The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 717: A lot of paths to Rome, but some of them are harder to find

Chapter 717: A lot of paths to Rome, but some of them are harder to find

"Young Master, we got the palace floorplan."

Heraz placed the large piece of paper on the table. There were several of them, but he put the one showing the underground level floors only--because that was what we needed.

After looking at the old Druid Palace’s floorplan, Natha immediately sent Heraz to get the current palace’s floorplan. He was also checking it with Tsalinade before bringing it in front of us, making sure there was not a shred of miss.

Thankfully, it didn’t seem like they upturned the palace completely. At least not the base. The beautiful facade had been changed into a human-style aesthetic, but they left the foundation whole. Just like us, they didn’t want the hassle of building everything again from scratch since they wanted to use the city for themselves.

Annoying, but it benefited us in this case. After all, based on the old floorplan, this particular secret tunnel was located underground, starting from the second basement floor where the miscellaneous warehouse was located. We could safely assume that this path was still there, probably untouched.

If I knew anything about Druid’s secret tunnels, it was the exclusive access activated only by druid magic.

The last part, which was the most difficult, was to find the entrance point from the island. Tsalinade, unfortunately, said that there was no such thing inside the magician’s tower at the side of the cliff. She had returned to the island to once again check the tower, but for as long as she had been living there, she never found a secret tunnel.

Of course, I also made sure the shapeshifter checked the island. Tsalinade had became way tamer and started to show sincerity by not constantly asking why she had to do something, but I still couldn’t trust her. She could betray someone who saved her life and treated her like a daughter, so why would I think she wouldn’t be able to do it again?

Unfortunately, they also said they couldn’t find any entrance in the tower.

"Then, it must be on the island somewhere," Natha said.

I loved that he did not dismiss the initial conjecture, because it was easy to just say ’well, maybe the path led somewhere else’ instead. At this point, I didn’t want to have more negative thoughts because I was already anxious enough about my son’s hundredth day next week.

"When Grandma visited you in the past, did she always come from the lake?" I asked Tsalinade as we looked around the island from the top of the tower.

"I’m not sure, Master--sometimes, she came when I was inside the tower or...or tending the garden," Tsalinade said. "I didn’t...I wasn’t always watching when she came or went..."

"How useless," Natha scoffed.

Tsalinade lowered her head, and I hated how it made my heart grow softer. No. I didn’t want to forgive her yet. In the end, she couldn’t fulfill her contract with me since the New Covenant obliged everyone who had any spoils and loot from the druid kingdom to return them to me through the Grand Church. Lawfully, the territory also belonged to me now, so she couldn’t take it to be gifted to me.

I could see how terrified she was at this point, which was why I couldn’t be sure if her obedience was caused by this fear or her sincere remorse for what she had done to my grandmother.

"B-but--sometimes, she did not come from the direction of the pier, but deeper in the island!" she added quickly after thinking hard for a few minutes.

"Deeper..." I muttered, glancing back at the cliff to where the tower was attached.

Half of the island actually consisted of mountains with hard soil--or rather, stone. Grandma never touched that place because only wild plants and weeds could grow there--the resilient kind that could not be tamed or cultivated. She only went there to forage wild herbs, but Tsalinade couldn’t do that with her human hands, and the plants were rather territorial, so she put a barrier separating the habitable land from that place.

"Looked like an ideal place for a secret tunnel," I stroked my chin. "Especially one made for a druid."

"And that might be why she never told this magician," Natha added.

"I wanted to take a look, but I didn’t think the plants there would like me much," Ignis said from my shoulder, and I totally understood.

I hadn’t had the chance to explore this island much--due to the location and how busy I had been--but this place seemed to contain more fascinating things than I thought. If only Tsalinade defended the place properly instead of letting the humans pass through the canal leading to the lake...

"Tsk," I couldn’t help but glance at her coldly.

It seemed like I truly couldn’t forgive her easily. She flinched and scooted back, half-hiding behind Heraz while trembling slightly. Haa...I didn’t like this, but in this case, I could only let time scatter the anger in my heart.

"Let’s check the place, then. You can tell me if you sense something, Ignis."

[Jade look from above, Papa!]

I patted the little bird, who immediately flew around the island while we entered the ’back’ of the island. As the report stated, it was a hard place to live, like a perpetual storm if the storm was made of plants. The mana was rich--so rich it would be toxic for vampires. But it was swirling between the plants as if they were fighting each other.

Yeah. Territorial.

[Papa, the trees and the grass are fighting! So exciting!] my bird told me with palpable joy. [It’s like...it’s like when we go powpow with bad guys!]

I wasn’t sure that should be the right reaction, but now you could somewhat imagine the situation. Simply put, it was like a territory on their own, so not even the tower could absorb the mana. Rather than entering the field of entropy, we walked around the periphery while Ignis tried to look past the chaos.

[Papa, Jade see a calmer place!]

"Oh, where is it?"

[There! There! Follow Jade!]

Once more, my Jadector worked superbly. The bird led us to the side of a hill filled with crawling roots. From afar, the roots looked like a carving on the side of a stone wall, and honestly...looked a bit terrifying. You know...like a cursed place in a horror movie?

Even without the chaotic mana, people wouldn’t want to get near.

But it wasn’t just looking like a carving--it felt like a carving. Natha touched the roots and said it felt like stones. He even tried to grab and pull it away from the soil, but it didn’t budge at all. Touching the base, he said it felt more like stone than hard soil.

"Like Alveitya, then?" I stroked my left arm. Alveitya was made of a branch, but those who did not know would think it was made of metal.

"But I feel something behind this wall," Ignis said. "Something hollow."

"Oho! Let’s try it then."

I told Natha to step back and place my hand on one of the roots. My husband was frowning in caution, but I shushed him and poured my mana into the root, spreading it all over the side of the hill.

Almost right away, the hill trembled and Natha almost yanked me away. While I understood his concern, I had to grab his face and stop him from pulling me because I still had to feed these roots my mana. They wriggled and slithered away like snakes, until there was a door-size space on the side of the hill--slightly reminding me of the ’door’ on the Great Tree in Alnin.

Yeah. These druids loved this kind of thing.

"Definitely a tunnel," Ignis told me.

Chii!

Again, I placed my hand on the empty wall. This time, without even using any mana, the stone creaked and ’collapsed’. That was the only way I could describe it because the ’door’ around a meter thick fell through a hole beneath.

[Ooh!] Jade was already on my shoulder before I knew it.

Chii! Chii!

Shiny and Ignis immediately became excited, so I sent them to explore the path as our first surveillance. Heraz also sent one of the shapeshifters to draw a map in case there was more than one path.

[A turn] Ignis gave me a live report. [It’s leading toward the lake]

"Oh, that’s promising!" I clenched my fists in excitement and told Natha about it.

[Yeah, I think it’s the lake] Ignis continued, sounding a little uncomfortable. [The path keep going down. I think it’s going to pass under the lake]

"Stay strong, Ignis. I don’t think the druids would make a path that got easily flooded," I chuckled. freeweɓnovel.cѳm

Ignis grunted and grumbled and cursed at every water droplet it found. But the Salamander did say the floor was dry. The good news was that while the entrance couldn’t fit more than two adults, the path inside was twice as wide. That meant our troop could go inside without having to crawl in a tight space as if doing extreme spelunking.

[Shiny is faster than me; I think the mole has already crossed the lake] Ignis hummed and not long after added that it had left the darned water area. Cute. [Oh, the mole is back--hmm? Shiny says it couldn’t get through anymore]

"Oh, I guess the other side also needs a druid magic to open," I stroked my chin. "But do you think it’s in the palace?"

After a few seconds of pause, Ignis reported back. [Shiny said lots of rooms and a big structure up there...like our castle]

"Yes!"

I turned toward Natha, meaning to tell him about it. But he was already telling Heraz to start gathering the agents to this side. He looked at me with a serious gaze then. "We start before dawn, right away."

Nodding, my lips started to stretch widely, before a thought struck me and wiped the smile away.

"I guess...the tunnel couldn’t be used because the druids couldn’t use their mana at that time..." my fingers clenched tightly. Grandma had to go through the lake to reach Tsalinade, and she was met with betrayal.

Once again, the flame of fury was lit inside my heart, and I got worried that it would explode when I stepped into that palace. I closed my eyes tightly, trying to remain calm, and a cold blanket enveloped me.

"We’ll take it back," Natha whispered softly, stroking my head gently as his comforting cold wrapped my body and soul. "We’ll make it flourish. The right way."

The fire was doused gradually, and I could breathe nicely again. He pulled back so he could cup my face and stroked my cheek, whispering firmly.

"Your way."

Oh, how beautiful he sounds.