The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 728: Never thought my husband would pull a movie trick

"Natha, this is like a flying carriage in Natha’s place!" Jade excitedly pressed his face into the helicopter’s window, screaming to beat the propeller sound. "But faster!"

"Faster..." Ignis grumbled on my shoulder, tail circling tightly around my upper arms. "What’s the use of going faster?"

Shiny was still in the middle of deciding whether or not it liked the noisy flying carriage, but seemed to be in favor since it didn’t feel as windy as flying with Vrida. Shwa, meanwhile, was having a time of his life.

"Mwaah! Gaah!" the tiny hands slammed onto the window, as if he wanted to break it and jumped out, exploring the sky. I had to put all my strength into holding him tightly, ignoring all the safety precautions that a helicopter should have.

Oh, who cares? It was magic anyway.

"He’ll ask to fly with the wyvern soon," Natha chuckled at our adventure junkie son. I guessed Shwa was his daddy’s son after all.

"We can take him as soon as he can sit by himself," I pulled Shwa back from the window, and fortunately, he wasn’t rebelling. But he looked up and patted my arms aggressively in question.

Natha answered it for me instead. "No, baby. You can’t do it now. If you want to do it soon, then you have to sit and crawl quickly."

Shwa puffed his cheeks in disappointment, which only made him look cuter. Ah...this was why parents loved teasing their kids.

"It’s okay, Shwa! Jade can fly quick when Jade born," the little boy gave a piece of not-very-useful advice, but he tried...I guess.

"Aah! Waah!"

"Yes, yes--of course you can do it, baby~" I leaned down and kissed his puffed cheek while laughing. "You’re a genius! You can belly crawl already, can’t you?"

"Bwaah!"

Our energized son raised his fists in the air, filling the helicopter with cheerful screams and shrieks that might make other people annoyed if we were on a commercial plane. But we didn’t, so we encouraged him to do more until the helicopter slowed down and gradually lowered in front of a tall building.

Hmm...how should I say this? The palace...might look like a palace if we weren’t in the middle of a futuristic metropolis. With all these skyscrapers, the place looked like a museum or a congress building--something like that.

Of course, without any rope barrier or ticket box in front.

It was weird that a bustling, seemingly active city had no one around. But then again, I guessed everything was just an illusion. If it was a soul space, the Demon God might be able to put some illusion of demons living there, but the Sanctuary was still a space between astral and physical, so he would need a real, physical body to make a living illusion--or so D’Ara told me.

The question remained: why did he make the Sanctuary like this?

As much as it was fascinating at first--maybe funny--I couldn’t help but feel suspicious. I knew An’Hyang had some kind of fascination with Earth--or something resembling it--with how he kept making coffee shop and stuff when he met me, but...that was inside my soul space--someone who was actually from there.

Natha said the Sanctuary didn’t look like this before. Granted, it was already...what? Seventy years ago? Anyway, it was possible that he truly took a fancy to the world where he sent Natha into and developed this place based on that afterward.

Maybe. I had no idea. I had grown too much suspicion to have a positive outlook on him.

"Please follow me," the pilot gestured politely. I wondered if he was a real demon or An’Hyang’s offshoot.

Eh--not the time to think about that.

We followed the demon inside the...palace, and the inside was honestly just like what you would think of a palace. Tall pillars, intricate ornaments, beautiful details, velvet drapery, carpeted floor--forgive my lack of description, I was busy being vigilant. Perhaps because they felt my emotions, Jade and Shiny also didn’t make any noise.

Even Shwa was calm, as if he had let out all of his excess energy with all the screams inside the helicopter.

"This place does not change," Natha told me after we went through what seemed like the Grand Hall and climbed the Grand Stairs.

"Oh?"

"I think the palace is the King’s prerogative," Natha told me.

Ah, right. The King hadn’t changed since he was summoned the last time. Suddenly, something I had been curious about popped up, and even though I knew this wasn’t the right place to ask about it, I did anyway.

"Nat, why would someone want to be a Demon King?" I asked quietly. "I mean...the King had to stay here, isolated from the whole realm. People revere him, but he’s not really there with them...is he?"

It was just a baffling concept, perhaps because the sovereigns I saw so far were mostly the type who got satisfaction from people praising and worshiping them. You know, that delicious gulp of power over a large number of people. The rest of them, the small section who sincerely wanted to lead their people in the right direction was...well, still needed to be in the middle of people, no? Heroes could only be heroes if there were people to be saved, but...

What about the Demon King, then?

"Hmm...I wondered if it’s possible to tell you the truth?" Natha tilted his head. He glanced at the demon walking in front of us, who hadn’t made any reaction so far--even when Shwa was being extra loud earlier.

"So it’s a secret?"

"It’s something that only the Lords know about," Natha said. "The information came with the Lord’s key, and we couldn’t tell anyone who had never touched the key."

"Oh?" I raised my brow. "Can I hear it if I touch the key, then?"

I reached out and held his hand, trailing my fingers to the cuff circling his wrist; the proof of the Candidate. It glowed slightly, along with the blue pattern on Natha’s skin.

"There," I grinned. "I touched the key--keys, even."

Natha blinked twice, before laughing out loud and putting the kids in confusion.

"Let’s try," Natha nodded.

If I wasn’t allowed to hear it, then it would probably be censored as usual, just like the information about Primordial Seed in the past. I nodded, telling Natha that I was ready for any effect as I roused my rejuvenation mana. The answer, however, almost made me choke.

"The King will be the next Demon God."

"...what?!"

"Oh, seems like you hear it just fine," Natha chuckled.

Not the kind of stuff I expected to hear, though. "What do you mean by the next Demon God?"

"Well, it’s not my place to question why Lord An’Hyang wants someone to take his place, but it’s not happening right away," Natha explained further. "At any rate, the one who is the King when Lord An’Hyang decides to leave the realm will take His place."

"Huh..."

"Even if an eligible Candidate appears, it’s only a challenge. If the King manages to overcome that challenge, the King will stay as the King," Natha continued. "Naturally, the King’s objective is to stay as a King until the Day comes."

"Uhh...like an Advent Day...or something?"

Natha merely smiled, prompting me to fall into a deep thought. This was the first time I heard a deity wanted to...retire, for a lack of better word. But then again, An’Hyang was the type of God who divided his power into keys and let the demons govern the realm by themselves with minimum intervention.

Hmm...if his fascination with other worlds were true, perhaps...

"Is he trying to leave this world so he can roam around the universe freely?" I tilted my head "Like...world hopping?"

"That’s..."

"That is correct."

We paused at the heavy voice I had only heard once before. Immediately, I hugged Shwa tightly, shielding him from any possible snatch action while looking around, trying to find out where the voice came from.

While talking about what was in store for the Demon King, we had unconsciously walked into what looked like a large reception room. And it was truly large, like a throne room--except that there was no throne, only a set of table and chairs in the middle of the huge room.

Stylistic choice?

But I couldn’t find anyone--wait, I couldn’t find the pilot either. Where did the demon go--since when? After observing the room closer, the place seemed to be covered in something, like it was isolated from the rest of the Sanctuary.

Ah--was this what Natha meant by the King’s prerogative?

Suddenly, Natha stepped closer to me--even though we were already side by side. I looked at the side then, and there was...umm...a kitchen? No, not a kitchen--just...you know when you come to a fancy restaurant and sometimes they would cook or finish the food beside the table before serving it? Something like that.

Ugh. Why was this Sanctuary so confusing? It wasn’t trippy, but I felt trippy.

Someone, a familiar demon I had only seen once before, was preparing something on that preparation table. He glanced at me and spoke dryly. "You don’t like me much, do you?"

"Would you, if you were me?" I barked, shielding Shwa’s head and ear--because I might cursed, who knows?

"Fair, I also can’t say I like your partner," the King remarked, sneering. "He’s threatening my position, after all."

I frowned even deeper, because it sounded like he could attack Natha anytime soon, and I did not like that a bit.

Natha, however, put Jade down beside me and stepped forward. He stood in front of us as if shielding us. "I might," Natha said. "Or I might not."

The King’s eyes twitched, and he turned to face Natha directly. I held Shwa and Jade close, telling them to grab my clothes.

"What do you want to say, Ra Natha?"

"A deal," Natha said quickly, raising my brows. "Why don’t we have a deal?"