The kitchen area was bustling with servants as well as the clatter of silver. Cramped into the place were countless human servants, and trying to search for Asuka in that clutter should've taken hours. However, being ostracized by the others, Asuka was left on her own with everyone staying as far away from her as possible.
'This again?' Haruki wasn't a fan of the way she was being treated.
Attempting to move through the crowd, the servants made a clear path for him to get wherever he wanted. Surprisingly, none of them tried to get him outside, if anything their eyes eagerly followed him as he made his way to Asuka. In their head, all they cared about at the moment was to stay away from the ostracized creature.
"Asuka, I need to talk to you," busy simmering some liquid in a pot, Asuka was quite focused on the food.
"What is it, master?" She asked, keeping her gaze fixed on the pot.
A nervous jitter in her fingers caught Haruki's attention for a moment, but attributing it to the angst from being in such a hostile environment he quickly brushed it off his mind.
"I need to talk to you alone," grabbing her arm, he began to lead her away from the kitchen.
"But m-master, the food!" She cried, genuinely concerned.
"There are enough people here to handle it," glancing sideways at one of the human servants, Haruki urged her to take over.
Escaping the glaring sights of the human servants, Haruki was once again reminded of the injustice roaming the streets of Atlas. Slaves, especially demi-human slaves were treated merely as livestock to be used, abused, and discarded at the end of it all.
'I wonder what those bastards from my battalion are up to these days?' Just the thought of the atrocities he had to witness under the battalion leader made him wanna throw up.
"Nobody should be able to disturb us here,'' Having already taken a tour around the castle, Haruki was able to make it to the bathhouse without any guidance. "Now tell me, what were you trying to do in the kitchen?"
With Haruki's grasp around her arm loosened up, Asuka drew her hand back and held it clutched over her bosom. Pressed shut, her lips quivered to speak and yet no words came out of her mouth.
"What is it? You don't seem…" placing his hand over her head, he gently brushed through them, but instead of smiling like always, Asuka squinted her eyes in terror. "Hey? What happened?"
Shaking her head, she finally beamed a joyful smile. Looking back up at Haruki, she threw her arms around him and took him into an embrace.
"Nothing…I just-" burying her head against his chest, Asuka took a whiff of his scene to make sure it really was him. "Nevermind, it's nothing."
"Are you sure?" Unconvinced by her answer, he asked.
She simply nodded before legging go of his body. Stepping back, she gave Haruki a thoughtful stare. It only made him wonder what was going on in her head and what exactly she was hiding.
"About the kitchen thing," taking hold of the conversation before Haruki could ask any more questions, Asuka reached into her apron and took out two empty potion vials. "Since you were sleeping, I thought I might go ahead with the plan."
Seeing the vials emptied, it made a lot more sense as to why she would be there. Somehow, in all the madness from the last few days, he couldn't come up with such a simple yet effective plan.
"You put them in the food?" Haruki asked just to confirm his suspicion.
"Mhmm," Asuka nodded before putting the vials back into the apron. "I made sure to learn the food preferences of the two and added the pink potion in the wine, and the red in the cream stew."
Since the potions had no effects on lust demons, even if Haruki consumed the stew of wine, he had no chance of being affected by them.
"The others didn't notice?" Grinning at the swift progress she had made, Haruki enthusiastically grabbed her by the arm.
"I used charm on the ones that did," her reply was chef's kiss.
"Dammit, that's too perfect," huffing out a sigh of relief, Haruki pulled Asuka into a hug again. "You're smarter than me, who would've thought? Ahaha."
"What does that mean?" Puffing up her cheeks, she glanced up at Haruki with a hint of anger. "Not smarter than master though."
Washing the anger off her face, she got up on her heels and planted a brief kiss on her master's cheeks.
"What now, master? If I remember correctly, once the potion is in their bodies it should be easier to corrupt them, but how would we take it from there?" To her question, Haruki had already come up with an elaborate plan.
On his way from the garden after meeting up with Riley, he had enough time to mull over his thoughts and figure out how to truly corrupt and take turn the ruler of Daria into his lustful servant.
"Let's wait for the night, I'll tell you everything you need to know then," leaning into her ears, he whispered.
Trailing his hand down her spine, he reached for her butt. Lifting her up by her ass, he pressed their foreheads together.
"For now, I just wanna spend some time with my personal hardworking, beautiful, and sexy maid," rubbing their noses together, they shared a hearty chuckle.
"It's been a while hasn't it? Since we've been alone like this," smiling as she peered into Haruki's eyes, Asuka wrapped her arms across his neck.
Feeling their breaths grazing against each other's skin, they gently brushed their lips together. Melting right under his lips, Haruki could taste the sweet nectar from her cherry lips. Squeezing her flesh down there, he could feel Asuka's hands desperately crawling all over his back.
"Wanna take a bath together?" Pulling away from her warmth, he asked while undoing the apron wrapped around her body.
"Yes…" she replied blushing all over.