The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 162: Sometimes, you can find your calling while throwing up

Chapter 162: Sometimes, you can find your calling while throwing up

The sick children and a few adults were being gathered in the village clinic, filling all the rooms and sick beds available. Now that they were being rounded up, it was apparent that the numbers were pretty alarming.

Fifteen demons were sick and eleven of them confirmed to get it from polluted mana.

"If I’m more proficient, I’ll be able to purify them directly," I muttered while looking at the seven children that got afflicted.

While it wasn’t severe, and only caused them fever and headache and made them feel lethargic, it still saddened me to see them laying down with a pale complexion like that. It reminded me of the children’s ward even more, and all the bad memories that surfaced because of it.

It would be nice if I was good enough to purify someone’s mana, but as I was not a full druid, purifying the environment was my limit. But at the very least, with better mana in the environment, it would hasten their recovery, and prevent similar symptoms in the future--well, until the pollution got bad again.

But unlike the realm of nature, in which the very residents breathed mana, there wasn’t much magical activity happening daily in demon realms, so they should be fine for a long time.

I did it twice, inside the village medical hall and at the small plaza, in the center of the village. Because of the location, I had to do it while being watched by the other villagers, as well as the officials of Lu’ann. By the time I finished and let the purified mana scatter through the air, the Mayor was there too.

The moment I opened my eyes and exhaled, Arta draped a coat on my shoulder and Opti gave me a steaming mug of herbal drink. Through my peripheral vision, I could see Caba securing the space around me to prevent the villagers from coming too close.

"Are you alright, Young Master?" Lesta asked.

"Mm, it’s just light pollution here, I think it’ll be fine even if I don’t let it out," I nodded, pulling on the coat to wear them properly. My body got heated up when I did the purifying, so it was uncomfortable wearing warm clothing. Now, though, as the mana got dispersed, I felt chill again. "Even if I let it stay in my system, it’ll just get digested natura--"

"No!"

Three demons almost yelled at me in unison, making me and Jade flinch together. Arta, who was still standing behind me, gripped my upper arms and hissed.

"What are you even talking about, Young Master?! It’s poison, poison!"

Ugh--you don’t have to yell?? But it was really minuscule, though. It was only a tad bit higher than the normal environment in Lu’ann or the Lord Castle.

"Young Master, do you know it’s bad to hold yourself from peeing?" Opti tilted his head, looking at me from below with a serious face that felt weird coming out of a boy’s face.

"Well...yeah, I know, but--"

"It’s the same thing! Not spit it out."

[Spit!] the little bird in my shoulder chirped in unison, jumping up excitedly. It didn’t know what happened or why these demons suddenly scolded me, but Jade thought it seemed fun.

"I don’t have to spit, geez--" I took a deep breath and raised my index finger. A tiny blob of condensed pollution the size of red beans was there. "At this level, I can just let it out like this."

"Hup!"

Swiftly, Lesta snatched the blob of filth with his hand, and his palm was sizzling just like Natha’s this morning.

"Oh...you can do that too?" I saw the dark blob disintegrate into nothingness.

Opti scoffed at my reaction. "He’s the Lord’s protege, of course he should know how to."

Was a molecular disintegration spell something like a martial art teaching that could only be taught to a disciple or something?

"Are you done, sweetheart?"

We heard Natha’s voice then, and Arta shifted from my back swiftly. Her hands on my upper arms were replaced by a cold touch. I looked up and nodded with a smile. "Mm! Let’s go to the next place."

"You’re sure you’re okay?" Natha rubbed my arms and shoulder, observing my complexion keenly.

"Yep," again, I nodded and clutched his hands. "This place is light work because it’s the furthest from the source," I turned around so I could face him better, stepping closer and speaking at a lower volume. "I’m worried about the forest villagers."

"Haa...alright," Natha sighed and put his hand on my waist. "It’ll be too long if we use the carriage, so let’s just go together, both of us."

[Jade too! It’s three!] my little bird chirped loudly and jumped atop my shoulder. Of course, Natha just ignored the bird and looked at his staff.

"The rest of you, go straight to the last village."

"Yes, Sir!"

"By your command,"

The Mayor, who I forgot was already here, bowed slightly. "We shall dispatch the medicine to each residential area now."

Oh yeah, right--there was that too. They still needed specialized medicine to get rid of the contamination inside their mana stream. If it left for too long, it could coagulate and block their mana vein, kind of like me--especially for the children. Kind of like me, although instead of blocked mana gates, the one that got blocked in their case would be the mana vein, like an aneurysm.

"Good," Natha gripped my waist tighter, and Jade clawed into my coat harder, curling its wings together. "Let’s go, sweetheart."

[Jade too!] the little bird insisted.

Finally, the Demon Lord responded. "Fine, you too."

Holding into Natha’s coat and the bundle of feathers tightly, I let out a laugh as black feathers surrounded me.

* * *

Thanks to Natha’s teleportation, we move very efficiently. We arrived, Natha rounded up those who were sick, and Jade helped strengthen my circuit for prolonged use. But after the third village, we didn’t bother with collecting the sick anymore, because it took up too much time, and just went straight to the purification.

There were two smaller towns in the region, and thanks to the wonder of communication orbs, by the time we got there, they were already gathering the sick and identifying the place that got contaminated through the magicians. I purified four points in the first town and three in the second town.

It still wasn’t hard though. Different from the villages, the building in towns and cities were usually made by mixing materials that were naturally good at absorbing or dispersing bad mana, so the contamination wasn’t that bad. It was just my range couldn’t envelop the whole area, so I had to do it several times.

By the time we arrived in that forest village, it was already night. The other staff were already there, and a roaring fire had been lit at the center of the village.

Was it because they lived in the forest? The place felt different than the other villages. The houses were built around the trees, and they felt like how I imagined forest elf or fairy in fantasy stories. Just like the representative that told Natha about the ill villagers, they all had paler complexion than other demons, and more delicate features.

"They were mixed-race, or at least their ancestor was," Natha told me when he caught my intrigued gaze. "Of demons and those from the realm of nature."

Natha told me that the original dwellers were the descendant of those mixed-race, and the village grew as they accepted other mixed-race demons who came there. The ritual was part of the autumn leaves festival where they welcomed the newcomer this year.

Perhaps because they had the blood of my kin, there was a lot of magical activity here, including the one caused by the ritual. So it wasn’t just because their location was close to the mayhem of that storm cloud.

"Do you think the mana havoc had something to do with them?" I whispered to Natha before we walked closer to the fire.

"We’re investigating it," replied him, and we stopped talking about it after.

It seemed like the villagers had been warned, so they stayed outside of the plaza, while the sick demons were laid around the fire.

Ugh...now it felt like I was going to exorcise them or something.

But, there was indeed persistent contamination that clung to the sick demons’ skin, trying to penetrate the epidermis into their mana streams. They looked significantly sicker; ashen faces, high fevers, trembling limbs.

"Almost like you," Natha said as I took my coat off.

"Huh?" I tilted my head while handing my coat to Arta.

"When I took you the first time, you were like this," he muttered, staring at the groaning demons. "But worse."

"...I was?"

"They weren’t skin and bone yet," his voice was cold, just like when he was angry.

"Eyy--don’t exaggerate."

"I’m not," he looked at me with a slight frown, and I pressed my lips.

I mean...well, sure; my joints were constantly creaking, I was in so much pain that my stomach couldn’t receive food and I had no strength because of it. Was my hands trembling too? Maybe...but I could still sign some papers, so...not too bad, I guess? Just like my slightly worse days on Earth.

"I wasn’t skin and bone," I pursed my lips, and proceeded to stomp my way toward the huge fire.

Did I look that miserable before? Surely I wasn’t that pathetic? Did he perhaps agree to help me so quickly out of pity, not just because he loved Valmeier?

Oh, what did it matter now?

I took a deep breath and looked at the demons again. If what Natha said was true, then I could understand their pain even more now, which was why I had to do this better. I was quite tired after going around the place, but I knew if I showed it even just a little bit, Natha would stop me from doing this now. He’d told me to wait until tomorrow or the next day, and that would just prolong their misery.

So I quietly told Jade to coat my circuit as usual, and started to absorb the surrounding mana.

My, my...it was quite rough. Not as bad as the mana havoc, but definitely worse than the air I purified inside the barrier the first time. A lot of mana in the air meant a lot more contamination, and because I was tired, it took longer to purify the whole place, as well as the surrounding forest. I persisted and kept doing it at my maximum area of capacity.

That persistence rewarded me with another black tar vomit.