Brushing off the memories of his fight with Rose, Haruki was off on his way to Moriyana's new base of operation. Following behind him were his three servants, all masked in their disguises while walking beside Fay. After having made it out of the castle, Haruki met up with the convoy adventurers to pay them off personally. There once he was done, Fay asked to accompany him to Moriyana's place since had to collect the mystery item she'd been talking about so far.
"I'm sorry…" She murmured, scratching the back of her head in embarrassment. "I didn't realize you're actually duke Laria, even though everyone kept telling me."
Placing a single step on the carriage, Haruki looked at her with his eyes squinted with frustration. The verbal battle with Rose had left him drained of any patience, and the longer it took him to get to Moriyana the worse his mood was getting.
"Now you know, don't you? Let's just put it behind us and move towards improving our professional relations," grunting at the end, he pulled himself up into the carriage.
One after the other his servants got inside, leaving Fay with more than plenty to still worry about.
'He's mad…but I guess what's the worst that can happen, right?' She thought before heaving out a sigh and getting into the carriage.
With everyone loaded up in the carriage, they began moving towards this new establishment Moriyana had allegedly constructed for herself. From what Haruki remembered he had promised her better accommodation but since he was immediately gone to Daria after that, he never had the chance to fulfill it.
'The only way she could've afforded such a task is if she's using the money from the crimes to feed her own ambitions.' Although the carriage was filled with absolute silence, Haruki's thoughts kept on racing. 'As for Fay, I still want her ability to control souls.'
While glaring at Fay's wolf scarf he didn't realize the gaze she gave back. Petrified that the duke was planning some sort of punishment, Fay shied away from his gaze and kept her mouth shut.
'Why is he looking at me like that?! Why is he looking at me like that?!' Just like Haruki, Fay's mind was also racing with questions, although the reasons for her worries were much more trivial.
After a while, as they slowly reached Moriyana's new base, Haruki looked through the window at a rather baffling sight. Erected like a tower, an inn-like structure with a red and dark theme was confidently standing at the very center of the main city.
'If this keeps going then my plan to keep her reliant on me is doomed to fail.' As the carriage finally came to a stop, Haruki jumped right off of it with everyone else following right behind. Having judged Haruki's tense mood none of them wanted to poke at him as it was bound to make things worse.
"What happened to him?" Margarette whispered to Asuka as they followed Haruki to the entrance.
"How would I know? I was in the servant's quarters getting ready just as you," she replied, her eyes fixed on Haruki's back.
Glaring up at the tacky sign with Moriyana's name written on it, Haruki winced at how out of place the whole building was. Surrounded by local home shops along with an array of housing, her base of operation was right in the middle of the residential region.
"You want me to go in first?" Stepping forward with her knives in her hands, Riley asked while posing as Ray. "From the looks of it, the place doesn't feel the safest."
"Go ahead, but I doubt you can escape her eyes," to his reply, Riley frowned her eyebrows wondering if Haruki was doubting her skills.
"As if she'll see me coming," clutching her scarf she cast the ability lonesome widow and disappeared from everyone's sight. "I'll keep you safe in case she tries something."
"What the hell?!" Squealed Fay, rubbing her eyes to make sure they didn't fail her. "Where did she do?!"
"Shut up for a moment…" huffed out Haruki seemingly too tired to deal with her. "Let's go in, I don't wanna wait for her to fail."
Pushing the door open, a heavy gust filled with dust blinded them all for a moment. Shielding their eyes, they quickly moved in.
"Goddammit, wasn't this place just recently built?!" Belladona yelled, brushing off the dust from her beautiful white dress. "It's so filthy in here, I might need to visit a cleric healer after this."
"A priest might be better," in between her fit of cough, Fay added as well.
Stepping in further, they all flinched at the dainty lanterns hanging on the walls lighting up in unison. Painting the path in a sinister red glow, the lantern flames flickered about making the shadows dance ominously as the crew moved further. Right at the end of the reception hall was a small corridor leading into a study with documents scattered all over the floor.
"There's a woman behind the desk, is this Moriyana?" Coming back into existence, Riley knelt near the passed-out woman.
Although Riley became one with Haruki's clone, since only Margarette connected with the real deal, Riley was now the only servant of his that didn't share his memories. Moving around the desk, Haruki knelt down right next to Moriyana as well. Grabbing her by the shoulder, he gestured Riley to do the same. Lifting her up, they put her on the chair right next to the study desk.
"What the hell happened to her?" Asuka asked.
"Can you try to heal her and see if that wakes her up?" Requesting Asuka to heal her, Haruki quickly checked her nerves for a pulse. "Her pulse is fine, goddammit this woman, what happened?"
Stepping forward, Fay too began making her own assessment. Placing her hand on Moriyana's head, she began mumbling some sort of spell. Soon enough her palm as well as her eyes began glowing in a blinding silver glow, and as it slowly dimmed down to normal, a muffled whimper left Moriyana's mouth.
"I hate to say this but…" drawing her hand back, she gave Haruki an awkward glance. "She had passed out from exhaustion."
'This should help me grow on him, right? I helped…well, I think I did, didn't I?' Hoping she was correct, Fay put up a smile.
The sourc𝗲 of this content is free(w)ebnov(𝒆)l