The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 693: The first step of a battle is to dress well

After ending the projection call with Ignis, I spent the rest of the morning with Shwa, squeezing his cheeks while checking the communication orb every now and then in case Natha made contact.

Actually, it was more like waiting and wishing for his call together with his son.

Haa...I was holding on to his words, but it was hard to keep calm when anything could happen before the auction. At this point, the auction was not important anymore, but the invitation to the Grand Church.

The priest who conveyed the invitation did not mention the reason why they wanted to invite the Hero--just that the church’s executive wanted to meet him. In a nice, ideal, unsuspecting world, it wouldn’t be weird for a religious leader to desire a meeting with someone chosen by their Goddess.

But, well...this world--and especially that church--was nowhere near ideal.

Since we already decided that Jin should make a request to see the relic no matter what, a conflict was most likely to arise. After all, we had no intention to play nice with the church the moment we saw the last relic. We already knew the church would never auction it for real, so the only thing we could do was snatch the relic the first chance we got.

Of course, the best-case scenario would be the church willingly letting the Hero have the relic, but...why the need to bait with a grand auction in that case? They could just send a priest from the local church in that last auction when they heard the rumor about Jin looking for a relic.

Hell--they could send the aristocrat in Dailamy to talk to Jin instead of sending mercenaries to steal it.

So, no--peaceful cooperation did not seem to be an option here.

Also...honestly? I didn’t want that.

As much as I wanted my friends to stay safe, there was no way I would want a peaceful conclusion with an organization that killed our parents, orchestrated an attack and annihilation of the Druid royal family, was massively racist, and let innocent people die for the greed of their so-called ’devotees’.

No. A peaceful conclusion was never an option. I’d rather have a justification for an attack, even if I had to be painted as a villain or a traitor to humanity.

Whatever. I wouldn’t stay in the Human Realm anyway.

That was why, a contingency plan needed to be made.

Phew...

I exhaled slowly after placing my sleeping baby in his cot. After taking a hearty lunch despite my lack of appetite, I returned to the master bedroom and once again checked the communication orb.

There was a call, but unfortunately, not from Natha.

[We’re about to head to the Grand Church now] Zarfa gave a report through the communication orb instead of Ignis. [The road is congested because of the grand auction tonight, so it will probably take us nearly an hour just to reach there]

"Okay. Just remember to make them show you the relic, Jin. Make sure it’s authentic."

[I will]

"Ignis, can you show me their projection without other people knowing?"

[In that case, only what my eyes could see]

It was rather weird hearing the Salamander’s voice through the orb, so I chuckled subconsciously. "What about the voice?"

[No problem]

"Okay," I let out a relieved sigh. "In that case, if they call Jin separately later, please go with him."

[Oh! A CCTV!] Aina exclaimed while clapping her hands.

[What’s that?]

[A...uhh...security measure?]

"Yes. It’s a security measure. We need to send our strongest troop to where the relic is," I added as a bonus. I didn’t think they would try to kill the others, and I believed they would be able to hold on and escape if they worked together--especially because they had worked hard to memorize the layout of the Grand Church--including the good places to hide.

On the other hand, Jin might be the strongest. But sometimes, it was not quality that we needed, but quantity.

Wasn’t that why solo protagonists usually had magical pets or otherwordly creatures as subordinates? No ’lone’ protagonist was ever truly ’alone’ in any story.

At least, I hadn’t found one.

[Oh, well...] Ignis cleared its Salamander throat after hearing the praise, and the group cut the call with a sound of laughter and giggles.

Perhaps the last one we could have before everything was over.

I took a deep breath and walked to the window, cupping my hands around my mouth as I whistled to the wind. A soft sound of flapping wings rushed toward me. A little bird perched on the windowsill and placed one of its legs over my palm. Skillfully, it drew some druid runes on my palm, and once it was done, the rune glowed for a few seconds and a scroll unfurled in my hand.

I read it carefully and saw the seal as well as signatures from an elf and a drow in the middle of the circular lettering.

"Good," I rolled the scroll again and carefully put it inside my sealed storage ring. "At least this one is right on time."

I stroked the bird and sent it back with a snack of purified mana. Hopefully, Jade wouldn’t find out or I wouldn’t hear the end of his jealousy.

"Papa!"

Mother gracious! I flinched slightly and turned around with a big smile. "What’s up, Jade?"

He didn’t find out, right?

"What Papa doing?" Jade ran toward me and jumped into my arms with a smile. "Papa not downstairs, so Jade miss Papa."

Oh, phew. "I’m going to get ready."

"Get ready?" Jade tilted his head adorably.

"Mm," I nodded, taking the boy and the mole with me to the dressing room. "We’re going to go somewhere pretty soon, so wouldn’t it better to look our best?"

"Jade dress to look best every time," Jade nodded. "Arta say so."

"Indeed," I laughed and pinched his cheek, before putting him down on the chair in the dressing room. "Okay, wait here. I have to choose my battle dress."

After all, I was going as the representative of the children of nature. Surely, I couldn’t just use my usual outfit. There would be no need to pretend to be a human adventurer, so might as well look like a royal, don’t you think?

A royal marching to a war.

Yes, that’s right. I wore a luxurious light green tunic and fastened it with a dark brown leather corset. Lastly...I gripped the deep blue cloak with golden embroidery that I should have worn for Shwa’s naming ceremony banquet--the banquet that we had to cancel.

"Papa, that’s pretty! Like Jade’s!"

I chuckled and wore it in the end. Right--it had the same color as the clothing artifacts. Now that I thought about it...I hadn’t had the chance to use them, right?

Anyway, the cloak was originally worn without any arm’s accessory, but I was going to war, not a banquet, so I put on a pair of arm bracers and my best boots. I was thinking about wearing a pair of gloves too, but...

Nah. I didn’t want to cover my wedding oath.

"Papa, look!" when I finished changing, Jade had already taken off the clothes he wore in the morning, and wore the outfit coming from the clothing artifact. "We’re the same!"

I smiled and squeezed his adorable cheeks, before planting a lot of kisses there. Unfortunately, I would have to break his heart slightly.

"Jade," I whispered, even though there were only the three of us there. "You’ll have to stay in a bird form later."

"Oh..." the little boy sighed and pursed his lips in disappointment. Surprisingly, however, he perked up and leaned down to whisper, as if understanding something. "Papa want Jade in full power?"

Oh, what a smart child. "Yes, baby," I nodded. I’m going to go as a royalty, so you have to go as a mighty elemental bird."

Jade gasped and clasped his mouth. Seeing the sparkling green eyes, I knew this diva loved that very much. He nodded while hugging my neck. "Okay! Jade will look grow up!"

I laughed and hugged him back. He was nowhere near growing up, but compared to the little bird form, his real juvenile form would indeed look like a grown-up version of him.

Still nowhere near the mature elemental birds on top of the Lair, however.

"But wearing this is good," I nodded in approval. "You wouldn’t need it when you changed anyway."

"Ung!"

I ruffled his hair and rang the bell so the nanny could bring Shwa to my bedroom. There was no way I would go anywhere without saying goodbye to my baby. He was still having his post-meal nap, but I peppered him kisses until he squirmed and woke up while giggling.

I felt bad for the nannies who would have a hard time later, but oh, well... freewebnøvel.coɱ

While I was blowing raspberries on his belly, I heard Ignis’s voice in my head. "It’s starting."

"Shwa," I pinched my baby’s cheek while glancing at the flame projection in front of me. "Would you like to watch a show?"