The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 88: Not all conspiracy is done with malicious intention

Chapter 88: Not all conspiracy is done with malicious intention

As the sound of melodious laughter filled the air, the three demons stared at the young human with mesmerized gazes.

The previously pale face was now adorned with soft color, as the emerald eyes glowed in soft light. It brought the feeling of looking at the good things in life; the blooming flower of the spring, the refreshing drizzle of rain in the summer; like watching the fallen leaves in the autumn, and enjoying warm drinks during snowfall.

It was, simply put, beautiful.

How that human kingdom had the audacity to wrong this pure, innocent beauty was beyond the three demons. Even they, who had been bathed in filth and drenched in blood, knew this human should be treasured and protected.

Was that why their Lord claimed this human and brought him here, instead?

"I owe my life to His Lordship," Caba suddenly said after the laughing sound ended, looking vacantly at the floor. "So I couldn’t help but think that you were an enemy, Young Master..."

"Which is stupid," Lesta commented with a scoff.

"Yes, stupid," Eruha added. "Since His Lordship himself had said that it was his fault, stemmed from carelessness."

"I know!" Caba snapped with a hiss, before sighing and lowering his voice again. "I...know that...and had forgotten about it," he looked at the young human, who was looking at him while listening keenly. Caba pressed his lips before continuing with a wry look. "But when I saw you were standing so close with His Lordship, holding on to him, I thought you were trying to do something and..."

"Stupid,"

"Stupid,"

"Can’t you two shut up?!" Caba gripped his knees with gritted teeth, holding himself back desperately from tackling the two demonic parrots.

But then he realized that the two demons were looking at the young human with a smile, who covered his face at the "holding on to him’, ears red from flusters.

"Ngh!" they could hear his muffled groan through the fingers. The emerald eyes peeked from behind the fingers as the young human spoke shyly. "S-sorry...please continue..."

It took Caba a while to collect himself from that reaction, and then coughed as he realized what the Lord and this human were actually doing at that time, recalling the intimate position they were in.

"Uh...umm, so yeah...what I wanted to say was... It was stupid of me," the bald demon finally managed to continue after dealing with the embarrassment. "I should have known, that even if I didn’t trust you—I mean! I mean before! When I didn’t know you yet..."

The demon flailed his hands, frantically trying to explain himself, and prompting the chaperoning duo to mutter again, "Stupid."

"Agh—yes I know I’m stupid, okay?! Now shut up!" the bald demon slammed his hands on the floor in frustration. But he immediately lifted his head to look at the young human, checking if he somehow scared the human again.

Thankfully, he wasn’t.

"Oh, forgive me, Young Master, I digress," he sighed and gave a nasty side-eye toward the two demons, who averted their gaze with a smirk. "What I want to say is that even then, I should have trusted His Lordship."

Yeah—he felt ridiculous about it now. How dare he, whose life wouldn’t be available now if it wasn’t for the Lord, to doubt his Lord’s choice? It would mean doubting the Lord himself—and Caba had been with him long enough to know that the Lord wasn’t someone who did something on a whim, nor was he someone who could fall into a human’s trap.

"Because it’s clear to me—to us—how much he loves and treasures you," he looked at the young human; the beautiful creature that looked like he could break like glass with just a gentle push, and yet contained enough power to break the world if he wanted to. Caba couldn’t help but smile at that thought. "I can see how much he thinks about you all the time, and when he found something interesting, he’d mention your name with a smile, muttering his wish to show it to you and—"

"Ahem!" suddenly, Lesta cleared his throat to stop the bald demon to continue with his tale. He signaled with his eyes toward the young human, who wasn’t just covering his face with his hands this time, but a whole book.

"Caba, you can stop there," Eruha said with a slight chuckle. "You’ll burn Young Master at this point."

"Uhh..." A sound of a flustered whimper could be heard behind the book then. Again, Caba felt himself feeling embarrassed by the human’s pure, maiden-like reaction.

The demon cleared his throat and continued with a sheepish grin. "Oh, well...yeah, what I mean is...since His Lordship took you as his bride, I should accept it gladly."

After Caba made his conclusion, the room fell into silence. The human lowered the book finally, cheeks still adorned with blooming red, as he exhaled long.

The two other demons, however, tilted their head and narrowed their eyes. Eruha tapped on the armrest and commented. "Hmm, there’s something icky about this..."

"Are you making excuses, Caba?" Lesta crossed his arms, eyeing the bald demon dubiously.

"I’m not! Can you just stop slandering me?!" Caba barked in frustration at the demon who was supposed to be his friend. But this was not the time for him to pick a fight with the smirking demon. He shifted his gaze toward the human again and sighed. "Anyway, I’m not saying all this for you to forgive me or anything, Young Master," he paused, and looked at the floor. "Just...I hope you understand that I’m just a stupid subordinate of His Lordship."

He had been thinking about what he did during his punishment. And then, when the Lord told them that they shouldn’t approach the Lord’s private quarters yesterday, he realized that he was one of the reasons why. He bit down his sigh and continued in a careful but sincere tone.

"So...I hope what I did won’t discourage you from staying here with His Lordship, Young Master," he bowed his head again, even though he had never bowed to anyone but his Lord. When he lifted his head, the look in his eyes was soft and sincere. "Because in all my years serving him, I’ve never seen him happier than after he met you."

The young human met his gaze with surprised eyes. The long, dark eyelashes fluttered shyly, but rather than getting flustered like before, the man was just fidgeting with pressed lips, as if containing himself from smiling.

That nice atmosphere, however, couldn’t hold out for long.

"Wow, you actually say something sensible for once," Lesta said with a smirk.

Glaring at the smirking demon, Caba held up his hand and put his thumb and index finger together. "Just so you know, I’m thiiiis close to throwing you out of the window..."

Lesta just met the threatening glare with a brief laugh, before he turned his gaze toward the young human. Right, they should hear what the young master thought about this.

Seeing the three demons staring at him, the young human-druid blinked and straightened his back a little bit. "Umm..." he bit his red lower lips for a while, before finally speaking in a firmer voice. "I don’t want you to misunderstand."

The green eyes stared at Caba, who was still on the floor and tilted his bald head in confusion.

"It’s not that I hate you or anything," the human shook his head, the words prompting Caba to sit on his heels, as if listening to a lecture.

Or his Lord’s order.

After a brief pause, the human continued. "But you...or rather, what transpired that night triggered something quite traumatic for me, and because of that, my body reacted by itself..."

The human looked at his hand, which unless he gripped something, was still slightly trembling. He shifted his gaze at Caba after, with slightly downturned brows and saddened eyes. "So, I’m sorry, but...I don’t know when I would stop having that kind of reaction,"

The three demons went silent at that. Caba, especially, felt his guts churn. His mouth opened and closed repeatedly without any sound, until he finally swallowed and spoke dejectedly.

"...I understand," he lowered his head again. "I will do by best so you don’t have to see me or hear my voi—"

"No! That’s not what I mean!" the young human swiftly cut him off. Caba looked up with widened eyes and raised brows, and found the young human shaking his head frantically and started to explain.

"I just want to say that if I happened to flinch at your voice or something, please don’t get offended..."

Again, another silence.

"How..." Caba almost couldn’t find his voice at this point. "How dare I feel offended by you, Young Master..."

"Well...you might? I mean, it’s not nice to have someone getting scared of you for no apparent reason..." the young human paused, staring down again, as if recalling some experience. He looked up after a few seconds and added with a quiet voice. "...right?"

Caba didn’t really know what he was supposed to say to that. At this kind of moment, the one with the most sensible remark usually was Eruha. And as expected, the tall demon spoke to break the silence.

"Hmm," Eruha nodded, his long drop earrings swaying from the motion. "Besides, it’s actually better to face a trauma head-on," he looked at the young human with a praising smile. "Who knows, after a few times hearing your annoying voice, Young Master will get used to it enough."

Caba very much wanted to smack the tall demon, but he held his palm back this time.

"Yes, I think so too," the young human finally smile while nodding in agreement, before looking at Caba with a radiant gaze. "So please don’t feel like you have to avoid me or anything."

Needless to say that Caba was getting more speechless at that. The whole reaction, and the fact that the Lord’s partner actually felt bad for him made his gut twisted in shame over what he did in the past.

"I..." he looked at the floor. He would have prostate again if he didn’t remember that the young human was uncomfortable with that. So he just gripped his knees and tried to make his voice steady. "I understand," he nodded weakly.

"Pfft—are you crying?"

"I’m not!"

Truly, couldn’t these demons let him have his moment in peace?!

"Mm, mm," and in truly Eruha fashion, the tall demon clapped his hand, ignoring the emotional demon with a nonchalant remark. "Now that everything had been cleared up, why don’t we call it a day?"

He started to get up and looked at the other two demons. "Lesta, you go with Caba since he’s coming all the way here to look at you. I’ll take Young Master to His Lordship’s office."

The young human suddenly perked up at his words. "Oh?"

Lesta raised his brow and stared at Eruha for a while, before shrugging. "Hmm, sure," he turned toward the human and bent his waist. "Then, Young Master, let’s meet again."

"Okay," the man nodded with a smile.

Still on the floor, Caba muttered timidly. "C-can I say that too?"

With a light-hearted tone, the young human replied with a bright laugh. "Of course!"

"Then...see you again, Young Master..." the bald demon bowed his head again, face lowered so the other couldn’t see his glazed eyes.

"Yes, see you!"

* * *

"Ahh...our Young Master is even more adorable than what Dhuarta told me," Lesta said while stretching his arms up as they walked out of the library.

"Well..." Caba, who was still in a daze quite a bit, replied slowly. "I would not deny that..."

"Pfft—look at you being all soft now," Lesta laughed. The mad wolf truly looked like a tamed dog right now—which he did not expect, honestly. "Anyway, why are you looking at me in the library? How do you know I was there?"

"Huh? Someone just told me," Caba answered with a shrug.

"Who?"

"An orderly?"

"And that orderly did not tell you that I was with the young master?"

"...no?"

Caba halted his pace and turned around because Lesta suddenly stopped walking. "What?"

"Who...was that person?"

The bald demon felt confused about this sudden interrogation, but he tried to recall as best as he could. "I don’t know his name," he crossed his arms and looked up in concentration. "I think I saw him around you or Eruha sometimes though..." after musing about it for a few seconds, he finally snapped his fingers and looked at Lesta again. "You know, those who liked playing chess with you guys and—what?"

Caba tilted his head at the widened black eyes of the other demon. "Don’t tell me..." Lesta muttered and turned his head toward the direction of the library.

"Huh?"

He couldn’t think about it earlier due to the hectic situation. But now that things had resolved well, he had leeway to contemplate everything.

Like why would someone tell Caba where he was without mentioning the young human, which was the source of interest among the castle staff these days? And it was almost suspicious how no one was in the library, including the librarian.

Everything was a perfect stage for a sudden rendezvous, including any settlement arising from the possible conflict. He remembered Eruha only led the young human to calm down rather than telling Caba to go. He was also bringing them naturally to the private room, and agreed easily that the young master shouldn’t avoid meeting Caba.

Lesta suddenly let out a laugh. Was this the extent you would go to shape the chosen one to be the best partner for His Lordship?

"Damn, Eru..." he started to walk again while laughing and shaking his head, leaving the used Caba in confusion behind.

"...huh??"