The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 21: I received a fantasy setting must-have item

My mind...went blank.

No matter how inexperienced I was, I wouldn’t be so dense as to not recognize what kind of gesture this was.

It was...basically a kiss...right?

Of course, our lips didn’t touch, intentionally obstructed by the cold skin of his palm.

And yet it was enough to make my mind go blank. My heart, which felt like it was stopped, jumped hard into a fast beating motion. My lashes fluttered amidst the flickering of my vision, and my whole body stiffened.

What was this?

Vaguely, I felt his hand on my midriff, giving me much-needed support because I was sure I’d slumped down on the floor otherwise.

My mind went so off the grid that for a while, I couldn’t remember where we were, or what we were initially doing. All I could sense was the coldness emanating from his body, and the soft drumming sound of his chest against my back.

There was no way to know how long we were like that; me in his arms, a kiss that wasn’t a kiss. But when he pulled away, he didn’t give me any chance to make a proper reaction. The hand covering my mouth moved to block my vision, and his hand on my body tightened.

"I’m sorry," I heard his whisper behind my ear, with a very slight tremble that vibrated on my skin. "I’m a bit impatient today," strands of hair tickled my neck, and I could feel his weight on my back and his head on my shoulder. "I can’t let you see my face right now, so wait for a bit..."

Even without this, I didn’t think I would have enough wits to make any response. So I just pressed my lips, and let my body sink into him, staring at the darkness beneath his cold palm.

It felt like a long time had passed when he removed his hand from my eyes. But he didn’t let go of me—that hand just moved to wrap around my chest, sealing me inside his embrace.

I stared blankly at the sky, heart drumming into my ears. I wasn’t sure what kind of face I was making right now, but it was probably a foolish one.

"Val..." I couldn’t help but flinch as his breath fell into my nape. "Whose name did you call last night?"

My languidly blinking eyes widened at his question.

Name?

My body twisted inside his hold as I tried to look at him. "What name? Did I mention a name?"

How weird...I looked at him inquisitively.

What kind of name would I ever possibly utter during my delirious state? Was I even have someone whose name I could call? I don’t think I had anyone important enough to make me call their name when I wasn’t sober though...

As I looked at him with pure confusion, his silver orbs seemed to observe me keenly, and we stayed exchanging those gazes for quite some time.

What broke our silence was not words from our lips, but a screeching sound that reminded me of where we were.

I turned my head with a start, and looked dumbfoundedly at the green bird—the first one—nuzzling into my legs. It seemed to want to tell me something. I had no idea what it wanted, but I thanked the bird inwardly for saving me from the awkward silence.

"Uhh...what? What do you want to—"

The bird moved one of its wings and nudge my palm. With confusion, I let Natha grab my hands from behind, and turned them until my palm was up. The bird moved both its wings then, covering my palms until I felt a pulsing warmth between us. When it pulled its wings away, there was something roundish and glowing with bright iridescent color above my open palms.

"Hmm..." a low murmur tickled my nape as Natha let go of my hand, but my mind was focusing more on the pulsing...thing...in my hand.

It was smooth and round, like a crystal ball. There were beautiful patterns of light across its surface, swirling and crisscrossing, reminding me a bit of the pattern in Natha’s skin. It made me turn my head to look at him.

"What is this?" I asked while staring at the patterns on his neck and around his collarbone. They were different, of course, but it made me wonder about the one carved on Natha’s skin.

"It’s a seed," his answer snatched my eyes away from his neck.

"A seed...of what?"

He smiled, and gently pushed my face so I looked into the ball again. "What do you think?"

The ball, which had been hovering, had descended fully into my palm, and I could feel it pulsing even more. It felt familiar, somehow, this pulse. Like—

My eyes widened as I stared at the crystal-clear eyes of the birds around us. Now that I looked closer, I could see patterns on their face, around and across their beaks, to the space between their eyes and their heads.

Would it mean that the pulse was like...a heart?

"It’s an egg?"

Natha chuckled before correcting me. "I told you it’s a seed."

"What’s the difference?"

He holds my hands again, and moved them to cover the iridescent crystal ball—the seed. "Well, if we want to be technical, let’s call it an essence," he explained. "These elemental birds aren’t born from eggs. When elementals transcend to the next rank, the leftover scattered mana condensed and gave birth to these elemental birds."

"So they are born from the essence of mana?"

"Yes," he clasped his own hand to envelope mine. "This mountain used to be a lair for the elementals before they transcended, so when I built the tower, I asked these birds to be the tower’s familiars."

"...why...are they giving me this?"

The seed—the essence—pulsing even more once our palm fully covered it, the vibration rippled across my skin. I felt Natha’s weight and temperature pressing on my back and side, and his whisper was clear in my ears.

"It means they approved of you," his thumb rubbed on the back of my palm, and I didn’t know whether it was his cold thumb or his cool lips on my earlobe that made me shiver. "Try infusing your mana into the seed."

Ugh...again, this Demon Lord told me to use mana while being such a big distraction. But it was good that the pulsing seed pulled my attention more.

And perhaps because it was essentially a lump of mana, it was as if the seed was calling the mana inside my core out. Like they were resonating, the seed’s pulse beating at the same pace as the ripple of my mana core.

I could feel it then, how much easier the flow of my mana had become. It no longer felt like sucking a liquid through a pinched straw. The blockage was only cleared a little bit more, but it was enough for the mana to flow nicely. And with a fully repaired circuit, the burden I felt last time had gone.

"Ah..." a soft exclaim escaped my lips. Using mana and circling them around was...nice. It felt good, like being refreshed from inside, like being warm after a long cold day, like breathing in clear air after a suffocating day.

Was this why magicians couldn’t bear to lose their mana-wielding ability?

Or was it because mana was as important as oxygen to this body?

My hands tightened reflexively around the seed as a large quantity of mana gushed out of my core and poured on the seed. "Easy," Natha stroked my hand gently. "Your pool is large, but you’ll get dizzy if you emptied it in one go."

At his words, I took a deep breath and tried to control the mana output. "That’s it," a sweet sound of praise grazed my temple. "Constant and steady, keep it like that, you’re doing good, sweetheart..."

My god! It’d be helpful if you didn’t say things like that while I was trying hard here, my Lord!

But soon, I felt the pulse of the seed turn erratic, and the flow of mana was getting cut off. "...huh? Huh?" I blinked, confused about whether I did something wrong.

"It’s okay, it’s just feeling full," Natha patted my hands and peeled them off the seed. "You feed it well."

I stared in amazement as the pattern on the seed moved around and it glow brighter and brighter that I had to squint my eyes. It hovered off my palms again, and I vaguely saw the round shape wiggling about amidst the bright glowing light.

And then, like a blooming flower, the wriggling ball unfurled into a small, round, white baby bird the size of an apple and fell into my palm. The patterns around its head, however, bore the iridescent color of the seed, as well as the slightly protruding tail feathers on its end. It struggled for a few seconds before standing up with its barely visible tiny feet. Its head moved around before the deep green eyes that shone like polished jewels fixed on me.

"Hmm...is it because you only use light magic before?" Natha commented at the newborn appearance.

"Kwaa!" it let out a small, high-pitch cry and started to jump up and down my palm.

"Oh..." the only thing I could do was blinked. It took me a while to process the fact that I had just witnessed—and taken part—in the birthing of an elemental bird. "Wow...is this little guy the tower’s familiar too?"

The little bird suddenly moved like it was startled, and frantically rubbed its head on my palm while letting out a high-pitch whining sound.

Behind me, Natha let out a small laugh. "No. Since you’re the one who feeds him mana, it’s yours now."

"...mine?" I responded only after being stunned for a good half minute.

"Mm, your familiar," he patted my surprised head. "Or you can consider it as a pet."

Wow. A pet. A pet made of mana essence. It was as if I was a fantasy novel protagonist or something.

"Since it was born with the help of your mana, it will be loyal to you."

"Like an imprint?" I rubbed its head carefully with my thumb, and it nuzzled into my finger even more.

Ugh—this cute little thing!

"It’ll protect you if you take it as familiar, though you have to keep feeding it mana until it reached adulthood," Natha retreated his hand from my hair. "Will you give it a name?"

I stared at the little bird, who looked at me with literal pair of green sparkling eyes full of expectation. "Jade..." I muttered a word. "I’ll call you Jade."

It wasn’t the most creative name, but the bead-like eyes of the little bird made me think of the precious stone. It didn’t matter anyway, since the little bird—Jade—jumped up and down again, letting out noisy, exciting sounds.

"Seems like the little guy likes it," Natha stood up, and then helped me to stand too. "He can keep you company while I’m gone," he looked at the distant sky, where I realized something had been flying towards us.

"You’re going?" I blurted out the question before I knew it, and only realized it after he was staring at me quietly.

Against the darkening afternoon sky, his silver eyes looked like they contained all the secrets in the world. Deep, like a rippling surface of a bottomless lake reflecting the moonlight. And his fingers that stroked my cheek felt as cold as that winter lake.

"Truly..." I could almost hear his quiet sigh as his voice grew soft. "You keep testing and confusing me,"

What the hell? He was the one who made me confused all this time. Of being so accommodating and sweet out of nowhere, after being cold and forceful the first time...of making me go back and forth between memory about my previous—

Oh...

Could he...sense it?

When I thought about that young doctor in the past...could he sense it? Every time I thought that he resembled that doctor, did he know?

Could it be that he thought I was thinking about someone else every time I was with him?

I watched in silence as the flying shadow in the distance came to whisper something to him, before dispersing in a puff. I stood wordlessly as his lips touched my forehead gently, and he told me to go down by myself, before black wings spread out from his back and he disappeared again.

I found myself already sitting in front of the fireplace after, dazedly stroking Jade’s little head. It was only after Angwi came in to give me dinner that my mind snapped back.

"Angwi, were you here when I took the Amrita last night?"

The maid paused for a while and raised her brow. I asked this because I remembered her standing guard in front of the suite’s door before I got my second dose, but I had no idea whether she kept on watch through the process.

Fortunately, she nodded, and I asked hurriedly. "Did I say something?" no, I had to be more specific. "Did I call someone’s name?"

She looked taken aback then, and I saw a flash of fear for a second on her face.

"What did I say? Tell me," I pressured her more, since she looked hesitant. Seeing this kind of expression on the usually aloof, expressionless maid made me even more anxious. "Please?"

It took a while, and time passed with us staring at each other. But perhaps the anxiety and urgency were written all over my face, because she finally sighed and moved her finger.

The flame inside the fireplace moved then, forming three letters. NAT. The letters were blazing, licking the cover of my memory.

Nat...Natha? No, I had a feeling it wasn’t his name that I called.

But it felt too familiar. Nat...Nat...

Nat...Natha..no—

My eyes flickered at the dancing flames. The flame reminded me of winter. And snow. And a sweet voice.

And a name.

Sewn on a white jacket, and plastered on an id card.

Nathanael.

It was the name of the young doctor.

The first, and the only person I ever had a feeling for.