Returning from minotaur hunting, Haruki had just arrived at Moriyana's base while masking himself as the mercenary Arnold. The moment he stepped in through the door, a wave of dust particles assaulted him in the face.
"Goddammit, the least she can do is keep this place tidy," fanning off the dust, he quickly made his way to her office.
There behind the half-shut door, Moriyana was dozing off with one of her hands supporting her head and the other holding a quill pen. Pushing the door open, Haruki carefully pulled out the chair across without making any noise. Just taking a moment to relax, he stared at the conniving but otherwise enchanting beauty.
"Seeing her like this it's impossible to know what kind of horrors she's capable of," reaching out to her bubbly cheeks, he ran his hand down to her lips. There as a strand of her long curly hair caught his attention, he took it between his fingers and gently ran along its length. "Appearance can be deceiving I guess…"
As he mumbled those last words, she frowned in her sleep and a few incoherent mumbles escaped those cherry lips. Drawing his hand away from her, he watched her eyes slowly open up. Blinking a few times, she squinted at him to make sure she wasn't dreaming and that Haruki was actually sitting across her in his mercenary form.
"Wha-wha? I-'' Still a bit drowsy, her hand under her chin slipped, sending her face crashing down against the desk. "Ouch!"
"Should I laugh or not?" Haruki mocked with a smirk.
"Should I tear your balls off or not?!" She shot back, glaring up at him in rage.
Beaming a light smile, Haruki let the matter go. Washing her anger off her face, Moriyana picked herself up and set the quill back into its holder. Stacking the documents she'd been working on, she jammed them into a drawer.
"So why are you here?" Intertwining her fingers, she leaned onto the table. "I've already sent off the duchy's share of the gold so it better not be about that."
"No, I don't really care about the gold," said Haruki and tried to add further before Moriyana interjected.
"Then what? You need my advice on something? I've already told you to get me some minotaurs, and I'll help you take Fay's abilities plus there's the surprise too," still a bit cranky from being woken up so abruptly, Moriyana wasn't really in the mood for chatter.
"Speaking of Fay, where is she now? I haven't seen her since our last meeting," Haruki asked, not sure if she was even in the duchy anymore.
"I took some stuff from her as advance payment so until you capture those minotaurs, I can't really make her what she needs," reaching down her desk again, she pulled out a half-filled bottle of wine. "So…she's staying in Laria, coming here every day asking whether her potion is ready."
Bringing the neck of the bottle near her lips, she began drowning herself in alcohol.
"Potion? What potion?" Realizing her mishap, Moriyana sprayed out the content in her mouth.
Barely missing him, all the wine was splattered beside him on the desk.
"Keep your mouth shut about the potion for now!" Clasping her hands together, she made a genuine request. "You were gonna know about it sooner or later, but don't mention anything about it to Fay for now."
Puzzled as to why she was so bothered by the mention of a potion, Haruki decided to just do as he was told for the moment.
"Anyway, I have captured two minotaurs. I hope that'd be enough for you," opening up a small portal into the minotaur prison, Haruki showed the two tentacle-chained prisoners.
Dumbfounded by the sight, Moriyana kept glaring at the beasts squirming around inside the fleshy prison. Shaking her head, she squinted her eyes a few times just to be sure she wasn't dreaming with open eyes. However, no matter how long she peered into the portal, the beasts were still present and struggling inside the dungeon.
"How did you?" Still glaring at him, she asked with a gaping jaw.
"I don't wanna get into it right now, also can you help me with this thing?" stretching his hand forward, he presented her with the red jeweled ring tightly fitted into his finger. "I can't get it off and shapeshifting doesn't hide it either."
Although he didn't want to integrate her help, running around with that ring was a glaring hazard for ease of recognition. Taking his hand in hers she snapped her fingers to conjure up an examining glass. Looking through it at the ring from all directions, she read out loud a small engraving on the underside of the ring.
"Minotaur king's ring..." she mumbled.
Pulling her head away, she looked at him in awe.
"You know that's a treasure, right? No minotaur can ignore your command if you're wearing it," upon hearing her explanation, Haruki felt a bit moronic for not sneaking inside the cave to get the ring first.
"I don't care what it does right now, I just want it off of my finger," saying that, he huffed a tired sigh.
"Why don't you sell it to me then? I can use it, I don't have to mask my presence so it'd be quite inconspicuous," a bit reluctant to hand her the ring, Haruki wondered if there was another way to get rid of the strange equipment.
"Ahhh, sure, go ahead. Take it off of my finger," deciding that it wasn't worth the trouble of risking his true identity being found, Haruki gave in to her demand.
"Alright then!" Snapping her fingers once more, she conjured up a butcher knife. "Here I go!"
Perplexed as to what she was trying to do, Haruki tried to grab her hand, but she managed to bring the knife down before he could even move a finger.
"What the fuck?!" He growled as she cleaved his fingers from his hands. "I thought you had a real plan, you bitch!"
"Just heal it," shrugging off Haruki's complaint, she kept chopping up the finger until the ring slid right off.
"What's happening here? I was trying to take a nap," rubbing her eyes and yawning, Riana came out of the other room.
But as she opened them up to the sight of blood and gore, it froze her heart. Chilled to the bone, she instantly lost consciousness from the sudden state of shock.
'I should've just stuck with my plan to research this stuff on my own.' Vowing never to trust Moriyana with his hands, he used rejuvenation on Riana before healing himself.
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦