After the guards came rushing in, Serena's acolytes weren't too far behind either. Concerned for their priestess's safety they marched in through the meeting hall, and the moment their eyes saw Serena laying asleep on the ground, the gasping shock on their faces was viscerally unsettling.
"What have you done?!" Screamed a male blonde follower while the others rushed to pick her up.
"Oh shut up! She's just sleeping!" Moriyana replied, still holding Haruki by the arms.
Glancing over her shoulder, Haruki noticed the scarf wolves growling at the guards trying to protect their master Fay. In the meantime, as he was being tugged on by Moriyana and as well as Riana, his mind just couldn't figure out what to deal with first.
"Halt!" Holding his hand up, he gestured the guards to let the intruders be. "I'm fine, leave these three in here, and take Serena's followers back with you."
Trying to defuse the situation, he wanted to reduce the number of people he had to deal with first. However, upon hearing his order towards the guards, the acolytes didn't appear too happy or complacent.
"Like hell, we're taking a step out of the castle!" The same blonde follower handed his flag to the person behind him, but as he tried to move toward Haruki, the leader of the guards halted him with a blade to the neck. "You think I'm afraid? We're not leaving until your master explains exactly what happened here!"
"Watch your tongue, he's your master to you heretic," purposefully calling him a heretic, the guard's leader reminded the man of their commandment to follow the ruler. "Now, step off before I take your head."
Watching it all unfold, the followers helping Serena back onto her feet began carrying her towards the exit. Holding her in their arms, they all had their eyes closed with a deep blush running over their faces. Directing them towards the exit were the two servant dolls who seemed to have popped out of nowhere again.
"What did you do?" Asked the one with dusky eyes.
Relieved that they didn't see what happened, Haruki wondered where exactly the dolls disappeared into and then popped out of.
"Keep moving you creepy thing," insulting Serena's servant, Moriyana finally took a step away from Haruki.
"You loud-mouthed bit-" Once again the blonde, who could've been their leader tried to say something but got interrupted when someone from behind placed their hand on his shoulder.
Moving forward, a girl with long dark hair beamed a smile at the slave peddler. Glancing around at everyone she kept the smile up before returning to look at Moriyana.
"I'd advise you not to insult the priestess's familiars please, they might not look like it but you wouldn't want to deal with them when the priestess is in real danger," nodding her head, she moved back into the rest of the crowd.
Ushered off the room, the acolytes quickly disappeared from the hall. Left with the rest of the crew, Haruki pulled up a chair to collect his thoughts a little.
"So? What did she ask you? Did you say anything? Why was she unconscious when we came in?" Showering him with questions, Moriyana wasn't making things any easier for him.
'Why's Fay here? I can't ask her anything I wanna know with her around.' Glaring into her eyes for a moment, he had her follow his gaze behind her shoulders. 'Do you really want me to tell you everything with her around?'
Unfortunately, he couldn't speak that out loud either. Looking over to Fay, Moriyana realized what Haruki was hinting at, but turning back around she ignored his gesture completely.
"I'll explain later, just know there was a burglar at my place, and I made a huge mess taking care of him," briefly whispering the same excuse she'd made to Fay, Moriyana continued on with the interrogation. "Now tell me, you didn-"
"Can you give me a second to think at least?" Although the guards were somewhat aware of the partnership between the state and Moriyana's slave trade, Haruki was struggling over how he would explain her barging in like that. "And don't burst in like this ever again."
Scowling at the remark, she crossed her arms before pulling herself further.
"After learning that the priestess was coming here, I thought you'd need help, but I guess I was wrong," a bit snarky she kept glaring at Haruki.
"Sure, sure," fanning his hands to brush off the topic, she had Fay and Riana wait for them outside while he explained everything that's happened to her.
By the end of the explanation, Moriyana was just as confused and troubled as Haruki. Having pulled out a chair for herself, she sat there with fingers caressing her temples to drive off the migraine.
"You've had an eventful morning," she shot at him.
"Not as eventful as your night," Haruki shot back, referring to the events she has described to him about her escape from the torturous prison.
A moment of silence lingered between the two. Feeling lost and left without clear directions, the way forward was murky at best. Moriyana had no slaves to sell, and all her servants were left crippled or dead. As for Haruki, so much was racing through his mind that couldn't really pick and choose which direction he should go.
'I need Fay's ability in case I do die, which is highly plausible now. I need to clean up on the mess that Razor must've created throughout the duchy, then there's Serena who's really close to figuring me out….and the emperor, he won't stay blind to my plans for long either.' With his close advisor and servant Moriyana lost for a word, the only other person he could turn to was possibly also his worst enemy. 'No matter how much I try I can't get a response from Asmodia, she might've been able to help.'
"What should we do?" asked Haruki.
"I'll try to hasten the arrival of my next batch of slaves, and maybe hunt for some servants too," Replied Moriyana, getting off the chair. "What about you? Can you still use the mistress's abilities? Cause that'll help us out a lot."
"Mistress of darkness must've triggered in some way, I can't manually activate it," Checking his status, he shook his head in disapproval. The long list of Asmodia's skills was now gone completely.
As his gaze matched hers again, a loud crashing sound from the upper floor shook the whole castle from its very core. Hastily getting off the desk, Haruki glared up at the ceiling wondering exactly what had caused the loud reverberations.
"What the fuck was that?" Moriyana whispered under her breath.
'I think I know…' Having heard a similar crashing sound before, Haruki had a pretty good idea as to what was happening. 'The day can't get any fucking worse, can it?'
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