The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 655: To turn a mistake into an opportunity

"Using this situation?" I tilted my head curiously. "What do you mean?"

Natha took a seat on another chair beside me and leaned back, crossing his arms. When I looked back at Shwa, the green eyes were staring at Natha while sucking on his milk bottle. Was it because his daddy was talking and looking cool, or was he truly listening?

Hmm...how curious.

"Outside of my prediction, the church seemed to place quite an interest in finding this spear," Natha tapped on the armrest. "There’s no way a kingdom having a fierce war for months had enough resources to employ information guilds all over the Human Realm."

My brows arched in surprise. "Huh? Are you saying that the church was the one sponsoring the search?"

"Would there be anyone else able to provide such large capital?" Natha smirked, glancing at me. "If you think about it, that silly debt contract of yours was made in the church, not the palace."

"Oh!"

Why didn’t I realize this before? No--rather, I didn’t even think about anything regarding this matter at all.

"Well, you were laser-focused on staying alive, weren’t you?" Natha pinched my chin lightly.

"Yeah," I nodded happily, knowing that it wasn’t only because I was dumb. "I was busy tracking your spies from the hints Ceci told me."

To be fair, I was also under the impression that the palace didn’t want to see me at all, so they asked the church to do it since Valmeier was...well, a priest. The only reason they invited me to the palace during the banquet was because the princess and the Hero’s old companions wanted to mock me--or something. It was a blurry memory now, perhaps because I got drunk right away to numb myself at that time.

Hmph--remembering it made me annoyed for no reason. With pursed lips, I looked down to see my beautiful baby, and a smile immediately came to my lips when he looked at me. Coincidentally, the bottle was empty, so I pulled it away and was greeted by the most beautiful smile and melodious laughter.

Natha chuckled at our small intrusion before continuing. "That spear must have been owned by the church initially, but it was given to Lenaar as a tool to create support for the war effort."

My left arm vibrated; the great Spear had spoken.

"Oh, seems like Alveitya agreed," I chuckled when Shwa was startled by the strong vibration beneath his body. "So, what are you trying to do?"

"Keeping the church busy," Natha shrugged as if it was obvious. I tilted my head to show confusion, and he laughed before fortunately elaborating. "Rather than trying to prevent them from searching for you--which is impossible in the first place--we should make them busier by throwing all kinds of fake leads."

"Fake leads?" my eyes narrowed as my brain was trying to work. "Umm...you mean like making a false report of sighting or having someone disguise as me?"

"Yes, Young Master."

"That way, we can even control where they will cast their eyes," Natha patted my head in praise, with a wink as a bonus. "And while they are following the fake leads, you can search the ruins in the opposite directions."

"Oh--Oh!" I held Shwa’s tiny hands and clapped using them. "Oh, but--what about the mercenary that Heraz killed?"

I mean...wouldn’t they suspect something if the person who gave them information found out dead right after? Not that I would blame Heraz, since it was imperative for us to get rid of the main eyewitness.

Oh, look at me acting nonchalant about someone’s death. Welcome to the dark side, Valen.

Natha tilted his head and put on his usual Lord face. The cold and stern one. I enjoyed it, but I protected my son’s innocence by picking him up and putting him over my chest and shoulder for post-meal burping. But his head swiveled toward Natha still even while laying on my shoulder.

Curiouser and curiouser.

"Surely, you didn’t make it look suspicious?"

"Surely not, my Lord," Heraz replied swiftly. "The man died during a brawl at the pub he visited after receiving reward money from the church."

Natha turned toward me. "All things considered, it seems natural enough."

"Whoa..." I patted my baby’s back in a clapping rhythm, and he laughed merrily in response before finally letting out a burp.

"As for the details itself," Natha chuckled for a second before resuming his business face as he faced Heraz again. "I’m sure you can take care of the rest."

"By your command."

"You may leave."

"Yes, my Lord."

"Oh, Heraz!" I stopped him before he shifted back to disappear, and he halted his movement as if frozen in place. "Can you tell Tsalinade to make more of those teleportation scrolls?"

His head was bowed and covered by the hood of his cloak, but for some reason, I could sense his iridescent eyes flashing. "Certainly, Young Master," his voice dipped lower than usual. "I’ll get her to make enough for you to use for the whole year."

"You don’t need to go that far, but...do what you want."

Well...it wasn’t like I particularly had any pity for her.

"By your command."

With that fiery (?) response, he scooted back for a few steps and disappeared with the morning breeze. I wondered if a shapeshifter could shift into something intangible like wind or fog or something like that. You know, like a druid’s elemental transformation.

Natha leaned toward me and asked curiously. "Does he have a grudge against that magician or something?"

"Oh, I told him that the first time I arrived at that island, the teleportation scroll sent us to the lake.

It’s not the deep part, though, only at the side, but..." I paused when I caught his expression, moving my hand to cover my baby’s eyes. "Nat"

My dearest husband let out a low, grim chuckle that did not match the beautiful morning air. "I can’t wait to see this magician next time."

Poor Tsalinade--anyway...

"Shwa, you can’t laugh like that, okay?" I faced my blinking son and stared at the green eyes keenly. "Laugh gracefully, m’kay?"

"One’s need an appropriate amount of scare factor, sweetheart," Natha defended himself with a pout.

"You’re overflowing with it," I rolled my eyes.

"Does it affect you?"

"Well, no."

"Then it’s fine," he shrugged and leaned on my shoulder, despite sitting on a different chair.

Pfft--and you acted so cool and dignified earlier. It was funny thinking that this clingy demon was the one who made Heraz feel like he was facing a guillotine earlier.

It was cute, but--I looked at Shwa again and whispered. "You still can’t follow him, okay?"

"Heh,"

While Natha was laughing, the children I sent out earlier returned with even more energy. "Jade is changed!" the little boy twirled and threw Shiny in the air. "Shiny take a bath too!"

The mole rolled in the air and made a perfect landing on one of the balcony chairs while Jade climbed to Natha’s lap as if it was his throne--since mine was occupied by the Supreme Lord Navardhi.

"Now Jade is hungry!" he struck Natha’s armrests and as if being summoned by the cry for food, the servants arrived with our breakfast, Jade’s jellies, and Shiny’s seafood. "Oh, the breakfast here!"

Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t eat yet because Shwa was getting drowsy after his second breakfast, and he would get fussy if I handed him over to someone else during this time. Better to wait until he fell asleep completely before lying him down in the portable bassinet.

Natha would usually feed me, but it was better to concentrate on putting Shwa to sleep without any distractions. I couldn’t really eat while constantly swaying my baby and muttering a quiet lullaby.

Stroking the short dark hair to help Shwa fall asleep faster, Natha whispered. "Does he still cry if you go out of sight?"

I glanced at him, catching the restless gaze inside the silver eyes. He talked sweet and all, but it was clear that he was getting frustrated and impatient. Well, I couldn’t blame him since it was supposed to be our anniversary. And yet, after not seeing each other for ten days, we still couldn’t be alone for even a minute after I returned.

Hmm...such was the life of parenthood, wasn’t it?

"We can test it later," I replied while holding back my laughter. "Or...we can just sneak out when he’s asleep."

Shwa usually did not wake up by anything before his scheduled nap time was over. It was only because I had gone for too long that he became sensitive and made a fuss when he stopped feeling my body warmth or my mana closely--even when he was asleep.

But since we had already managed to put him in our bed--which had my scent on it--it wouldn’t be a problem anymore...right?

The silver eyes narrowed. "Can you really?"

"Certainly, I can tip-toe around--"

"Not that," he leaned closer and whispered even more quietly. "Can you really hold back just going away for three hours?"

Ugh...can I?