With the month now gone and Asmodia's wishes fulfilled, Haruki and his companions were preparing for their departure from the Dolatian kingdom. However, putting up a hurdle in their path were the elitist demi-humans laying gathered up outside their house.
"What are they doing?" Peeking through a window on the upper floor, Haruki asked Riley through his telepathic ability.
Meddling amongst the demi-humans outside, Riley posing as an elite herself, scanned for an exit through the crowd before finally giving Haruki an answer.
"They think we're humans, so they want to use us as a bargaining chip against the emperor," Riley's revelation further confused Haruki.
"Do these idiots really think that the emperor would give up his throne just because they took a few humans hostage?" Haruki asked, baffled by their stupidity.
"Most of them are second-generation nobles who've never met the emperor so the naivete is kind of expected," being somewhat of a royalty herself, Riley knew exactly what the issue was with these entitled demi-humans.
They'd never seen a day of hard work or even understood the cost their ancestors had to pay to be freed from the chains of slavery. To some degree, even Haruki knew that they were too self-obsessed to realize just how easily they were being manipulated.
"Try and arrange a carriage for us outside the city, we'll meet you there in a bit," giving Riley her orders, Haruki stepped away from the window and turned to the others either sitting on the bed or standing in vacant spots inside his room.
Dressed up in loose sundresses fit for traveling, they all appeared like angels with just a slight difference between them all. Athena and Alice were adorned in pure white with a pair of ivory earrings carelessly dangling by their ears. Moriyana on the other hand, as obnoxiously sexual as always wore a dress more akin to a nightdress with a heavy v-neck that exposed a huge portion of her assets, yet for some reason it suited her just perfectly.
"What are we going to do?" Asuka asked with Stella tugging on her tulip gown.
"Well, we can't just disappear from here since that makes them suspicious," taking a moment to come up with a plan, Haruki decided to go with the most obvious option. "I'm going to create clones of us all so those idiots can kill them just like they did with Michael's clone."
"And where are we headed now exactly?" Getting off the bed, Margarette folded her arms under her plentiful chest almost as if purposefully trying to flaunt them to the others. "We only have two kingdoms left in the empire that we haven't visited, and going back to Lamenia isn't really an option anymore."
With each step forward, her thin-strapped sundress seemed as if it'll slip right off of her body. Yet somehow holding on, the translucent red hint of the attire reflected the phoenix inside of her perfectly.
"We're gonna hit the other two kingdoms and try to pit the people against the emperor as well, for now, that's the best course of action," since the people of Dolatia had already revolted, the emperor was sure to suspect Haruki's presence in the kingdom, and thus to keep hiding in the shadow until he got stronger, Haruki wanted to hide amongst non-demon who were unknowingly working in his favor. "Anyways, I'm also going to curse our clones so whoever kills them gets cursed with the mark of the lust demon."
So far everyone was told not to turn people into demons, so when Haruki told them that he was going to curse people to become demons, they were all left a bit baffled. Most baffled of all was Fay since she hadn't ever been too informed about manipulative strategies.
"But why? Wouldn't that expose that we were here?" She asked, genuinely curious.
Shifting his gaze towards her, he began walking closer. Then as he stood right beside her as she was sitting on the bed, he gave a brief yet effective explanation.
"If we leave without a single demon left before, they'll definitely think it's us, but if they find a demon amongst the revolting public then they're bound to take those demons as the culprits behind the rebuttals," reminded of the demons that had been unleashed upon the world after Laria was dissolved from Haruki's rule, Fay quickly understood what he had stewing up in his mind. "And even if that doesn't work, we'll at least have some of our spies amongst the people of Dolatia who can keep us informed about everything that happens in this kingdom."
With everyone now up to speed, Haruki ordered his companions to finish up whatever there was that needed to be done before leaving. Amongst those things, one of them happened to be bidding farewell to the ghost boy, since Stella seemed upset that she had to leave her friend behind. However, after calling upon him multiple times, Fay decided to do a little change of plans for the sake of her daughter's joy.
"Max?" Using a spirit-detecting spell, Fay walked down into the basement where she could feel the lingering spirit of the young boy. Following behind her was a floating demon spy that she'd brought for a special reason.
For a while, she kept wandering around the dank place, trying to figure out where the boy was hiding. The sounds of movement echoed all around her, which to some degree terrified her deeply.
"Max, we're leaving if you want to join us, I can help you get a new body," hoping to revive the boy with the help of a similar facility as she had in Laria, Fay wanted to take the boy with her party. "You can stay here if you want, but do you really want to? In this place, all alone? I can't imagine how it must feel to be here with nobody to play with."
As she moved past the cupboard with the cleaning tools, Fay heard yet another sound of crashing metal coming from right behind it.
"Ahhhhhh!" Barely visible behind the cupboard, the boy yelled out in agony.
'He must be hurting.' Motioning the demon spy to get closer to the boy, Fay held her hand forward and began casting a special iteration of soul magic. 'For now, take this demon spy as your vessel, and I promise to give you a new body soon enough!'
Acting as a catalyst, Fay began absorbing parts of the boy's soul and then transferring it to the demon spy. While doing so, however, she saw a sight that would've terrified even the most seasoned of torturers. Strapped to a chair, the boy was being fed worms that would eventually eat out his organs from the inside out, all the while, a hurdle of men made bids on the time it would take for the worms to consume the boy alive.
Petrified, Fay could feel herself suffering through the same hurt as that boy once had. The only difference in her experience was that she knew she wasn't going to die, while the boy in those memories was begging to be freed from the burden of life.
'I…I' As the transfer was finally complete, and the boy's soul was resting inside the demonic spy, Fay could still feel her heart racing as her eyes teared up for the young boy. 'I'll never let them hurt you again.'
Vowing to keep him sheltered from all humans, Fay finally made her way out of the basement and joined the rest of her group ready to leave the place behind.
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