The very same day after meeting up with Moriyana and Serena, Haruki had arranged a meeting with the councilmen to finish tying up some loose ends. Sitting across them on the round table, he glanced around and noticed the concern conveyed through their strained expressions. The current state of the duchy was no secret, and thus their worried looks weren't that hard for him to decipher.
"I can't believe what you've done to this place," Keeping his voice low, Clint the bishop let his anger be known. "When I heard Serena was visiting you, I thought you'd finally listen to her and do something about the crime but…"
With gritted teeth, he glared at Haruki. And despite his apparent rage, it didn't falter Haruki's cold demeanor. Keeping his eyes half closed, Haruki leaned onto the table and returned the bishop's glare.
"Anyone else have any complaints?" Fanning his hands to the others, he kept staring at Clint until the bishop turned to the rest to see if anyone shared the same rage against the duke as him.
Raising his hand to join the bishop was Gorgon alone and nobody else. The rest of the two had their own reasons for their lack of interest in going against the duke. Arnold, seemingly afraid to speak out, didn't want to risk offending the ruler of the land, as for Rom, he was the only one fully on board with whatever Snow was doing.
"I don't know how you can call yourself a ruler when you're the one allowing the streets to be poisoned and the lord's name to be sullied by your citizens," despite his formal tone, the frown between his eyes was proof enough of his rebellion.
"Nobody else?" Unfazed by Gorgon's accusations, Haruki turned to Arnold and Rom, but when they showed no sign of rebutting, he leaned back into the chair to relax. "Ray, take care of the bishop and Gorgon."
As soon as he uttered the command, Riley posing as Ray the bodyguard, appeared behind the bishop and sliced his throat with a knife. Taken by surprise the bishop clutched onto his bloody throat, and tried to heal the wounds to the best of his ability, but having planned forward for that possibility, the blades were infused with anti-healing magic. Watching the bishop struggle to breathe before falling down his chair, the rest of the councilmen had no clue what was happening.
"What the hell?! What are you doing, you traitor!" Growling at the top of his lungs, Gorgon stared at the bishop not realizing that Riley was right behind him.
Right as he was about to stomp out of his chair, Riley jumped over his head and plunged her knives deep into his skull from above. Killing him in an instant Riley disappeared once again even before his body had the time to flop on the table.
"Again, anyone else?" Looking at the remaining two, Haruki noticed Arnold taking long deep breaths trying to calm himself after witnessing the whole scene. Rom on the other hand, returned the duke's gaze without a hint of emotions apparent on his face.
"How can we object master? You're the ruler of this land, and thus we follow your lead wherever it may take us," reaching into his breast pocket, Rom took out some sort of pills. "Arthur, take this, it'll help you think and breathe clearly."
His violently shaking from terror, Arthur reached for the pill and gulped it down swiftly. Then as he looked at Haruki a nervous smile appeared on his handsome face.
"T-the t-reasury is-is fuller than ever…" Taking a few deep breaths he continued. "How can I complain? The bypass, the trading to other cities, the slave trade, and the misha sales, it-it's all been so profitable for us, how can I complain Duke? Ahahahaha!"
Forcing an awkward laugh at the very end, Arnold clutched onto his heart with his eyes tightly shut. Hoping to be spared, he kept praying under his breath.
"Very well then," snapping his fingers, Haruki clued Asuka to come in with the clones of the bishop and Gorgon. "I expected you two to agree with me, but don't disappoint me now."
As the door opened up and Asuka walked in with the clones, both Arnold and Rom were surprised by what they were seeing. Making their way to the seats where their originals once sat, the clones quickly made themselves comfortable and began posing as the real deal.
"I agree with everything you say my lord," said the bishop's clone.
"I agree too, my lord," Gogon's clone added.
Turning back to Arnold and Rom, Haruki glared at them for a while, just hinting to keep everything a secret. Gulping his angst down, Arnold nodded back, and Rom did the same.
"Work well for Laria, or there's plenty to replace you," saying those words, Haruki got out of his seat and began making his way out of the hall.
Walking alongside Asuka, he glanced back at the body in a way to signal Riley to take care of them. Being as perceptive as she was, Riley quickly hid their bodies inside the unending storage of her cape.
"Asuka, is Margarette in her office? I need her to figure out what kind of crime those two from my battalion did to be turned into slaves," after the meeting with Moriyana figuring out that they'd both escaped the slave carrier carriages, Haruki didn't want to spare a moment them down and figure out what happened to them after his death.
Placing her index under her chin, Asuka let out an innocent chuckle before replying.
"From what I know she's already on it," her reply assured Haruki that everyone was effectively pulling their weight since they made those vows towards him.
'Now if only I could hear back from Asmodia that would've helped me a lot.' Despite having turned a whole pack of slaves into Succubus as well as incubuses with the help of his female servants, he was nowhere near restoring enough of Asmodia's power to have her regain consciousness. 'I'll have to see what I do about it another time.'
Following Asuka to Margarette's work office, Haruki still had a lot planned for the day ahead.
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