The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 643: We call them best friends because they are the best

Oh, how fleeting time was. Before I knew it, two full days had passed, and it was time for me to return.

While it was true we had a huge start and more leeway, there was no guarantee that we could find the last relic in forty-five days. I didn’t want to be complacent and ended up messing up everything because there wasn’t enough time. The Hero could continue to look for the relic after the deadline, but I couldn’t. Therefore, there was no time for too much rest--no matter how justified the rest was.

I had wanted to meet D’Ara at least once before going to the Human Realm, but she was still at a place with no reception--or so Eruha said.

Oh, well...

"Remember Shwa; grow well, but don’t grow too fast, okay?" I squeezed my baby’s cheeks. "Don’t just suddenly speak and walk when I return."

"That would be scary, sweetheart..." Natha shuddered at the thought provoked by Neel the other day.

"Waa! Uaaa!"

As if reassuring us, Shwa jerked his arms up and down and smacked my mouth in the process, prompting us to laugh.

Ah, truly. Home was like a healing site. I filled my heart with my baby’s cuteness, and filled my belly with...Natha’s coldness. Let’s leave it at that. At any rate, both my body and soul were satisfied. All the physical and mental exhaustion from the long journey and ruin exploration evaporated just like that.

If there was something I worried about, it would be the indulgence and pampering I received here. I felt like it would be harder for me to live like a mercenary after the lavish lifestyle I had while in the Castle.

Perhaps knowing that, Arta refilled the storage pouch with even more provisions than before. She especially put a lot of seafood for Shiny, and Angwi packed more of her cooking when I said I missed them during our luncheon in the Lair.

And there was a bonus. novelbuddy.cσ๓

"I asked my stupid brother to make this portable bath, Young Master," Arta gave me something that looked like a key charm in the shape of a bowl...or was it a bathtub? Yeah, let’s go with a bathtub. "Just infuse it with your mana and it will expand. You just need to put water and heat it with magic and your bath will be ready! You can have it even in the wilderness!"

"Ooh!"

I grabbed the miniature bathtub with sparkling eyes. I didn’t even have to use my own magic since Jade could provide the water and Ignis could heat it.

That being said...

"I don’t think someone who can make something like this can be called ’stupid’ though..."

"Thank you, Young Master."

"Don’t mind him," Arta shooed her twin away and faced me again. "Young Master, it pained me to see you wearing such bad quality clothes, so I prepared new clothes for you."

"Huh? But--"

"I know, I know--the point is to make them look like something that poor mercenaries or failed magicians can afford, right?" Arta pursed her lips and crossed her arms, huffing and puffing. "I purposely made them to look rough on the outside, but you won’t feel any discomfort when you wear it."

"Oh?"

"So just discard what you buy over there, okay?!"

Her face that was shoved in front of my face was as scary as the time she told me not to gain weight before the wedding, so I just nodded obediently. Well...it wasn’t like it was bad for me.

"Thank you, Arta. See you again!" I hugged her and Jade did too--because she refilled the jelly and snack for Jade.

"Best of luck, Young Master!"

With my friends and family’s blessing, as well as my baby’s bright smile, I waved my hand and stepped back to the storage room. The last thing I saw before activating the token was Natha’s slightly exhausted face and gentle smile.

Welp. Sorry for working you too hard last night, my Lord.

I wanted to wave, but I couldn’t do so because I needed to keep my limbs close to my torso. That was the way to lessen the nauseous sensation after the teleportation. Learned it the hard way during the last three usages.

"Hupp!"

I let go of the breath I had been holding the moment my feet touched solid ground again. Jade also let out a crisp chirp before getting out of my coat and landing as a little boy, shaking his green head.

"Phwaaaa!"

"Welcome!" Zarfa clapped her hands in greeting as usual, opening his arms as Jade jumped to hug her on the couch. "Look at you all glowing. Having fun, huh?"

"Ceci, Ceci--Shwa grow big! Shwa can say waa, waa, when Shwa see Jade!"

Looking at me, she asked with narrowed eyes. "He won’t suddenly turn into a toddler, right?"

"Why are you all asking the same thing?" I rolled my eyes.

"All? Who’s asking before?"

"Neel..."

Zarfa laughed and clapped again, before the name brought the realization for something else. "Oh! Did you talk to her about that golem?"

"Stan!" Jade corrected.

"Yeah, did you tell her about Stan?"

"Yep," I threw myself onto the couch, just as the door opened and a hotel staff came with a herbal drink for me. Wow, she must have ordered for some the moment the token glowed--in case I got queasy. "She said she’d advanced her knowledge and practiced her technique first before attempting, so she can’t do it right now--oh, where’s Ignis, by the way?"

"Shouldn’t you know better than me?"

Oh, right. Ignis was so independent I rarely had to track its location. When I tried to concentrate, I couldn’t help but smile. Ignis was inside the ruin, staying still--and the only reason a Salamander was staying still underground was because there was someone it could talk to.

...or because it was soaking in a magma pool. But I didn’t think Ignis would go so far as to create a magma pool in an ancient ruin.

Wait...that could actually be usable as an obstacle! Oh, I better tell Ignis about it later--didn’t want to disturb the bonding moment.

"Shiny must be there too?"

"Yeah," Zarfa chuckled. "That guy only cozying to us we gave it cooked seafood. What a mole."

Pfft--Shiny would definitely fit in the Realm of Greed. Well, that was a nice intro--it was time to get to business. Sipping on my herbal drink, I crossed my legs and looked at her. "Any update?"

"Not much," she shrugged while unwrapping a candy for Jade. "We went out acting like a bunch of divas while perking our ears for gossip."

"Pfft--"

"It seems like the church’s group is still going around the second floor. From what I hear, however, they had yet to find the place where you ended up. I wondered if there’s a separate entrance? Because you said there’s a third floor too, right?"

"Uh-uh," I nodded, recalling the water maze.

"But who cares? The fact that they’re still searching means they didn’t suspect us," Zarfa shrugged. "Just to be thorough, we tried another proposal to go together, but they refused," she laughed and clapped her hands mirthfully. "Oh, it was so fun acting like a stupid and pathetic mercenary back then!"

Apparently, they were acting like no-good mercenaries who only took the job because of the high pay from Midas. They tried to be naturally careless--like dropping potions or accidentally triggering traps. They even staged a fight among themselves, simply because this girl was too tired to continue the charade and wanted the expedition to stop immediately after hearing from Ignis that we succeeded.

"So, no one spies on you or anything?"

"I think they thought Jin was still somewhere beyond the mountain," she shrugged. "Anyway, it’s good that you’re back, since we decided to take this chance and go exploring as many ruins as we can around here."

"So we’re going to use this city as a base?"

She nodded, pulling out a map from the piles beneath the table. "It’s better to have a fixed place to replenish provision and repair weapons. Here; we have marked the location of the ruins and dungeons that could be traveled within one or two days at most. There are nine in total."

Hmm...I underestimated the distance. At the very least, exploring a dungeon or a ruin needed two or three days with an established map. We could take one day, perhaps, if we used Ignis and Shiny as pathfinders. Considering one or two days of travel...at most, we could only tackle three places a week.

"Ugh..."

And these nine were only the ones around this city. All in all, there were forty-two ruins and dungeons that we needed to check. Could we...really finish within forty-five days?

"I know what you’re thinking," Zarfa flicked my forehead. "Do you think I didn’t consider that?"

"Uhh...uhh?" I blinked while covering my forehead, looking at her in bewilderment while Jade looked at us in confusion with candy melting around his mouth.

She chuckled and pulled out another map; this one was marked too, but in different places even though they were also around this city. The ink used as a marker was also different.

"It’s not like we have to move together all the time, right?" she smiled. "Let’s split up the force."