The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 648: Even in the wild, we have to presume innocence until proven guilty

Chapter 648: Even in the wild, we have to presume innocence until proven guilty

"We’re being followed," I told them quietly, trying to be as discreet as possible.

But these guys lack wits.

"What?!" Ian and Aina replied loudly. It was fortunate that I turned on the noise-cancellation barrier beforehand.

Still, I glared at them without looking too agitated so the people following us wouldn’t find out. "Sush."

They pressed their lips, and my two little companions clasped their hands over their mouths, even though they hadn’t made any sound before. Cute. It immediately unraveled my tension, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.

"What to do?" Zarfa glanced at me with a strange twinkle in her eyes. It reminded me of Jade, who was annoyed about not participating in the mercenary attack in the forest.

"Just continue naturally," I told him. "We still don’t know if they were only sent to watch, so it is better not to make any suspicious move."

Honestly, it could be a group of people coincidentally moving behind us--although they were strangely matching our speed. But even if they were indeed following us, we didn’t know where they came from. They could be someone from the church, or they could be mere bandits.

If it was someone sent by the church or their cronies, it would be better for us to feign ignorance and pretend that we were only partaking in a merry adventure.

On the other hand, even if they were to attack us, I had every bit of confidence that we could take them. There weren’t as many as the mercenaries in that forest, and I was pretty sure none of them were as tough as the shadow guards I trained with in the Castle.

"Just in case they are ambushing us, I’ll stay behind," I told them, telling Choco to slow down so the other horses could stride past. "You go ahead, Ian, in case there’s an attack from the front."

"Yes, Brother."

"Jade, keep chirping so they won’t get suspicious," I told the little bird on my shoulder while undoing the noise-cancellation barrier. "Tell me again what you like about this adventure."

[Oh! Okay, okay!]

And so, we continued the journey at our usual pace while Jade was chirping about how fun the last ruin was because of the many different-looking chambers, wondering if we could go there again sometimes just to have fun and do treasure hunting. The conversation suddenly shifted into treasure hunting, and we talked about making a treasure-hunting site inside the amusement park.

I hoped my enthusiastic conversation with the chirping bird could cover how tense Ian was. The boy was the type to recite dialogue like reading a textbook, huh? Thankfully, the girls were part-time actresses, so their random chatters should be able to shield the poor paladin.

"Let’s stop over there and make our camp," I whistled so the horses slowed down and swerved to a clearing on the side of a forest. We alighted, stretched out, and I felt the people following us slowing down. "Aina, I’ll leave dinner in your hand. Jade, help her with the fire."

[Fire! Big fire?]

"Just enough," I rolled my eyes before flicking the little bird. "Do you want to burn the forest or something? How enthusiastic."

"I’ll help Ian make the tents while you tend to the horses, Val," Zarfa winked while dragging Ian to the clearing, deliberately taking our worst actor to a deeper face.

Conversely, I navigated the three horses to follow me in the opposite direction--the direction we came from. If those people behind us decided to approach, they would have to come through me first.

I waited while feeding the horses, chatted with Jade who was rolled around Choco’s head. Shiny, meanwhile, was doing a special mission.

As I was wondering whether I should groom these horses while waiting for dinner or the next day, the group that was following us decided to appear from the road, looking just like any other mercenary group.

"Excuse me!" one of them, with a short ponytail and slightly taller than me, came closer while waving.

Digging out a slight wariness that I used to have against strangers, I looked at the man with just enough suspicion that a wandering mercenary should have. "Oh, yes?"

"Are you mercenaries too? Would it be okay for us to share the field?" the ponytail man asked with a bright voice and kind-looking smile. "We will help you with the night watch and share our provision."

"Well...it’s not ours," I shrugged, still maintaining my tension a bit more.

"Thank you," his smile was as bright as ever. "Sometimes people don’t want to share the field, you know," he whined as if I was a neighboring kid instead of a mercenary. "There are not many clearings like this, so we would have to walk far if we had to find another site."

Perhaps if I were my old self, I would immediately lower my guard. But not with all the lessons Lesta gave me.

"Well, you’re right about that," I nodded in agreement, acting as if such a thing had happened to me before. At the same time, I ceased the frown and loosened my grip on Choco’s rein. "Seems like you’re in this area often."

"Haha--someone in our group lives in this region," he smiled, looking more at ease. "Where are you coming from?"

"We just finished exploring Talbe Ruin."

"Oh, that mountain one!"

My lips stretched into a relieved smile. Not because I deemed them trustworthy, but because I was finally truly sure they were a fraud.

"Right, that one!" I nodded eagerly, deepening my act. "Oh, you must know it well since you’re from around here!"

"Not me, I’m coming from the South," the ponytail guy pointed at his group. "It’s that friend of mine--look there, the bald one. Hey, Baldy!"

"Don’t call me bald!" the bald man replied in a humorous, loud voice that prompted laughter from the group that was making themselves comfortable on the other side of the clearing.

I chuckled along with him. "Are you from the ruin too?"

"Nah," he replied, almost too quickly. "We were just coming back from subjugating a beast settlement in Samoli."

"I see," I nodded again, wondering if my smile adequately hid my amusement.

That single statement confirmed even further that they were lying--and had no idea I could use detection. No sensitive scout or ranger. Nice.

Not even the people who hid themselves not far away.

"Where are you going next?" the ponytail asked further, even though we shouldn’t have anything to talk about anymore.

"We just want to go to a proper town," I shrugged. "The one near the ruin doesn’t have good food and separate rooms."

"Ah-ha!" he careened his neck toward our camp. "You’re traveling with girls, after all."

Maybe try to hide your smirk first, dude? I smiled innocently. "You know it."

His gaze shifted toward me then, and I couldn’t say I was flattered. "But I almost thought you were a girl, too, man."

Oh, thank Gods there was no demon here--although I had to put my hand over Jade’s head, including the beak ready to fire up some chirping curses.

"Yeah, I got that a lot," I replied lightly with a forced smile. "Maybe I should start putting on some muscle."

"Right, right," he shifted closer, and my left arm trembled. Someone inside was throwing a tantrum. "Hey, what about joining us for dinner? Wouldn’t it be merrier?"

"Ah, I don’t think we can," I put on an awkward smile, glancing at the three curious kids. I wouldn’t mind doing it to gauge their intention more, but we had a really bad actor in our midst. "My girls aren’t very fond of strangers. Maybe next time, if we know each other better."

The ponytail guy laughed it off and patted my shoulder. "Sure, sure; don’t mind it."

[Papa! Jade want to burn him!]

Not now, baby. Not now.

I politely waved as the ponytail guy got back to his group, before taking the horses to a space between two trees and secretly covering them in protective mana. If those people couldn’t detect my detection, they wouldn’t be able to detect invisible mana.

"Very friendly," Zarfa smirked when I returned to the campfire where Aina was cooking.

"Yep," I sat down on a log and activated a noise-cancellation barrier again. "They also lied about where they were coming."

I told them about the conversation I had with the ponytail guy, who was pretending he didn’t come from the ruin. I was only realizing they were following us on the bridge, but I knew they had been doing so since the ruin. I just thought we were going in the same direction at first.

At any rate, even if they weren’t coming from the ruin, the bridge where I had that realization came first before the crossing that would bring someone to Samoli. So, they were lying either way.

"What are we going to do?"

"We wait," I decided. "We still need justification. If they ended up doing nothing, we might even deflect suspicion."

At any rate, we still had no idea if they were sent by the people who were searching for us or just your regular bandits. I canceled the barrier, and we made a merry conversation, laughing while interviewing Ian about what kind of weapon he would turn that relic into. Not only to lessen his tension, but also to give the impression that we weren’t suspicious of them.

After finishing our delicious dinner, I told them to get to their tents--you know, so we didn’t have to prolong the waiting game--and I pretended to fall asleep while having the first night watch.

Now, then...how would they proceed?