Not long after arriving at the shrine decorated with his own idols, the goblin queen finally came over and met with him. Not too far behind were Moriyana and Fay who he'd especially called out here so they could figure out what was happening with the priestess.
And they checked on Serena's body as she lay on the elevation, Haruki confronted the goblin queen about the gifts he'd been hearing so much about. Getting seated at a desk just laid out for them by the acolytes, he had her quickly get right to the topic.
"You're gonna love this," taking the leather pouch off of her hips, she laid it on the desk. "Remember that minotaur ring that your servant Moriyana gave me to control the captured breeders?"
"Yeah, what about it?" He asked, utterly lost as to where she was getting.
"Wel…" Reaching for the string binding the pouch's mouth, the queen of goblins swiftly undid the knot. "I have something really nice ready for you then."
Taking hold of the opened pouch again, she toppled it over and emptied all its contents. Crashing onto the desk were countless golden rings with varied colored jeweled providing them with great luster. Picking up one such ring with a dark jewel, the goblin queen put it into her ring finger and then nudged her head to have Haruki follow her gaze.
"After studying the minotaur king's ring that can be used to control minotaurs, I figured there must be a way to make similar items to control other species," stretching her arm towards the acolytes gathered around Serena as Moriyana and Fay check on her, the goblin queen directed her finger towards them before ordering. "Get away from those two!"
All of a sudden, the eyes of the acolytes glowed up the same glow as the dark jewel. Then looking right at the goblin queen they nodded and began gathering at the furthest corner from the two checking on Serena.
"Mind control?" Haruki asked, shifting his gaze back to the queen.
"No, species control," the queen corrected with a smile. "Although currently, these rings can only control low-level species of a handful of creatures, including demons, humans, and every other monster you can find living in this dungeon."
"How the-" Both impressed and somewhat terrified by her efficiency at building things, Haruki felt as if he needed to survey her a lot more. "Forget it, just tell me how these things work for now."
'These rings can be terrifying if she can keep upgrading their grade to control higher and higher levels of creatures.' Although wondering if he should put a stop to her experiment as a precaution, his curiosity about how far these items can be pushed got the better of him.
"Sure, why not? But before that, do you have any other items that I can research? It can help your army of demons and monsters get stronger!" Seeing the crazy in her eyes return, Haruki finally realized what the goblin queen's demons were.
'Greed…She's hungry for people, power, and items that glister. Fitting for a queen of goblins to be honest.' Taking note of her greed, Haruki decided to make sure to keep her in check so she wouldn't defect because of a better deal offered by an enemy, after all, unlike the rest of the monster girls, she and the Arachne were the only ones who hadn't been converted into demons. 'Turning her now would be a good idea, but I'm not sure how drastically it'll affect her already crazed behavior.'
"I don't have anything-'' Right as he was about to dismiss her, he remembered that one item that he'd been carrying around since almost the beginning of his new life. "Wait…"
Opening a dungeon pocket, he reached inside and took out the sapphire brooch he'd been given by Rose. And while placing it on the desk, his eyes met with Moriyana and Fay over the queen's shoulder who seemed to be done with their inspection of the priestess's body.
"Can you check this item? It helps me use ice magic and we can contact Rose with it whenever we want," handing the brooch to her, Haruki got off the chair, and began striding towards his companions. "I can't leave it with you so check what you want with it right now."
Giving the queen her orders, Haruki gestured to Moriyana and Fay to follow him out of the Shrine. However, right at the other end of the entrance, the queen of Arachne was there to disturb their need for secrecy.
"Leave us alone for now," Haruki ordered, the queen, although reluctant, gave him a bow and moved down the steep climb of the stairs.
Finally left alone, he brought his attention to the two to try and figure out exactly what was happening with Serena's body.
"Whatever you found, you're not supposed to tell anyone else but me," not knowing how the acolytes managed to escape the silver-clothed man while Serena was cursed by him, he wasn't too keen on trusting them at the moment. "So what did you find?"
Glancing at each other, Fay let Moriyana tell her part of the analysis first. Taking a step forward, she let out a sigh and dropped her shoulders before finally speaking up.
"She's cursed, but I can't undo it," looking at her with confoundment, Haruki was shocked that the person he knew to be the best in dark magic arts wasn't able to get rid of a curse.
"Why? Wait, how come you can't undo a curse? I thought someone who'd escaped the clutches of the mistress would easily be able to get rid of curses from a mortal," to his query, Fay grabbed onto Moriyana's shoulder and pulled her back before taking a step forward herself.
"The curse isn't on her exactly, it's on her soul," taking a gulp at the thought of what she'd discovered, Fay reluctantly continued. "But the part of her soul affected by the curse is no longer attached to her body, only a trace of the curse remains on her living-dead body."
Overwhelmed by the findings, Haruki could feel his head begin to ache. Shaking shock off, he pressed his fingers against his temples before asking yet another question.
"So she's dead or not?"
"No, but the part of her soul holding her memories and consciousness has been taken away by that silver man," as if expecting the question, Fay quickly gave him the answer.
'Fuck, who the hell is this guy? And what the hell does he want from us exactly?' Feeling crushed under the newfound source of stress, Haruki pulled his hands off his temples and simply decided to take a bit more time to gather his thoughts. 'I need to figure out what's happening before that guy digs too deep into Serena's mind.'
Even though Serena didn't exactly know about the colony of monsters before being cursed, Haruki feared that the silver-clothed man might show up here if he can manage to scan through her memories like a demon.
"Ask the acolytes to keep an eye on Serena, I'll be heading back to the cabin to figure out plans moving forward," saying that Haruki left the shrine in a much worse mood than he'd been while coming here.
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