The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 645: a constant motivation is needed to run a marathon

The horses that Zarfa ordered came the next day, all healthy and sturdy, made for speed instead of battle. Well...it wasn’t like we would bring them inside the ruin.

The morning after, we departed.

Naturally, I rode Choco with Jade and Shiny. Thankfully, Ian managed to learn how to ride a horse in the time we didn’t meet, so he got his own horse--white, so he could pretend to be a prince or knight in shining armor. Aina said she would only learn how to ride once she managed to make a motorcycle, so she rode with Zarfa.

I told her specifically to make one in black and gold, with a helmet that could be worn by someone with horns.

Anyway.

"Let’s meet here in fifteen days, no matter how many places we manage to scour, okay?" Zarfa looked at the other group. "Just use the teleportation scroll. Valen will extort--I mean, ask for new ones."

She glanced at me, and I merely raised my thumb. I guessed I could ask Heraz to tell her, and let him do the rest. He seemed eager to work her to the bone last time.

I stroked the flaming Salamander on Fatia’s shoulder before we departed. "Give me an update every night, Ignis."

"Mm."

It was a short answer, but the flaming tail coiled around my wrist for a few seconds. Such a cute fella.

Thankfully, the nearest ruin, the one we would check first, was within a day’s journey, so we didn’t have to spend the night in the wilderness. Ruin and dungeon that had already been found, after a while, would generate an ecosystem around it.

Mercenaries and adventurers came and went daily, so stores and inns sprouted around. There were even obsessive scholars building permanent houses near some ruins so they could keep on researching the place. Sites that had been around for years and decades would have a town-like settlement around or nearby--sometimes with a self-governing system where a certain organization managed the place.

Mostly, it was taken care of by the mercenary guild or adventurer bureau. By law and mutual agreement in the Human Realm, the governing kingdom or state was not allowed to stake a claim on ruins or dungeons--including the church. Apparently, this agreement came out after a huge war broke out over three kingdoms fighting for a claim of a ruin situated in the mountain bordering these three kingdoms.

What a relief. It would suck if we couldn’t examine those sites because the palace or the church hounded them. Zarfa said the magic tower would be the one to fight first if this agreement were to be breached. After all, their research material came from these places, and they didn’t want the government or the church to control the distribution.

How fascinating.

I should ask Natha about the ruins and dungeon regulations in the Demon Realm. Honestly, I hadn’t been very interested in that kind of place before. The only interest I had was seeing Natha in mercenary clothes.

I gained all of that information during our short lunch break, and by dinner time, we finally arrived at our first destination.

The ruin was found a few years ago already, so there was a small settlement there. But the site didn’t yield much treasure, so there were not many people attempting. While there was a building for people to sleep in, it couldn’t be called an inn; more like an empty room rented to a group for them to do whatever inside. Sleep, eat, splitting loots--whatever.

Honestly, using our own tent would be better, but that didn’t sit well with our mercenary guise, so we just rented one of the rooms in the corner. It was pretty spacious for four people and two...pets. We weren’t allowed to light a fire inside, but there was a communal kitchen on the first floor.

Our chef, however, lying sprawled on the mattress right after we spread it in the room. "I can’t...I can’t move anymore~" she whined and sobbed to the soft mattress I brought from the Demon Realm. "This feels so good. I don’t want to move from here."

I could only laugh and pat her head. Even if I gave them physical rejuvenation, traveling was still exhausting for the mind. "Let’s just eat some packed meals."

The girl who declared she couldn’t move a muscle sprang at the sight of dishes I took out of my personal inventory. Of course, courtesy of Angwi. We all devoured the warm roast meat and cooked vegetables after only eating a simple sandwich during lunch, while Jade and Shiny had their respective jellies and grilled seafood.

"Oh, Goddess--this is very delicious!"

"I know, right?"

"I know this flavor!" Aina raised her hand high. "This is the food at your wedding! It was her, right--your son’s nanny?"

I raised my brow in surprise. Wow...she could pinpoint the flavor just from eating it once or twice? As expected of our chef. novelbuddy.cσ๓

Ian, who had been devouring the meat, suddenly went silent. At first, I thought he became reluctant after knowing a demon cooked the meal; but then, he looked at me and smiled wryly. "It’s kind of weird, thinking that you have become a father, Brother Val."

Pfft--that was unexpected. But, well...

"Honestly, it’s still weird for me too," I put my plate down and laughed. "I need to constantly convince myself by holding him. I mean...it’s not something that could normally happen."

"It’s something unique and wonderful," Zarfa said with a smile.

Yeah. Yeah, and that was why we did this whole mission. Glancing at Ian, who resumed his dinner with a gusto, I began to wonder; what would the others feel if they knew I was doing it entirely for my selfish gain?

* * *

Four young people of mixed genders stayed in the same room--people might think it would inevitably turn into something spicy. But of those four people, one was an asexual, one was aromantic, one was gay and married, and the last one was too shy to speak to a lady.

So, you get it. Rather than feeling awkward and embarrassed for sleeping in the same room without any screen to separate us, we just indifferently lay side by side on the mattress like a bunch of cousins during a big family holiday.

Which was...fun.

I had never slept with a bunch of cousins during family holidays. Grandpa’s house was huge and had a lot of rooms, and the cousins didn’t want to have anything to do with me. It was different from having Natha by my side, but...it felt nice nonetheless.

"You know what this reminds me of?" Zarfa, who lay beside me, spoke as we stared at the dull ceiling, trying to fall asleep.

"What?"

"School camp," she said in a tone like she was about to start a serious discussion. "You know...like when they have an event and the committee has to stay overnight? Or a camping weekend in the mountains to clean the environment...or--oh, oh--school trip!"

No, I didn’t know, girl. I had never gone to school. But...

"Have you ever gone to one of those?" I asked curiously. While I knew she went to school, she was often absent because of her heart problem, and then stopped going at all.

And the answer was as expected. "Nope!"

"Same."

We laughed out loud before remembering that it was in the middle of the night. I put a device that generated a noise cancellation barrier, but Ian and Aina were trying to sleep, so we clasped our mouths and grinned.

"We used to fantasize about it, remember? How we’ll go to a school like other kids and do things like this," she said in a whisper.

"Yeah--said you’d go to shopping mall every week even if you wouldn’t buy anything."

She turned her head toward me and giggled. "And you said you’d buy me a thing or two out of pity."

I glanced at her and smirked. "Didn’t we say we’d go hiking and such?"

"Ugh--such ignorant kids," she groaned and rolled her eyes, cursing her young self who made such a silly wish. Now we really had to climb mountains and crawl underground and all kinds of adventures.

Wasn’t all bad, per se--but admittedly, shopping around and lounging at home was still better.

I laughed softly as we recounted what we had been doing ever since we got transmigrated; so colorful and full of tension. We used to want to be nothing more than two normal kids doing normal things kids able to do, and we managed to get more than we wanted to check out.

Was this what they meant by being careful of what you wish for?

"We did it, huh?" she chuckled softly.

I smiled at the ceiling, which suddenly didn’t look that dull anymore. "Yeah, we did almost everything--I even go to the beach."

She gasped and turned her body sideways to face me. "No way! When?"

"My honeymoon."

We giggled again like a bunch of schoolgirls, and she shifted closer to my mattress, leaning her head on my shoulder.

"Val..." she whispered closely.

"Yeah?"

"I’m glad I met you," she held my hand, sighing in relief. "And I’m glad we found each other again."

"Yeah, me too."

I squeezed her hand tightly. It was a sentiment that I shared. Sometimes, I wondered if I would try to look for her instead of Natha if I knew she was in this world too. I bet we would end up going to Natha for the Amrita anyway, and it was rather entertaining to think about the two of us venturing to the Demon Lord’s Castle looking for an elixir.

Perhaps we fantasized about that quite a bit too in the past, who knows?

"Val..."

"Yeah?"

"I love you," she whispered. "Platonically, of course."

"Pfft--yeah, I love you platonically too," I patted her head.

[Jade love Papa too...]

Chii...

Hearing my little companions chime in drowsily, I laughed and hugged them closely, kissing their heads before drifting into sleep.

That night, I was dreaming about going hiking and playing on the beach, traveling to another country and shopping. Not in this world, but in the other world. Someone always holding my hand while I followed Ceci who kept running in front of me.

Before I woke up, I finally turned around to see Natha, holding my hand with one hand and a baby in another, while a little boy clinging to his back.

It was the best dream I ever had.