Chapter 464: The Red Seal
After a few moments, the both naturally began walking side by side in the direction of the quarters, albeit at a leisurely pace.
Nathan continued the conversation. "You’re really getting the hang of Pan’s magic."
Bernadette smiled lightly. "Yeah. I have to admit, I find it relieving that I don’t have to burn through my own mana every time I cast a spell."
Nathan nodded. "I do envy you. Being able to cast magic like that would really come in handy."
He was referring to his astral magic, which consumed his mana at an alarming rate, especially whenever he entered the Astral Sea.
Unfortunately, true magic could not be taught to or learnt by demons; especially Nathan whose body had undergone changes due to evolution, making it so that he could not be regarded as "naturally occurring" .
Bernadette glanced at him before saying, "I just hope it’ll be enough in the end to face the dragons."
"Yeah." Nathan’s expression lowered slightly.
The mention of dragons had brought his thoughts back to the situation they were facing, and more specifically, to his wife, Irene.
For a few seconds, neither of them spoke.
Then Nathan quietly said, "I really miss her, you know."
Bernadette glanced at him. "Yeah. That much I’ve noticed... it’s sort of obvious."
Nathan turned toward her with a slightly surprised expression, though there was amusement in his eyes as well. "Really?"
"Well, okay, maybe not so obvious," Bernadette admitted with a smile. "But I can tell."
Nathan said nothing, allowing her to continue.
"Your disposition at the dinner yesterday was the most telling..." She paused briefly, searching for the right words.
"You seem tired, sometimes angry. And yesterday, at dinner, I could see it in your eyes. You didn’t just want the dinner to be over, you wanted this whole situation to be over."
Nathan’s expression gradually became more subdued.
"You just want to find Irene and be done with all of this," Bernadette continued. "I think all that frustration has been building up inside you, and sometimes it comes out in the way you speak to your demon wives."
She was referring to how unkind he sounded while speaking to Lilinlea who organized their dinner.
"Oh." Nathan muttered, looking ahead again.
He had never really thought about it that way.
He knew he was frustrated, but hearing Bernadette put it into words made him realize that she might have understood him better than he had expected.
Bernadette continued after a moment. "Although, the whole thing did make me wonder about something else...."
"I wondered if you would ever care for someone else the way you care for Irene."
Nathan slowed slightly. He turned toward her, confusion settling across his face as he tried to understand what she meant. "I’m not quite following you, Bernadette."
She smiled. "Don’t worry about it, Nathan."
She looked ahead again as they continued walking. "Just know that I can tell you miss her. And, well... we all do. But all we can do now is make sure we put everything we have into whatever plan we use to get her out."
Nathan was quiet for a moment before giving a nod. "Yeah."
A faint smile returned to his face as they continued toward the quarters together.
—
Eventually, Nathan parted ways with Bernadette. She returned to the quarters while he made his way back toward the main palace area.
As he approached the palace, Nathan noticed a figure in the distance.
It was Lilinlea.
She had just entered the palace grounds from the direction of the city.
Nathan’s eyes narrowed slightly at the strangeness of it
His wives were not supposed to leave the palace grounds unless they had received specific instructions from him to do so, and Lilinlea had not been given such instructions.
The distance between them was too great for him to call out to her, so Nathan decided to deal with it after returning to the palace.
He continued inside, intending to have Lilinlea brought before him.
However, the moment he entered the main palace, he found Jillia waiting nearby and she was holding a scroll.
After taking a few steps inside, Nathan immediately gave her a command. "Jillia, I want you to go and call Lady Lilinlea for me."
"Yes, my lord." Jillia raised the scroll slightly. "But, there is a message from the King. It bears the red seal."
Nathan’s movements paused for a second.
The Demon King used different colored seals when sending written messages to the provincial lords, with each color representing a different level of urgency.
A green seal meant the matter could be attended to at the lord’s convenience. A blue seal reduced that period of discretion to three days.
But a red seal; meant the order was to be acted upon immediately, with the recipient expected to carry it out within an hour of receiving the message.
Failure to respond within that period could be interpreted as disobedience to the King.
Nathan took the scroll from Jillia and broke the seal as his eyes moved across the contents.
It was a message of summons; the Demon King had called the ten provincial lords to the Great Serpent’s Pass.
The Great Serpent’s Pass was a passage that cut through a certain mountainous region of the Demon Continent, its towering cliffs rising on both sides of a long, winding valley.
The enormous stone formations that surrounded the pass were said to resemble the body of a great serpent coiling through the mountains, giving the location its name.
It was an old and important landmark, though it was rarely used for gatherings of the demon lords.
The message however was clear enough to state that they were to assemble there, and the matter was urgent.
Nathan lowered the scroll, his eyes narrowing. "The King has summoned all of us to the Great Serpent’s Pass, and we are to arrive with haste."
"That is strange." Jillia responded.
Nathan agreed with a slight nod. "The ruler has never summoned the lords to a meeting anywhere other than his palace."
His expression grew thoughtful. "What do you think this is about?"
Jillia shook her head. "I am unsure, my lord. But it has already been half an hour since the message arrived. I was preparing to come and find you myself if you had not returned."
Nathan looked down at the scroll again. "I don’t have a good feeling about this."
"A change in the King’s usual pattern is not something I would expect from him."
"Yes, my lord," Jillia replied. "I feel the same. But when it comes to the whims and decisions of the King, we can only obey."