The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 691: When you have no power to resist the current, all you can do is trying not to drown

Chapter 691: When you have no power to resist the current, all you can do is trying not to drown

"Would it take long to find it?" I asked Sore after telling him about the location.

[Reaching the place wouldn’t take long, Young Master. The problem is locating the safe house] Sore explained.

Yeah--this was the problem. Sangen wrote down the region where the safe house was located, but not much else. There was a drawing of an obscure map, which showed that it was probably located in the mountain or near a cliff. But Wesvon, the region mentioned, was known as a mountainous region, so...

Yeah.

And since it was a portal to a secret place, it wasn’t like there would be a signage pointing to its location, announcing that, yes, this is the safe house you’ve been looking for!

If it was me, I wouldn’t even place it above ground. It would be covered by something else, like a normal building complex with a lot of mana activities--so the mana from the portal could be hidden--or somewhere complicated like...a ruin or something.

The Templar’s hideout was hidden well despite it being above ground. Imagine if it was underground? Ugh...

[We will spread the members to check on every possible landmark, but I don’t think we’ll find it before the auction]

Which was the next day, so...yeah, understandable.

"That’s fine; we’re not going to attack during the auction anyway," I exhaled slowly. "Just...do it as fast as you can."

[By your command]

I knew they had been trying their best, so I felt guilty about telling them to try even harder. But we did need that information urgently, so I could only hope that the compensation we gave them later would be enough.

"Ah, and please be careful. Do it with the mindset that it was probably a trap for an ambush."

[Understood]

After closing the connection, I called the shapeshifter who brought the package to the living room. We made a copy of the abstract map and anything that might act like a hint so the shapeshifter could forward it to the search team.

Before the shapeshifter--who had finished their breakfast--returned to the human realm, Aunt Nezja handed a small envelope. "Please go to His Lordship’s bank and draw human currency equivalent to this number. Send it to the human who gives this package."

"Would you like to attach the sender’s name, Madam?"

"Yes, you may do so."

"Understood, Madam."

Hmm...I would also like to give him something, but it didn’t seem right to do it together with Aunt Nezja. There was a symbolism in her reward, and I didn’t want to dilute it with mine.

Oh, well...let’s think of another way later. I had a thought, but...it would depend on the result of this convoluted mission of ours.

Geez--I was just planning to ask for help so I could get full custody of my own son. But there I was, on a freight train toward fixing the relationship between three realms, changing the world and shit.

It was like dropping a ball on top of a snowy mountain and watching it roll down, growing bigger and bigger--even causing an avalanche.

I mean...who wanted to go to war again? Not me?

"Can we appraise the diary to be legit, Auntie?" I asked her once the shapeshifter was on their way.

"Yes," Aunt Nezja replied in a low voice. "Unless there’s someone who can mimic his style perfectly."

And if that was the case, it would be so, so cruel.

"Well, I choose to believe," Aunt Nezja looked down and stroked the book again.

Yeah, let’s just believe it. Living with such suspicion was truly hard. Perhaps, if it was Natha, he could go himself and read Sagan’s true intention. But alas, my husband was still out of reach. The last news I got from him was that he managed to enter the Sloth’s Keep and the Lord’s quarters.

That was two days ago.

"His family had been a church loyalist since his ancestor’s time," Aunt Nezja carefully opened the diary again. She truly treated the book like every page was made of glass. "Some of the family members also became priests."

"Really?" my eyes opened wide, but the surprise did not persist long. "Ah, but it explained why he could find this information."

"Sangen’s father was the first to realize that the church seemed to be planning something sinister," she continued. "If the notes were to be believed, they were not the only ones to realize it."

Yeah, like Fatia’s family. They could be considered devotees and used the Goddess’s teaching as their life compass. But they were able to differentiate the Goddess’s teaching from that of the church.

I mean...no matter how massive the propaganda was, I couldn’t believe that everyone just accepted blatant hatred as normal. Especially those who came from families who had existed since the Old Age--they must have known the original, untwisted teaching of the Goddess.

And I was pretty sure that the Goddess wouldn’t tell the humans to strike the demons and the children of nature the moment they exchanged gazes. If she did, Mother and Lord An’Hyang would have spoken of her with spite--or at least annoyance.

But they didn’t, and the Goddess still helped give the world’s vision to Ceci back then. All so I could find Natha.

At any rate, I was glad to find out that we were not alone.

"But they also knew it was impossible to show it blatantly. All they could do was carefully filter the church’s extreme teaching while distancing themselves bit by bit."

I couldn’t help but sigh. Such was the woe of the minority. I imagined they hid it even harder once they learned that the ones who voiced it out loud--namely, the templars--got hunted and pushed into obscurity.

Aunt Nezja smiled wryly at my sigh and continued. "But then, Sangan found out about the Society’s attempt to communicate."

"Ah! That was how he knew about the Society!"

"Yes," her smile turned soft as she exhaled slowly. "He took it upon himself to make contact with us."

"Wow..."

The courage to do that, knowing that he might--no, would--be killed if this fact was known. It must have been hard too, not knowing how the demons would react.

I mean...it was a race that had been said to be very cruel and vicious--based on the church’s false teaching. Even if he didn’t believe it completely, he also had no basis to completely disregard it.

Perhaps that was why he chose not to meet the demon directly.

"The thing is...for him to be able to receive inside information from the church, he had to pretend to be a royal devotee," Aunt Nezja continued his deliberation with a pained frown. "That was how the family’s wealth dwindled--to be donated to the Grand Church."

"Ah..."

"That was how he gained access to the inner work of the Grand Church. He was part of the ’holy order’, a special group that would receive the Grand Church’s protection in case of emergency."

Ugh...this was like...giving conglomerates priority to enter the bunker during a disaster. On the other hand...

"That’s how he knew about the portal!" I exclaimed.

"Indeed," Aunt Nezja nodded. "Unfortunately, when he could no longer supply any donations, the family’s name disappeared from the list of ’holy order’."

"How dirty!"

Didn’t that mean all the donations given before, to the point of ruining their house, were disregarded? I did not condone the practice, but this still made my blood boil. Oh, how infuriating!

Of course, that wasn’t Sangen’s objective in the first place--but still!

Haa...I understood then why Sagan said his great-grandfather got ruined because of the Society. In the end, the choice to sacrifice the family’s wealth was solely for the Society. But even after all of that, he couldn’t relay the information to the Society, or meet the woman he loved. No wonder he died of heartbreak.

If it wasn’t for the mindless scribble Aunt Nezja did that day, everything would still be a waste!

Haa...this was so tragic.

"Valen..."

I flinched and raised my head, pulling my mind out of the agitation that suddenly came. "Yes, Aunt?"

Aunt Nezja stared at the book with cloudy, stormy eyes. "Would you mind...letting me keep this book?" fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

Oh, Auntie...

I sighed and shifted closer to her, grasping the slightly trembling hand above the cover.

"It’s yours in the first place," I told her. "I’m sure Sangen was meant for it to be so, if only he had the chance."

Her grey eyes met mine, and I could see a little bit of sun behind all the storm raging in her eyes. "Yes," she pressed her lips and closed her eyes tightly. "Yes, I believe so."

It was only later on that I found out Sangen had written the diary like a letter; as if he was writing for someone instead of making a report. Between the pile of information, personal notes written in archaic demon letters were written with neater handwriting and framed beautifully.

Like a letter. A love letter.

It was only later that I found out that the whole diary was Sangen’s love letter for Aunt Nezja.

All I knew at that time was that I could hear the sound of a soft, painful cry behind her bedroom door.