The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 652: Don’t underestimate a child’s grudge

When Shea woke up again from his nap, he blinked and stared at me for a few seconds. Seeing I was really there, and he was still in my arms, Shwa looked satisfied and snuggled against my chest, letting out a soft giggling sound.

"You’re not crying again?" I laughed and poked his cheek, causing him to move his head and nuzzle my hand instead.

At a time like this, I was glad that I had a natural rejuvenation. No matter how light a baby was, carrying them in my arms nonstop for hours was bound to be exhausting. Truly, I couldn’t put him down or even handed him to Natha for a bit of stretching. My dear husband had to help me with drinking and feed me some indulging sweets for that extra energy.

But well, since he said Shwa was scolding me before, I just took it as a blissful punishment. freёweɓnovel.com

With great timing, Jade popped up not long after, when I was feeding Shwa the milk. "Shwa not crying again!" he delightfully jumped to the couch and kissed the moving cheek. "Shwa, Shwa--Jade bring Shiny today! Do you want to see Shiny?"

Natha tilted his head to observe the mole. Shiny was staying as still as a doll, staring at Natha with trembling eyes. It was already easily startled by ’tall creatures’, so Natha’s tall stature, coupled with his natural fear-inducing trait, froze the poor mole.

"This is the one you say will be useful?" Natha hummed, smirking in satisfaction. Perhaps because the creatures linked to me also gained immunity to his fear, it felt like his dignity plummeted with how brazen Jade and Ignis were toward him. Even Vrida did not fear him.

Shiny, on the other hand, was yet to be contracted to me, so the fear factor was still apparent. Having fun asserting dominance like that...truly, Jade was taking after him instead of me.

"Shiny is like...hmm...gem processor?" I laughed. "Come here, Shiny. Natha won’t eat you, so there’s no need to be afraid."

"Can’t they be afraid of me just for a bit?" Natha whined. Wasn’t it endearing how he turned clingy because he couldn’t touch me with Shwa refused to leave my arms?

My Demon Lord, turning into another child.

At my beckoning, Shiny immediately scurried to the coach, hiding behind my outer coat. It sniffed the blanket on my lap, and half-climbed my thigh to peek at Shwa. Their round eyes met, unblinking, and Shiny lowered its head as if bowing two seconds later.

Damn. All of my boys loved to assert dominance, huh?

Of course, Shwa stood above them all.

Jade told us--or rather, he was telling Shwa--all about the places he showed to Shiny; the Lord’s quarters, the library, my research floor that hadn’t been used for a while, the garden, and the greenhouse--basically, the places we frequented.

"Jade want to show Shiny the shed, but shed is Shwa’s so Jade want to ask Shwa first."

I patted the green hair, praising him for being a good boy. Jade continued to tell us about Shiny’s reaction. Our dear mole had never been to a place as big and as luxurious as the Castle of Greed, so the tour was filled with gasps and shocked shrieking. Since the Castle was made of polished black stone, Shiny felt like he was entering a paradise--which was cute, but I had to tell the mole that the building was not for eating.

That night, we had dinner in the executive dining room instead of the Lord’s quarters, because it had been a while since I showed my face to the Castle staff and the vassals. You know--couldn’t have people thinking we had a divorce or something like that.

It was the first time Shwa had attended an event outside the Lord’s quarters, since we ended up not having that banquet. Well, we decided to have one when we successfully received Shwa’s full custody instead. Thankfully, Shwa already stopped crying and scolding me, back to his usual gentle demeanor. Still, he didn’t want to let me go at all, so I had to hold him in my arms even while having dinner.

It was such an ordeal during changing. I had to coax this smart baby that I would only change for a moment so Natha could take him off my hand. But even then, Natha had to come with me to the dressing room, and I had to be in Shwa’s line of sight all the time lest he started to cry again.

"This possessiveness is just like His Lordship," Arta laughed at the way Shwa gripped my hair tight and demanded my attention during dinner.

Well, I guessed he had Natha’s gene. I was more curious about how Jade resembled Natha in personality even though the essence was all mine.

Anyway, this little guy cunningly stayed awake all through dinner, and only fell asleep when we were walking back to the Lord’s quarters. At first, I tried to lay him inside the bassinet, but he cried even while asleep. The smart baby already knew how his bassinet felt like and refused to lay there. I was worried that I had to keep holding him throughout the night, but when I laid him on our bed, Shwa slept calmly.

Haa...having a smart baby was not easy.

Thankfully, Shwa was more forgiving the next day, probably convinced that I wouldn’t leave so soon. He didn’t mind being held by Natha then, but I still had to be in his line of sight. Phew--at least I could feed myself this time.

Sacrificing Natha’s wish to be alone and intimate with me, we spent the day with Shwa while Jade took Shiny to the Lair in the morning. We visited the Shed after a nice afternoon tea in the greenhouse, and played with the fairies until Shwa laughed merrily.

At the night before we were supposed to get back, we gathered in the master bedroom, along with Jade and Shiny. Not just us though--Jade moved Shwa’s plushies from the nursery to the bed, creating a zoo fortress. One of them, a colorful bird plushie, Shwa’s favorite, had the tip of the wings slightly worn down from frequent grabbing.

Thankfully, even with this fluff fortress, our bed was still large enough for sleeping.

"Are we going back tomorrow, Papa?" Jade asked sullenly, hugging one of Shwa’s plushies.

"Yeah, unfortunately..."

Jade sighed heavily, sinking his face in the plushie while lying down beside the baby. "Ungg...Jade want to stay with Shwa longer..."

"Waaa! Uaaaa!"

"Look! Shwa agree!" Jade pointed at the baby, who, for all I knew, probably did agree.

The Demon Lord, who was lying by his side while watching the children play, raised his hand. "Natha also agrees."

I hissed and hit his upper arm, but he just laughed as usual. "Don’t teach the children violence, Papa."

Ugh, this Demon Lord. I pinched him secretly, in a place the children couldn’t see. It wasn’t because I didn’t agree with his statement, it was just...I already held back my desire to stay, so if he acted like this too, it would be harder for me to depart tomorrow.

Shouldn’t he at least support my endeavor to stay strong?! Hmph!

"Baby...I want that too," I stroked the sullen-looking Jade. The expression in that childhood-version of me was probably stamped on my face too. "But we have to continue looking for the relic."

"The small ball?"

"Yes."

"Hngg..."

Hnng indeed. I crawled and lay down behind Jade, fencing the other side of the bed so the children wouldn’t roll over. With a gentle flick of my hand, I dragged away the cushion where Shiny was curling asleep, away from the bed. Didn’t want the mole to get crushed if I accidentally rolled off the bed.

Stroking the green hair, I made a promise to Jade and myself. "We’ll only do this until we find the bead," I said. Or, well...until the deadline we set for the search was up and we crash party the church instead. "Just a month more."

"Okay..."

I smiled wryly and patted his legs so he would go to sleep. Slowly, even I felt drowsy from it. Just when I was about to fall asleep, however, I felt a strong vibration from my storage ring, enough to even make Jade jolt in alert.

Natha raised his brow curiously as I took out glowing inter-realm communication orb. There was only one person who could call me with that; Zarfa.

My eyes narrowed at the clock. It was only dinner time over there, but she should know it was late already on this side. Also, we had been refraining from using the communication orb because it drained a lot of mana and resources.

The only reason Zarfa bypassed all of that was one thing; an emergency had arrived.

"Ceci?"

[Oh, you’re not asleep, good]

She didn’t sound very urgent, however, which made me frown. "What’s wrong? Why are you calling so late at night?"

[Are you planning to come here tomorrow?]

"Well, yes..."

[Don’t]

...huh? I raised my brows high, and Natha even got up from his lying position. "Are...are we found out?"

[No, not us] Zarfa sighed. [You. They think Valmeier is alive]