Unaware of a sneaky stalker following them around everywhere, Haruki and his had spent the entire day spying on different adventurers. From their brief analysis of the situation, it was clear that they could make good use of at least some of them. Now the only question was whether he should do it or not since trying to spread his influence in the city was bound to garner attention.
'I need to be careful about who to choose, or it might end the same way when I tried to spread my influence through the Marquis kingdom.' Back in his purchased home, Haruki walked over to the counter bar. There, as he sat down on one of the stools, Riley and Asuka also settled down beside him.
Still oblivious to the phantom admirer watching them from over their shoulders, their eyes wandered about trying to spy for Fay and the clownish dwarf. However, with no sight of them anywhere, Haruki reached through to her with the demonic spy planted on her body.
"Fay, are you home?" he asked.
"Oh!" Thankfully, she gave a swift response. "That scared me!"
"Sorry, I…" While Haruki talked with Fay, the devil girl moved closer to the trio and phased through the bar counter.
Enshroud in an illusionary mist, her body reflected the world around her. With the front of her body reflecting the image on her back, and her back reflecting the front, she was as illusive, if not more, as Riley's ability to turn invisible.
'A fine collection…' Her eyes scanned through the items on the shelves, and she let her fingers trail along the corks of the bottles. 'Maybe I should steal one or two before leaving, the emperor hasn't been too generous these past few weeks after all.'
Turning around, the devil Nabe placed her hand on the counter. For a moment, there was a hint of confusion in the eyes of the trio as if they'd felt a subtle change in their environment. Yet with nobody else than them on the counter, they subconsciously chalked the movement to someone else sharing the space.
"We're heading to do the quest tomorrow, so…" getting out of the stool, Haruki turned his head to look up the stairs. "We should all get some rest."
Moving out from their stools as well, Asuka and Riley were just as much inclined to sleep after having chased countless adventures through forests and caves. Watching them all heading upstairs, Nabe decided to follow Haruki after getting a few drinks first.
In the meantime, upstairs while passing through Fay's room, Haruki heard a sweet hum coming from inside her room.
'Oh yeah, she said she was taking a bath, didn't she?' Standing by her room's door, he felt compelled to go inside. However, with Asuka and Riley standing by his shoulder he didn't want them to feel as though he was giving her special treatment. 'Fuck it, we can sleep together.'
"Come with me, you two," grabbing them both by the arms, Haruki moved right into Fay's room.
The very first thing he noticed was the cradle in which Stella was sleeping. Moving further in, he saw her deformed into a puddle of slime with a vibrant smile going across her face. To any other parent, the sight would've been horrifying, but given the nature of race, Haruki was not at all bothered.
"Master?" Whispering in Haruki's ears while he watched Stella sleep, Asuka managed to get his attention back on her.
Shifting his attention back to the two, Haruki shook his head before turning to look at the attached bathroom installed in the room. From inside the same humming from Fay could clearly be heard.
"I want us all to sleep together tonight," he said before slowly making his way toward the shower. "Why don't you guys warm up the bed for me while I take a shower with Fay?"
"No way!" Completely disregarding the sleeping child, Asuka yelped out loud in protest.
"What?! Who?!" Spooked by the scream, Fay yelled from inside the bathroom.
And as if things weren't off rails enough, Stella woke up and began to cry. Surrounded by chaos, they all felt defeated. For a while, the chaos continued with the sound of a baby crying in the background. Taking Stella up in his arms, Haruki tried to calm her down, but it wasn't until Fay arrived that the cute little angel finally calmed down.
Watching it all unfold, the devil girl Nabe glared at the little baby. Being a devil, her instincts wanted to claw her to shreds, but the title bestowed on her by the emperor disallowed her from acting on such instincts.
'I need a new master, or better yet, a pawn who believes he's a king.' Her ruby-red eyes fixed on Haruki, she wished for nothing more than to use him to escape the emperor's curse. 'What's that? A teleportation spell?'
Feeling a disturbance of mana in the air, Nabe's intuition foretold her the future. Moving away from the doorway to Fay's room, she headed downstairs feeling the slightest bit drunk. Upon getting to the bottom, she noticed a varying variety of people standing in the middle of the entrance floor.
'Now now…How many demons am I going to meet today?' Walking past the group of girls, Nabe made her way toward the front door. Standing right by it, she let her eyes wander over Margarette, Moriyana, and the two demi-cats in their company.
"Where is this place?" Frantically looking around, Moriyana was confused why they'd landed inside what seemed to be a hotel or an inn.
"How would I know?" Margarette shot back, seeming just as confused.
The demi-cats however, being able to sniff Haruki's nearby, were much calmer than the other two. Slowly making their way to the spiraling stairs, they peered up together before turning to their demonic companions.
"I can smell Haruki upstairs," Athena informed.
"And the others too," Alice added.
Watching someone go up the stairs for the second time, Nabe moved closer to the wine shelves and began downing more wine before going to confront the demon emperor. To her surprise, however, while she was keeping watch on Haruki and his companions, someone else was keeping a watch on her as well.
"Keep your hands off of my puppet, you devil," trailing into Nabe's ears, the mistress's voice warned.
Instead of deterring her from doing anything, it only egged her on further. Thus, wearing a faint smile, the devil had only but one word to say to her.
"No," she said, and she meant it.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om