A cute, round little ball of feathers with colorful spiky tails plopped down into the mattress.

"Huh?" I stared dumbfounded at Jade, who have shrunk to its infant size once again. "Huuh? Huuuuuh?"

Wait wait wait—what happened? Did it regress? After all of those efforts?

"It’s alright," Natha, who was already gotten up and sat leaning on his arms, let out a chuckle. "This guy just transforms to the shape you think is the cutest—what a shrewd guy..."

Natha poked Jade’s round cheek and made the little bird chirp in annoyance, as usual. There was always some kind of rivalry between them, and it was funny to look at sometimes. But right now, I had a concerning matter to attend to.

"It won’t affect its growth?" I asked cautiously, staring at the plump bird.

"It shouldn’t," Natha retracted his finger with a smirk. "This guy will grow like usual, and it should be able to change back to its supposed size if it wants," he leaned his head to rest it on my shoulder this time.

"Oh, that’s a relief..." it would be a waste if Jade let go of all that growth just to shrink itself and appear cuter.

After sensing me calming down, Jade waddled into my lap now that Natha’s head no longer occupied it. The little bird wriggled around as if showing off its cute appearance that I said I liked better.

I picked it up with a laugh, and Jade jumped joyfully on my palm. It was still quite hard to feel its mana core perfectly, so I told myself to train my sensitivity further rather than intensively giving Jade my mana.

"Sweetheart, give me your hand," Natha said suddenly in the middle of my thinking.

Jade looked irritated and chirped in protest, but it still scooted over so I could give Natha my left hand. His cold thumb rubbed my palm, all the way to my wrist, and stopped above my vein.

I could feel him probing into my mana circuit, checking the channels and gates. "Hmm," he nodded, his voice sounding like approval. "You’re recovering well, the blockage is halfway cleared."

"Yup," I nodded enthusiastically.

"And now that you can use the druid’s method, it should increase the speed even more,"

"Oh, is that so?" perhaps because I was still new to it, but I didn’t really notice the difference. Or was it because I always fall asleep as soon as I ingested the Amrita?

His thumb moved back into the center of my palm and pressed on it. "I think you should be able to pull out the spear now—"

I snatched my hand off his and scrambled to the edge of the bed, clutching my hand tight and covering it with my right palm. Jade was chirping in shock, flung off the mattress from my sudden movement.

Natha was blinking hard, it was clear from his face that he too, didn’t expect this kind of reaction from me.

And to be honest, neither did I.

My body moved before my mind, but even if I waited for my brain to function first, it would still tell me to do the same thing.

"Val?"

"I don’t want to!" I almost yelled at him. "I don’t want to!"

What I should tell him was that I didn’t want to pull the damn spear out. That spear that put the ugly scar on his shoulder—that scar I could see peeking out of the edge of his night robe. That was why I reacted so strongly to his words.

But in my anxiety-riddled mind, I could only shout ’I don’t want to’ like a tantrum child.

I could hear Jade’s panic chirping on the side, but I couldn’t react to it. My mind was swirling in a mess. I knew it wasn’t me that drove the spear into Natha, but my hand—this body—remembered it, and I was utterly disgusted by that.

The very notion of holding that very spear with my own hand was enough to fill my mind with self-hatred and anxiety.

I hated this.

I hated this.

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