Absolute Depravity: Reincarnated with a lustful System-Chapter 22 - A Walk Through Dirt And Mud
Cloaking himself in a rag, Haruki managed to sneak outside the castle. In his tow was Asuka masking herself the same way. Although he hadn't planned to bring her along with him, Asuka's insistence on tagging along left him little to no choice.
"Mask presence!" Activating the spell, Haruki changed his appearance to that of a middle-aged man. 𝒷𝓮𝒹𝓃ℴ𝓿𝓮𝓁.𝓬𝓸𝓂
Uncloaking himself, he revealed the full scope of his transformation. Short unkempt ginger hair pointed in all directions, and the ragged trimmed beard went perfectly with the leather armor of a mercenary. For a moment his mind wondered if he could've just shapeshifted into Snow instead of overtaking him, but then he remembered the words constantly uttered by Asmodia.
'Vessel, was it? Perhaps it's a part of her revival ritual?' Unlike Moriyana, and Asuka who were also lust demons, Haruki was artificially created by the demon lord of lust, and thus to give his very existence some semblance of balance, he had to take over a physical vessel before being able to use any of his abilities or magic. 'What else is she hiding?'
"You should change too," The deep voice that came out of his lips left Asuka a bit dazed.
"O-okay…" Shutting her eyes closed, she went on to imagine a bodily disguise.
Upon opening her eyes again, she had grown much taller and as her eyes trailed down the now gigantic breasts, she noticed her legs slipping out of the slits of the debaucherous mage's outfit.
"Let's go before anyone sees us here," Grabbing Asuka's hand, Haruki began walking down the path to the inner city.
Unlike Haruki who seemed determined to complete his task, Asuka was distracted by the romanticized joys of strolling with her master under the twinkling night sky. Blushing all over her fair skin, she locked her arms with Haruki, and in doing so the warmth of his touch against her near-bare breasts, made her heart skip beat after beat.
'So what if we're on a mission, I'm done suppressing my feelings towards master!' Justifying her actions, she beamed a smile throughout the walk.
Getting to the inner city, Haruki decided to take a lone stroll to see assess just what kind of place he was supposed to govern. So far, to him, the city as well as its people seemed carefree and joyous, but adhering to his past memories, he knew better than to judge them on first impression.
'For all I know, they might be just as blind as the witnesses from my execution.' Sighing at the reminder of the deranged memory, Haruki shifted his mind back to the mission.
"You remember the plan?" Brushing Asuka's hair back, Haruki turned his head to her.
Her head rested against his shoulder, she was lost in glee enjoying the leisurely moment. Seeing how lost she was, Haruki called out her name and brought her back to her senses.
"Wh-what? S-sorry!" squinting her puppy eyes, Asuka pouted apologetically.
"It's okay, but I need you to focus now," Peering right back at her with a comforting smile on his face, Haruki continued. "Head over to the adventurer's guild and gather information about the mercenaries and adventurers there. Once I'm done with my part of the plan, I'll meet you there shortly."
Uncoiling her arms around Haruki, Asuka took a step back and nodded. Having shapeshifted as a beautiful mage, her job was to gather information about prospecting mercenaries and adventurers. Being in such a dangerous profession they bound to be strong people who could easily be made use of. And if nothing else, simply draining their levels was always a viable option.
"Um..." a bit fidgety, Asuka crossed her legs as she glanced sideways at her master, "Master…you're going to meet Moriyana, right?"
Her body language alone was enough to convey her doubts to Haruki. Huffing out a sigh, he moved closer. Resting his hand on her long silver hair, he gave her head a brush by moving his hand side to side.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything with her this time," Being lovingly patted by Haruki, Asuka purred like a cat as her eyes gleamed a radiant glow. "I just need to talk to her about the queen, and figure out what we can do about her."
Since turning Rose into a servant was off the table for now, Haruki had decided to get stronger while also trying to deal with the murderous queen looming over his shoulders. However, for any of that to be possible, he was in desperate need of servants as well as new skills and most importantly even more levels.
"Mhmnmm," Nuzzling up to his hand, Asuka gives Haruki a nod.
Slipping away from her grasp, Haruki waves to her before heading into the opposite direction. Once her master had disappeared into the dark alleys, Asuka too made her towards the adventurer's guild.
Walking down the chilly paths around the city, Haruki's eyes scanned for people. As the experience from his past life being a military spy came back to him in bits and pieces, nothing went unnoticed from his watchful eyes. Easily being able to assess the kind of places he was looking for he began his search for criminal activity around the city.
'There…' Even from afar he could sense something off about a secluded dark alley in the distance. Moving by the roadside shops and houses, he glanced at their windows to make sure nobody was out at this hour of the night. Sneaking right at the edge of the alley, Haruki hid in the shows watching a pair of silhouetted figures conversing in the alley.
Staying at a safe distance, he glared at them trying make out their appearances more clearly. Kicking into action his demonic side, brightened his vision to look through the dark with ease. Of the two men, one was wearing a large hood that hid half of his upper face, and the other was masking himself with nothing but a simple scarf around his whole head.
"Where's the girl?" The hooded man asked.
"With a customer, but she should be on her way back," the other guy replied while scratching his arm.
Having a general idea of the situation, Haruki decided to move along and look for other suspicious activities. But as he was trying to get away he couldn't help but question what was happening. 'Are they selling a girl's body for gold? I expected nothing less from this place.' Trying not to draw too much attention to himself, he quickly distanced himself from the men before his curiosity got him into any trouble.
'Tyrant's heart' forcing Haruki's mind into an indifferent emotional state, the curse activated itself.
"Again with this thing?!" He growled out loud, tired of the constant activation of the same curse.
Since the night of the nightmare with Asmodia, yet another curse had taken a hold of his body. However, unlike carnal curse that affected his body, tyrant's heart affects his emotions more than anything. Every time Haruki began to feel any sort of empathy towards others or even when he regrets his questionable discissions, the curse activated and gave him a moment of emotionless clarity.
After giving it a bit of thought it wasn't hard to guess why Asmodia put that curse on him, after all, the only thing making him question his every move was his own sympathy towards others.
"Mister…mister…" Grabbing his shirt, a little girl tugged on him.
Shaking his head, Haruki drove his thought away before looking down at the girl. Covered in mud and bruises a small child was nervously fidgeting while glaring up at him. Dried tears marks ran all over her face, and from the contorted and snotty expression on her face, she seemed on the verge of breaking into tears once again.
"Who are you?" Haruki asked.
Holding her hands upwards, her eyes appeared begging to be picked up in his arms.
'Tyrant's heart!' The announcement rang again in his head. Sobbing to herself, she couldn't utter a single word.
"Where's your guardian?" He asked, bracing for the worst.
'Tyrant's heart! Tyrant's heart!' Completely ignoring the curse, his mind was on the verge of a frenzy.
Holding her finger in the direction Haruki had just come from, the little girl turned his fears into a heart-wrenching reality.
"Stay here," kneeling down to the kid, he forced a smile.
'I was hoping to take hold of these crimes for profit and to make the masses hunger for the immoral, however, now it seems that culling down a few of these atrocities wouldn't be that bad of a prospect for the future.' Offering himself that twisted justification, Haruki turned around and leaped back towards the dark alley.
