It had been a few days after Haruki visited Rose in the thawed spring, and wherever he turned, only grim news awaited him. At first, it had been the riots in Daria that followed its merger with Larian land, and now the news of a messenger making his way to the Frost castle.
'I need more time to convert Darian's into demons or else my plans will need a major overhaul.' Depending heavily on the Darian alliance, Haruki was stuck dealing with a dilemma. 'Those bastards never bat an eye when the corrupt royals took their lands or exploited them with taxes, but now all of a sudden they wanna revolt against the phoenix?'
With Margarette left to deal with the situation in Daria, no one around Haruki was qualified to help him make major political decisions.
"The army isn't too happy with the merger either, and if they revolt too, we might lose a lot more than just Daria," rubbing insult to injury, Riley kept reminding Haruki that everything that could've gone wrong had already gone wrong at this point.
Seated on his throne, he glared up at her with a bitter look in his eyes. And although his anger wasn't directed at her, she felt threatened by the look and put an abrupt stop to her pronouncement of the reports.
"If only I could use Asmodia's powers again, all of this would've been over in a second," cursing his own glitched abilities, Haruki brought forth his screen of stats and scanned through it until he got to the root of the problem.
''Escapism…Teleporting me away while I'm in mortal danger is helpful, but that directly prevents the requirement for mistress of darkness to activate, and that's just so frustrating.' Brushing the stat screen away, Haruki heaved out a tired sigh.
Glancing down at his waist, he took notice of the pair of stunning ladies servicing him with their lips. While one coiled her tongue around his girthy shaft, the other invited him deep into her sloppy wet mouth. Despite the heavenly service he was getting, the stress of it all had stripped him from experiencing any sort of pleasure at the moment.
"Master Shin," walking into the hall was the eight-legged spider queen that Haruki had yet to name, much like the goblin.
"What is it?" Plugging the two holes of the girls servicing him with phantom hand's fingers, Haruki had them float away with their entire weight being lifted by the fingers.
Watching the orgasmic faces of the two, Riley and the queen felt a bit jealous, however keeping it to themselves they kept the wetness of their lower lips a secret.
"A man was confronted by the guard at the castle gates, I believe it's the messenger of the kings, should we send him in or are you perhaps busy with something else at the moment?" Even through her scaly blue skin, Haruki could smell the lust oozing out of her, but given the intensity of the situation he didn't pay it much attention.
"Sure, send him in. He shouldn't be able to tell anything out of the ordinary because of the illusion, but make sure to have your soldiers gathered up and camouflaged by this room's ceiling," heeding Haruki's orders, the queen of spider bowed to him and quickly left the hall.
Not long after, a swarm of her crittering spider children took over the ceiling and hid in plain sight with their camouflage hide. Knowing he couldn't use any of his demonic abilities, Haruki was completely reliant on them as well as Riley who would be posing as Ray, the female bodyguard gifted to him on his first visit to Daria.
"He's here, my lord," walking in long before the messenger, the Arachne queen turned invisible so she could defend Haruki herself as well if required.
A few minutes passed, and the man in question finally arrived in the throne room. Dressed in a blue cloakish garb, the man was dripped with gold ornaments decorating his whole body. What particularly stuck out to Haruki, however, wasn't the luster of the jewelry, but a striking symbol carved in each piece of the jewelry.
'Do they really think I won't notice every letter of Atlas's name stacked over each other? It's like they want to announce that they know about my secret.' Utterly convinced that the king already knew about his identity by now, Haruki knew that a lot of chaos was in order.
"Oh great lord of the Larian people, I'm greatly humble to finally meet you," kneeling down, the messenger kept his head bowed as he spoke. "Although I wish, the circumstances of our meeting were different."
"And why is that messenger? Is the news that grim or you're just being dramatic?" Caring not the least for his act, Haruki wanted to get him out of the castle as soon as possible.
Raising his wrinkled head, he pressed his lips together before speaking in a hushed manner.
"King Marquis had ordered me to bring you this news, and so that is what I must do, even if it cost me my head," pulling himself back up, the messenger reached into a leather bag hanging by his waist. Taking out a parchment scroll from inside, he unrolled it in front of his eyes and began reading the contents of the letter. "It is by the order of the crown, that the righteous king of the Marquis kingdom, king Marquis, orders ye to assemble in his court, where ye must be judged by the hammer of the lord. Ye are to abolish all yer sovereign rights of the Larian land, as well as the defected duchy you've coerced into joining your perverse plan to rebel against his majesty, the king! "
The letter kept going on and on talking about how until Haruki was absolved of all allegations against him, he would have no sovereign right of his own land. And if found guilty, the executioner's axes would be brought down hard against his neck.
'As if that stopped me before…' Even though things were getting much more dire than expected, Haruki had somehow managed to keep his calm, all thanks to the sudden news he'd received through a faraway demonic spy.
"Master, Moriyana's potion worked on the army, we can start hypnotizing the populace now," Margarette's report brought him deep comfort, and with it, a smile crawled up Haruki's lips.
Done with the reading of the letter, the messenger was bemused as to what part of the message had the duke smiling. Knowing better than to question an alleged demon, he decided to take a hasty retreat.
"Tell the king, I'm coming, and I expect a banquet when he absolves me of the allegations," hearing Haruki's message for the king, the messenger turned around and nodded before just as quickly flipping over and leaving the scene.
'While I would still prefer to avoid killing every soul in Aria, I sure wouldn't mind some blood on my fingers.' Thinking about the corrupt king Marquis who killed him in his past life, Haruki was itching for a carnage. 'I've heard he has a wife and daughter, perhaps it'd be a shame if I kill him too prematurely then.'
With those sinister thoughts, he brought today's assembly to an end.
Follow current novℯls on f(r)eewebnov𝒆l