The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 619: A good company listens to its employees

After I received all of the harvest, Heraz told me in more detail about what he did to those people. Of course, he did not lie about making sure the ’innocent’ people getting out unharmed. But...

We could hardly call the family ’innocent’, right? Especially the head of the family who sent a group of mercenaries after us.

Yeah, Heraz found the receipt and had sent someone to trace who else was involved because...trading druid items was one thing, but sending someone to harm me was another. There was no way the group sent by my husband would ever let it slide.

"We’ll make it look like an accident, but the final decision is yours, Young Master."

"Just don’t harm the innocent ones," I said. "Also...for a mistake of this multitude, I think the church would eliminate them without us doing anything, so just keep watch for now. If nothing happens, then..."

I looked at Heraz silently, and he bowed his head low. "By your command."

I mean, why bother dirtying our hands if someone else already meant to do that? With this ’robbery’, we only took what was rightfully mine, but manslaughter was a different case. We did have justification, but it would be better if we could use their own hand, record it, and use the recording to sow discord.

Mm, yeah...divide and conquer would always be an effective method.

"Is that all for your report?"

"Yes, Young Master."

I nodded. "Thank you, Heraz. I’ll be waiting for the next one."

Usually, at this point, Heraz would shuffle toward the window and disappear, but I told him not to do that this time. He already got a bad rep for sneaking in undetected, so we better not aggravate them even more. Afterall, I already made a promise.

And so, for the first time, I saw Heraz out. We exited the lodging to find a priest right outside, probably tasked to watch over my spy. "Mister priest, please guide him outside," I told the priest with the best innocent smile I could muster. "You can make sure he truly leaves the compound. You’ll be more comfortable that way, right?"

The priest bowed while smiling sheepishly. "Much appreciated, Sir."

"I’ll see you next time, Heraz."

"By your command."

I watched Heraz and the priest walked away for a while. It was funny seeing the priest inching away from the shapeshifted flickering figure despite needing to watch over him. I wondered if they knew what Heraz truly was.

When I returned to the lodging, I saw Renna watching them too from the second floor’s window. No, girl--you would never be him. But I admired that she had the thrist to be better at her craft.

* * *

I was supposed to continue with the puzzle box, but a lot of things happened that day, and seeing Jade curling on the bed made me sleepy, so I ended up falling asleep without even washing up.

How horrifying. Arta should never find out about this.

"So, what are we going to do after this?" I asked the others during breakfast.

Honestly, we only made plans to reach this place since we had no idea what we would find. We didn’t even know the Goddess’s relic would be able to give us a hint of where she was, or...who knows? Maybe we could actually summon her with the beads instead?

"Please leave the church to us," the Bishop, who joined us for breakfast in the lodging, looked at us with a firm gaze. "This is something that we, as the Templars, ought to do."

For that, I agree. It didn’t make sense for the holder of the Goddess’s pure teaching to hide instead. I guessed it would be better for people who knew the church to watch over them, and we could concentrate on other things.

"Besides, the Holy Empire is too far from here, so it will be a waste of your time," the Bishop added. "And going there when you’re already awakened your druid lineage is dangerous. The high ranking priest would be able to tell."

"And that’s another reason why you can’t infiltrate the church, Val. Remember that." ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm

"I got it already!" I pursed my lips and shoved the food aggressively into my mouth. Hmph. "Can you stop with the warning already?"

Zarfa laughed but also shook her head. "Nah--you’re the type that always needs a daily reminder."

Damn it. It was always hard dodging someone who knew you for two lifetimes. "Whatever."

"Then, I’ll excuse myself here," the Bishop finished his modest breakfast and left us to discuss things on our own. How considerate.

"So? What’s our plan from now on?" I asked again.

"Let’s go to the nearest Midas branch as planned," Zarfa said, again with her spoon resting over her lips. She leaned back and looked at the ceiling as if the plan was drawn up there. "We need to check the auctions, as well as the list of available dungeons and ruins."

She returned her gaze to the table and pointed at Jim with her spoon. "Do you know where the Templars found the bead?"

"I think they found it in the church," Jin tilted his head in contemplation and glanced at me. "You know--the one where the graves are."

"Ah."

"Then what about the one on the grave?"

The spoon pointed at me this time, but I could only shrug. "I have no idea, and neither did the Bishop. Maybe in a ruin somewhere, just like Jin?"

"That is most likely," the Hero nodded. "I didn’t actually mean to go inside that ruin because it was so crowded, but I have a strong pull towards it, like...it was telling me to go."

"Then, we can assume the same happened to my father," I nodded. Zarfa raised her brow in surprise, but I just grinned at her. "Anyway, the one we bought in the auction, and the one in that noble house are most likely came from a ruin too, right?"

"Yep," Zarfa nodded, clanking her spoon down like a judge’s gravel. "I think, aside from the one in the Bishop’s hand, all the beads were placed in the ruin of Old Age."

"Unless we considered the church as a ruin too. I mean...it’s in ruin."

"Yes, okay--the point is, they were found in ruins, and so the two other two beads," Zarfa nodded. "If they hadn’t been found, they would stay there, so we’re going to fill our schedule with ruin excavation activity from now on."

"What if they were already found?"

"That’s what checking the auctions for," Zarfa shrugged. He took out the papers with the list of auction houses that Heraz took from the noble house. "Here’s what I think; the reason why that count had the bead was because the church found a leak about a Goddess’s relic being found and sold in the auction. They must have been tasked to get the relic after making sure it was the same as the one the church already have."

"That was why they had the bead? For comparison?"

"Of course! After all, it would be a waste if they spent money on a normal bead, right? What if it was just...a pearl or something?" Zarga chuckled. "They aren’t Valen’s husband, after all."

I cleared my throat in an embarrassment that was mixed with pride. Ahem--yeah, that was my husband, who only commented ’a money well spent’ after seeing the receipt.

"Anyway, they were probably trying to watch every auction house to get the relic before it could go on a bid--that’s what I’d do anyway--but, as you can see, they could not influence everyone," Zarfa smirked. "So, we’re going to check the past records of as many auction houses as we can get, to see if there was such a transaction. It wouldn’t be suspicious too if Midas is the one to do that, since merchant guild often checks for things like that."

"I see..." I stroked my chin in contemplation. "Then...should I tell Heraz to connect with Midas’s information network?"

Zarfa clanked her spoon again. "Oh, that’s a good idea!"

"What about us? What are we going to do?" Ian asked curiously.

"Geez, pay attention! I already said we’ll be going to explore the ruins!" Zarfa rolled her eyes, but Ian was happy about doing things aside from traveling that he didn’t even protest about the tone. "We’ll get the map from the adventurer and mercenary guilds, and we’ll take on as much as we can for the next fifty days--or until something comes up from the church side."

In other words, we’d be brute-forcing everything. Very Ceci-like, straightforward, uncomplicated.

"When will we depart, then?"

"Umm..." Fatia raised her hand. "Would it be possible to rest for today?"

"I agree!" Aina raised both her hands. "It might not be the case for the Boss, but all we’ve been doing was traveling, so I want to stay in one place at least for a day."

Oof--I kind of felt guilty now, since I went home and had fun in the middle of the journey. Well, we were going to be very busy after this, where we were going to explore ruins and dungeons non-stop until we either find a bead or something came from the church.

Anyway, it wasn’t good for the group’s morale if they were getting too exhausted, so I nodded in agreement.

"Yaay!" Aina threw her arms in the air. "Free time!"

Zarfa rolled her eyes. "Is this a field trip or something?"

But she also laughed and high-fived the girl, chatting about what they were going to do during this ’free time’. You’d really think they were on a field trip with how relaxed they were.

Well...perhaps because we unexpectedly only needed two more beads, I also allowed my mind to relax, giggling as I recalled that my husband was also in the middle of collecting seven keys.

Oh...we’re twinning!