The dragon's harem

”Care to explain why did you come here?” Arad grabbed Lilia by the head and lifted her up. “Merlin clearly doesn’t want you here.”

“I get that she dislikes me, but she does want me here.” Lilia said with a passive face as her eyes shifted toward Merlin’s desk. “You’ve made some progress with the seal, but you’ve hit a snag for the last few days. You’ve been going down the wrong path to opening it so I came to help you.”

Lilia disappeared from Arad’s palm and appeared standing over Merlin’s desk. The papers flew to her hand as if they had a mind of their own. “Look here, you’re assuming the prison cube is a seal that encases a target and working off that. That theory is wrong since Gojo had once escaped.”

“How do you know that?” Merlin growled at her.

Lilia looked at her with a passive face, not showing a single emotion. ^Should I tell her I’m the one who made those things? Vlad did tamper with it, but I can probably get Zephyr out in a minute or two…No, it’s better to let the young ones learn, Zephyr isn’t in any danger inside after all.^

“How I know doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re going down the wrong path, this isn’t a seal that encases a target.^

“Then what is it?” Merlin asked.

Lilia looked away… “See you later, have a good time.” She disappeared.

“WAIT!” Merlin screamed, “Why would leave without telling us what is it?!” She growled, staring back at her papers.

Arad pulled the cube Zephyr was sealed in and stared at it. “She said it isn’t a seal that encases a target. Then we have two points to challenge: a seal, and the second if it encases a target or not.” He said, his eyes glowing with a dark purple light. He pulled a chair and sat down, Betty taking a seat on his shoulder, almost getting shot by an arrow from Aella.

“You angry?” Betty waved her hand at Aella.

“Get off him. He isn’t a chair.” She growled.

“Betty.” Arad said, “I want to test something.”

“What? Did you find something?”

“I didn’t find anything. But I think it might be neither a seal nor something that encases a target.” He stood, “I need your help for this.”

Betty laughed, “It’s my chance then to prove myself!” She turned toward Aella and the rest. “Be ready, with this favor, I’ll get my spot ahead of all of you. I’ll never let it slide off my hand.”

Arad stared at her, “Accelerate me to the speed of light.”

Betty’s face changed into a frown, “I can’t do that. You’ll die. If you die, I’ll have no one to seek.”

“I won’t die. I only want to understand the limits of travel magic.”

“You mean teleportation? Then use that.” Betty stared at him.

“Arad, what are you thinking about?” Merlin approached Arad with the girls.

“I think this cube is a portal. The space the target gets locked in isn’t a real one, but a demi-plan like the one Betty took me and my brother to.” He looked at Betty.

“That doesn’t make sense. I could’ve opened it if it was a portal.” Merlin stared at him.

“No, it doesn’t have a single portal. There are several tens of ring-shaped portals stuck into the same space to the point they form a sphere. To get to the space the target is looked in you need to synchronize all the portals as if you’re opening a lock made of magic.”

“And this thing was made to kill abominations. It isn’t meant to be opened.” Betty smiled, “If anyone tried to force the cube open, the portals would get destroyed causing the demi-plane that the target is in to collapse on them and they’ll die, even their soul would get lost.”

“I don’t know about the last part, but I think brother managed to break out since we void dragons are attuned to space. You can try to seal a fish in the ocean but it’ll just swim out, but try and seal a human, that’s a different thing.” Arad smiled. “If I can accelerate to the speed of light I might be able to break the cube, fly through the portals, and swallow Zephyr into my stomach before the whole place collapses.”

“Let’s say everything you said is right. You’re Betty a lot on Zephyr, she’s a great spirit, and I doubt you’ll be able to swallow her in time, her reflexes would prevent you from doing that.” Merlin sat on a chair facing Arad.

Arad started thinking for a while, “Zephyr…will she innately reject me? This is like jumping at someone swinging a knife, even if they were your lover, they’ll still dodge.”

“That’s right. And you can’t reach the speed of light without a light dragon’s blood. Your body would disintegrate before you reach that speed.” Betty sighed, “Think of another plan.”

“The problems are if I can reach such speed and if Zephyr trusts me enough…”

Aella pulled a dagger and swung at Arad, stabbing him in the neck and everyone gasped.

“Aella! What did you do?” Eris growled.

“Are you out of your mind?!” Merlin stared at her.

Arad’s eyes slowly panned down at the dagger. “Trust…” He mumbled… “Yeah, you’re right, Aella.” He smiled.

“I know Zephyr better than anyone here. She trusts you far more than you expect. You could kill me and she won’t bat an eye. Not because she doesn’t care about me, she does and would burn the whole kingdom if I were to get killed. But she trusts you enough to believe you had a reason.” Aella pulled the dagger off Arad’s neck and not a single drop of blood spilled, he healed as the blade went out.

Amber looked at them, “I see, so it’s something like Merlin.”She pointed at her, “Always wear a baggy robe and a large hat outside or rush to wear them when anyone shows up. But when Arad is around, she doesn’t even care if she’s in her underwear or naked.”

Merlin looked at herself in her underwear.

“Now that reminds me.” Betty turned toward Merlin, “Speaking of trust. You never trusted anyone with your labyrinth magic.”

“We don’t talk about that.”

“We need to talk about it. If Arad’s theory is right, you could open a labyrinth with a rule that forbids portals of the same wavelength as the ones inside the cube. You’ll pull Zephyr out with ease.” Betty pointed at her. “You don’t trust your abilities in the slightest. Show them.”

Merlin looked away, “I won’t, and that’s none of your business! And I’m sorry to say it, but it’s none of their business as well.”

She turned toward Arad, “Sorry, even I have things I don’t want anyone to know.”

Arad looked back at her…thinking… “Let’s get a private room. I have something to tell you of my own.”

“I’ll give you a place.” Betty flicked her fingers and both Arad and Merlin disappeared.

“Where did you send them?” Amber stared at Betty.

“A clear and locked dimensional room where they can be at ease. We’ll never know what happens there.” She sat on Arad’s chair, “Let’s wait and believe they’ll reach a conclusion.”

Arad and Merlin found themselves sitting in a white room, facing each other.

“This is Betty’s magic…she did lock us here.”

“I bet she did.” Arad replied to her. “So, I’ll get right to business. I already know you’re a witch.”

Merlin froze in place, “Who told you?”

“No one did, I can see the magic covering your skin. It’s even more concentrated on your nails, hair, blood, and bones.” With his void eyes, he could see Merlin’s veins glowing with mana the same way as her mana circuits.

Merlin sighed, and tattoos showed covering her whole body. She lifted her arm, “This one keeps my heart beating regularly, this one makes sure my lungs keep working while I’m sleeping, and this one helps me sleep in the first place.” She stared back at him. “We high humans have extremely weak bodies in exchange for magic talent.”

“How do you explain Jack?”

“Jack?” Merlin started thinking, “He’s a high human, indeed, but he’s different than me. He has a decent body but lacks all magic. But he has the fate of a hero and intelligence to go with it.”

“The fate of a hero…I don’t get it, you don’t need fate to get a weapon from the gods. They can choose anyone.” He looked at her.

“Being chosen by the gods is the fate. Billions of people live and die without even meeting or hearing of one.” Merlin put one leg on another, looking at the tattoos covering her whole body.

“If you know this then I have nothing to hide.” She sighed.

“Why hide you’re a witch? No like any of them outside would tell on you.”

“Remember the labyrinth? What was the thing that stuck most with you?” She asked.

Arad thought for a moment, “The naked statues of me? Or the sealed devil, succubus?”

“All of those…” She looked away.

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