The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 98: Nothing’s happened today...

Chapter 98: Nothing’s happened today...

It felt weird...

I finally understood the expression of ’limbs turn to jelly’ with how my body moved. It felt like I turned really flexible, like I could bend however I wanted, even spiraling to the sky. But I also felt slow and rather sluggish.

The strange feeling of losing organs was unsettling, and I felt heavy and light at the same time, however weird it sounded. My senses were subdued, or rather, I perceived my surrounding differently. Instead of using physical senses, I used mana perception--which made sense, since I had no organ right now.

Which was why, while sensing the noise from the riverside, I had no idea what Doun was shouting. Jade, for sure, was just chirping. Perhaps if I had a higher level of perception, I would be able to hear them clearer, but whether it was due to my low proficiency, or because this was my first time, I felt like hearing them while being underwater.

In that sense, I also could not speak to them, and had no skill like telepathy to do so--in the first place, soul and mind-related skills were demon’s specialty. But at least, I could communicate with Jade since the bird was familiar.

*...ster! Master!*

No...actually, I could hear the bird clearer in this state. Or rather, I could hear it talk?

Before, while I was able to understand Jade, it was more that we share our senses to be able to understand each other. But now, its thought and chirping was getting translated into a more coherent form.

Blinking my aquatic eyes, I stared at the frantic flapping of the little wings. No--it didn’t evolve yet. So...was it because I was closer to an elemental form?

...interesting.

--Jade?

*Master!*

Oh, such a cute voice, like a baby--ahem, I mean a toddler. It reminded me of the children’s ward I used to stay in. But it wasn’t the time to marvel at this newfound fact.

--Stay. Don’t come closer.

The little bird, who was almost rushing out to the river, halted suddenly, just in time for Doun to catch it. Jade screamed in protest, and I could feel its anxiety about my state, probably because it was the first time I turned into something...not human.

But I share my thought, telling the little bird that I was alright, that there was something I needed to do first.

Right--my real objective wasn’t to morph into an aquatic humanoid form, but to gather elemental mana and purified it.

I didn’t expect this to be such a bonus though. Disregarding the usefulness of morphing into aquatic form, this state put me into deep mana perception mode, since I was basically becoming one with nature. It made absorbing mana into my body easier.

I tried to move, gliding above the water to the center of the river. Looking down, the only part that looked humanoid was my head and torso. From the waist down, I was a pillar of water connected to the river. But I had no difficulty moving, although it felt slower--perhaps because I was on the surface.

When I moved, it was like the elemental mana gravitated toward me, so it was easy to gather them. It was quite fast too, perhaps because my proficiency in purification had increased since the first time.

Was it because it was water? While absorbing and purifying it, I felt refreshed. It was as if my soul was being washed clean. Ah...if only it was the truth. My ugly, greedy, dirty soul...would it be able to get cleansed?

I moved my aquatic limb to the center of my system, where the mana heart in my astral body was circulating the mana. With the way my physical form was now, the output was visibly seen in my core; a swirling mass of mana with a light blue glow. It grew bigger and deeper in color with time, growing bright even under the sunlight.

Once it reached the size of a balloon, I stopped in a shudder, feeling a bit lightheaded--how I could even feel that with this form was something I could not explain. I stared inside at that swirling mass of mana and tried to concentrate. I flexed my nonexistent muscle and gritted my metaphorical teeth, condensing the mass as well as stabilizing it, until it shrunk to the size of a small ball, something that Jade could hold within its wings.

I heard the cheerful chirping from the riverside, and got bombarded with Jade’s colorful thoughts; of rainbow and flowers and yummy snacks--the things that made the little bird happy.

I trained my aquatic eyes on the demon and the elemental bird, and glided ashore. As I got closer, Jade was throwing countless images of my face into my mind. I could feel my familiar’s eagerness to see my ’true’ form and I wanted to chuckle because of that. What came out of me was a sound of gurgling, however, so I kept silent after that.

*Master!*

I felt like the only thing this toddler bird knew was only ’Master’ at this point. I probably should talk with Jade more often--I thought as I released the condensed ball of purified mana that glowed in blue lights.

With my command, the ball of mana flew toward the bird, who managed to get out of Doun’s hold. The demon, while faithfully keeping the bird safe, also never tore his gaze off me. And now that I hovered in front of him in my aquatic form, he looked at me unblinking, lips parting as if he was in shock.

What--didn’t he say he expected this to happen?

As the ball of mana was grabbed safely by Jade--who wasted no time devouring it like some delicious giant candy--I slowly detached my consciousness from the river, from the water, from the essence of life itself. One by one, my physical senses came back, and I could feel the coldness upon my limb. My arms first, and then, slowly, down to my legs, as I landed above the rocky riverside.

...oh?

Now that my senses and consciousness had come back fully, I had the leeway to observe my surrounding. I realized then that we were in a different part of the forest; the river wasn’t as wide, and the trees flanking us weren’t as dense. There was a cliff on one side of the river, which told me we were in a higher place than before. Seemed like a good place for training Alveitya too...

"Did I go upstream?" I muttered with a tilted head, before Doun’s flustered voice cut my musing.

"Y-Young Master, p-please cover yourself first!"

Suddenly, several layers of clothes were raining down on me, which I realized were actually my own clothes. I blinked at the demon, who, unlike before, had his eyes closed shut while throwing me my clothes.

"...oh!" belatedly, I found out that I was actually buck naked--which...made sense, actually, with my transmorphing.

In a fluster, I stomped my feet and erected an earthen wall between us, cursing my carelessness. I probably...should never mention this to Natha...right? I sighed while getting dressed, watching Jade who gleefully absorbed the mana ball, oblivious to the panic happening below.

Taking a deep breath and sighing long, I crumbled the earthen wall after making sure I was fully dressed--except for the shoes. When I looked at Doun, however, the demon still had his eyes closed, even fortified them with his palm.

"Umm..."

"I did not take a look! I swear! I closed my eyes as soon as you started to transform back, Young Master!" the demon shout quite defensively. I got it, though...he must be scared of the Lord’s wrath.

"I...I get it," I told him awkwardly. "It’s my fault too, for not realizing it..."

Let’s just treat this as an accident. It was rather good too that Doun was there, since I would have scoured the river naked otherwise, looking for my scattered clothes--if they didn’t get washed downstream first, that is. Well, at least I knew now that I had to either learn dimensional storage magic, or taught Jade to gather my clothes whenever I tried to transmorph in the future.

"Oh, right--your ring, Young Master..." Doun held up his palm, gaze still trained on the ground.

Damm...even the accessory? Did I almost carelessly lose the impromptu engagement ring? Good job, Val...

As I put the ring back on my finger, I caught Doun’s eyes, and we froze for a bit, before let out a long sigh together.

"Let’s just...forget about it. Nothing’s happened here today, right?" I laughed wrily while picking up my shoes and wore them.

"...what thing, Young Master?"

I let out a laugh, and Doun finally could breathe for a bit, as we wait for Jade to finish the special lunch.

* * *

"Who do you think she meant by ’he’?" I asked Jade as we lazed around in the guest floor’s lounge by ourselves. Apparently, Zia had a ’deadline’ and had locked herself up.

Jade, who was temporarily in its evolved form--the one with the long tails--looked at me with a tilted head. Well, the little bird wouldn’t know about my surfacing memory anyway, I just felt like talking with someone.

Holding on until he came...

If there was anyone with bold, capital HE plastered on their person existed in my life, it would be Natha. But that would be weird, since I did not meet Natha before I died. And...it would be weird if my grandma predicted my going into another world...right?

I did remember that she was a spiritualist. I didn’t really understand back then, why she preferred living in a secluded place. She always talked about fairies, ghosts, spirits, fates and fortune reading... things like that.

But expecting her to foresee this...that I would wake up in another world after my death...felt too ridiculous.

Haa...I wished I could remember more. Perhaps she had told me a lot more about who ’he’ was, just that I couldn’t remember it since I was just a kid. I remembered my grandma died before I started to get sick, so I should be less than ten when I visited her.

Would another memory surface if I attempted to transmorph again?

Ugh--I was only trying to evolve my familiar, but ended up getting tangled in a subplot situation like this. I sighed while playing with Jade’s tail, rubbing the new, deeper color of blue appearing there. There was also some in its wings, making it even prettier.

*chirp?*

"Mm, you become prettier," I told the bird, who instantly responded with a cute nuzzle on my chest. Jade flaunted the colorful tails once more, before finally shrinking back to the plump little bird mode--just in time with the lounge door opening.

I looked up and saw Angwi standing there, pointing up wordlessly. I raised my brow and tilted my head, wondering what it was she tried to convey.

But then I felt the vibration of mana in the next second, and got up with a gasp, prompting Jade to tumble down from my chest, rolling into the sofa. The little bird looked at me with hurt eyes, and I felt sorry, but I had no leeway to care much right now, because...

"The portal!"