The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 580: Everything started with a dream

Chapter 580: Everything started with a dream

Fortunately, Issa accepted it easily. "Of course," she nodded with a graceful smile. "It’s been a while since we visited the Castle of Greed, so we shall take a look around."

As expected of an elf diplomat. Natha held Shwa with one arm and took Jade’s hand with another, turning toward the pavilion’s steps. "I will show you around the garden.

"With His Excellency the youngest Prince?" Issa covered her lips slightly with her wide sleeve. "My, what an honor."

The elves bowed to me and with that cue, they left the pavilion with my little family and the other demons. Even the servants retreated, only leaving me with Panne to host this meeting. He came with Halurean, who held an ornate box in his hands.

"Valen?" Amarein looked at me curiously, and I turned to the forest guide.

"Halurean,"

"Yes, Your Highness."

He stepped to the middle of the pavilion, where a table had been moved by Panne. There, he placed the ornate box carefully and opened the lid. It was the box I used to store the lost treasures; the puzzle box, the bracelet, the crown, the engraver, and of course, the scrolls I had collected, including the ones that Natha sought for me before I sent Tsalinade on her mission.

I didn’t tell her the details about Tsalinade, just that I had been employing someone to search for the leftover treasury that had yet to be destroyed by those humans. I took the items out of the box and laid them one by one on the table so they could peruse it better.

"So..."

"These are the items that I have collected so far," I told them.

Well, it was actually Tsalinade who collected it, but since I was the one who ordered her, it wasn’t a lie, right?

"Oh, Mother..." just like Halurean, the Chiefs were looking at the items with widened and trembling eyes. "M-may we...touch them?"

"Of course. That’s exactly why I’m taking it out."

"Oh..."

They instantly scrambled to the table, but once they reached the item, they moved their hands very carefully. Even though their eyes sparkled, their fingers were delicate, scared of damaging the goods. It was similar to how they approached Shwa earlier, and some of them even started to sob.

Oh...I felt even more guilty now. Swallowing through my dry throat, I fiddled with the edge of my clothes and spoke when Grandma Tiralein looked at me. "I’m--"

"I’m sorry, Your Highness," she held my hands, grasping them tightly and pressed her forehead against them.

"My deepest apologies," the other Chiefs--even Halurean and Amarein, suddenly bowed.

This time, it was me who looked at them with eyes widened in confusion. What? Why were they acting like this? Grandma Tiralein looked at me with moist eyes and a bitter smile.

"It should be us, as the Chiefs and seniors, who look for these lost treasures, but..."

"To make you search for it yourself..." another Chief said. "We are such a failure..."

"No, that’s not--" I shook my head swiftly. This...this wasn’t what I thought in mind when I decided to show them. "I’m the one who wants to do it myself, so..."

"That’s exactly why," Amarein let out a sigh while stroking my head. "You shouldn’t have to."

I blinked, looking at her in bewilderment. "Aunty?"

"As people who have been living longer than you; as people who were the subject of the Seahl family," her hardened eyes dimmed a little bit. "We should have searched for these things ourselves, and fought to get them back."

"Yes," Grandma Tiralein let go of my hands and cupped my face. "As elders, it is our role to nurture and protect the young. If we did it ourselves from the start, you didn’t have to do it yourself--you would have already had everything that is rightfully yours when you found us."

I shook my head quickly. "No, but--it’ll probably be hard for you anyway, right? You don’t go out much," I looked around and glanced at the Castle. "I just have more resources here."

I mean...how else would I afford it? The scrolls from the black market were bought with Natha’s money, and without him, I wouldn’t have the Amrita--which, not only healed me, but also gave me leverage to order Tsalinade around.

Saying I was the one who searched for them tickled my conscience too much.

But Grandma shook her head once again. "That’s not the issue, my Little Prince. We can go out if we want, or at least ask for others’ cooperation," she pressed her lips before continuing in a sharp, slightly restrained tone as if suppressing her anger. "But in the end, we hide behind our border, telling ourselves it’s to protect our community, when it’s all just cowardice."

"That’s..."

"Truthfully, no one wanted to do anything because those treasures didn’t really affect our daily lives," another Chief added, sighing heavily while stroking one of the scrolls. "It belongs to the Royal Family, and except for the scrolls, only a few of us could benefit from it. I think we unconsciously thought that it didn’t matter whether we had those treasures back or not."

A series of heavy sighs and murmurs of agreement came from the other druids, and the cheerful atmosphere suddenly turned somber. Uhh...I didn’t expect this matter to turn in this direction when I decided to share these treasures, though...

As I looked around in confusion of what to do, Amarein suddenly stroked my back. "Valen..."

"Y-yes?"

"What you said before," she looked into my eyes. "It wasn’t just glib, was it?"

Her gaze was so intense that I couldn’t avert it. And with the other druids also looking at me, there was no way to hide.

"Are you thinking about taking over the palace again?"

Well...we were this far already, so there was no point in lying. Besides, it wasn’t like I could do it without telling them. I was just planning to give them a bit of a hint and only told them about it once the plan already bore fruit in...who knew how many years in the future.

But what could I do when they shot at me straight like that?

"Well...yes," I tried to suppress as much nervousness as I could.

"Your Highness--"

"But," I bit my lips before taking a deep breath so I could calm myself and convey my thoughts better. "I don’t want to do it through open wars that would hurt people."

The somber atmosphere shifted this time; instead of sadness and self-disappointment, they looked at me with intrigue. Phew--it was a good decision to let everyone leave since I could only talk about this with my family and the druids...well, they were my kin, were they not?

Again, I took a deep breath and turned my head to look at the garden. They were small, but I could see Natha and the little wiggling bundle in his left arm, as well as Jade jumping in front of them to catch a look at the baby before Lesta carried him. A smile came to my lips almost automatically.

"Just like I said before, I want a place where everyone can live in harmony," I exhaled softly, forming the future in my head. "I can’t make that kind of place by shedding blood."

"Yes, you’re right," Amarein nodded. "But it will be very difficult to achieve."

"I know," I turned toward the druids again. "That’s why...I don’t plan on doing it recklessly or waging war."

I had told Zarfa before, in jest, that she could try to conquer the principality through economic power. That lighthearted suggestion was heard seriously, and she had even made a starting step to pull it through by making her own company. With Natha as a business partner, I didn’t think it was a pipe dream to sever the principality from the Empire and eat it ourselves.

Not only that--I stroked the scroll containing the detailed floor plans--we could do a lot after obtaining this. A lot of mischievous things that would drive the one ruling over the palace out.

"It will probably take a long, long time--Shwa would probably turn into an adult first," I laughed. "But it will happen someday, and..."

I turned to sweep my gaze across the many shades of green eyes in front of me.

"I hope you’ll support me when that time comes," I finished bashfully.

It was rather embarrassing talking about this lofty ambition of mine, which almost sounded like a boy’s daydream. In the end, my cheeks were heating up and my nape felt cold. I wondered if it was good enough to convince them...

"We cannot do that, Little Prince."

"Oh..."

I lowered my head--as I thought, it was too presumptuous of me, huh?

"What do you mean ’when the time comes’?" Grandma Tiralein shook her head and squeezed my cheeks lightly. "We shall support you from now on!"

"In fact, we should have supported you from way before," Amarein stroked my head with a wry smile on her face.

Pressing my lips to hide my embarrassment further, I whispered quietly. "Thank you..."

Grandma Tiralein and the other Chiefs chuckled at my reaction. They patted my back and my head, telling me that I did great and everything.

Well, it was nice that we were done with the guilt party, and they continued looking at the items with more excitement than before. They were enthusiastic about the scroll, of course, because those were the things other druids could use. But they were exceptionally touched seeing the engraver--that pen-looking thing with teeny tiny holes.

As I thought, it was used to turn elemental stones into threads. It was too bad that I hadn’t managed to solve the puzzle box, so we still didn’t know what was stored inside.

In the end, though, they decided that everything was mine. Before I could argue, they said those things belonged to the royal family in the first place, and some could only be activated by the Seahl. I was about to give them the skill scrolls, but they said they would only ’borrow’ it later when they found the right druid to inherit the skill etched on that scroll.

"Your Highness...is truly a druid," Amarein said while the others were busy clamoring around the crown.

"Huh?"

He glanced at me and winked. "Because only a druid would think of taking over something ’peacefully’."

"Well...it’s not like I want to ’take over’," I grinned cheekily. "I’m just...going to get back what’s rightfully mine."