The dragon's harem

Aella and Isids were trying their best to calm the crowd, and Zephyr who was suppose to help them seemed to have went to take a nap just a few minutes ago. How could she leave them like this, even Aella couldn’t believe it.

But it didn’t take them long to understand why. The whole sky suddenly turned black, and the stars seemed to shine brighter. It was supposed to be noon, so the night coming so soon sent the nobles into panic for a moment.

“What is going on here?” Arad’s voice boomed in the sky, and the sun returned just as it had disappeared moments ago. From the receding darkness, he fell, clad in black onyx armor. As he landed right between the crowd and his wives, everyone took a step back, staring at the ten-foot-tall giant.

“I’ll be honest.” Another voice came from behind Aella and Isdis, and when everyone turned back, they saw a tall woman with hair that seemed to be waved out of rainbows. “If my people acted like this, I would be having a nice dinner that night.”

Not most of the nobles recognized her, but those who did only heard of her in stories, ancient writings, and books. The chromatic dragon queen, Lola. At her side, a beautiful woman clad in steel armor sighed, “Listen, how many times I’ve… forget it, speaking with you makes my head hurt.”

More of the nobles recognized the second woman, or drakaina. She was Mary, the metallic dragon queen. And the nobles wanted to know one thing: how are those two monsters standing side by side without killing each other?

A loud voice laughed beside them. “I see, this looks like a problem.” Tempo was standing there with a large old man who looked too muscular for his age. “Humans are fun, aren’t they?” That was Zeus, now the former storm titan king. Princess Tyal was already frozen in her room as one of Arad’s clones appeared, sitting on her bed, glaring at her with burning purple eyes. “We’ll talk about what happened to Zeus in detail.” A gentle smile appeared on his face, but she was still horrified.

The nobles outside weren’t having it any easier as Lucifer and Gabriel appeared, one claimed that the nobles are heretics for rising against their fair ruler, and the other was already sharpening his sword to help them repent.

Gojo was also sitting on the balcony, looking down at the people, a literal goddess sitting on his shoulders.

Arad approached his wives and asked, “What is going on here?” His eyes then shifted to the nobles, “I just returned from gathering them… did something happen while I was away?”

One of the nobles who could discern lies looked at Arad with a puzzled face. Arad wasn’t lying, he had just returned from gathering those people, so the noble concluded on his own. While humanoid kingdoms simply sent their daughters here or opted for emissaries, Arad had to go on his own to invite the other powerful races, which took a long time.

So while they were here claiming their new emperor was fake, he was out trying to build the empire’s relationships with the powerhouses of the world. Even the eternal queen of the beast land, who never left her kingdom, was standing there and looking at the castle with an amused smile.

Hati had never left her house in centuries and was quite curious to see where her daughters were going to live. This was probably the only reason she decided to follow Arad today. She could already feel Astrid and Frida running around the inner quarters of the castle.

Arad, on the other hand, looked at the people who had just noticed how large he was and that the sky had turned into night for a few seconds as he arrived. Just what kind of power does he have?

It didn’t take the nobles more than a few moments to leave the castle with hurried steps. Aella and Isdis approached Arad, both glad to see him and confused about where all of those people had come from.

“I can’t really explain to them that I was in hell, and that would cause us a lot of trouble even if I told them.” Arad shrugged and looked back at the castle, “Anyway, sorry for the long absence. I managed to find Mira’s father and save everyone, they were stuck in a dark place in hell. It is a long story.”

“Hell? You went to hell?” Gabriel flew toward them, “Forgive me for listening without permission, but you survived hell? And brought someone back?”

Arad pointed at Gabriel and sighed, “See? I can explain a few things to him, but what if all people had to ask? I can lie to them, but what kind of kingdom…empire are we building here? I’d rather at least not build it upon lies.”

Isdis sighed, “You’re right, and the reason we had a hard time chasing them away is that some of them could discern lies. You technically didn’t lie, and they didn’t dare stay longer with all of the powerful people you brought…” She smiled, “I’m glad you can handle the kingdom’s affairs on your own, if need be.”

Arad nodded and looked at the castle, “Now we can rest for a bit, catch up, and forget all of the previous bloodshed.” He sighed, “And probably get yelled at by Betty for skipping class for weeks.”

Aella looked at him with a smile, “Do you know that everyone in the university already knows about you becoming an emperor?”

Arad froze, “What?” and his eyes twitched.

“The reason you hid your identity there was that we were afraid the nobles and royals of the world would pull their children away. But now… It’s the opposite.” She looked back at the castle, “I was horrified when I found out that some of our classmates were the children of rich nobles and merchants, even the royals of small kingdoms… and they are here.” She looked at one of the windows with a pale face.

Isdis was the one to speak next. “She was expecting some girls that she knew from the university to walk into the marriage interview. Those girls were also shocked to see Aella sitting behind the desk.”

“I hope you kicked them away… I’m not fond of having more women around me. I feel like it’s getting out of hand.” Arad sighed, and Aella seemed just as exhausted by that. “Only the strong and those who can provide a vital role can have a chance of becoming an official wife. If one of the official wives finds one of the girls interesting, she can take her as a concubine if everyone approves, and there are also several posts among the royal maids and servants. We’re building a kingdom from scratch, no, a whole empire that houses several kingdoms.”

It was exhausting, both mentally and physically.