The dragon's harem

When the three maids were returned to the test room, all three of them were already too exhausted mentally and physically to keep going. Their minds have cracked due to the horror they faced, and the stress on their bodies was quickly crushing down on their bones.

Isdis, looking refreshed and happier than she was before, looked at them with a smile as Lara and Ceil stood by her sides. “You passed the first two stages, so now for the last one, Tolerance. I’m sure those first two tests have you now tired and exhausted, so it’s a good time to start the last one.”

The three looked at each other and then shifted their gazes back to Isdis. They really wanted to rest a bit, but it seems she was going to keep putting them through the grinder. How did all the other maids pass this test?

“Lady Isdis.” Lara spoke. “First, you need to decide who they serve. Camilla’s application said ’Any’ and the other two don’t even have applications since they are not supposed to be here.”

Isdis nodded. “True. Camilla and Alicia are free to choose whoever they want, but Roana has to go with Mira. She wanted to have her after all.” She looked at Lara, “Don’t complain. She can’t Mira, and I believe she is relatively safe.”

Lara remembered that even though Mira wasn’t a full goddess yet, she still had a legion of angels hiding behind her, always keeping watch. Someone like Roana can’t possibly harm her even if given time to prepare.

“For the tolerance test, it would take a while. Simply, I’ll have you overworked in the field just to see how you would fare.” Isdis stood, “Alicia would follow Lara into the desert to meet with two of the Queens, Frida and Astrid. Roana would head with Ceil to Mira’s shop to see what she can do, and I’ll keep Camilla for now.” She looked at them with a smile. “Those are the Queens you would serve. Do any of you have a problem with this?”

Alicia looked at Isdis and then asked with a worried face. “Queen Astrid and Frida, are they the rumored daughters of the Eternal Queen of the Beastlands?”

“Yes. Usually, each Queen would get a separate entourage of servants, but those two are twins, and they prefer to share everything.” She sighed, “They sleep, bathe, work, and live together. They even eat from the same bowl and can get stressed out by being separated for long or by force.” She looked at Lara, “Go ahead, take her to them. I’m sure they would appreciate any help they could get. Just make sure to give me her report later.”

She then shifted her gaze to Ceil, “You take Roana to Mira and keep an eye on her. Your mission isn’t to protect Mira, but to keep Roana safe in case she pulls something funny. The angels are merciless, and they would cleave her head if she as much as gave Mira the wrong look.”

Ceil nodded and signaled for Roana to follow her. As they left, only Isdis and Camilla were left in the room, the way it should’ve been from the start.

Camilla looked at Isdis, then at everything in the room, and gulped. She could feel the air getting colder, the mana growing denser, and the tension rising. “What will my test be?”

Isdis stood and smiled. “Of course, I’m going to see how well you fare in a fight.” In that moment, Camilla felt a chill run down her spine, and before she knew it, she was already in a defensive stance, holding her sword in front of her out of instinct.

“I see, you have a magic bag sewn to the inside of your wrists, which allows you to pull what you have stored in there. But from the waves of magic, the capacity isn’t that big.” She pulled a rapier and pointed it forward. “Don’t die too quickly.”

Isdis was fast, too fast for Camilla to track with her eyes. In a blink, she turned into a blur, and the impact of the hit rattled Camilla’s arms. Even though Isdis used a rapier, her slash felt as heavy as that of a hammer; no, it was heavier as Camilla was thrown back, sent flying through the window.

Camilla fell through the air and looked down, seeing the ground rapidly approaching. A fall from this height won’t kill her, but it would leave her with a few broken bones. It only took her a fraction of a second to react, and she managed to twist her torso mid-air and kick the castle wall, pushing herself to hit a tree and slow her fall with the branches.

As she hit the ground, she immediately jumped back to her feet and gasped for air, throwing a glare up at the window that Isdis pushed her through. That was four stories high, almost twelve meters. Any normal person would’ve died from such a fall, and even a fighter like her only survived due to luck.

The guards were training in the courtyards and saw her crash into the tree, and they all gasped. What was a maid doing here? And an armed one at that. To them, Camilla looked strange, as her stance didn’t resemble that of a maid, a soldier, or anyone they had ever seen.

Camilla stood with her back straight, one leg forward, and the other slightly back. Her face was pointed toward the window, and her hands held her sword tightly, keeping it at a low guard.

When Isdis stood at the window, all of the guards gasped, and they were forced to back away. Alcott had clearly warned them that they shouldn’t get between the Queens and anything they want to do, because they could end up dead.

While most of Arad’s wives looked gentle and acted with kindness first, all of them were extremely capable of causing mayhem, and none of them would lose to a guard.

“A few scratches, but you look fine.” Isdis smiled and jumped down, crashing to the ground while still standing straight. Seeing her fall, one could feel the back and knee pains; she didn’t even try to cushion her fall, just landed standing straight like a nail.

“Are you a monster?” Camilla growled, and Isdis replied with a smile as she lunged at her. “Maybe.”

From her low guard, Camilla swung her sword up and deflected Isdis’s stab, and using that momentum, she went in with a straight kick to push her away. But when her foot hit Isdis’s torso, she felt like she had kicked a brick wall.

^Heavy… Gotta get some distance.^ Since her kick failed, Camilla immediately pushed with her foot on Isdis’s torso and sent herself flying backward. It was all in a single and swift move that even impressed Alcott, who was standing on the wall. The castle’s soldiers were nowhere near Camilla’s skill level. She was a B-ranker after all, a woman who fought monsters through her early teens and was used to fighting for her life.

But as Camilla flew back, she suddenly hit something solid. She was certain there was no wall behind her, so she quickly turned around to look. He was there, standing behind her at a bit over seven feet tall.

Camilla palled; the one she hit was Arad himself. First, she thought he was a three-meter giant, but here he looked to be just over two meters. But the height almost changed nothing, as he was still massive, too massive for her. His arms were thicker than her thighs, and his legs outsized her hips.

Looking at Arad’s face, she felt the blood in her veins draining away. His purple eyes glared down at her, and his stern face betrayed no emotions at all, just a cold stare of pure indifference. One wrong move or word, and she’ll be dead. She knew Isdis was coming for her; she wanted to turn and keep fighting, but all of her instincts told her that turning her back to Arad was a bad idea.