The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 634: Relaxing after a day of hard work is the best feeling ever

Chapter 634: Relaxing after a day of hard work is the best feeling ever

"Ooh! Good job, Shiny!"

I took the bead from the mole and compared it to the real relic. They looked exactly the same, down to the sheen and luster of the surface; like a pearl reflecting iridescent light. The only difference was the Goddess’s essence that made it glow, so I infused a little bit of a light mana to imitate the effect.

Since I incorporated the magic owned by Valmeier the priest, low-level church members might even think it was the real relic. Hmm...perfect.

[Look same!] Jade clapped enthusiastically.

"Oh, what a masterful forgery," Heraz said.

Well, even our master spy said so.

Chii! Chii!

The mole patted its chest proudly, and I had no choice but to admit its mastery. "Yes, yes--here’s your grilled shellfish."

I stroked the gray fur with a laugh and rewarded the mole with its favorite dish.

Chii!

Shiny immediately devoured its reward, replenishing its depleted energy. Meanwhile, Stan scanned the fake relic with its red eyes, and fell in pondering for awhile.

"Visitor, are you going to put that gem in place of the relic?"

"Yep!" I looked up and grinned. "Let me explain."

I proceeded to tell the golem about our mission to collect the relic and save the Goddess. I reckoned it would be fine to tell Stan about it since the golem was essentially made to protect the relic. Thus, its commandments must have been made around supporting the people utilizing the relicd for their intended purposes.

I also told Stan about the blasphemous group that was also after the relic, and our plan to deceive them. We had purposefully made it seem like no one had ever stepped through the path leading here, so why not go all the way? We would place a substitute for the relic so if someone reached this room, they would still think someone hadn’t come here.

Only medium-level priests and above would be able to know that it wasn’t the real relic, so it would set back their suspicion longer, right?

But that wasn’t the main reason.

"I see," the golem concluded after my heartfelt oration. "It is a deception."

"Exactly!" I snapped my fingers. "And that’s why you can’t perish, Stan! You have to keep guarding the place so it feels real. Ah--but don’t let yourself be defeated or destroyed, okay? Just ’test’ them a bit and let them win--doesn’t matter who."

The main reason was to give time for Stan to keep existing. ’Delaying’ the heretics from reaching the real relic should be included somewhere in the commandment, right? The golem had agreed that it was within the commandment program, but it seemed its AI was a bit more advanced.

Stan looked at me and asked with a hint of confusion and wonder. "Why?"

"Because I don’t want you to disappear," I shrugged, and both Shiny and Jade chimed in with their screeching and chirping. "Just wait here until I come back, okay? I will bring someone who might be able to change your size."

"I understand," fortunately, the golem was easy to persuade. "I shall heed the words of the one with the mark."

"Ugh...yeah, alright, fine."

As long as it made you listen to me, I guess.

And so, we went back to the chamber to place the fame relic. We decided to not close the hidden door on the floor because I had to bring the key out, but that was hardly a hiccup. It wasn’t like we particularly wanted nobody to reach the chamber.

"Then," I placed my hand on the golem’s palm. "Let’s meet again, Stan."

"Yes, visitor."

"Valen," I told the golem with a smile. "My name is Valen."

"Let’s meet again, Valen."

[Bye-bye, Big Stone Stan!]

We stepped away from Stan to the empty part of the arena, and while Heraz prepared the teleportation scroll, I contacted the other group.

"Ignis," I called out, and the flame resembling the Salamander blazed on my shoulder. "Mission complete. We’ll be going back to the hotel."

[Good job]

"Pfft--yeah. Be safe."

A magic circle appeared beneath our feet and after a blink, the huge stone arena disappeared. Instead, we were standing on top of grass in the hotel’s garden.

"Oof--thank Gods we’re not falling in the water again," I patted my cloak in relief. There was a pond not far from our landing point, so it was rather close.

"In the water?" Heraz’s low, chill voice almost made me jump. Wow--he sounded like an upset Natha.

"Haha--last time the scroll sent us to the lake so we got wet," I told him lightheartedly.

"...I see."

"Umm..."

"It seems I have been too lenient."

"Huh?"

For a second, I could see his iridescent eyes--the natural eyes he usually hid behind disguise--flashed eerily.

"Uhh..."

Welp--it was your own fault, Tsalinade!

"Welcome back, Sir," the familiar voice of the hotel manager greeted us while I was wondering about the kind of treatment that magicians would receive in the future. "Please come this way."

"Oh, right."

I hurriedly followed the manager inside the hotel. We weren’t the only guests there, so we shouldn’t linger lest someone might see us.

"You’ve worked hard," the manager said while leading us through the staff corridor to avoid other guests. "Would you like to eat or rest? I shall prepare whatever you need."

"Oh, umm...I’d like to take a bath, I guess. Can you prepare hot water? Make it a bit scalding."

"Of course," he nodded readily. Ah, now I missed Panne too. "Would you like to eat afterward?"

We had just eaten our lunch before coming back, but it was only a sandwich after going through the ordeal of crawling and climbing and parkouring. While I wasn’t particularly hungry, who knew if the other two--

"Ah...I’ll wait for the others," Renna said quickly, while Heraz...well, he was already gone. Maybe to clean himself somewhere we didn’t need to know.

"We’ll wait for the others," I told the manager. "But a warm tea would be nice."

"Understood," he nodded and opened the door to our floor. "Please have some rest while waiting for the Young Miss."

I bid a temporary goodbye to both the manager and Renna, patting her for the good work. We ended up being a better team than I thought, and I hoped she was able to gain some knowledge from Heraz.

When I arrived in my room, there were already some staff working on my bathtub and sending warm tea--truly reminded me of my excellent staff back home. I handed over the bath scent herb that Arta gave me so they could mix it in the water.

We didn’t have to disguise ourselves as a mercenary anymore, so I wanted to be surrounded by the scent that was familiar to me. The scent filling the bathroom brought me back home, and I cursed the fact that I still had to wait for the others before I could return.

No--calm down, Valen. Between the powders Zarfa rubbed on me this morning and the dirt from the adventure in the ruin, I was the filthiest I had ever been. Surely, I didn’t want to appear in front of Natha looking like a bum.

With that thought, I scrubbed my skin clean, making sure my face was bare of any powders, before finally soaking in the slightly scalding water and letting the scent from home envelope me thoroughly.

"Ahh..."

[Aah...]

Chii~

The three of us enjoyed the warm, fragrant bath for a long time. When the water turned lukewarm, I heated it myself. Only after our muscles relaxed and our face became all goey did we get out. By then, my whole body had smelled like home again, and I put on one of Arta’s clothes.

Once again, the staff brought me warm tea and I asked Renna to have a late afternoon tea with me--we needed to show the other guests that we were actually here having luxury time, you know? In the middle of it, I received a report from Ignis that they finally called it a day and ended the exploration.

By the time the group arrived, it was almost past dinner already, and Shiny was almost thrown a tantrum from hunger.

"Aaagh! I’m so tired!" Zarfa sprawled across the sofa without caring about her image as the owner’s daughter.

I laughed and patted her head to praise her. "Good work."

"Uhh--you too, Val~" she sat up and grinned. "Good job!"

"It went smoother than I thought."

"What happened? What happened? Tell me everything!"

Despite looking like a zombie before, she excitedly perked up and we ended up having a story time while eating our late dinner. They didn’t even change before started devouring the food. From what I gathered, getting around while acting as a decoy was more exhausting than exploring itself. They didn’t even dare eat because it might reveal their habit--especially Zarfa and Fatia who came from money.

The table only got heated when I told them about my side of the adventure with Renna and Heraz who was still disappearing somewhere--probably punishing Tsalinade or something. We told them about deliberately leaving the trap intact and not killing the beasts, as well as leaving behind a fake relic and asking Stan to act like no one had ever gone there and still ’test’ whoever came to the room later.

"Oh! Deception till the end! I like that!" Zarfa slammed the table energetically, making it feel like we were a table of rowdy mercenaries. "As expected of my best friend."

"Here, you take the key, Jin."

The Hero blinked at the medallion in his hand. "Huh? Me?"

"You probably had a mark too," I nodded, and then stood up since I had done eating. "Anyway, let’s talk more another time."

That was when they finally realized I was wearing my Demon Realm’s clothes. "You’re going back."

"I think I’ll go crazy if I don’t," I shook my head with a sigh. "I’ll take the relic with me in case they come to investigate or whatever."

"Yeah, just take it," Zarfa nodded. "Since we nicely get it, let’s take a few days of rest. We need to show the ’glamour group’ as an alibi anyway."

A few days?!

"Really? Thanks!" I sent her a kiss through the air, before plopping the blinking mole in Renna’s lap. "Renna, please take care of Shiny. Ask Zarfa for the food."

"Oh--o-okay..."

Shiny had gotten used to her since she held the mole all the way during the trap part of the adventure. I wasn’t sure whether I could use the teleportation token with someone who wasn’t contracted to me, so I decided to not take Shiny as a precaution.

Surprisingly, someone else decided to stay. "Valen, I will stay."

I looked at Ignis in surprise. "Huh? Really?"

I knew the Salamander was fairly independent despite us being contracted, but it was still surprising. While Ignis had stayed away from me for a long time before when it accompanied Zia to the Realm of Lust, this time it would be a whole other realm between us.

"I want to explore that ruin more," Ignis explained. "Can I take Shiny there as a guide? The deeper part seems more interesting than the first floor."

Ah-ha! It must have been frustrating for this guy to stay with the human while there was a whole underground structure around it--especially after all my crawling story.

"Oh, that’s a great idea! Please talk to Stan too!"

"...I’ll try."

I let out a sigh and threw a forlorn gaze toward the window. "Stan must have been so lonely, just standing guard for a long, long time without anyone to talk to..."

The swaying tail twitched slightly. "...I’ll check in on this golem."

"Thanks, Ignis!" I laughed and kissed the flaming head before grabbing Jade and waving at the dining table. "Bye, everyone!"

[Bai bai Shiny!]

Chii!