The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 646: Motivation can come from anything and anywhere

"You look bright today, Boss!" Aina greeted me with a huge tray of breakfast that she carried with Ian. It seemed like she had dragged the paladin to the kitchen at dawn and cooked for us.

Talking about bright herself...

"I had a good sleep," I replied while stroking the bird and mole on my lap. "Sleeping together is nice."

Of course, it was only nice because the four of us were more like siblings than friends. If Jin and Renna were here, it would be awkward to do it. Thankfully, there was zero romance between us, and Ian bickered with the two girls like siblings, even over something small like food distribution.

See what I mean by cousins?

After the boisterous breakfast, we got ready for the raid. Zarfa agreed to free me from those makeups she put on me during the last expedition, but I had to wear a mask still.

"Don’t pull people’s attention with your face," she said with pursing lips.

Uhh...I felt like Ian’s full-plate armor would pull more attention, but...whatever you say, sis. Anyway, a lot of mercenaries and adventurers wore a mask too, so it wouldn’t get attention even if I did.

Perhaps because none of us were strikingly tall--not even Ian--we really looked like your average raid party and blended perfectly between any group. Since it wasn’t a popular site despite the large area, we didn’t even need to book a specific time to enter--anyone could just come and go anytime.

"Wouldn’t it be funny if we find it here?" Zarfa chuckled after we entered the ruin.

Yeah, it would. It would be laughing at the anxiety I had for days. Not that I would mind. Unfortunately, we weren’t so lucky.

Shiny only had an attachment to the previous relic, so it couldn’t pinpoint the others. Getting so familiar with the Goddess’s essence, however, made the mole able to sense it--just like how Shiny sensed the essence inside my core. We had the mole scour the place ahead of us while we were getting accustomed to the ruin, and afterward, got around each chamber with Shiny’a guide.

I had thought that maybe, just maybe, there would be a cliche development. You know, how a place that was deemed to be useless and not yielding much actually contained a treasure that others hadn’t found so far.

Nah. Nothing like that. This place was just uselessly huge with nothing much to be found. But there were some beasts wondering there, so we at least got to check how well we acted as a team. And I had to say...not bad.

We decided that I would be the vanguard and Ian would be the rear guard. It took some convincing, but after I conjured a mana shield, he finally agreed. Deliberately, I took it easy so Aina and Zarfa could make some attack. With Aina’s magic trinkets--such as exploding balls filled with acid--and Zarfa’s bow and fan, there was no need to be worried about a bunch of beasts.

Well, I would still take any enemies coming to us myself in the future, but it was relieving that they could protect themselves well. Next time, I could just focus on fighting without caring whether or not an enemy or two would sneak behind and attack the girls.

So yeah, it wasn’t too bad.

"Well, it’s just the first one. Even you couldn’t be that lucky," Zarfa patted my shoulder after we finished checking every nook and cranny of the ruin.

"Yeah, I understand. It would be weird if the tears were stored so close to each other," I nodded.

"Yeah. Shall we go, then?"

After that, we moved to the next site, which was a dungeon. This time, we had to ride for more than a day, so we built a camp and I took turns for a night with Ian. Nothing interesting happened, and I spent the night chatting with Jade in a hushed tone to not wake the others.

Compared to a ruin, dungeons were more dangerous. It was created by the accumulation of rotten mana, so corrupted beasts were running rampant inside. But those beasts provided good materials, and the pure mana trapped inside the dungeon sometimes manifested into a relic.

At first, we didn’t think the Goddess’s relic would be inside a dungeon. But the relic we acquired from the auction was actually coming from a dungeon, so we didn’t want to lose the change just because of the low probability.

Unfortunately, this one did not yield anything either--but Alveitya was so happy about going out and had some action again. I ended up doing all the fighting because of my overly enthusiastic spear, but no one was minding it. The girls were even having fun telling me where the enemies were, rating each attack with their own scoring system.

As long as they had fun, I guess.

We didn’t find any relics, but we took the material and mana crystal from the beasts, as well as the herbs we found inside the dungeon. You know--so we would look like real mercenaries. We traded them outside to emphasize it even more, letting Zarfa handle the haggling, pretending that we were really, really working hard for it by asking for a higher price.

As I thought, this girl needed to play some theater for a hobby or something.

And off we go again, riding the horse across the prairie, crossing a river, and through a hill. By the time we managed to reach a town near the ruin site, Aina let out a string of curses that scared even the horses. I had to calm them and explain that the curses weren’t for them, but for the road.

Right?

"I’m so going to make that motorcycle soon," she said at the end of her long vent, once again left with no energy to cook.

It was fortunate that we were in a town, where we could just sleep in an inn. There was only a big room with six beds left, but that was to be expected from a town near a ruin. I asked Ian to get some dinner from a good place to indulge Aina, and he returned in the middle of a heated discussion about which model of motorcycle should she make first.

The poor boy looked at us helplessly. "What even is a motor...cycle?"

We, the silly transmigration, eagerly explained it in the best way we could. "Imagine a horse," we started.

"Yes?"

"But it’s a golem."

"Uh-uh."

"Well, it’s not exactly shaped like a horse, but just imagined that the four legs substituted with two wheels."

"...okay?"

"It might be a bit complicated at first, but you can control the movement and the speed yourself instead of coaxing the horse to do what you want."

The confused eyes flashed and sharpened. "I’m listening."

Heh. So he was the type who couldn’t get along with horses.

"The colors! We can put on any colors that we want! Red? White? Sparkly silver? Val wants a black and gold one like his husband’s crest."

Ahem.

"Jade want colorful one! Rainbow!"

Chii!

Zarfa wiggled her finger. "Children aren’t supposed to ride a motorcycle, Jade."

"Why?!"

"Because it’s dangerous. Has Valen ever let you ride the wyvern or Choco alone?"

Jade gasped and nodded in realization, saying that he would only ride a motorcycle with me or Natha. How cute. For all I knew, the motorcycle might only come to fruition after he grew to adulthood. By that time, it wouldn’t matter if he rode it alone.

And why I thought that?

"A motorcycle wouldn’t matter if there’s no road, you know," I chuckled while taking a bite of the food that Ian brought. Not bad, but nothing good either. "Without a smooth road, it would feel like riding the horse either way."

Aina gasped at the revelation and groaned. "Argh! I can handle building a motorcycle, but what should I do with a fucking road?!"

"Language."

"Fluffing road!" she covered her face and sobbed. "I want to live in a region with advanced infrastructure."

"You’re welcome to move to my husband’s realm," I put a piece of roast meat in her mouth to calm her down.

Ian gasped in shock. "You can’t do that, Brother! You already have that elf and naga girl!"

"I am the consort of grees, Ian," I smirked and patted his shocked face. "Still, wouldn’t it be better for merchants to have a good road?"

"Of course, it is," Zarfa twisted her lips in annoyance. "That’s what my father had always been lobbying our King for. In the end, the only one who could regulate road-making projects is the government, but they always thought the current one was good enough."

Before Aina could curse again, I shoved something that looked like a dumpling into her mouth again.

"Well, making good roads needs a lot of money, and those palaces prefer to use it for security matters," Zarfa shrugged. "It’s inevitable in a period where war could break at any time."

Talking about war and conflict time brought us back to reality, and the table was filled with sighs.

"But!" Zarfa clanked her spoon. Again. "Once we finish this mission and find the Goddess, don’t you think the world will become a better place?" she smiled widely. "We might not be able to stop conflict completely, but kingdoms wouldn’t dare to go to war so carelessly, right? Or, you know...fighting with another race."

"Maybe..."

"And without that concern, we can start to put more resources into advancing infrastructure and funding research, don’t you think?" Zarfa continued eagerly. "Then, we might have our road!"

"And I can build the bike!" Aina raised her arms energetically.

Jade clapped happily despite not really understanding what was being said, and I followed with a laugh. A young paladin, whether for a vision of a better world, or a vision of a cool motorcycle, clenched his fist, promising himself to work hard.