The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 608: Children are the best weapon...in many ways

Chapter 608: Children are the best weapon...in many ways

"Papa? What is Papa doing?" Jade looked in on me at some point.

I was lying on my stomach, copying the statuette branches to my journal so I could figure out the correct path. Jade climbed the bed and clung to my back, sitting on my waist.

"Papa is drawing?"

"I’m solving a puzzle," I patted the little boy’s head on my shoulder. "Are you done with our training?"

"Mm! Ignis say we’ll have to pay for da...damage! I we continue!"

I blinked and raised my head to check the room. Fortunately, the only ’damage’ I could find was a wet floor that Ignis had been trying to carefully erase by turning it into steam. Phew...

"That’s a good idea--you better only train outdoors from now on," I sighed in relief. Training indoors was good for controls, but there should always be a supervisor. "Do you want to go to sleep?"

The little boy shook his head. "Jade will sleep with Papa!"

"Hmm...do you want to draw?"

"Yes!"

I took out Jade’s sketchbook and a few of our self-made children’s books, as well as some crayons. Jade lay beside me and started to scribble on his sketchbook while I copied the statuette really, really carefully and made sure it was precise.

It was kind of fun, despite it being a serious business. It had been a while since I did this kind of thing with Jade, especially since Shwa came along. He would show his drawing to me from time to time, which seemed to be our chronicle in the Human Realm.

"Jade will show this to Shwa later!" the little boy declared excitedly. "So Shwa won’t feel lonely because he can’t go with us!"

I laughed and playfully bit his cheek to muffle my squeal. Gosh--my sons were truly adorable. It was things like this that made this whole journey and what I would have to face later worthwhile.

With my energy charged, I started to sincerely look for a path. Let me tell you something though: in this kind of puzzle, it was easier if the goal was on the top of the path. Because then, you knew you only had to trace a path from the bottom to the top.

When the goal was in the middle? The path could go from the bottom left and circle the whole maze before reaching the goal from the bottom right. Haa...this was why I always ended up taking the wrong turn and forgetting the path. There was a point where I had to take a path up, up, up, and then turn right and go down, down, down, reaching the same area that was only separated by a single wall.

Goodness gracious! If I hadn’t bid for this statuette, it would take me months--or even years--to solve this! I didn’t even know if there was anything inside the box. Wouldn’t it be really funny--and sad--if I found the box to be empty?

Hahaha.

No! Don’t jinx it, Val!

Anyway, it took me seven tries before figuring out that I had to circle the map and that the path was in a spiral! What kind of sadistic, diabolical grandpa did you have, Halurean? When I finally figured out the path--on the paper--it had been more than an hour, and I found Jade was sleeping on top of his sketchbook, still holding a crayon.

Welp--I guessed it was time for bed. I closed the journal and kept it in my storage ring, deciding to try tracing the path inside the box next time. After all, I couldn’t possibly leave my son sleeping on the floor unattended, right?

Definitely not because I got too dizzy and exhausted from using my brain.

Perhaps because of that, I woke up rather late the next morning. Yeah, definitely because of that. Even Jade woke up late. But Zarfa told me that the place selling the carriage wouldn’t be open until later since it was the weekend, so I could take my time to get ready.

I didn’t think we would have breakfast in my room, however. No wonder my room was better and bigger than hers--than all of their rooms, in fact. I was rather surprised when the inn staff brought extra tables and chairs in and started laying out scrumptious breakfast.

But, well...this was better for us since there might be a lot of people in the dining room. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to talk about our next step freely. After all, our destination was supposed to be a secret place.

"No more movement? Pursuer?" I asked them. I already heard that they didn’t even encounter bandits, but who knew--perhaps Jin and Renna could feel something that the others couldn’t.

"Not so far," Jin shook his head with a relieved sigh. "I hope it stays that way."

We nodded in agreement, and Aina even clasped her hands tightly in prayer--only later I knew she was just praying before eating. They hadn’t been having a scrumptious breakfast ever since the last camp I joined, so she was ecstatic to start our journey on a comfortable stomach.

"Hey, I think Jade should keep being a boy," Zarfa pointed at the jelly-eating boy with her spoon. Why did she like to point at people and stuff with her utensils? Jade perked up, however, and I asked her for an explanation. "People won’t suspect us if we bring a kid into the group."

"Is that so?"

"Absolutely. Let’s aim to be a group of rich merchants with their escorts," she nodded, sweeping her gaze around the table and pointing at us--with her fork this time. "Val could be our rich young master, and you are his escort knights."

"Which is not a lie," Fatia placed her morning tea down and smiled with a visibly peaceful expression. "I like it that we don’t have to lie."

Well, technically, I was a rich young master, and Zarfa was a rich merchant. We could even throw a young noble lady, and it would still be the truth--although I reckoned it would be too over the top and invite more questions instead. On the other hand, Ian already wore knight armor, and Jin dressed like a seasoned swordsman, so...

Escort Knight seemed legit.

"I’ll pretend our carriage was broken down so we can buy the nicest carriage naturally."

"Oh, nice!" the notion of a nice carriage immediately perked me up. I didn’t mind throwing extra money for that comfort. "Is the money enough?"

"Dude, you give me a pouch full of big gold and platinum coins," Zarfa snorted. "We can even start a real merchant company with that much."

"Oh, really? That’s good."

I nodded cluelessly. Honestly, I didn’t even look inside the pouch. I believed Zarfa could use it better than I ever would, so I gave her the whole pouch.

"Damn~to be so rich he doesn’t even care how much money he brought," Zarfa laughed and clapped her hands.

"You said money is power," I shrugged.

We grinned and finished our breakfast well, before going out to look for a carriage. As planned, Jade was staying as a boy with a ’pet’ lizard on his shoulder. We took him around and let him choose the carriage--for fun, yes, but also for people to recognize that we were traveling with a ’real’ child.

Zarfa and Aina would slip in bit by bit about the incident of the broken down carriage and a ’maybe there was a bandit’ kind of story with the spirit of theatrical kids, and Renna would chime in to smooth it with more natural acting. As expected of our assassin.

And as expected of Ra Natha’s stepson, he was very critical of luxury and could pinpoint which one was the best. The critics came from a child in brutal honesty, so even the seller could only laugh awkwardly.

Only after Jade patted a certain carriage and sat comfortably inside did we decide on a purchase. "This is not as good as the one at home, but best here! Jade will approve a little!"

With Jade’s stamp of approval, we purchased the carriage and bought provisions. It took a while, but we didn’t want to look like we were in haste, so that wasn’t a problem. The sky had climbed high when we were finally ready near the city gate.

The carriage was smaller than the one we used from Dailamy, so we also purchased a horse for Jin to use, while Ian and Renna would coach the carriage.

We looked at the carriage and the horse in satisfaction, and Ian raised his clenched fist. "Let’s--"

"Jade will say it!"

The young paladin paused and looked at the little boy in my arms, who was looking at him with bright, sparkling green eyes.

"Jade will say it! Aina clapped her hands and laughed as if it was the funniest thing, and Zarfa chimed in with a sing-song tone.

"Jade will say it~"

"Sir Jade will say it," Fatia, the elemental bird enthusiast, nodded solemnly.

Poor boy. He blinked and lowered his arm. "Uhh--okay..."

I couldn’t help but chuckle, before nodding at the patiently waiting Jade. "You can say it."

Jade raised his arms and yelled excitedly. "Let’s gooooo!"

"Goo!"

Zarfa and Aina followed suit before climbing inside the carriage with a laugh, and Ian muttered ’let’s go, let’s go’ with a dejected face. Seemed like Jade found a new teasing target since Natha wasn’t there.

Surely, no one would suspect this cheerful, happy-looking group with a child in it was in the middle of the most important mission anyone in the Human Realm could have, right?

Anyway, we continued our journey with this vibe, and after spending a night camping in a meadow, we arrived at the foot of a mountain the next afternoon.

Up there, hiding inside the mountain, was the hidden church and the templars.