"Send her a letter and ask for an invite to stay," Leaning against the table, Moriyana rested her head on the back of her palms. Squishing them between her arms, Moriyana intentionally tried to show off her breasts.
"Why? It would be akin to signing my own death," Haruki rebutted, completely ignoring her advances.
"As if…" Letting out a breath on Haruki's face, Moriyana seductively trailed her index down on his nose. "Being in her castle won't only allow you to deal with her, but will also force her to stop trying to kill you."
Slapping her hand off his face, Haruki glanced at Riana sleeping on a cushioned chair in the corner. Shifting his attention back to Moriyana, he glared at her in a disgruntled manner, letting her know to stop her failed attempts at seduction.
"Aghhhh…" She grunted. Rolling her eyes she settled back into her chair across the table. "I just wanted to have some fun."
"What do you mean she can't kill me in her castle? And wouldn't it make her suspicious that I want to stay with her a week after Rose killed all of her assassins?" Ignoring her words, Haruki pushed for an answer.
To Moriyana, Haruki's questions were a product of pure naivete. Glaring at him with her weary crimson eyes, Moriyana's disappointment in Haruki reflected all over her face.
"If she kills you while you're there, at worst, she'd be the prime suspect for your murder and the emperor will sign her death without a question," Grabbing a quill pen resting in its stand, she pulled up some document from under her sleeping bat. "Parrot get off…"
Uninterested in chatter, she began to draw something on the parchment. Her lack of interest in the matter irked Haruki a lot, but even then he realized that expecting too much from the succubus was his own fault.
"And at best?" He asked, still following the symbol she was drawing.
"Mhnmm? Oh! You'd end up spending an uneventful holiday in another dutchy," Connecting intricate pattern after pattern to each other, she put the pen back into its stand. "Trust me, master, ahaha…Ahem! Margarette isn't foolish enough to try and kill you while you're staying with her."
Moriyana's confidence in the plan made him wonder if she was intentionally trying to put him into the dragon's belly. However, as her points made more sense than his own, he decided to entertain the dubious plan.
"What of her suspicion? The moment I send her that letter, she'd known for sure that her ploy had been unveiled," Watching her get off the chair and reach for a cabinet behind her, Haruki felt even more insulted as he talked. "Whatever will I achieve by staying there anyway?!"
"A new servant, wait, two new servants," taking out a vial filled with translucent liquid from the cabinet, she brought it back to the table. "As for an excuse to stay there, just tell her that you want to stay in her castle while restoration of your own is underway."
Tired of her vague plans, Haruki slammed his fist on the table before jumping onto his feet. But as Riana began to mumble something from the noise in her sleep, his whole body quickly regressed his aggression.
"Don't wake the child, she had a lot to study tomorrow," Moriyana teased while placing the vial over the scribbled parchment.
"She'd never be willing to turn into my servant, hell, there's no way she'd let me bed her," Stacking his verbal complaints, Haruki watched as Moriyana twirled the vial on top of the parchment.
As she mumbled incoherently, a mystifying light began to seep from the ink. At first, it lit up in patches, more prominent in spaces with the most amount of ink. Eventually, however, the whole thing lit up in a blinding pink. Stretching upwards, the light conformed into a reaching hand and it coiled its fingers around the glass vial. Merging with the clear liquid, it left behind a luminous pink potion.
"What the hell was that?" Haruki mumbled, still bewildered by the glistering sight.
"The last thing, I'm doing for free, that's what this is," Holding the potion towards him, she let him try to grab it before pulling it away from his grasp. "Now, before I tell you what this is capable of, or what you need to do to make that bitch of a queen, your bitch, I want something more than just scowls and frowns."
'Like I expected any less.' Washing off the aggression from his face, Haruki put on a neutral facade.
"I've already given you the exclusive right to trade slaves in my territory, what else do you want?" Clenching his teeth he suppressed his annoyance. "I was about to have you oversee and take hold of all the criminal activities as well, but now, it might depend on your answer."
Hearing the last part, her eyes widened glimmering with joy. With a wide grin taking over her face, she let out a cackle and Handed the potion to Haruki. Taking a closer look at the luminous potion, he could hear a strange whisper coming off of it.
"So what do you want?" He asked again.
"A better place, something more formal and tidier," Circling around with her hands wide open, her eyes wandered looking at the horrible state of the tent. "The innkeepers can't house my slaves for long, and just the expense of keeping them there is costing me a fortune."
Her request was much more reasonable than Haruki had expected. But then he remembered all the other privileges she would soon be provided with. After taking hold of criminal business, she would rarely need to rely on his generosity.
'Perhaps, I should find a way to keep her reliant on me.'
"I'll provide you with something, but I'll need your slaves to construct a trade route in the meantime," Being on the topic of mutual exchange, Haruki decided to bring up what he had discussed with the council. "I've already talked to the councilmen, we're gonna need a lot more of your slaves, and a lot more labor."
"Delightful!" Settling back into her chair, Moriyana flicked the snoring bat with her finger to wake him up. "Bring us some tea, my master and I might be having a long conversation."
"An exchange of plans rather. you tell me how to take care of Margarette, and I'll let you in on everything the councilmen and I discussed in our meeting"
"Very well, I was excited for you to make Daria's ruler your servant anyway," Moriyana replied, grinning ear to ear.
'I've never seen her smile like that, are all lust demons just as crazy?' Looking back at his own evil deeds, Haruki wondered who the real monster was in this barter amongst devils.