"We were told a group of demons were causing quite a bit of ruckus at the outskirts of our cities, so we went there to check it out," Laura's retelling of the events that'd happened to her party was already deeply concerning to Haruki. "But when we got there, it wasn't just a horde of demons that we encountered."
"What?" Thrown off the assumption that his servants were causing trouble, he was thrown off by the last part of her statement. "Then what else did you run into?"
Settling down into the warm water, Laura put up a weak smile and continued. Although being around naked women in the bath had been distracting for Haruki, his limits for arousal had been raised to an extraordinary limit at this point.
"A band of monsters…" Laura mumbled, her eyes firmly fixed on Haruki. "A Dullahan leading the charge with golems, skeletons, and all forms of undead creatures marching through the dense forest. I do not know who sits at their head, but whoever it is, must be a monster amongst monsters."
"And how did your companions get hurt?" Fueled with curiosity, Haruki wanted to know more about the incident.
To his question, she took a deep breath before replying. Visibly upset by what she'd seen, retelling the incident was having a visceral effect on her mental state.
"We were going to intercept those demons, but right as we tried to, the procession of monsters appeared out of nowhere," with those words, her lips were shut tight into a lock.
It didn't take a genius to figure out what happened after, and from the impression she'd been giving so far, it didn't seem like her friends were in any mortal danger. This only left one question in Haruki's mind, one that bothered him more than the strange procession of monsters threading through the border between his land and the Lamenian kingdom.
"Why do you think I can help?" His question made her raise her head to look at him once more. Purposefully ignoring the talk, his wives kept brushing their bodies against him to seem disinterested in such matters. "Were you expecting an army or just the finances to fight the monsters?"
Noticing a pair of hands from one of Freya's wives caressing her thighs, Laura looked away expecting something lecherous. High on the effect of the booze, it wasn't just Freya and the wives, but Laura too had begun feeling a bit of arousal stemming from between her legs.
"I-I have ability…It-um," slowly looking back at the hand from the edge of her eyes, she noticed it digging into Freya's thighs while it caressed it up and down. "It can determine people's strength with just a look!"
Had he not been under the charm of the wine, learning the existence of such an ability would've driven him mad with worry. After all, it would've taken one look at him for anyone to deduce that he wasn't who he claimed to be.
"I didn't wanna let those monsters get away with what they did to my companions so I was searching for strong enough adventurers to help me take them down, but then I saw you and your wives instead!" Her eyes closed shut from embarrassment, she sped through her explanation.
Having the girls get off of him, Haruki picked himself up. Although still unsure whether she was telling everything the truth, he extended her hand along with an offer.
"Keep my strength a secret, and I'll help you," his words voiced out in a commanding female voice, resounded with the authority of a war general. "You might not know this since you probably haven't met much royalty, but get on my wrong side and I'll throw you and your family to the dogs."
The sudden threat made a jumble of her emotion curdle up at the back of her throat. And despite knowing better, she reached out to the demon and shook hands. A jolt of shock went through her skin, but she was too naive to realize what Freya had just done.
"I'll keep your strength a secret, but can I ask you something?" Feeling her fingers jittering nervously around his fingers, Haruki didn't want to push her mental psyche further. So with a simple nod, he let her voice her question. "How…Did you get so strong? I've never seen such an aura of strength emanating from a single person."
Pulling Laura up, he moved his face right next to her ears.
"You don't wanna find out, young elf," retreating his head, he gave her a smile. "You can come meet us at the tavern the next street over tomorrow morning, I'll be more than happy to help."
Not sure whether to be happy that Freya was willing to help, or to be concerned by the threats, Laura stood there in silence watching Haruki as he headed out of the bathhouse with the rest of his crew.
'Who is that woman? A royalty, but could she be the alleged vampire from the council of the tundra?' Knowledgeable in her own right, Laura's speculation had landed her in the right duchy, but the person she was thinking about was far away from them both.
The man she thought about was instead wandering through the forests and plains, trying to somehow reach the emperor. In his tow was Arnold, barely keeping up with the undead creature. In desperate hope for redemption, both of them wanted to get the news about the Marquis kingdom to their lord, but needless to say, their attempts were futile and they were bound to be doomed on their path.
Straggling over the borders, they had barely managed to escape the demons trying to hunt them in the demonic kingdom. However, their journey was far from over, and the path ahead looked even more grim.
In front of their eyes was a towering Dullahan. A second later, numerous golems with spectral skulls and skeletons riding on their backs came forward into their sights.
"It's been a while, has it not, Rom?" Muttered the unholy lord of wraths, riding out from the back of the procession. But to them at this moment, he was nobody else but their reaper. "Now before I cut that head clean off, how about you tell me more about this new lord of the lust demons?"
Riding high on an undead horse, he smiled at the quivering two. Not even a hint of mercy reflected in his eyes, he was looking forward to their execution.
"Nonononono!" Having gone insane, Arnold began pulling his own hair until the skin scrapped right off of his head.
'Atlas…No, emperor, save us!' Holding onto his religious self, Rom shut his eyes closed and prayed.
"Wahaha! Such an amusing sight, this man Haruki, must truly be a monster!" raising his axes, the lord of wrath ended the life of the longest-living vampire, along with his companion.
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