The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 84: My demon groom; a shady adventurer with shadier business

Chapter 84: My demon groom; a shady adventurer with shadier business

"There’s a possibility that His Lordship would like to tell you some of the stories himself, so I’ll just tell you of how we siblings met him. Would that be alright?"

I nodded wordlessly, since there was still food in my mouth. Just like Natha, these demons would not indulge me unless I ate my meals—no doubt by His Lordship’s command—so I listened to them while having my breakfast.

With a smile, Lesta tapped on the table and started to tell his story with a reminiscing face. "Let’s see...I believe it was almost fifty years ago. His Lordship had already gained quite a reputation at that time, due to his feat in the war before,"

"Oh, is that the one where they faced corrupted creatures?"

"Oh, you know about it, Young Master?"

I pressed my lips then. Crap—I only knew about it because I read Natha’s journal. Oh...but it wasn’t a secret anymore, wasn’t it? I already told Natha I read his journal.

"Just a bit," I nodded slightly and added, "But I don’t know what reputation he had,"

"I see," his lips stretched into a smirk. "Well, it’s nothing much; just that he was a Nightmare of the battlefield."

My head tilted reflexly at that. "But...he is a Nightmare..."

They chuckled at my response, and Eruha said with a smile. "That’s exactly why. Quite fitting, isn’t it?"

"You know how Nightmare’s ability is to draw other’s fear, right, Young Master? Now imagined using that kind of ability on a battlefield..."

On a battlefield, when it was already filled with fear, it was easy to corrupt others’ minds with it. Apparently, Natha used that ability of his to paralyze his enemies and killed them while at it.

"But it might also attack nearby allies, so His Lordship always ended up as a solo unit. It did make him stand out, however. Even when there were other nightmares in the field, the one who got called ’the Nightmare’ is only His Lordship," Lesta told me with a grin, but I instantly remembered how hard it was for Natha to be in the middle of that battlefield. He wasn’t just inducing others’ fears, but reading them, so he got impacted so much by it.

"After building such reputation, however, His Lordship went into seclusion for years, and no one knew what he was up to," Lesta continued, and I recalled that Natha was supposed to train with his ’master’ during this time, to control his ability more. "And then suddenly people heard he was raiding ruins and collecting artifacts all over the realm. It was during this time that I met him...or rather, he found us."

Lesta told me then, that he and his siblings—Malta and Dhuarta, used to live in the realm of nature. They were half-drow orphans living in the street, working as a guide to foreigners coming to the city. Natha was one of those foreigners.

"He looked like a mercenary back then, with rough and dirty clothing and cold eyes, didn’t look like he got money on him too," Lesta chuckled at the memory, and I couldn’t help but imagine Natha in that getup.

I chug on my water to hide a creeping blush.

"But we followed him because he was a demon, and then we found out he was entering the elven palace. Can you imagine our shock?"

He told me then, that the siblings waited outside of the palace to wait for him; part of it was due to curiosity, and part of it was because they wanted to...rob him.

"I know, I know," he laughed at my flabbergasted face. "We were still young back then, still stupid."

Based on what he told me, they offered to guide Natha to his destination, and Natha—not yet a Lord, accepted. He asked to be guided to a certain place, which turned out to be an entrance to an ancient ruin. He told the siblings to wait for him outside, which they did, while planning an ambush to take whatever he brought out from him.

"Needless to say we were the ones who got the beating," Lesta laughed fondly at the memory, but he didn’t elaborate much on how the beating went—too bad, I wanted to hear about it. "And then he punished us by making us work for him with minimum wage,"

I raised my brows at that, and his eyes curled at my reaction. "Yes, he called it punishment, but for us, it was no different for a reward. A blessing, even."

He said it with such a fond tone that I immediately realized why he had no qualms about accepting me as Natha’s bride.

Natha was more or less their savior, bringing them to the demon realm where halflings like them were more accepted, giving them jobs with stable incomes, where they eventually could establish themselves as his trusted vassals.

I had an inkling that they would do anything Natha told them to do, however weird or dirty it might be—including accepting human as his bride.

"At first, however, we had no idea he would pay us—after all, he looked like he didn’t even have any money to change his clothes," Lesta continued. "We were already resigned to become a slave, so we were really surprised knowing that he was actually quite rich."

Wow, I really wondered how he looked at that time that these siblings lived in the street even thought he had no money.

"He wasn’t nearly as wealthy as he is right now, but he was quite well-known in the industry for his new way of doing business,"

"Right, I heard that too back in the day, and a lot of people mocked him at first because of it," Eruha, who had been listening to the story quietly, suddenly chimed in.

"Why?" I asked curiously while sipping on my drink.

"Because people usually do business themselves, not funding other’s business for a certain percentage of profit,"

I blinked at that, staring at my drink for a while before looking up at them again. "You mean...investment?"

"Ah, of course, you’ll know. Young Master is His Lordship’s partner, after all."

No, wait...this had nothing to do with me being his bride. It was only yesterday that I found out he was an investor after all. It was just that...I had no idea it was such a new concept in this world.

Was that why...he was able to amass such immense wealth even after all the tragedy befalling his family?

And...how exactly was he come up with this ’new’ way of doing business?

This new information, as well as finding all of those ’modern’ inventions yesterday gave me sudden goosebumps.

"Are you alright, Young Master?" Eruha suddenly asked, and I realized I had been gripping my cup tightly, perhaps growing paler for a little bit.

I shook my head for a bit t get rid of all unnecessary thoughts. "I’m fine, just...hearing your story makes me curious about his other adventures," I made an excuse and gave an awkward shrug. I didn’t care if it was flimsy, but I had no way of explaining it to them.

Luckily, they didn’t probe further. Eruha just responded with his usual friendly smile. "You can ask His Lordship yourself, Young Master," he said. "I’m sure he’ll be more than happy bragging—I mean, telling you about it."

Pfft—did this demon just diss his own Lord?

Yeah, I was sure Natha would tell me. But I always thought that if we want something, we have to give something too, just like how we wanted to be loved when we were in love with someone. But if I asked Natha about his past, I wouldn’t be able to offer him the same.

What past would I have here? They were all Valmeier’s, and reciting his memory wouldn’t feel like telling Natha about my past.

So I found it rather hard to ask Natha about it.

What if he asked me about my past after telling me about his own? I would have to dodge the topic because I didn’t want to tell him Valmeier’s past, and then he’d get suspicious and...

Ugh—see, my mind always unknowingly ventured to that dangerous territory.

So I distracted myself by asking Eruha to share his story, just like Lesta did.

"Me?" he had a playful smile as he made a reply while we were walking out of the private quarters. "I’m just a spoil of war," he said casually.

...what the hell?

"Well, calling it a war would be an exaggeration. More like...a competition?" he started to explain immediately, probably because I looked so confused. "I used to work for the Lord of Pride."

Well, this was even more interesting.

"It happened after His Lordship crowned the Lord of Greed. The content of the competition, hmm...you should ask His Lordship for more detail, Young Master. It involved the construction of His Lordship’s Lair."

"The Tower?" my eyes were blown wide because of it.

"Yes. Anyway, as one of the results of the competition, I was laid off by the Lord of Pride, and His Lordship took me in," Eruha let out a crisp, amused laugh, prompting me to narrow my eyes.

"Don’t tell me...it was his plan to get you fired so he could take you instead?" I asked carefully.

Both of them nodded in unison. "Undoubtedly."

"Well, among other things," Lesta laughed. Right—going by the timeline, Lesta would have already worked for Natha when the confrontation with the Lord of Pride happened.

"Ugh—I’m really curious about it now..."

"Like I said, you should ask His Lordship for more detail," Eruha replied calmly.

"But if it’s just the general recounting, it was mentioned in the newest history book. I believe you could find one in the library, Young Master," Lesta told me.

For a second, I was elated at the prospect of avoiding the need to ask Natha directly about it. Until I remembered the big elephant in the room.

"But I...can’t read advanced book yet..." I pursed my lips in disappointment, and the two of them could only exclaim softly.

"Ah..."

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.