The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)

An unfamiliar ceiling.

Unfamiliar silence.

I had never thought there would come a day when I considered waking up alone in silence as something unfamiliar. In the last few weeks, I had either Natha or Jade beside me when I woke up, filling the air with sounds and presence other than myself.

Wow. It was just a few weeks but I already became so spoiled. I wasn’t even doing anything to earn my keep. Just breathing, being mended, being fed and protected...and I had the audacity to act stressed and cried from frustration in front of him?

"This is bad...I’m living a life of a trophy wife..."

I achieved realization beneath the warm autumn sunlight on my sugar daddy’s bed.

"Trophy wife, huh? I’ll properly relay the term to him," the cheerful succubus that had never barged into my room in the morning suddenly peeking out from the door.

"You’re up?" I tilted my head, raising my brows in surprise. No, she wasn’t just up, she looked like she was ready for a day out. Did I wake up too late?

I turned my head and squinted into the sunlight coming through the window. The sun didn’t look that high though.

"It’s not lunch already, right?"

"What? It’s not even breakfast yet," Zia tilted her head as she walked toward the bed. I looked at her wordlessly, one brow raised with pressed lips. "Wh—what?! I can wake up early if I want! I just...didn’t have a reason to before!"

I just stared at her wordlessly, but she started to fume on her own, stomping her feet on the carpeted floor with hands on her hips, even as the townhouse’s servant came inside with a cup of my usual herbal drink.

"So...there’s a reason now?" I climbed down from the bed and signaled the servant to put the drink on the table near the window.

"Of course!" Zia replied instantly, hovering toward the table and seating herself on one of the chairs. "There’s always a morning market during the festival week. I heard there are places that even sell food from other realms. Angwi is preparing the carriage now, so let’s have breakfast there."

Ah, so that was why she wasn’t the one who delivered my drink like usual.

There was a literal sparkle in Zia’s eyes, so I guess it’s true that the teenage energy was boundless. "So you’re here to pick me up?"

"Nope, I’m here to redo your hair," she pointed at my head with her palm, pouting. "I worked so hard on it and Lord Cousin just destroy it."

I turned my head from the cup, staring at the reflection in the window. I suddenly remembered how I woke up last night, with the feeling of Natha’s fingers on my hair.

Through the reflection, I also witnessed the slightly puffy eyes, and was reminded once again of how pathetic I was yesterday, crying like a spoiled child. Thanks to my natural rejuvenation, a trait I acquired as a part-druid, the bloating effect had diminished a lot.

But I guess, it couldn’t really erase the grey cloud on my complexion.

Naturally, since I was looking at my face, my eyes also fell into my lips, and the surge of memories that came with it.

Huh?

What was it? How was it...the taste of my first kiss?

I...didn’t know. I didn’t remember. All I could remember was feeling pathetic and horrible, feeling like I wanted to throw up from nausea, feeling like I hated myself...

The man inside the reflection pressed his lips hard to prevent them from quivering, green eyes shaking slightly before they closed.

Sure...let’s have a hearty breakfast. Let’s walk around and filled my head with so much thought I had no room for anything else.

I opened my eyes and put my cup down, putting my best smile at the girl who had been observing me keenly since earlier. "Make me look pretty."

"...Lord Cousin would kill me if I do that..." she mumbled with a sigh.

* * *

"Ah, I tried this yesterday..."

We ended up making rounds on several places, and were now in front of the section of street vendors that I visited with Natha last night after getting separated from Zia and Angwi.

Err...or should I say after I unknowingly stepped away?

Anyway...

I didn’t think the stall selling shaped melted candy would be there in the morning. It attracted a lot of kids and disapproved stares from their parents. But it was more of a show rather than candy selling, so quite a lot of adults also got intrigued with the process.

I guess I also stood there for a long time last night, watching the old man shaping candies into magical beasts.

"Oh! Is it good? They don’t have this in my hometown,"

I stared at the stretched-out sugar, feeling weird, waiting for someone to tap me, telling me we should go by shoving a candy on my hands...

"...yeah," I belatedly replied.

Zia knitted her brow at my answer, perhaps because my tone sounded reluctant. "What? So it’s good or not?"

I shook my hands sightly, realizing that they had been clenching all this while. "Yeah, it’s good," I answered with a firmer tone this time. Well, both of us liked sweets so there was no way it wouldn’t taste good.

"So which one do you want?" Zia looked at me expectantly, a phoenix-shaped candy already in her hand.

My eyes had always been fixed on one particular shape anyway, so my reply came out swiftly. "The...horned rabbit one."

I held the candy in my hand all the way, just playing with it in my palm while digesting this uncomfortable feeling bubbling inside my chest.

I wanted to go away...I wanted to drown inside the crowd...I wanted to be alone...I didn’t want to feel lonely...

Such chaotic feelings brewed inside me with every step. My mind vaguely registered Zia’s chatter, and I replied with some kind of automatic verbal engineering. I only managed to have my concentration back when we arrived at a part of the market that I hadn’t visited yesterday.

"Hoo... there are a lot of stones here," Zia hummed excitedly.

And it was only because the place made me remember yesterday’s jewelry store.

"They look like candies," Zia giggled, and I realized then that she had been holding my sleeve, as if making sure I wouldn’t get lost.

On my other side, Angwi was shielding us—or was it me?—like a silent guardian knight, flashing sharp and cold gaze toward people who stared at us.

Zia was still chattering endlessly, even without me responding properly. And she didn’t even sulk or protest at me like usual.

Were they under some kind of order to get me out of the house? To cheer me up or something.

"...well, they are mostly just for cheap accessories, since there’s not much mana left there—most would be empty," Zia finally ended her comment after we passed through a few stalls, and then glanced at me, and flashed a smile when she noticed I was no longer staring dumbly at the rabbit candy.

Yeah...so they were. I doubt they knew what really happened, but I guessed I wasn’t as subtle as I tried to be.

Feeling ashamed for my pathetic mopping display, I turned my head to look around.

We were in a part of the market that sold trinkets like souvenirs from all over the world. This particular section catered for stones of various colors. It wasn’t in the quality of precious stones sold in the store I visited yesterday, however. Most of them were duller in color, like a remnant of what they were supposed to be. Some were just nonmagic stones that had pretty shine and appearance.

All in all, these stones were still good and pretty enough to be made into accessories, which was probably why the sections were filled with young demons. The accessories made from these stones, as well as the raw material itself, were more affordable than the ones sold in stores like Seven Starlight.

When I looked closer, I could feel that most of these stones used to be more high quality, with more mana contained inside. But now they were almost empty, and could be said to be useless aside from their aesthetic value.

"A recycle?" I muttered in surprise.

They looked like something that once belong to people who could afford high-quality precious stones, before being thrown away or sold off after the mana ran dry.

Unlike in my previous world, precious stones in this world contained mana, and their degree of quality was measured by how dense the mana concentration inside the stones was. Once the mana was used up to fuel an enchantment or was absorbed by the owner, the stones became useless.

But they were still pretty, though, just not as vibrant.

For the elites who put value in practicality, those used-up stones no longer became luxurious goods but used batteries. From what I glimpsed through Valmeier’s memory, most of these stones were either being destroyed or thrown out, becoming no more than trash. Well, at least in the kingdom.

Apparently, it was different here.

"It’s a good thing that they recycled the used-up magic stones rather than destroying them. It’s not like common people need strong magic enhancement in their daily lives, so it’s just perfect," I muttered while looking into the colorful round stones that looked like marbles. They were quite adorable, reminding me of Jade’s bead-like eyes.

"Hmm~" Zia looked at me with narrowed eyes and an impish smile while I picked out those cute round stones and finally used the allowance money I got from Natha.

"What?"

"You talked like Lord Cousin," she nudged me with her elbow. "Did he teach you that?"

So much for trying to not think about him.

I felt a lump in my throat then, so I was quite surprised when I managed a response somewhat. "...what do you mean?"

Zia grinned as she answered. "The one who introduces this recycling method was him, right, Angwi?"

The silent guard nodded affirmatively, but I could feel her eyes eyeing me carefully.

"...oh," was all I managed to reply.

We fell into silence then, since I had nothing to say anymore, and Angwi never talked in the first place, while Zia just stared at me quietly. She tugged on my sleeve and tilted her head to peer at me.

"Val, are you alright?"

I widened my eyes slightly before replying swiftly, giving them my best smile—the one I usually gave the head nurse when she asked me if I was alright. I also gave them the same answer as always.

"Yes,"

No. No, I wasn’t.