The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 644: The first step for a raid is forming a party

Splitting our force.

Yeah. Of course! It wasn’t like we were consisted of weaklings. Even Zarfa, who looked like she couldn’t contribute anything but money and brain, knew how to kill someone with a hand fan--something her mother told her to learn because a successful merchant’s life was always bound to be targeted.

Now that I thought about it, we actually never fight full force, together. During the mercenary attack, I handled them with the Hero alone. In the ruin, we split our force. Of course, going to the ruin or dungeon alone was never recommended, because anything might happen. But even then...just splitting into two groups would help a lot.

"Unfortunately, I don’t think we can split into more than two," Zarfa said. "Not because we lack manpower, but...I don’t think anyone other than you and Jin would be able to tell whether or not the relic is legit."

Oh, right. I nodded in agreement. "I also think it’ll be better for us to have a guide each with Shiny and Ignis."

"Oh! So we won’t have to go blind!"

As expected, she caught up quickly.

"Ah, then let’s go pick up some horses too," she said. "If we’re going to maximize efficiency, it will be better to go on horses than carriage. Let’s see...you already have Choco, and we can use the two on the carriage. Let me talk to Caleb and see if Midas has some horses on reserve."

Before I could say yes or reply with anything, she already stood up and rushed out of the room. I traded glances with the blinking little boy across me, who only had one comment. "Ceci is like storm!"

Indeed; I laughed and enjoyed the rest of my herbal drink before she returned and dragged us out to the street. Shopping street. She said it was part of our play as the bougie in the city--although with us, it wasn’t exactly a play, was it?

I knew she just wanted to shop.

Well...I had started to enjoy shopping, actually. Was it because I was used to being dragged around by Arta and Zarfa to the stores? Or was it because Natha kept telling me to use the money? I had no idea. Zarfa called it a contribution to the wheel of economy, and I just nodded along.

Might as well bring some souvenirs for the people back home. At any rate, it was easier to look for books here because I was still more fluent in human tongue than the demon’s one. And there were more children’s books too, so Jade was having a field day.

Fatia’s kingdom wasn’t really small, but there was a stark difference between a place that was still recovering from civil war to a place that had been relatively peaceful. There was more stuff from the whole human realm in this city, so I found quite a bit of nice souvenirs to bring back home.

"Where are the others, though?" I asked when we stopped to have rest and tea in a nice, bouquet cafe overlooking the high-end shopping avenue.

"Aina is still replenishing her trinkets."

"Like that smoking ball in the ruin?" I raised my brow. "I think I almost died from asphyxiation."

Zarfa chuckled wryly. "Yeah, us too."

We laughed and she told me that Jin, Ian, and Renna were doing some more training, while Fatia was renting a room in the magician’s tower to do some research. freewebnøvel.coɱ

"And we’re here shopping?"

"Hey, we’re shopping for logistics!" she scoffed. "And we did the decoy stuff. We are supposed to be aristocratic children, you know."

"Hmm...that is actually a demotion."

"Oh, right. You’re a mistress."

I was tempted to throw the little crackers on the table toward her, but we were in an upscale establishment, so I held back and laughed it off.

"I said it before, didn’t I?" Zarfa leaned back and curled her lips as she gazed at the city landscape. "We are the sponsors. This is our job; taking care of the logistics and decoys, spending money for the expedition."

My brow arched and she continued. "If the sponsor worked too hard, it would either make the other feel inadequate, or make them feel like they didn’t have to do anything."

I almost chuckled at the way the latter fit the Hero’s old companions and, thankfully, we were blessed with the former one in the current composition.

"Anyway, let’s not make them work even harder than they already are," she laughed at my expression, before adding in a nonchalant voice and a twinkling gaze. "Also, they might get tense if the sponsor looks anxious."

The chuckle that wanted to slip out slid down my throat again at her words. I blinked for a few seconds before lowering my face, feeling slightly embarrassed.

"Did it show?"

"Not now," she smiled gently while stroking my hair.

So I did. Haa...was it the mood because I had to part with my family? Or the anxiety I talked about with Natha surfaced again? These days, I became less sure of myself.

"It’s probably that--how should I say this?" Zarfa tilted her head. "When you did a sprint in a marathon, you became tired, and right before the goal, you lost the steam and all kinds of bad thoughts keep coming."

"...maybe?"

She smiled and patted my shoulder. "But you’ll keep running anyway, right?"

"Of course?"

"Then it’s okay," she shrugged and got up. "Just wind up a bit when you feel tense, and we’ll run again. No one said we can’t stop to take a breath in the middle of a marathon."

I pressed my lips and murmured. "But...what if we can’t reach the finish line on time?"

"Then we sprint again," she laughed.

For some reason, that silly and nonchalant answer unraveled the knot in my heart.

* * *

"I want to go with Boss!" Aina raised her hand when we were splitting the group after dinner. Before anyone could ask her for a reason, she already provided one. "I want to have unlimited access to materials!"

"Uhh...I don’t have unlimited access to--"

"Unlimited funds!" she slammed her hand down like a hammer--which I thought was better than Zarfa’s spoon.

Pfft--fine. I didn’t really care who was in which group. At any rate, it would be my group and Jin’s group. I had called Ignis back and the Salamander sent his shadow flame to join the meeting. Heh--seemed like it had fun in the ruin. Because of this, we decided that Ignis should join Jin’s group so we could still communicate through the Salamander. Ignis was able to contact me from the Realm of Lust last time, so it should be fine in this region.

Since Ignis was in Jin’s group, Fatia automatically joined that group. After all, having a flaming wizard without an elementalist on their side would be weird. People might be suspicious, you know.

Talking about suspicious...

"I think it’ll be better if each group has someone with stealth ability," I proposed. "You know--in case we need to sneak around again."

"Make sense," Zarfa nodded and clanked her spoon down. Ugh. "You go with Jin, Renna."

"Okay."

As usual, she was obedient. Zarfa strokes her chin while looking at my and Jin’s side interchangeably. By the logic we used to divide the group, she should be joining Jin’s side as one of the money sources. But then again, Fatia was practically a born-and-raised aristocrat with money--despite not being a sponsor.

We could easily give her a pouch of money and she would use it as effectively and strictly as a national bank’s treasurer.

And that was probably why Zarfa chose to go with me. Although, from her lingering gaze on my face, I had a feeling she wanted to keep my emotions in check more--which I appreciated.

At last, I shifted my gaze to Ian, who had been fidgeting awkwardly. It made him look like someone who was chosen last in any game, but I swore that wasn’t the case at all!

Unlike Zarfa, however, Ian wasn’t given a choice. Not by Jin, at any rate. "You go with Valen, Ian."

"Yes?" he flinched, probably never thought about going a different way from Jin.

"They don’t have a shield yet," Mister Hero said firmly. Oh, right--since he was the Hero, he could take on any role; from becoming the tank to launching a magic attack. Of course, he excelled the most at swords, just like any other classic hero.

Hmm...honestly, if it came down to it, I could also do it all. I didn’t want to sound like a hero or a protagonist, but, technically, I could shield everyone with magic, my attack was elemental magic, but my main weapon was a spear. I could add healing too, but it seemed like over the top.

But then again, I had two girls who acted more as support and long-range attackers, so it would be good to have a tank protecting their backs.

"Anyway, we have Valen’s Salamander with us," Jin added. "It’s already a tremendous additional power."

"Naturally," the shadow flame replied, visibly pleased by the bright dancing flame.

"I mean...I didn’t even say no..." Ian muttered with pursed lips.

I exchanged glances with Aina and Zarfa, before smirking and putting my arm over the paladin’s shoulder. "Well, well; welcome to the other older club, Ian."

And that was what made him groan.