The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 63: And so the hero did some hero-ing or whatever...

As usual, Heraz came before I went to bed, scooting outside the balcony door like some abandoned puppy as I came out of the bathroom.

"You can just let yourself inside next time," I told him while opening the balcony door.

Honestly, I’d rather have him inside beneath the light than see his hooded figure outside the window like some horror show.

"I wouldn’t dare," he said, coming inside while lowering his body.

Well, that was definitely in his character, with how he didn’t even raise his head when he talk to me. So I just sighed and sat in front of the fireplace while he relayed his report.

"Forgive me for taking too long," he started with an apology.

Of course, I had no idea how fast information gathering should be. In the first place, I had never given him any deadline. "You must have your reason," I feigned understanding and just replied with whatever.

"Yes. I need a few days to observe the church where you came from, Young Master,"

Oh? If he needed a few days, then it meant the church was still intact right? Were the bandits razing the place didn’t happen this time around?

"Does it have something to do with the hero?"

"Yes,"

"Alright, start from the beginning."

Heraz then proceeded to tell me how they initially lost track of the hero. But the one who was tasked to gather information about Valmeier’s church found out that the hero had been staying there all this while.

For some reason, the kingdom didn’t even think about searching for him there, probably already forgotten about the place a long time ago. It seemed like the hero also wasn’t a complete half-wit, since he managed to falsify his trace, and made his pursuer think he was running in the opposite direction.

Anyway, thanks to that, Heraz and his team didn’t have to divide their manpower for my request. From what they gathered, the hero was indeed trailing the Priest of Judgment’s past. The novel described that he was feeling lost and uncertain, and just wanted to see the ’home’ of the tragic ’hero’ Valmeier before continuing with his journey.

This time, because of Natha’s involvement in showing the truth to the Hero, he departed from the palace faster, and managed to arrive there before the bandit event happened.

"Were you...already knew that he would go to the church, Young Master?" Heraz asked carefully, finally glancing up at me from his position.

Hmm...how should I play this?

"Mm...I have an inkling," I answered light-heartedly, giving him an innocent smile while sipping on my herbal drink. "What happened after that you decided to give a report now? Did they get attacked or something?"

This time, I saw the iridescent eyes shake before they got lowered again. It felt like cheating, knowing future events somewhat. But it didn’t mean I couldn’t feel good about it.

Hiding my smile further, I listened to the rest of his report.

"Just as you said, four days ago, a group of kingdom knights found the church and tried to persuade the hero to come back, but he refused, and the knights attacked the church that very night."

Now, I felt relieved that my face was hidden behind the cup. Or should I say I felt more relieved that I didn’t end up spewing the herbal drink from shock?

"The kingdom knights?"

Now, now, this was totally different from the novel. I didn’t think I ever read or heard about the kingdom finding the hero in the church, ever. Why was it? I tapped on the armrest in contemplation, and Heraz took it as a signal for him to stop talking.

The kingdom should have looked for the hero in the opposite direction. The way to the mountain church was not a comfortable one to be threaded by a group of people in complete armor. These people must have been on a different mission initially.

Could it be...

"They are looking for me?"

Or rather, looking for Valmeier? In the novel, Valmeier was dead, so there was no reason for the kingdom to seek his trace anymore. But this time, I survived, taking the Spear of Judgment with me, and a witness to their rotten nature.

They would probably try to locate at least my corpse to have a hope of retrieving the Spear.

But instead of me, they found the hero.

"That’s correct, Young Master, they were looking for you. But when they spotted the hero, the palace gave them a different objective."

It was different from the novel, of course, but at least I knew why. I had neglected this, thinking that me being alive wouldn’t change anything. A naive thought, really.

Heraz proceeded to tell me about the hero’s fight, but I didn’t really care about his battle so I told him to skip it and put it in a written report instead.

Well, the gist of it was that the hero was hero-ing with his skills and whatnot, excellent, yes, yes, and managed to subdue the knights despite only being helped by a church boy and a blind nun who at least could cast a heal. Very protagonist. Much wow.

And then, in a dramatic turn of events, as the battle ended, a group of bandits came there to take advantage of the weakened people and took over the church.

I clapped in reflex when I heard about the bandit, just sheer joy of finding out that the novel’s event still happening nonetheless. It almost made me laugh, even, and while Jade looked at me in innocent confusion, Heraz looked kind of shocked at my reaction.

"Oh, don’t mind me, it’s just getting exciting, isn’t it? Please continue," I ordered him casually, covering my lips to prevent them from grinning.

Just like how it was with a protagonist in desperate situations, the hero seemed to receive a power-up as he battled the bandits to protect the blind nun and the church boy. I could only imagine what was going on inside that righteous mind—was he thinking that the two wouldn’t be in this danger if it wasn’t for him? Was he thinking that Valmeier would be able to protect them if the kingdom didn’t destroy him?

Perhaps. And perhaps it was right for him to have that thought.

The hero fought desperately, and gained enlightenment and skills from that, it seemed, just like in a game. As expected of the protagonist. It was also his first time killing another human, since he always killed demons before.

The bandit group was one thing, but killing the knights seemed to take a toll on his mental state. Perhaps he was thinking about how some of the knights were only there because of the order from above. Just like how Valmeier was being used in the war.

Whatever it was in his mind, the hero seemed to be quite depressed about it, and the church boy and the blind nun had to babysit him afterward—I didn’t know how accurate this was though, since these demons were quite biased when it came to the hero and the kingdom.

Anyway, since the church was badly damaged—just like in the novel—the three of them decided to move away, crossing the border to avoid further encounters with the kingdom’s knights.

"We still assigned someone to trail them, Young Master, so we’ll be giving you regular reports about their situation," Heraz ended his report with that.

Well...it seemed that despite changes in the details here and there, the event was still more or less going in the direction depicted in the novel. I was quite shocked when I heard the hero departed from the palace some time ago, but then he ended up spending time in the church until the event.

I had no idea how much him staying there would affect the story, or the fact he killed the kingdom knights that pursuing him. From the way Heraz described the hero’s emotional state, it seemed like the event would bring quite a change to the hero’s development.

Well, it didn’t matter to me.

What mattered was that I didn’t have to worry too much about things deviating too far. Although...that would mean that the hero coming here was also an inevitable thing. Seeing the progression, though, there was still a lot of time before it happened.

Which meant, I didn’t have to be hasty and could proceed with my training at an easier pace without worrying about having a hero suddenly burglarizing my new home.

"Alright, thank you for your hard work," I let out a sigh of relief and called Jade over for a nightcap.

"It’s nothing, Young Master," he answered humbly like usual. I thought he would immediately disappear like last time, but he stayed there for a while as if contemplating something before adding as I stood up. "The boy and the old lady are quite strong, so you don’t have to worry about them."

I paused and looked at him blankly. Oh...it seemed like he thought I was worried about those two, probably because I requested him to investigate the church situation last time. It was also possible that he interpreted my sigh as a relief that they managed to survive.

Well...sure, I was glad that the nun didn’t end up dead, at least. But it would be a lie if I said I cared much about what they were doing. For me, who never personally met those people, whether it was the hero of the boy and the nun...

All of them were just a character to me. A character inside a story.

Strangely, although I knew this place was also part of that story, none of the demons here felt like a character to me. Whether it was Angwi, Zia, the other servants, and even the golems...

Was it because this place never showed up in the part of the novel that I knew?

Or was it because I had met them, and interacted with them personally?

Or...or was it because of Natha?

And it was my effort to convince myself that I truly fall for him, and not some kind of story.