BXBX NOVEL Chapter 98 98 - Control, Love, And Freedom [Part 3]
'Although I doubt she made this thing a maze without any real purpose.' Knowing Moriyana full well, Haruki knew that there must be a reason why she made the building so confusing to traverse through.
"Asuka?" Feeling lightheaded, Haruki called out to Asuka as he reached the corridor leading to Moriyana's office.
"Master?" Replied the worried demi-fox.
Peeking out the office door, Asuka's eyes widened as she noticed Haruki stumbling his way toward her. Leaving whatever she was doing, she rushed over to him and helped him walk through the corridor and take a seat on one of the chairs.
"I'm going, I promised Rose that she'll be free from the curse before nightfall," lightly panting while glaring at Moriyana seated on the other end of the table, Haruki felt viscerally impatient. "I heard you had a plan about hastening the corruption of the Larian people, tell me quickly so I can head on back."
Tired herself after working through countless documents for the day, Moriyana's continence had all but fallen as well. Quickly tearing a page from her clipboard, she began writing down everything so didn't have too much time verbally explaining.
"I need your written permission to start a brothel here with the incoming slaves," finishing writing on the page, she handed it over to him. "They're mostly women or feminine men for the more adventurous eccentrics, just sign this paper and I will file it to the councilmen myself."
Despite being an incubus himself, Haruki wasn't too keen on sexual activity, and thus trying to judge just how a simple brothel would help their plans was quite an enigma to him.
"How will this help exactly? I get that you want perversion but…" Staring at her waiting for an answer, Haruki was met with an exalted look.
"I thought you didn't have time? And If you're so worried, I'll send a copy explaining my plan later," pushing the parchment towards him with the quill resting on top, Moriyana tapped her finger at the empty spot he had to sign.
Taking the document in his hands, he tried to read it, but with his tired brain he could only read the words, but their meaning completely escaped his mind. Grunting in frustration, he picked up the quill and signed onto it as Snow even though no part of Snow was left in him anymore.
After signing up the document, Haruki didn't waste a second and was off on his way back to the castle. As Asuka and he rode through the twilight sky, he felt an urgency to get back to Rose before she assumed that Haruki was trying to back on his words by stalling for time.
"She's not gonna like the fact that I just signed for prostitution to be legal in the duchy," mentioning it to Asuka with a somewhat weak smile, Haruki let his shoulders drop.
"I thought she wasn't concerned with human suffering?" Asuka asked.
"That's true but slaves remind her of her brother and her situation, so it's probably best we keep these things secret," nodding at Asuka, Haruki urged her to nod back.
"Sure, I'll tell the others not to mention it around her either," nodding back, Asuka agreed.
Reaching the castle, the sun was barely visible over the horizon. While being a little late wouldn't have affected anything at all, Haruki wasn't planning on backing up his words, especially when it came to a promise he made to Rose.
'She'll actually eat me alive if I'm late.' He thought before getting off the carriage.
Rushing into the castle, he used a dungeon portal to use its small distance teleportation and travel exactly where he expected Rose to be. Standing in dark with the only light coming out of Rose's burning hair, he bore witness to a peculiar yet adorable sight.
"Remember when you fell in one of the volcanoes?" Snuggled up with Klian's tail wrapped around her, Rose had her head rested against his belly. "I had to jump in and save you."
"That was the first volcano I covered up in snow too, ahaha," their eyes closed shut, both of them were relishing in their shared memories.
Watching over them as he stood in a dark corner, Haruki couldn't bring himself to break the bonding moment between the two. Reaching into the dungeon portal Haruki grabbed the jar with Snow's soul and then teleported it near Roselia's feet.
"Thank you…" To his surprise, however, Rose gently opened her eyes and looked right at him standing in the distance. "For keeping your end of the deal, we promise to do the same so long as we deem the task fit."
Saying those words, Rose closed her eyes again. Flipping over to the side, she threw her arms over her brother and let her mind drift off to take a rest. Wrapping her tighter with his tail, Klian opened his eyes too and took a quick glance at the incubus duke.
Unlike his big sister, however, he simply nodded at Haruki as a sign of respect before resting his neck on the ground and coiling it inward towards Rose.
'I should go, they can do what they must with the soul.' Leaving the dragons with the soul of the descendant of their captor, Haruki teleported away to rest inside his room.
However, deep into the night as he slept, he felt part of him dying far away from his body. But what was just momentary pain for him, was the end of centuries-long torture of the dragons and the last step to achieving their freedom.