The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 684: If you don’t have a phone, just fetch something sparkly for your kid

Chapter 684: If you don’t have a phone, just fetch something sparkly for your kid

"Suspicious?" a frown immediately formed on my forehead. "What do you mean suspicious?"

[The templars said people from church had been coming to the auction house every day]

I tilted my head in more confusion. "What’s suspicious about that? Isn’t it normal for the church to check the auction since it’s in the Holy Empire?"

[But the one holding the auction is still the auction house, Young Master] Sore replied. [It’s normal for them to come once or twice, and then again during the auction day. And yet, they come every day. Even the auction house’s staff are getting restless]

"Huh..."

[Besides, they aren’t coming to the ’front’ shop, if you know what I mean]

...I didn’t, but I could understand it somewhat. It must mean they came in secret and went to a secretive place in the auction house. Suspicious indeed.

[The templars couldn’t follow further, but they will try to find out more] Sore continued. [It seems to be connected to a ’special event’ of some kind]

"During the Grand Auction?"

[Yes, Young Master]

Hmm...was it something like the special auction for the relic that only the platinum medallion holder could attend back in Dailamy? It might be, but...was there any reason to be so secretive about it? I mean, they already spread the rumor anyway.

Indeed, it was rather suspicious.

"At any rate, we already know they are trying to bait the Hero, so it probably has something to do with that," I said with a sigh. "Just keep me updated, and tell them to watch other places’ movement too."

[Understood]

"What about the safe house search?" I asked.

[It is not in my duties, but I shall ask the one in charge and present a report later, Young Master]

"Alright; thank you, Sore. Please be careful out there]

[By your command]

Phew...

I looked down at my blinking baby. "What do you think this suspicious thing about Shwa?"

"Waah!" frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

Unfortunately, he wasn’t looking at me. My baby was busily fiddling with the Heart of the Forest, staring at it with sparkling eyes.

"You like that, huh?" I pinched the smiling cheek. I had no idea though, whether he liked it because of the massive power stored within, or because it was...well, a gem. Shwa loved treasures, after all.

That was why, when I had to concentrate on something while my baby didn’t want to be away from me, I visited the collection room. Sitting on the couch of the second level, where all kinds of jewelry and gemstones were on display. The sparkle was enough for Shwa to be calm and fixated on them while I did what I had to do.

Nothing in that room, however, could beat the Heart of the Forest. Placing it in his hand sucked all of his attention. He didn’t even kick or smack me once during the call--unlike the other times when he felt like I didn’t give him enough attention.

How do I say this--I found the equivalent of a smartphone video for my baby. If only we had this stone two weeks ago...there wouldn’t have been any drama with Shwa. Maybe.

Jade, meanwhile, got bored quickly because the gems could not be eaten. But I gave him a stack of children’s books, told him to copy the words written on it, and the little boy became quiet, diligently doing his homework. Shiny showed a little more interest, although it was only for a reference--you know, so he could poop out a better-shaped gem in the future.

Heh. Once you found the trick, babysitting wasn’t so hard anymore. At least for an hour or two.

"Okay, hear me out."

I took the green gem from my baby’s surprisingly strong clutch. "Waah!"

Chii?

"What is it, Papa?"

Oh-ho! What was this? They were all suddenly looking at me, what sweet children.

Honestly though, I was just talking to myself.

"Why do you think the church wants the Hero to come to the Holy Empire?" I tilted my head while moving the green gem above Shwa’s face, prompting him to reach out with his short, adorable arms. "Do you think they want to capture him? Or do you think they want to ask for his cooperation?"

Naturally, Jade and Shiny could only tilt their head in confusion. But Jade interestingly replied sensibly. "Bad guys calling Hero? Jin Hero?"

"Yes, Hero Jin."

"If bad guys want to catch Hero, why call him?" Jade frown. "Why not catch Hero on street? Like bad guys do to Papa."

"Oh! Make sense," I nodded. "You’re very smart, Jade!"

"Hehe!"

If they wanted to catch Jin, they could just do it during the long journey. There must be a place where no one else was around, but they only followed the group without making any attempt. Not even giving them a sleeping fog or something like that.

Even for them, there would be more risk of doing anything inside the Holy Empire. After all, the Hero was still technically the Goddess’s chosen one. No matter how much the devotees revered the church, they wouldn’t oppose the Goddess. The church might be ditching the Goddess, but they still pretended to be a devotee. The civilians still believed that the church was following the Goddess’ words.

Now, the Hero might be leaving Lenaar and become a fugitive for a while. But he had never done any unsavory stuff so far, and instead had been helping people as if he was doing some side quests. His reputation was good, and people thought he was leaving Leenar because he didn’t want to only help one kingdom. How magnanimous! Double good!

And so, the church couldn’t just catch him or doing something outrageous like that. They could maybe try to smear the Hero’s reputation, but unfortunately, unlike his old companion, Jin was a straightforward righteous person--even if he only did things as a quest to go back home. Any rumor would end up being just a rumor because his good reputation was more believable for the devotees. If any of the church members came forward to say bad things about the Hero, the people might think those priests were acting jealous instead.

So, I guess his acting like a goody-two-shoes was a good thing in the end.

And this gave me hope.

The people were only following the church’s twisted teachings. They manipulated people’s perceptions into thinking that their decisions and hatred toward other races were justifiable. Ultimately, they wanted to invade both the Demon Realm and the Realm of Nature. The Druid Kingdom and Wrath were their testing period.

If I looked back, they had been coating their unsavory action with justifiable excuses. They didn’t say that Leenar was attacking Wrath. They said Wrath attacked Leenar, so they had to go to war. And that wasn’t a lie. They just covered up the fact that Leenat attacked first to bait Wrath for retaliation.

I didn’t know exactly what they were telling people to justify their attack on the Druid kingdom, but I heard it was something about the corrupted mana that the Druid refused to clear. Amarein said the kingdom would refuse to clear corrupted mana fields if it was artificially made by injustice slaughter, so...

I could already imagine what kind of tell those humans were making.

Seeing how they still manipulated information and created scenarios to justify their movement, it was clear to me that they still pretended to follow the Goddess’s teaching. Perhaps, one day, if they spread enough hate, they could just order a war without any reason other than spreading the Goddess’s blessing to other realms or something. Trampling the Old Covenant to the ground and smashing it in its entirety.

Before that could happen, we had to open the truth to everyone. We had to make sure they knew they had been deceived by these heretics pretending to be prophets.

Once the people knew, and the current ruling church lost its credibility, who knows? Perhaps the Templars could take over and spread the true teaching. Then, the Old Covenant could be established again; this time, with true follow-ups toward the harmony of three races as the Primordial One had wanted.

"Right?" I looked down and placed the green gem back on my happy son’s hands. "You also wish for that, don’t you, Shwa?"

"Waaah!"

This time, he replied while looking into my eyes instead of the gem. Oh, that gave me even more hope for the future.

"In that case, are they trying to rope him for cooperation?" I mused curiously. "Technically, the one in conflict with Jin is Lenaar, not the church. At least, he never shows hostility to the church...right?"

"Jade don’t know, Papa..."

I patted the green hair. "Hmm...maybe they want to make sure he has the relic first?" I closed my eyes to force my brain to think. "Hmm...hmm...ah!"

Jade gasped. "What, Papa?"

"Right! If they catch Jin right away, there’s no guarantee that they can take the relic from him," I snapped my fingers. "After all, his storage space was a skill from the Goddess, unlike ours."

You know, like those inventory skills that game players had? The church must have known about this from his old companions, so they knew it was not accessible by anyone else but Jin. Perhaps they were thinking that they’d try to ask for cooperation first rather than coercion.

But, wait--what if they tried to extort him by using Zarfa and the others’ life?

Oh, no! I had to warn them!