The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 618: Even robbers have a principle

During the dinner, we talked a bit more about this situation.

"Certainly, they wouldn’t stay still after realizing that the relic was gone, right?"

I turned toward Heraz again, who refused to eat and just stood in the corner closest to my chair. "When did you take this?"

"Four nights ago, Young Master."

Oh, if it was then--I turned toward my companions, whose eyes flashed in tacit understanding. "I guess they won’t have time to send another group to pursue us, then."

We did make a lot of precaution during our way, but it was easy to just employ information guild all over the realm to watch for a group like us. The fact that we didn’t have any more pursuers was relieving to know.

"In that case, they must already know, right? Unless they rarely checked on the item?"

"They already knew," Heraz continued. "It was impossible to take it quietly because of the warning system, so I made it look like a grand robbery."

The utensils stopped moving then, and once again, we looked at Heraz for elaboration.

"We took all things that seem valuable to mask what we really took, and set the mansion on fire," the shapeshifter continued. "Aside from what is rightfully yours, we dumped them on the Gueria River."

If I was not mistaken, it was one of the biggest rivers in the Human Realm, and most certainly the deepest. The humans were widening their eyes in shock, but Zarfa clapped her hands excitedly.

"Ahahaha! That’s good, that’s good!" she laughed and raised her thumbs. "What happened next?"

"Zarfa," Fatia nudged her with a stern, warning look. She turned toward Heraz with the same gaze, although a bit more subdued. "What about...the staff?"

"We made sure everyone was out of the house already," Heraz replied easily. "Young Master does not condone the loss of innocent lives."

Well...that was true, but I was amazed he actually did all of that while making sure no one got hurt. I have a nod of approval, and he bowed his head politely as usual.

"Phew--that’s a relief," Fatia patted her chest. "But it means they would have already realized that the relic was gone."

"That’s true, but it will also be hard to pinpoint the culprit," Zarfa grinned. "They can’t even suspect us since we were so far away."

"Oh!"

Ah, you were doing such a good job, Heraz. I’d make sure to tell Natha about a pay raise.

"But they will be cautious for sure," Jin stroked his chin. "What if they hide the beads even more securely?"

"Then we might be able to see some movement," Zarfa snapped her fingers. "That will be a hint, right?"

"Heraz--"

"I left someone to watch them, Young Master."

"Oh~ good job, Mister Spy!"

Afterward, we talked more about what we were going to do, including watching the church for any movement and see if there was any chance of infiltration. About three times during that discussion, they reminded me not to do anything foolish and infiltrate the place secretly.

I didn’t even say anything! How annoying.

"Don’t sulk, okay?" Zarfa poked my cheek while we were walking back to our lodging after dinner. "I really don’t want to send you to the viper nest alone. It’s not because we don’t trust you or anything."

"You said I can’t act..." I pursed my lips.

"Well...can you?" she raised her brow, and I elbowed her ribs for that jab. ƒrēenovelkiss.com

Zarfa twisted her hips and laughed. "You never could before," she shrugged. "Anyway, I’m serious about it. We don’t know how long the infiltrator had to stay before they could find any hint--let alone the bead. It doesn’t make sense to have the person initiating this whole operation to be trapped inside a mission, right?"

"I guess..."

"If we can’t find the beads after trying everything..." Zarfa looked around slightly before pulling me down to whisper. "Let’s just raid the church."

My eyes widened at the wild suggestion, but the corner of my lips twitched happily. "Really?"

"Yeah. Once we’re sure that they are the one who held the relics, let’s just attack the main base to look for it."

"Main base? You mean the Holy Empire?"

I chuckled at how she treated the church like a villain organization. Well, they were anyway. She grinned and wiggled her brows.

"Don’t you want to?" she tilted her head. "As yourself, as Valmeier."

At her words, all the injustice I received from the church for that two months before Natha brought me to the Demon Realm came rushing back. I had made peace with my past, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t get angry anymore if it was brought up.

As for Valmeier...

He didn’t particularly feel anything toward the church as a whole. His only church, the one he devoted to, was the church where he grew up. The outcast Father Damian’s church. Whether we destroy the church or let it be, Valmeier wouldn’t care.

"Yeah, let’s do that," I nodded.

Zarfa grinned and raised her thumb, but also quickly added. "Let’s keep this to ourselves for now," she whispered.

Yeah, I agree. The others would probably be reluctant to attack the church as oppose to infiltrating it. They were a bit too much of a goody-two-shoes for that. "Ah, what about Aina?"

That girl managed to hide the fact that her sponsor was a demon, so she passed the tight-lip check. Also, the girl loved chaos.

"Hmm...I’ll tell her when we’re alone, but that’s it," Zarfa paused to think for a few seconds. "Let’s see...fifty days," she glanced at me. "If we found nothing after fifty days, let’s go with operation fuck it all."

I couldn’t help but laugh and agree, especially because she quickly made me promise to shelter her if she became a world fugitive.

Although, if the plan failed and we couldn’t find the Goddess above everything, I might lose against the Demon God and we might really have to hide somewhere completely secluded.

Talking about that...I wondered what D’Ara was planning for us.

But this wasn’t the time to think about that; it was time to hear the rest of Heraz’s story.

First; loot!

Once we were inside my bedroom, he took out another chest, and I found a scroll, something like a plain small bell with invisible druids formation, and a beautiful set of earrings.

"Damn--are they a collector or something?"

"I found this too, Young Master."

Heraz took out a long cylindrical tube that couldn’t fit inside the chest. It looked like what people used to store paintings or--

"Wait, is this a painting?"

Heraz put on a pair of glove and very carefully took put the large sheet from the cylindrical tube like an art connoisseur. Honestly, it was rather exciting; my heart pounding in anticipation as the painting unraveled.

"Oh..."

I pressed my hands over my chest I saw the scenery of laughing, running children in a meadow. The children had variety of wood-colored hairs, green eyes, and pointed ears. They were various in age, from a baby in a the nanny’s hands, to toddlers, and teenagers.

But they were all looked strangely familiar. Not because they were druids, but...

"Is this...the royal children?" I blinked.

"I do not have knowledge on that matter, Young Master," Heraz said apologetically. "But it’s clear that it belongs to the druids, so I took it. Also..."

He gestured at the top corner left of the painting, and I gasped. In the background, on top of the hill, there was a painting of a palace. And once I looked closer, I could see a big tree in its yard.

"This is...the palace..."

"Papa?" Jade crawled from the bed to me, touching my trembling cheeks.

"It’s okay Jade," I hugged the little boy. "I was just happy I could finally see how the palace used to be."

Jade looked at the painting on the floor with sparkling eyes. "Children! Look like Jade’s friends!"

"Yeah," my lips stretched into a smile. "They must have been my relatives."

Depended on when this painting was made, they could either be my granduncles and grandaunts, or my ancestors. The druids would be so happy seeing this one, right?

"Is...is that tube safe?"

"It has preservation magic, Young Master."

Phew...I nodded and told him to put the painting back, because I didn’t want the non-purified mana to damage it further. Thankfully, our master spy seemed to excel at anything including handling delicate art.

"Now I know why it was the statuette that they sold," I scoffed. "The painting is too inconspicuous, the scroll only sold in black market, the bell is too plain, and the earrings are too pretty, so they wouldn’t want to part with it."

"It seems so, Young Master."

"But how does this noble house have so many of our stuff?" I frowned.

Heraz tilted his head slightly to think before giving me a possible answer. "Perhaps because they are in the inner circle of that group, Young Master."

Ah...of course, if they were entrusted with the bead, they should be important enough for the church, right? Then, they must have a connection with that Empire annexing the druid kingdom. Naturally, they would receive some...spoils, for lack of a better word.

"We might be able to get some more if we investigate the family involved with that Empire."

"Oh, that’s right!" I clasped my hand. "Then, give the list of the inner circle members to Tsalinade too, and--ah, what’s the nearest city with Midas’s branch from here? Tell her to meet us there."

"By your command."

When Heraz said it was a harvest, he told the truth.