The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 683: When you thought you were done with your work, but you get a surprise extra time

Chapter 683: When you thought you were done with your work, but you get a surprise extra time

As you know, even when the Primordial One was still around, the three races were not necessarily lived in peace. As long as there were people, conflicts were bound to arise.

I mean...even Natha and I had conflicts sometimes.

Conflicts were inevitable, but it was possible to be managed. That was why we had order in this world; we had justice systems; we had laws. The decision to never escalate conflict to the point of war was one of them.

This desire, when I thought about it, was probably affected by the three deities’ own habit of bickering among themselves. Each of them had their own personality and way of life, and sometimes, it clashed. But just like how the tears of the gods could become the sea and flood the world, the fun sibling fights could be a full-fledged animosity as it trickled down the world of mortals.

This was why neutral forces were born. The Sacred Guardians.

Unfortunately, even the existence of Sacred Guardians could not fully contend with the chaos that happened after so much negative energy piled up. After all, even the Primordial One could not take it anymore. In the end, chaos engulfed the world and only stopped after half the population was wiped out and several Sacred Guardians had fallen.

The three deities decided that separating the three realms would be the best solution, and for that, they gathered representatives from each race to make a ’peace’ agreement. ƒгeewebnovёl.com

Or so it was called.

In truth, without any effort in consolidation, it was more of a forced armistice. The hex inside the pledge prevented them from declaring war, but it was more like a brewing poison than a medicine. The tension was still there, and after centuries, the seal of the Old Covenant was weakened.

As proof, people started to forget about the Covenant. The importance of it was eroded by time, and only a few remembered the calamity of the Great Disappearance. A few efforts to renew the Covenant had been made, but in the end, without building any good relationship, even gathering the representatives was a tall order.

And once they gathered? Rather than achieving agreement, they seemed to be more eager for war instead.

So much so that some even tried to erase the patron deity’s existence so they could have that war.

If we wanted to keep these people on their border and not invade each other, the Covenant had to be re-established. Preferably, with continuous efforts in tension de-escalation until one day, borders could be opened legally, and an exchange of civilians was possible.

At least, that was what the Secret Society of Remembrance wanted to achieve. Something even they knew was impossible. As time went by, the members died and dwindled, and the hope of such peace kept getting buried.

That was, until one of the last remaining members received a call from her great-grandnephew.

* * *

I received a two-hour history lesson from Aunt Nezja about the origin of the Old Covenant, including that...what was it called again? The Secret Society of Remembrance?

It kind of sounds like a veteran therapy group, but okay.

Natha was not kidding when he said he was in a hurry. Without wasting more time, he immediately gathered his vassals and gave them instructions. He gave Jade, Shwa, and me a forehead kiss each--in that order--before doubling down on my lips and disappearing.

In his place, about an hour later, Aunt Nezja had come to give me a more detailed explanation of this Old Covenant thing.

What a whirlwind of a day.

But, wow--oh, wow! Our Aunt Nezja was a part of this! Wow!

I wondered if that was also the reason why the Spectri felt so threatened about Natha’s existence. Someone with an alpha seed was the one who could become the representative of the demon, and...I had only known them for a ti~ny bit, but I knew they would be the type to advocate for war. I had a feeling that if it wasn’t for the lust demon being too many to subdue, they would already push the decision to invade the human realm.

Naturally, they wouldn’t want the Old Covenant to be re-established.

"The possibility had been low from the start, but..." Aunt Nezja sighed. "When the druid kingdom fell and they lost their race token, we lost our hope altogether."

It wasn’t only about the lost Heart of the Forest--the invasion against the druid kingdom also meant the Old Covenant had been truly breached. It was natural for the people who had been advocating for its re-establishment to feel devastated.

"I always knew Natha did not want to be a King, and I didn’t think anyone else could be a King for the next hundred years," she smiled wryly. "Besides...our family was prosecuted because of his potential. It was so hurtful that I stepped back from the Society altogether."

My Lord...you really were a protagonist with this much lore behind you.

"Shamefully, I had to admit that I was also thinking about giving up at that time," she said. "But then..."

She looked at me and smiled, which admittedly made me blush a little bit.

"When I heard about you, I thought we might have a little bit of hope."

I tilted my head. "But the Heart of the Forest was still lost?"

"No, it’s not about the Old Covenant," she shook her head. "It’s more about the spirit behind it."

"Ah..."

She leaned down and stroked the blinking baby in my arms. "Who would have thought that we could have someone with the blood of three races running in his veins?"

"Uaah!"

"This child is living proof that harmony between three races is possible," she tickled Shwa’s tummy until he laughed, before looking up at me with a smile. "And it seems that the flicker of hope had triggered a spark."

Of course, none of us was actually a legit representative yet. I hadn’t received an agreement from the elven Saintess and the underground city council. Natha had yet to receive the Sloth’s key. And, well...whoever it was from the human side couldn’t be a representative before we found the Goddess.

Still, it was probably the biggest development ever since the Great Disappearance. Aunt Nezja said we had never come this close to actually gathering the representative without any animosity against each other.

And to think it was all unroll because I was trying to get my son’s full custody...

I looked at Shwa, who was smiling innocently bright. For me, he was only proof of our love, but...what Aunt Nezja said also didn’t sound bad.

* * *

But this meant Natha would be home until who knew that long. I was sure he would come before the plan to attack the church, with or without the key, but we had no idea how long it would take for him to wake up the Lord of Sloth. Not even Natha knew. Hell--not even the staff working for Sloth knew.

And so, I had to receive the reports from the human realm alone. The vassals could run the territory well on their own, while Lesta and Eruha made sure the war preparation was done as scheduled. But no one truly understood what happened on the human realm’s side except for me and Natha, so, if there was any decision to be made over there, it would fall on my hand.

How thrilling and scary.

Naturally, I told Zarfa about this Old Covenant thing. I had no idea who would have taken the mantle of the human representative, but the Hero seemed to be the most likely candidate, so Jin needed to know about this. In a way, I was extending the invitation for the next gathering and commanded him to tick the RSVP box.

Oh--but I didn’t tell anyone about the Heart of the Forest, except for Ceci.

Anyway, the group was still on the road, so nothing interesting happened to them. If anything, their journey felt so much smoother than usual, and we came to a conjecture that the church agents were probably tasked to make the Hero arrive in the Holy Empire without a hitch, right on time before the auction stopped.

I mean, if their objective was to bait the Hero, the auction wouldn’t start without him, right? But it would be suspicious if the Hero was late and they delayed the auction.

On the other hand, the magician’s group who should arrived at the Holy Empire--or at least at the magic tower in Vulken--disappeared from the radar. Sore reported that several people who seemed to be the church agents had been visiting Vulken’s magic tower to check the situation and calling the other magic tower.

But of course, the other magic tower did not receive any message. The bird carrier was caught by the shapeshifters and the communication orb’s signal was disturbed by Tsalinade. That was why they decided to go around and go through the difficult path instead of waiting.

Hmm...I wondered what they would do with the auction if ’Valmeier’ couldn’t get there before then.

As I was wondering about that, Sore suddenly received an update from Midas’s agent. It was news from the member who infiltrated the auction house. I waited curiously until Sore got the report in full before relaying it to me.

[Young Master, it seems like something suspicious is happening in the auction house]