Stripped of his rights as a sovereign, and forced to let himself be escorted by a convoy sent by the corrupted king made Haruki feel like a commoner once again. But what bothered him more, wasn't the forceful escort, instead, it was the nature of the convoy that had arrived to take him there.
Stopping the carriages in the fencing garden, Kane, along with the rest of the silver storm stepped out in the open. Not long after, another set of carriages arrived, with one filled with the members of Nue's eyes, and the other with Unlucky clovers.
"We meet again, huh?" Walking towards Kane, Haruki has his eyes locked on him.
"Hopefully it's the last," Keeping his left hand on the sword hilt, Kane was ready to unleash an attack to directly slash Haruki's neck.
More than aware of his intention, Haruki had Ray and Belladona accompany him to protect him in his human form. Glancing over at the rest of the convoy standing behind Kane, the moment his eyes met anyone else's they quickly shied away from his gaze. Conflicted by their past relationship with the Duke, none of them had any clue what to believe.
'Kane won't lie to us about something like this, but…' Strengthening her grasp on her staff, Diana was visibly upset by the situation.
As for the rest of the silver storm, their minds were filled with similar thoughts. The trio from the Nue's eyes although didn't seem all that bothered, the silence from their direction was more than enough indication of how they felt about the duke.
"It's been a while Maggie, Maya, and you too Garth, how have you three been?" Gracefully extending his right hand towards them, Haruki wore a smile after asking that question.
Upon hearing the question, none of them could bear to look Haruki straight in the eyes. Maya, being the timid one in the group, hid behind Maggie, and Garth was forced to move in front of the two with his iron shield held firmly in his hands.
'Seems like Kane has taught them to be wary of me, not like it matters anymore.' Retreating his hand back towards himself, Haruki huffed out a sigh and turned his gaze back to Kane.
"The king's waiting, is he not?" Haruki mumbled, urging him to commence the journey.
Although reluctant to let go of his blade, Kane uncoiled his fingers on the hilt and nodded. Taking him to a special carriage with barred windows and mounted locks hanging outside the door, Kane loaded Haruki and his two bodyguards in.
"Is the maid not coming?" Asked Kane, suspicious as to why Asuka was nowhere to be seen.
"Rose is out visiting her relatives so Asuka is staying back at the castle as the head maid," leaving out the part where Asuka was going to take care of the newly named child, Stella, Haruki dropped the matter right there before Kane could ask any more questions.
'Keep her out of your mess.' Remembering Rose's warning after she's named the child, Haruki knew that much like the star she was named after, it was best for her to stay away from the crowd, especially one that was so hostile. 'Hopefully Asuka and Fay will take care of her properly. I would've preferred for Rose to be with them, but I can't have her sit back in the castle when a potential war could break at any moment.'
While things seemed dire, the fact that the emperor had not been reached with the news yet was the saving grace of the situation. Even the escalation of war at Scorchen Gaia and Feral lands, almost felt like a godsent since none of the emperor's generals could be reached for consultation either. However, as fortunate as the situation was, if Haruki could not manage to take over Aria quickly then the cat would certainly be out of the bag.
"I'll unlock your carriage when we take any stops but don't even dream about escaping," peering in through the barred window on the door, Kane reached under his armor and presented an anti-teleportation necklace. "I hope you remember what this is because the layer under the wooden part of this carriage is made entirely from the same thing."
After seeing the necklace, Haruki regretted showing the goblin queen the same item in front of Kane back when they were together outside the minotaur dungeon. A few minutes after that exchange, the carriages were off on their way toward the duchy of Aria. In their path, as they passed through the Larian cities, however, the people swarmed the carriages and tried to set their master free.
"Get off," those two words paired with Haruki's glaring sight were enough to scare those demons away.
Even though the city was infested with swarms of demons, in the eyes of the adventurers everything was the same as they'd remembered. To them, there was no sign of Misha addiction in the streets, or lust roaming through the cities, and the brothel paired with other perverse establishments appeared to be humble shops selling goods of regular needs.
"Master, about the plan," whispering lightly, Margarette, posing as belladona broke Haruki's trance of mind. "Moriyana said, she can't leave the duchy since the illusion will break if she's away for too long."
"Oh, that reminds me," chiming into the conversation, Riley added further. "On my inspection of the army and Darian civilians, I found out that while the army can help us fight, the civilians are mostly merchants and don't have an ounce of iron to their muscles."
"That's not surprising considering we haven't converted them into demons yet," resting his thumb under his chin, Haruki began mulling over his strategy. "If it comes to it, we can use them as hostages since they're all still humans."
"Given his disregard for commoners, I doubt that would be much leverage over King Marquis," Riley pointed out.
"That's the problem, isn't it?" Intertwining his fingers, Haruki leaned forward. "And that's exactly why we're gonna make him and the warriors of Aria submit without a fight."
With a dead serious look and a menacing smile, Haruki stared into the abyss unfolding in front of him. Even though he seemed a bit lost, Margarette and Riley were more than confident in their master's words. Thus without a shred of doubt, they nodded before asking him a final yet important question.
"How will we celebrate the crowning of the new king, Master?" They asked, their voices singing in unison.
"With a toast of human blood, lust, and carnage," his answer did not disappoint the two.
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