The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 167: Just because it’s a fire, doesn’t mean the flag should be red!

Chapter 167: Just because it’s a fire, doesn’t mean the flag should be red!

"You can’t use magic."

"Okay,"

"Just follow me and don’t do anything."

"Okay,"

"If you--"

"Okay! I heard you, my Lord," I had to put my palm against his chest to stop him. I knew I brought this reaction myself, but damn...was he gonna be in helicopter mom mode the entire time?

I raised my other hand, the one that was still being held by him. "My hand is in yours anyway."

Like...literally.

"Hmm..."

His eyes narrowed and glinted under the harsh sun, and he intertwined our hands before lowering it and shifting his gaze to his subordinates.

Okay, so at least he had stopped the chiding train.

[Master, we go see Big Fire?] Jade asked quietly, just letting out a soft chirp instead of shouting like usual.

"Yes, we’re going to see Big Fire," I whispered back, grinning.

Natha, meanwhile, faced his vassals and started to give his order. "Lesta, pick a team and find out the burrows that the abyssal monsters use," he looked at the congregating market’s visitors that were now on standby, looking in our direction. "Take care of any remaining force you could find--you can hire the mercenaries here if you need more people."

"Yes, Sir."

Lesta nodded, and Natha hooked his finger to get the dark-skinned demon coming closer. "Look for any clue of the cause," he said quietly, in a voice that could only be heard by those two--and me who got chained to one of them.

"By your command," Lesta bowed and without wasting any time, proceeded to take some of the guards and walked toward the gathering of demons.

"Caba, Opti, you come with me," Natha told the two, and then looked at the merchants. "Is there a Pathfinder among you?"

Pathfinder was common among traveling mercenaries and merchants, especially those who traversed extreme fields like this place and the Farh’Eed mountain. And as expected, one of the merchants nodded. "My daughter is,"

"She’ll come with us," Natha said--ordered.

The merchant looked hesitant at first--after all, who would want to send their kid to a dangerous place? Even if it was the Lord’s order. But Opti patted the merchant’s back and said with a reassuring grin; "Don’t worry, we’ll keep her safe."

The father took a deep breath and nodded, bowing slightly before running in the direction of the colorful tents to call for his daughter.

Finally, while fixing my coat and hood, Natha gave his final order. "Arta, take care of things here."

"By your command,"

She turned back toward the airship with some of her staff, so I guessed we were going to camp here still. And then Natha pulled me gently toward one of the flying carriages, with Jade jumping on my shoulder and chirping energetically.

[Fire!!]

* * *

[FIREE!!]

How many times had I heard this along the way? And the volume was growing with the heat we felt the closer we were to the mountain. "Again, you sound like an arsonist, Jade."

[What arsenis?]

"People who deliberately set other’s things on fire,"

[Set things on fire bad?]

"Yes, you have to be careful when you’re handling fire," I warned the little bird again as Natha helped me climb a stone path.

[Jade no set things on fire!] The little bird nodded seriously while hovering ahead of me.

"Yes, you shouldn’t," I patted the little green head. "Good bird,"

Jade giggled and then perched back on my shoulder once I balanced my step again. We had been climbing one side of the mountain, following the Pathfinder girl. The goal, for now, was just to look for a trace and take a better vantage point.

"I think they came through the cave path, milord, straight inside the stomach of the mountain," the girl said.

"Using underground channels?"

"Yes," she nodded and added carefully; "I know a path leading there using a cave on the side of the mountain, Sir. Would you like to--"

"No, the Salamander is back at the main crater," I interjected, looking up at the steaming peak. All this while, the only thing I had been doing was trying to sense the legendary beast’s location.

It was why Jade had been shouting ’Fire!’ many times. Every time there was a blast of fire elemental inside the mountain, the little bird told us like an alarm. But just now, the blast was stopped, and the pulsing mana had ’swam’ back toward the main crater. From the fluid motion, it probably moved through the lava channel.

"Ah," the others followed my gaze and looked up. The steam and smoke from the peak had grown more intense now, as if agreeing with my statement.

I pulled Natha’s hand and tightened my grip on him. "Can we go over there?"

"To the Salamander?"

I nodded and shrugged. "Well...aren’t we here for that? To meet the Salamander?"

"No, we’re here because there’s a lot of fire source for you to absorb," Natha frowned, which almost got me to roll my eyes in exasperation.

Because...the best fire source was definitely up there? Why would I settle for lesser-quality elemental mana when the purer one was just--how high this thing was?--well, some hundreds of meters away! What about making me breathe less pollution?

Although, if I had to be honest...

I just wanted to see a legendary beast, hehe.

So I started to reason with him. "If I do that, the Salamander will still notice anyway, so might as well ask for permission, and..." I swung our interconnected hands and looked up with my best innocent eyes. "It’s just...if we help the Salamander, it might help me with controlling the fire, you know..."

Would it work? I blinked slowly, rubbing my thumb on the back of his hand. He stared at me in silence for a while before letting out a sigh.

A sign of concede--yeah!

"Opti, take the girl and go through the path she mentioned--don’t engage unnecessarily," he turned toward the others and started to give out tasks while looking all around the wall of dirt and rock in front of us. "Caba, go around the mountain and see if you can spot anything."

"By your command," the two vassals, as well as the girl, bent their waists while answering.

"Val--" he turned around, and before he could say any more warning like earlier, I reached out my arms like how I usually was when I ask for a hug.

But since he called me by a name, it got me pouting too, because it seemed like he was about to berate me again and I was tired of that.

He paused for two seconds before slipping his hand over my waist with a smile on his face. "Sweetheart,"

Oh, finally! He’d been putting on this stoic and scowling face since earlier. I was so missing his gentle gaze and soft smile. With a grin to show how pleased I was, I snuggled close to him as his black wings unfurled.

"Get inside the coat, kid, you can’t make a barrier yet," he warned Jade, who was still on my shoulder. Since we were going to the peak of the eternal flame, the little bird would need extra protection.

[Jade no kid!] the bird chirped in protest, but still proceeded to crawl into my bosom, hiding beneath the protective layer of the enchanted fabric.

"You never protest if he called you a child,"

[Master different!]

I giggled and relayed the message. "I’m different."

Natha shook his head exasperatedly, and I giggled some more while the wings enveloped us and whisked us away straight to the top of the mountain.

We landed not on the highest point, but straight inside the crater. The scenery was very fantastic; a pool of bright red lava was bubbling in front of us, tongues of flame dancing across its surface, and the rocks jutted out here and there looked as if there was a bright lamp inside of them.

"Whoaa..." I couldn’t help but exclaim.

Natha had landed us in the ’coolest’ part of the crater, but the heat was certainly still blasting into me, and it was only by the grace of my natural mana, as well as Natha’s protective layer of barrier that kept me from getting melted by the temperature.

[Whoaa] Jade followed my reaction, peeking out its green head from my coat. [Master...fire can be water?]

"Right--it’s liquid, so it seemed like a lake, right?" I laughed. We only ever played with the flame from the fireplace, so the concept of lava would be new for Jade. Well, technically, it was my first time seeing it with my own eyes too, so it was still very much unbelievable.

Not even being healthy would allow me this experience back on Earth.

[Weird! But pretty!]

"It’s pretty?" I was surprised at Jade’s reaction. I knew it would be weird for the bird because...how could fire act like water? But I never thought it would think of this hell-like scenery as ’pretty’.

But I realized why after Jade replied excitedly. [So much magic!]

"Ah, right," I nodded, looking around, and took a deep breath while at it. It wasn’t the hot air that coming inside, but almost pure elemental mana. It tasted even better than the air in the Lair. "There’s a lot of elemental mana here, this place must be nice for you," I chuckled and patted the green head that had now moved to hide behind my hood.

Natha, who had been observing me keenly since we arrived, finally spoke. "You’re alright?"

"Yeah, it’s not that bad," I nodded readily, smiling wide at how unexpectedly good I felt stepping into this space. I had thought it would be stifling--because of the heat and smoke and everything--but instead, I felt rather refreshed. "It was as if my body got rejuvenated every time I took a breath, and the clothes help a lot too."

He stroked my face and seemed to also reach a conclusion that I was actually looking better than ever, like every time after I ingested a drop of Amrita. "Good then," he nodded and breathed a sigh of relief. "Don’t forget--"

"I’ll tell you if it feels too much,"

He looked at me in silence, still stroking my face with anxious eyes. I stepped closer and hugged him, looking up with what I hoped translated as a confident gaze. "This time I really promise," I said, and tiptoed to kiss him briefly, before whispering again against his lips. "Promise."

The silver eyes narrowed, but he pulled me by my waist and kissed me again; short yet hard enough to make me gasp. The arms around my waist felt delightfully protective, and I would have kissed him some more if it wasn’t for a voice that suddenly interrupted us.

"Who are you?!"