Asmodeus (3) - Octavia's Smile

"Fuyu! Aki! Come back here you little brats! Do you think you can feed my spirit stones to your dogs and get away? Heh. In your dreams!" Even though Yukina had the face of an angel, her words and expression were a deep contrast to it.

"Bleh!" The twin sisters stuck their tongues out towards her but her expression did not falter. Yukina may have anger in her voice but her face was cold like she did not give a damn about anyone in the world.

Everything about her is just conflicting. Nothing matched. She was a mess of a human being.

As the twins were running, it only took them a glance to find the group that was observing their shenanigans.

"Our saviors! Hehehe!" The twin's faces grinned in sync. They had found the lambs that were going to hide the two wolves.

The girls swiftly turned to the side and ran towards the somewhat small group of many women and one man.

They ran into the body of the frail Akari and hugged her legs tightly. Their expressions changed once again as their sinister grins changed into a frown and looked at their sister with puppy dog eyes.

It looked like their eyes were dams that were on the brink of collapse. The salty tears would not talk long to fall out.

When she was hugged so suddenly, she was about to fall back and trip due to her thin body but was able to react quickly and stabilize herself. She wanted to lightly scold the twins for what they had done as she had clearly heard the screaming Yukina.

They had stolen the spirit stones and fed them to the dogs. That was definitely unacceptable behavior.

Unfortanley, Akari had a very soft heart and could not bear disciplining children. Especially when they are as cute as the twins. She sighed and started to pet the two girls on their heads.

Fuyui and Akina borrowed their heads into an embrace and their faces had become sinister again but no one could see their expressions. Except for Daren that is.

"Hehe. Foolish big sis. She always for the puppy eyes." The twins laughed in their heads as they had the same thoughts.

"Akari! Don't even try to protect these two. I'm going to take them to mother and give them a good spanking!" Yukina maintained her cold expression as she approached the group. Her strides had aggressiveness in them though.

"Why don't you let them be. I will talk to mother myself and get them punished." Akari held on to the twins like they are priceless treasures.

"Hmph. You the last time I let you handle the punishment, you took them to a popular bakery and fed them their favorite treats." Yukina is now only a meter away from Akari. She stared at the innocent girl with a cold and vicious look.

"We are not even from the same mother. You have no right to punish them. Plus, the last time we let you punish my harmless sister, you locked them in a dark room for 7 hours." Akari's calm expression started to shift towards a more vengeful one as he remembered what Yukin had done to the twins in the past.

"That is what they deserved. I would do it again and this time, I'll do much worse." Yukina then snapped her fingers as her cultivation aura exploded from her body and raged like an uncontrollable beast.

In her hands then appeared a silver sword with a dozen magic circles engraved on the hilt. Akari did the same as the aura spread as well. Her sword was not silver tough as it was red rapier with a blue tip that glowed ominously.

This explosion of a cultivator's aura was caused by the sudden use of their force cores snd elements. Both girls had similar yet different aura's as they both cultivated related elements.

Akari had awakened the element of 'Crescent Moon' while Yukina had awakened the 'Blood Moon' element.

Akari had the calmness of the moon in her aura but was mixed in with the dangerous feeling of an unsheathed, sharp blade. Yukina had a calm aura too except it was more like the calmness of a predator playing with his prey. Pretending to be weak before it pounces out for the kill.

The two, silver hair, silver eyes, half-sisters stared daggers at each other as Daren noticed a dozen thin shreds of killing intent.

'They are not only serious about killing each other but have killed plenty of times. These hints of killing intent are probably from killing around 30 or 40 people.' Daren had boundless experience with killing intent as he himself had a kill count of millions.

He had felt killing intent on many occasions and would easily be able to sense the kill counts of others with ease.

The two girls stood in relaxed battle stands as they showed their fighting experience and unyielding attitudes. Their sharp stances and firm footing showed Daren that they had quite a bit of experience in the use of swords.

After letting the stare down go on for 2 minutes where neither of the girls made a single move, Octavia broke the silence with a forced cough.

"Ahem!" The two girls noticed the sexy Octavia who interrupted their trance and looked over at her with murderous eyes. "We have guests at the palace today. How hard is it for you two to hold back those barbaric attitudes of yours? Father has told us to be at our best of behavior. You two can fight in the secluded arena. Not in the open."

Octavia lectured the two girls as they slowly retracted the swords, aura's, and killing intent swiftly. She smiled when seeing the two girls fluster expressions and bow their heads down like sad dogs.

"As for you two!" Octavia set her gaze towards the twins who had somehow sneaked behind Celina during the initial moments of chaos.

"I'm going to need a full explanation of what you two runts did. Since father will have some time tonight, I'll make him decide the punishment..... Oh! Wait a second. I think grandfather is free as well. I'll just hand the two of you to him.

The twin's grins had flown away from their faces with the mention of their grandfather. Their legs were weak as they trembled and their expression turned dire. They let go of Celina's dress and started to run hurriedly.

"Running is useless." Octavia snapped her fingers as a pink, Chinese fan with lotus decorations appeared from this air. She lightly waved it in the air.

This caused pink tendrils of translucent mist to appear and apprehend the twin girls by the waist. They were wrapped up and dragged towards Octavia who had nothing but her seductive smile on her face. You could never tell her emotions

"I'll take the guests two their lodgings. You two take the twins to Arista Palace. Yukina and Akari nodded very fast and vigorously as they talked looked at each other and took one twin each.

They held onto them using the pink mist as it was a rope. Octavia fanned herself for three seconds before snapping her fingers and making them disappear.

"Well then. We shall continue on our tour then. I hope that inconvenience was not too much of a bother?" Octavia asked kindly. Seeing as to how she tamed the two other princesses', the group just nodded in agreement due to an innate fear.

They made up their minds not to offend this princess who had to be strong. Daren could not see her cultivation level because she had a higher one than him. He knew she was a cultivator from the moment he saw her and the rest of the princesses.

Even though he wasn't scared one bit, he still needed to show a little bit of it since it would allow him to appear the way he wanted.

While Daren was in the palace, his idea was to appear somewhat docile and easy to get along with while also being someone who understood social hierarchy. This way, when his immense talent for cultivation is revealed, people would not see him as a threat but would rather want to make connections with and rope him into their factions.

Just like all places, there were countless large and small factions vying for political power. Daren wanted some of that too as it would make his plans much easier. So his goal for his stay in the capital was to build up as humongous backing.

After another half hour of Octavia spewing out knowledge about locations in the palace, everyone was on the brink of mental exhaustion again. Hearing Octavia's nonstop voice going on about detailed descriptions of everything was too much for a group that had finished a three-day trip.

Their rooms had been uncomfortable and the atmosphere was boring as there was nothing to do except rest, sleep, and eat. The worst part about all this was that Octavia did not seem to notice the group's frustration or rather choose not to care. She still had a bright face and seductive smile as if she could go on about the palace for countless hours.

The group wanted to stuff her mouth, tie her up and then toss her down a river. They could though as she could probably slaughter them without blinking.

"Ah, here we are. Welcome to Marco Manor. Name after the 15th Emperor Marco Corso Asmodeus. It has a hot spring in the basement, a floral garden in the back, a training field on, a specialized cultivation chamber, and 30 bedrooms to choose from."

This manor was much like a renaissance era building that was, made with white, polished stone and bricks. It had a sloped roof made from what seemed like some green, stone tiles. There were glossy, blue-tinted windows with golden accents. It had 3 floors and was surrounded by dozens of guards in red color, full plate armor.

Some carried swords or spears while others had long lances and bulky shields. None of the guard's faces could be seen but their straight backs and paced patrols gave off a feeling of heavy military discipline.

This heavy mood was offset but the countless amount of short green grass and lively flowers that surrounded the whole building. There was enough open space to build three other of these gigantic manors. So much space wasted just for making it look good.

'Not that I mind having such a nice place to live. It has to be the best home I have seen yet If I exclude the towering imperial place that we landed next to.

"This is far as I can go. There will be taking over from maids here." Octavia then turned around and left.

Poof!

Once she had gotten about 29 meters away from the group, Octavia had turned a pillar of pink mist and disappeared.

Following her sudden disappearance, the doors to the mansion opened quietly as two rows of young and pretty maids walked out in two, single-file lines.

They lined up on the wide, granite pathway that was smooth and shone as it had just been waxed. After them, an older lady, seemingly in her fifty's, wearing a black and white dress, walked out and passed the crowd of maids as she paced herself over to Daren and his family.

when she had gotten close enough, she bowed her head and said "Welcome to Marco Manor. I am head maid Penelope Von Asteros. On the orders of the empress, I will be assisting the young ladies and gentlemen during your stay."

'Looks like I've found target number one.'