The battle with the beasts, was, to say the least, dire and eventful. By the time Diana finished casting the incantation, Kane's body was torn up limb by limb, and yet as they barely managed to escape the dungeon, he sent them off with a smile.
"Duke! I beg you," Bowing her head along with the other members of her party, Diana was down on her knees peering up at Haruki. "Please, send Madam Rose to the dungeon. Kane must still be alive, but if he runs out of mana…"
Unable to keep going, she braced her heart in terror from the mere thought of Kane's death. Looking down on her from his throne, Haruki posing to be Snow was still working through everything she'd told him about the changes inside the minotaur dungeon.
'The monsters getting stronger in the dungeons can put the safety of the duchy in jeopardy, not only that the appearance of that minotaur king tells me that the monsters inside are evolving just like I did.' Having experienced the same changes as those monsters after his killing spree at the minotaur dungeon, Haruki was able to drain levels again, which eventually led him to turn from a simple lust demon to a lust demon emperor. 'Perhaps one of the remaining minotaurs inside the dungeon went through a race advancement as well.'
"I'll send her there, but before that," curious to know whether they saw the slaves, Haruki leaned onto the back of his palm and continued. "Did you really not see anything suggesting someone was hiding there?"
The three took a moment to glance at each other to see if anyone one of them had noticed anything peculiar inside the dungeons. However, to Haruki's disappointment, they all turned back to him and gave disapproving nods.
"No, we didn't see anything that would suggest that," said Arthur.
Being the ninja spy of the group, if anyone was to notice something it would've been him, recognizing this, Haruki let the matter go for the moment.
"You can all leave now, I have other matters to attend to as well," brushing them off, he turns to Asuka standing beside him. "Ask Rose to take a handful of guards and rescue Kane."
Hearing that, a relieved smile crept up on the faces of Silver Storms. Gasping out loud as if a heavy burden had been taken off their shoulders, they all picked themselves up and offered their thanks to the duke.
"Let us know if we can help in any way lord!" Offered Diana, however, devoid of emotion, Haruki didn't seem too keen on the idea.
"You can certainly try, but in case you get in the way of her flames I can hardly guarantee your life, much less Kane's," although Haruki's words were meant to be a warning, somehow the sinister tone of his voice made it seem more like a threat.
"What do y-" Picking up on Haruki's tone, Arthur placed his hand on Diana's shoulder to stop her from rebutting the duke.
Although she didn't exactly know why Arthur was stopping her from pursuing the matter, a look alone at his stern eyes let her know better than to push the matter anymore. Bowing their heads to the duke once again, they all turned around and walked out of the grand hall of the castle.
Watching them leave, Haruki glanced sideways at Asuka before giving her contradicting instructions.
"Don't say anything to Rose, I wanna visit the dungeon myself," at first he'd resisted the urge to find his old battalion members himself, but now that Kane was amongst those who were lost inside, he wanted to take things in his own hands.
'He may not be essential to my plans, but having him around is extremely useful. And if I were to send Rose in there, who knows what kind of calamity might follow?' With Klian still recovering in the dragon seal room, Haruki couldn't risk asking Rose's help in case her brother decided to revolt while she was gone.
Getting off the throne, Haruki made his way to the fencing grounds around the castle. It had been a while since he'd had to fight against a real threat, and now that he was at a much higher-level crossing, he felt eager to learn the full potential of his powers.
'But to think Kane was defeated, I wonder what kind of beast the minotaur king really is?' Witnessing Kane hold his own against Razor, Haruki was still having a hard time digesting that he was so easily defeated by a wild monster.
With his experience in combat, limited to low-level beasts in bandits from his past life, he had no real clue as to what kind of creatures the high-tier adventurers fought.
"Fancy a duel?" Noticing Riley getting ready to practice against a guard, Haruki offered her a more amusing fight. "It'd be good practice for what I need you to do later."
Intrigued by the last part, Riley reached into her cape and threw out a fencer for Haruki to catch. Catching the sword mid-air, Haruki fanned his hands to gesture to the guards to leave them alone. Without question, the fencing ground was deserted with only the two pointing their fencer at each other.
"Did something go wrong with the dungeon expedition?" Her spot-on guess surprised Haruki a little, but realizing the silver storms must've caught Riley's eyes while leaving through the garden, his curiosity was sated.
"Yeah, apparently Kane was left behind by the party, and we have to get him out as well," clanking their sword together, they commence the duel.
"Left behind…was he injured?" Riley asked, spotting an opening in Haruki's stance.
Trying to stab her master's master she dove forward aiming for his torso. Figuring out the trajectory of her hand, Haruki sidestepped his way out of the attack.
"From what the storms told me, he has some kind of curse that elongates his death so long as he has mana," perplexed by the revelation, a confused frown took over Riley's brows.
Taking advantage of the brief moment of carelessness, Haruki drove his fencer towards the side of her arm, but noticing it in the nick of time, Riley used wind magic to propel herself away from the blow.
"Dammit, almost had you," smirking at her Haruki stood upright looking right at her.
"Not quite, but you were close," concealing her fencer back in the cape, she walked closer to him again. "About Kane, is this ability the same as Mother's rejuvenation?"
"Honestly, I don't know, but forget that for now," handing Riley the sword back, he continued. "They found a minotaur king inside the dungeon, and I think it's the best opportunity for you three to get over your level caps."
In the past month, Haruki wasn't the only one who'd grown stronger, and so they'd all been waiting for them to test out their new abilities and shatter the level cap deterring them from getting stronger.
"Wonderful," Riley said, smirking to herself just thinking about the carnage.
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