After showing the demons their place, it was time for Haruki to hide every clue of his presence from the rest of the world again. The first step to achieve that goal was to have the demons return and act out their regular lives in their human form, but then came the harder part, masking the land in an illusion so that no travelers noticed the corruption around the streets that happens because of demonic presence.
"Where is she? Why isn't she here yet?" Back in the Arian throne room, Haruki looked around at his servants sitting in opposing rows of chairs on both sides of the room.
'If she doesn't come before the merchants start arriving, then there's bound to be trouble, and even if it's easily manageable I just don't want to deal with more than what I already have stacked up.' The roads to Aria were blocked off throughout the recent days because of the trials of the demonic duke. But now that everything had begun to settle, Haruki wanted trade to continue so they could gather enough funds to supply his army with weapons as well as training.
"My son will teleport her right here anytime, we just need to wait a bit longer," seated along with the rest of Haruki's servants, Rose answered his worry.
Deciding to shift to other things in the meantime, Haruki turned his attention to Riley so he could clear up something else.
"The silver storm and the other two parties, have you assigned them their duties yet?" Nodding her head, Riley positively responded.
'Great, now we can use some of the best adventurers we know to train the demonic army.' Given that adventurers were the primary hunters for demons and other monsters, it made sense to Haruki to have the demons train against competent adventurers and learn how to counter them.
"M-Master?" Athena stuttered, still not used to calling Haruki her master.
"What is it, Athena?" Shooting his gaze down at her, he waited for her to respond.
Giving Alice who was sitting beside her a brief gaze, she closed her eyes before coming out and saying what she wanted.
"This Moriyana woman, you said she can put the whole kingdom in an illusion, but how do you plan to replace Marquis? If anyone from the emperor's personnel came to Aria they'd instantly know something was off since the king's seat is empty!" Although her concerns were valid, Haruki had already devised a plan for such scenarios.
Turning his head to the side, Haruki opened up a dungeon portal. A second later, the frame of Marquis, the king walked out of it as if nothing had happened to him at all. Shocked by the sight, Athena, as well as her daughter, jumped off of their seats.
"How…" Athena mumbled, wondering if she should even believe her own eyes.
"Is that really him?!" Unlike her mother, Alice was more furious than confused by the sight.
Waving his hand towards the side, Haruki gestured the king to stand behind him so he wouldn't have to look at his face. Even a single glance at the man was enough to infuriate him from the bottom of his heart, and so once he was away from his sight, Haruki turned to explain the situation to the two.
"One of my servants is a master of soul manipulation, she helped me wipe out the king's abhorrent personality and turn him into an undead puppet," snapping his fingers he made the puppet of Marquis bow forward.
Much like every other thing they'd witnessed in the short time they'd spent around Haruki, both of them were baffled out of their minds trying to figure out what exactly was happening. To make matters worse, all of a sudden a blinding flash of light sprang up in the middle of the throne room. The intensity of the light made everyone shut their eyes until it slowly disappeared.
Finally, when they opened their eyes back up, they saw Moriyana standing in the middle of the room with her hands pressed against her forehead.
"Fuck! You call that teleportation? That was a fucking trip to the sun!" Growling on the spot, she glanced around before fixing her gaze on Roselia.
"Don't start anything, you know you'll lose," knowing full well where Moriyana was trying to take the conversation, Rose shut her down in an instant.
"Whatever!" Shaking her head, she turned to look at Haruki in the front.
Getting out of the throne, Haruki walked down the steps to get closer to her. Once right before her, he gave the only order he had to give her at the moment.
"Turn this kingdom as it was, and I'll keep showering you with gold just like I'd promised," saying those words, he reminded her of the original demand she'd made to him right before being turned into his servant.
'So he remembered, huh?' Plastering a smile on her face, she clasped her fingers around his face. Leaning closer she pinched his lower lip under her teeth and pulled it back a little.
"I love being your servant, Master," letting go of him, she let out a chuckle.
Not as involved in her teasing, Haruki gave her a nod and walked past her to attend to other matters. In the meantime, far away from Aria, or even the rest of the kingdom in Atlas, a horned devil was sitting in a dark room with his glaring eyes watching every move Haruki made.
"A man possibly becoming a demon lord of lust? What a joke!" Shutting his flaming eyes for a second, he stopped spying on him for the moment.
Sitting there in absolute silence in the dark, the man scratched his ragged beard. His mind still occupied by the feats performed by Haruki in the last few days, he almost felt a bit jealous since he hadn't left his lair for the longest time in history.
'Perhaps paying this bastard a visit isn't such a bad idea, after all.' Wearing a smirk on his face, he felt ready to stretch a few muscles or even destroy a few countries. 'Stay alive until I get to you so I can show you what it means to be a real demon lord!'
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