The dragon's harem

As a silent bar brewed outside of everyone’s awareness, Mira’s day ended after their trip to the Great Bridge of Orion was almost ruined by the monsters’ attack. Even though Roana had filled all of her measurements, analyzing those numbers would have to wait as she needed to recover from the shock of the attack.

This was the first time Roana had seen someone getting their head blasted open, and she had never seen such an ugly and disgusting monster in her life. What made it worse was that she, Alicia, and Camilla didn’t know of Selina’s body doubles. To them, they saw one of their queens getting killed out of nowhere in the middle of the day, without them being able to do anything about it.

While Roana and Alicia were just terrified, Camilla had it the worst as she was mortified. Her father was a royal guard, and now that she had become Mira’s maid, she wanted to at least do her role as a bodyguard and protect her. Granted, she was much weaker than Mira, but how bad could it be? If someone attacked, she’ll fight and protect her queen, business as usual.

As an adventurer, Camilla knew she could fight monsters and humans alike; she wasn’t boastful, but was proud of her own power and skill.

But when the attack happened, she realized just how naïve she was, and how useless her power is when it really mattered. She might not have been as slow to react as the soldiers and knights, but she still lagged behind everyone else.

Mira burned one of the monsters from afar, and Queen Matilda ripped the mountainside apart with one. Even Selina, who got her head blasted open, still managed to cast magic and kill the rest of the monsters all on her own.

“Two… I…” Camilla, Roana, and Alicia all stared with open mouths. Two identical people were standing in front of them, two of Selina.

“Queen Selina… twins?” Roana gasped, and Selina giggled, patting the back of her still-injured body double. “No, first. I’m not a Queen, I’m a concubine, Matilda’s concubine. Second, this isn’t my twin, but a flesh golem made from magic.”

The body double started smoking, and in the blink of an eye, she turned from a beautiful woman into a horrifying, skinless body that looked right out of a nightmare. The only thing that made the flesh golem look normal was polymorph magic mixed with several illusion spells.

Selina might’ve been shy, soft-spoken, and always hid behind Matilda’s back, choosing to remain in her shadow, but she isn’t weak or talentless. In fact, she was one of the most talented wizards in the university. Even if she was nowhere near monsters like Betty and Merlin, she was what a regular mortal genius would be.

Anyone could still attain her level of power and skill if they studied and trained hard enough, even at a young age, but nowhere near how young she is. Betty had once estimated that if anyone wanted to reach Selina’s current level of skill, they would need at least two decades of effort and study, while she achieved it in her early twenties.

With a second tap, the flesh golem turned back to look exactly like Selina and headed into her room to shut off and rest in her closet. “They say you aren’t a true wizard until you create your first original spell, until you’ve left your mark on the world of wizardry. That is mine.”

“Selina is talented, isn’t she?” Matilda wrapped her arm around Selina’s neck and pulled her into a hug. “Even though I knew it was just a clone, it made my hair stand when I saw you get shot.”

Selina gasped for air as Matilda’s chest almost suffocated her, but she quickly managed to push her back. “Forget about me. What the hell did you do to that monster? You cracked the side of the mountain.”

Matilda looked at her arms. “That… I asked Mother Violet, and she said that I was using [Void Step].” She clenched a fist and extended her arm forward. “Instead of teleporting my whole body, I was teleporting my punches and making them occupy the same space as the monster’s guts, which caused shockwaves.”

Opening her palm, she looked at it for a long moment. “Even though… I was just trying to punch as fast and as hard as I could. I wasn’t trying to use [Void Step].”

“You were using it on instinct, like how a little baby puts everything they catch in their mouth.” Violet appeared behind them, dressed in a dark purple dress and looking like she was going to a fancy party.

“Gojo can twist and contort the void, Arad can digest and recreate matter with ease, Altair can shift matter in space, which she uses to move her bullets, and you… It seems you can somewhat skip using space altogether in your moves.” She clenched a fist and swung it forward.

“See that? I need to swing my arm, waste energy on that. But in your case, your arms go from rest to the attack, already landing without any wasted energy, resulting in more power. And, if your fist happened to be teleported to the same space as the target you wanted to punch, a shockwave would appear as space tries to repair itself.” As Violet explained, Mira seemed to understand it first rather than Matilda.

“So? She wastes less stamina, her attacks land instantly, are near impossible to block due to the shockwave, and… could they free her if she were tied?” As Mira pointed out, Violet smiled and pulled some thick cuffs.

“We can try.”

Violet cuffed Matilda’s arms behind her back and then asked her to throw a straight punch forward. She didn’t even need to worry about the shockwave, as Violet promised that she would make sure those don’t appear.

Matilda wasn’t sure if she could do it; her arms were literally tied behind her back after all, but she tried anyway.

The moment Matilda tried to throw the punch as hard as she could, her right arm was already extended in front of her. She gasped and looked back with a puzzled face.

The cuffs weren’t broken; one side was still latched onto her left arm, but the other dangled empty, as if it hadn’t been locked around her right wrist a second ago.

“Your arm teleported right out as expected. This means blocks won’t work, and counters would also fail against your attacks.” Violet smiled. “If you can master this and apply it to your whole body, you’ll be moving like a god of space. No one would be able to best you in martial arts.”

She patted Matilda on the shoulder. “So, for now, just train and try to master the void.”

As Violet was about to leave, Mira called her and asked about her dress.

“I didn’t hear of any party around.”

Violet smiled. “There are no parties. I’m going out with Alcott and Ginger, so I gotta dress a bit. I can’t lose to that nosferatu.” She took a single step and disappeared without a trace.

Mira stretched her arms. “So… they are busy as well.” She looked at everyone else. “Well, I was looking forward to a bath after a day of hard work and chaos… but what do you say, Matilda?” She looked at her with a smug face. “Want to play with me a bit before that?”

Matilda returned a smug grin. “Fist to fist, let’s see who cries first.”

A few minutes later, the two were standing face-to-face inside the training ground Merlin made for them. For Mira’s martial training, she had been training with several of Arad’s other wives lately, and Matilda had been her best opponent so far.

“Arad is sleeping with you tonight, right?” Matilda asked, and Mira smiled. “Of course, I’m getting him all for my lonely self. I might even be willing to let Camilla and the others have a lick or two.”

Matilda smacked her fists together. “If I win, I’ll join you tonight.”

Mira smiled. “Is that all? You can bring Selina as well.” She cracked her neck. “But if I win…”