The dragon's harem

Instead of having two adventurers’ guilds between Alina and the Great Capital of Orion, the plan was to build a new, larger, and more powerful one in the capital, then have it replace the guild in Alina since they were within walking distance.

While that sparked a huge discourse among the adventurers, all of that died down quickly when they were informed that nothing would change in the guild’s leadership or structure. Guild Master Malta would remain in her seat, and the only change would be hiring more workers and expanding the guild’s vault.

In short, they were just moving the old guild to the capital and upgrading it.

There was a push to give Nina a better job as a Guild-Master or at least a Vice-Master, but she refused all of them, and her reasoning was too sound for a barbarian. She just didn’t have enough patience, mental prowess, and intelligence to perform such jobs.

Nina’s job at the guild’s desk was that of a receptionist, one who looked far too mundane for a Queen. It felt strange to accept a Sewer-Rat extermination Quest from an S-ranker, let alone from one of the Empire’s Powerful Queens.

The people were used to their kings and queens being protected behind armies of guards and knights, so seeing one of them just chilling behind a desk in the most violent and deadly organization of the whole empire was both distressing and terrifying.

But looking at the reality, it was quite obvious that as a Queen, Nina didn’t need protection. As an S-ranker, the adventurers already knew that trying to hurt or assassinate her was a fool’s errand, and after that, there were some rumors that she could match Arad’s physical strength. But even in their wildest dreams, not one of them could have imagined the vast wall of power between them and Nina.

She was an Immortal Tarrasque, immune to death, stronger than earth, and a living being adapted to survival better than anything else. She cannot age, cannot die, cannot be killed, and cannot be harmed by normal means. Her skin reflects magic, and her flesh is so hard and dense that no mundane material can scratch her pristine, oak skin.

In that clear day, the guild’s door opened up, and a strange face stood there; a young woman in a maid’s uniform walked in with measured steps, and all of the adventurers glared at her. Nobles usually send their knights to the guild to put in requests, so is she the maid of some poor noble who doesn’t have armed guards?

Was that maid some extremely powerful adventurer? They heard that the Elvish queen had an S-ranker as her personal maid and bodyguard.

A balding wizard who looked like a disheveled fossil of a bygone era. He wore a long purple robe and had glowing blue eyes that brimmed with magic. He looked at the maid with an interested gaze, trying to sense the power emanating from her, see if she was a strong fighter, a talented wizard, a crafty ranger, or a shifty rogue.

To his surprise, she was awfully average. She was just as strong as a regular woman her age and size, never trained, and her skill in magic was barely anywhere near that of an apprentice wizard. He wouldn’t even take her as a student if she begged and paid him.

But he wasn’t blind. His eyes opened wide, and sweat started dripping across his dried, wrinkly cheeks. Her entire body was marked with a mana that he could never mistake, even as a corpse. The endless blue threads, the divine skill, the mastery that boggles the mind, and the blessed weaves of mana touched by Yog’s divine fingers.

The maid was touched by Merlin’s magic, and he would never dare even look at her straight. The magic was fresh, so the contact had happened in the past hour or so, meaning that this maid had come straight from the royal castle.

The maid is one of the castle’s maids, and probably even one of the private ones working directly for the Emperor and Merlin, meaning that she is someone he should absolutely avoid. One rude comment could land him and his entire bloodline in the jaws of an apocalyptic dragon.

Only then did he notice the tiny, strange fruit fly stuck to the maid’s back. He looked at it, and the fly menacingly turned to stare right back at him with her thousand eyes. To the wizard, the entire guild plunged into pure darkness that moment, and he was left alone in the cold.

That was no fly. If the entire guild was to burst into flame and get suddenly invaded by a million violent monsters, the wizard would’ve still felt happier than what he had just faced.

^Huh… You’ve noticed me?^ A voice rumbled inside the wizard’s head, and he could feel what few days remained in his lifespan rapidly fading away. ^You’ve got good eyes, grandpa.^

The wizard gulped and almost couldn’t believe it. Telepathy magic on a level that he had never heard of or seen before, and it had even managed to easily slip past all of his mental defenses and barriers.

^Your majesty, I am really sorry. I was respectfully looking. A maid in the rowdy guild is uncommon.^

Arad didn’t reply for a second, and he smiled back at the castle. “Found one.”

The one thing that makes dragons extremely dangerous foes, besides their harrowing power, is their draconic brain and twisted mind that never halts plotting. Arad was just like his peers, if not even more.

He sent this tiny fly with the maid and laced it with his magic to test and see if there are any skilled wizards among the adventurers that he could hire for the wizard’s tower, and it would also help keep the maid safe on the road. Even though Arad was pretty sure no humanoid was stupid enough to attack one of his maids this close to the capital, he was well aware that didn’t apply to monsters and some dumb humanoids.

^Worry not, I’m just keeping an eye on her. You can ignore me.^ Arad’s voice rang in the wizard’s head one last time before fading away like an echo.

As the wizard sighed, all of the darkness had faded away, and he was just sitting on his chair, terrified. That maid indeed belonged to the emperor.

Nina was sitting at her desk and had a long line of adventurers ahead of her. Some wanted to accept quests, some came to report and get their reward, and there were even a few that came to ask questions, but not a single one was here to complain. While they all acknowledged Nina’s skill and competence in her job, they were all aware that she was the last person they wanted to complain to.

“Lady Nina. I got a letter from her highness Queen Isdis.” The maid walked past all of the adventurers, ignored the line, and skipped right to the front. Some were about to call her out, but when they heard what she said, it made them keep their mouths closed.

Why is a royal emissary wearing a maid’s outfit? This was the question everyone wanted to ask, but no one dared say it out loud.

“Why did they send a maid for this?” The one who spoke was none other than Nina herself, and she gave the maid a glare.

The maid stared back at her and then replied. “I do not know. My job is to follow orders, not question them.”

Nina opened the letter right then and looked at it as she mumbled. “Probably they wanted to use you as bait? Send someone weak to see if anyone dares get in the way.”

After reading the letter, she frowned. “Does Isdis write with her feet now or what? This looks like doodles written by a chicken, or a kid.”

The maid replied in a calm voice. “She has a lot of work and didn’t have much time, so she wrote it in a hurry.”

Nina put the letter down and smiled. “Got it, I’ll talk to the guild master and see what can be done.” She then stood and shouted at the adventurers. “Make sure you all clear a few days later this week! We might get a big quest from the castle, a profitable one at that.”

As all the adventurers gasped, she added. “And, it’s not a normal quest, but a hunt and collect one. So all of you can participate and earn a bit of gold.”

She then looked back at the letter. “The quest type should be dungeon crawling, survival, extermination, and extraction. And the location, most likely the labyrinth.”