"Plague demon: Mark of the lust demon…" Putting the curse on the fruits, Haruki swiftly moved on to other stores and stalls.
Once he was done with yet another stall, he made sure to change his appearance in an alley before moving on to the next. By the time he was done cursing every store with the mark of the lust demon, the streets were bustling with chatter and the hollering merchants trying to attract customers.
'I should head back before it's too late.' Passing from one shadow to the other, Haruki managed to avoid wasting time by ignoring the crowd altogether. On his way back through the streets, his mind once again toiled from the sight of familiar faces roaming around in the town square. 'Wait…I have an idea.'
Unlike last time when the turmoil of emotion caused immense stress to his body, the sight of their faces helped him come up with a plan. Zooming through the shadows under the hanging lanterns, he made his way toward the numerous wells scattered throughout the town.
"Even if someone doesn't eat or touch anything from the bazaar, they're bound to drink water at least," making sure nobody was watching, Haruki crawled out of the shadows and began cursing the wells one by one as well.
"Crimson tongue curse: death by insufferable pain," using a different curse for the well around the town square, Haruki headed back towards the castle.
It didn't take him long to sneak around the streets and breeze past from under the noses of the stationed guards. After making it back to the guest house right by the main castle, Haruki teleported back into the room where his companions were still being held.
"Master!" Margarette yelped in excitement before quickly covering her mouth.
Looking back at the door, all of them waited for the guard's response. Thankfully, however, her voice didn't make it out of the sealed room. Huffing out a sigh of relief, Haruki vanished the clone and took its cuff to bind himself again.
"So, how'd it go?" Riley asked the moment Haruki sat on the only bed present inside the room.
Taking a moment to collect his thoughts, Haruki flushed out all the bad memories about the town square. Opening his eyes again, he was reminded of the beggar, but since he could no longer tell if it was his mind playing tricks or a real incident, he flushed it off along with the rest.
"Ye-yeah…I think so, everything went as planned, I even managed to curse the water source," a bit parched from the rush, he looked around to find something to drink. "Fuck, we might have to go without water too then."
Realizing that they were potentially being offered water from the same well, Haruki caught that loophole in his plan before it caused any trouble.
"Master, are you, okay? Your face is all red?" Leaning closer, Margarette got a better look at Haruki's face.
"Yea-yeah, I'm fine," he replied, despite feeling extremely feverish.
Pressing the back of her hand against his forehead, Margarette was shocked by the burning temperature of his body.
"No, you're not fine, you're burning!" Using rejuvenation, she eased some of Haruki's pain, but that relief quickly turned back into hurt once again.
"Let it be, I need to curse or at least hypnotize the king tonight. I can't afford to be sick," baffled himself as to how an immortal demon that didn't require sustenance could get sick, Haruki threw himself back on the bed to get a bit of rest before heading out again.
Moving in front of him, Riley gestured to Margarette to move aside so she could check on something. Taking hold of Haruki's hand while he was still laying down, Riley checked for his pulse as well as the strain on his body from excessive mana consumption.
"Master, can you use dark light? If you attack me with it, then the mana it'll draw out of me will help you heal up," getting to the root of the problem, Riley's idea was the best option they had.
"It'll hurt you tremendously, Riley," huffing out troubled deep breaths, Haruki looked at her with squinted eyes. "And as much as it might not seem like it, Asuka will be quite upset if you get hurt, especially by one of us."
To his words, her fingers let go of him. The effect of his words was subtle yet they made her happy. Taking hold of his hand again, she wore a smile, urging him to keep going.
"Do it master, we're going to be confined here while you're gone anyways, so it's better I'm the one who's suffering," with a tight grip on his hands, she shut her eyes tight.
Watching her with an unsteady look, Haruki braced himself and unleashed dark light to consume Riley's hand. At first, it simply enveloped her palm and tickled a little, but then as the dark mist climbed up Riley's arm in a spiral, a painful grunt left her clenched teeth. The longer it went on the more of her flesh it consumed, however, eventually as Haruki ran out of mana, the spell ended abruptly.
"Rejuvenation, rejuvenation," making continuous use of her skill on Riley, Margarette made sure her daughter won't suffer for too long.
"H-how's ma-ster?" Still struggling through the pain, Riley forced her eyes open to look for herself.
"He's unconscious, but I think it worked, his face isn't so red anymore," Margarette replied, her eyes moving back and forth between the two.
After healing Riley completely, both of them laid down on the bed beside Haruki to get some rest themselves.
'The mother and daughter, I've yet to see them.' Mumbling half asleep, he rolled around towards the two.
Feeling Haruki's arms over them, Margarette pulled him closer with Riley stuck between the two.
"Thank you…" He mumbled, referring to the duo.
Glancing at each other with a smile, both of them let out a chuckle. Not long after that hearty exchange, they all tired to sleep. The next time they were to woke up, Haruki would already be out prowling through the castle to plant his seeds of revenge.
New novel 𝓬hapters are published on fre ew𝒆bnovel.com