Primordial Villain with a Slave Harem

Chapter 1078: No Longer Naive

In a world like Thalorind, even the sharpest senses were not infallible. Blossom’s nose was exceptional, the result of both talent and rigorous training, but no single sense existed beyond the reach of countermeasures.

There were dozens of ways to foil a hound’s nose. Specialized herbs could mask or distort body odors, cloaking someone in pungent overlays that confused the trail. Certain classes, like [Veilstrider] or [Silent Bloom], could disrupt scent the same way illusionists tampered with sight. High-grade artifacts could even redirect smell entirely, casting phantom traces into false directions. At the upper end of power, magic itself could rewrite what the brain processed, making the nose believe in scents that never existed.

If Blossom wanted to become a truly inescapable Void Stalker, she had to step up her game. She was not there just yet, best evidenced by the woman currently clinging to her ankle as she and the dogkin were flying through the skies.

However, Blossom knew this truth. Quinlan knew it, too.

And they also knew something else.

Back in the palace feast, when he stood before hundreds of nobles and openly shielded Jasmine’s mother from execution, a line had been crossed. The crowd saw it. The royals saw it. Everyone did.

Quinlan hoped it would be written off as him merely being a justice-driven person, a knight in shining armor who didn’t like seeing a woman he thought to be innocent be executed.

But after all that happened with the Queen’s attack on him and the King’s realization of his real identity... By that single act of his, Jasmine’s mother had been thrust into the center of attention, whether she wanted it or not. She became a living weakness, an obvious lever against him and his party.

He couldn’t afford to put all his eggs in the basket of ’I hope I get lucky and they ignore the signs and fail to connect the dots.’

They weren’t that nave. They weren’t idiots sending Blossom to bumble blindly into the lion’s den. This was a calculated risk from the very beginning.

Quinlan wasn’t born yesterday. The same was doubly true for some of his wives.

They had stumbled during the banquet, misstepped in the political game of predators circling each other. That mistake had been burned into memory. What mistake exactly, one might ask.

Quinlan had no regrets about standing up for his women after they were attacked. He used the chance to tell other wastes of air not to think of him and his women as nobodies they can walk over.

No. The major mistake they made stemmed from a much deeper problem.

Arrogance.

Why were the non-human women of his even present at the banquet hosted by the human supremacist people? Why were women with identities that had to be kept hidden no matter what, like Vex, Ayame, and Lucille, present alongside them? Because their presence was essential to one of their goals? Because their presence gave them tangible benefits?

No. Not at all. It was because... Quinlan and the girls wanted to have fun together at the feast. It was a major event, and he didn’t want any of them to have to sit at home while the others were partaking in a historical event.

Hubris. Lack of foresight. Extreme and unjustified sense of comfort.

Everyone else in that hall had been playing for blood. They alone had treated it like a festival. That error had been branded into memory.

After they returned from the banquet, a common understanding passed between them. ’We are no longer playing in the children’s playground.’

Now, they understood painfully well: this world was teeming with both open and hidden dangers. Just because Quinlan bore the blood of a primordial, one who was special even among them, did not mean he could afford to look down on this world’s inhabitants. Yes, he had brighter future potential than any of its inhabitants, but his potential meant little if his choices remained foolish. Potential didn’t shield against a knife in the dark, and hubris killed faster than any blade. ꭆÃŊổᛒЕš

So they made a conscious choice. From this point forward, their steps would be deliberate, their moves premeditated. No more relying on Lady Luck. No more reckless actions. Now that they were officially hunted, now that the board itself had been turned against them, it was time to grow up as a collective, including both Quinlan and his lovers.

It was time to play the game with clear eyes.

...

Back in the stronghold, the shift in atmosphere was immediate. As soon as Blossom’s ankle was touched, the playful warmth of moments ago, where they giggled together at the dogkin’s adorable antics, instantly evaporated.

Aurora, who had been lazily reading a book, snapped it shut and began chanting her enchanter spells, buffing her allies. Lucille’s axe was already in her hands, aimed to strike. Seraphiel materialized a bow with her Dawnbringer class and aimed without uttering a single word.

Their faces were calm, hardened, with not a single trace of panic among them. This was no accident. They had been prepared for this.

Quinlan sat at the center of it all. Still. Collected. His body unmoving, his mind tethered directly into Blossom’s senses. Through her, he saw the tavern rooftop, the soldier’s grip, the tension in the air.

And then, in a voice colder than ice, he spoke across the bond.

He followed it up by casting another spell.

...

Blossom glanced down at the woman clinging to her ankle. The grip was iron. Unyielding.

But Blossom realized something; the royal guard hadn’t drawn her blade, hadn’t tried to kill. She was being taken alive. Captured for questioning and then to be used as an even stronger bait to flush Quinlan out.

A second realization came as well. This female guard was no pushover. No matter how Blossom twisted, clawed, or kicked, the hand never faltered. She could feel the strain running up her thigh, the bones of her ankle nearly broken from the sheer strength of the woman’s grip.

This wasn’t the strength of someone on her level. Blossom was in the low thirties, but this guard was twice that, maybe higher, and every point of her stats screamed investment into raw power.

But Blossom didn’t need to break free.