The dragon's harem

While Isdis and Merlin got a whole room for themselves, and Selina slept in with Matilda and her sister in their room, Arad ended up sleeping with Mira, Lyla, Roberta, and Tina in a

separate room alongside Serin and Ignis.

While asleep, Arad opened his eyes as Serin woke up and started crying. Using gravity magic he lifted and started gently rocking her until she went back to sleep. He then looked to the side, noticing that Mira and Tina were also awake, and so were Lyla and Roberta, the heat and humidity were just too much. The only two who could comfortably sleep were Ignis and him.

“You can’t sleep?” Arad whispered, looking at them.

“It’s too hot, my back is melting.” Mira stood and flipped her pillow, “And it’s far too humid here…”

“Yeah, but at least there are no mosquitos.” Lyla smiled, “Put your head down and close your eyes, you’ll eventually fall asleep.”

“Lyla is right.” Roberta replied, “But I bet that’s what woke up Serin,” She looked at Serin, she was sweating a lot.

“Yeah, it doesn’t get this hot back home. I bet she isn’t used to sleeping in this heat.” Tina sat up, “I’ll fan her a bit.” She pulled a hand fan from her bag.

“You could’ve just told me.” Arad lifted his hand and pointed at the window, “Let’s see, Isdis’s magic works like this, and Aella and Zephyr use those magic circles…”

“What are you trying to do?” Mira looked at him as a blue and green magic circle appeared in the air, floating toward the window.

Tiny shards of ice formed from the water particles in the air, and the wind started flowing into the room through the window thanks to Arad’s magic, carrying the cold with it to engulf the room. “This should slowly cool the room, but I’ll try to make sure it doesn’t go overboard. How does it feel.”

Lyla lifted her hand in the air’s path, “It’s cold, but not too much…”

“What else can you do with magic?” Roberta stared at him, “Is there anything that you can’t do?”

“Complicated things. This one is simple, make some ice, and run air around it. But when things get into other territories like force and spells like draining magic it becomes hard to make them like this.” Arad explained. As long as it’s a simple effect, he can make it on the fly.

“I wonder how the others are sleeping in this heat.” Mira giggled, “Isdis is going to be sad, she wanted to sleep with us here, but sadly couldn’t.”

“She can use ice magic, she can cool their room, probably.” Arad laid down, “Go back to sleep. You can then ask her in the morning.”

Everyone went back to sleep, and Arad kept looking at the ceiling. He couldn’t fall asleep, what worried him wasn’t the heat or humidity, it was a creepy feeling of not being in control of his surroundings.

[Gemini]

Arad closed his eyes and took control of his clone that appeared right above the house on the roof. He then immediately shifted into a cat and sat there, looking at the village with glowing purple eyes. He jumped down to the fences and headed into the night streets, strolling the alleyways and looking around.

“This village is quite large, probably twice as big as a human village would be, but it’s not large enough to be a city.” He looked around and stopped, “Tigers are solitary creatures, but when pushed into a civilization they can’t really live alone, so they form small communities like this.” He climbed a house and looked around, his eyes stopping at the camping site where the other students were sleeping.

“I bet social creatures like lions would have even large cities and villages.” As he was mumbling to himself, he could see their teacher Lucia sitting beside the campfire with another teacher, Ramy, the blacksmith, she’s the one responsible for Mira’s class.

“They are staying guard even in this place?” He looked at them, “It should be safer than the woods, why are both sitting guard.” He approached and stared at them from the bushes.

Lucia sighed, “Those ruffians, it’s just exhausting.” She grumbled.

“Don’t overthink it, it’s just kids playing around.” Ramy replied with a tired smile, “They leave once we tell them off, there is no harm.”

Arad slowly approached them and kept acting like a cat, rubbing his back on Lucia’s legs, and she picked him up, sat him on her lap, and started rubbing his back. “Such a beautiful black cat, look at how large you are.” Lucia smiled, “For a second, I thought you were a tiger, chunky boy.” She lifted him up and showed him to Ramy.

“They hunt a lot here, so I bet he eats a lot of meat and scraps. And judging by how vicious the monsters are around here, I bet that even cats must grow stronger to survive.” Ramy replied.

“I was looking to get a familiar, would you be mine?” Lucia pointed her finger toward Arad’s nose and a tiny magic circle appeared, a familiar contract.

Arad rejected the contract and the magic circle cracked. The success rate with animals was almost 100%, and for a cat to reject it this easily, Lucia immediately thought it was her who lacks skill and sighed, falling deeper into depression, “Damn it, to fail such a basic spell. Am I really fit to teach those students.”

“Of course you are.” Ramy replied, “And don’t forget, you’re an alchemist, wizardry and magic are secondary to you.” She smiled.

“But even with that…” Lucia looked away, “I feel left out, I don’t know about your students, but I’ve got one troublesome student. His name is Aron…”

Arad flinched in her lap. ^Why me? Did I ever do something that angered her?^

“Aron? The one who got hired by the princess as a guard? I’ve seen him beat the martial class.” Ramy smiled, “I wonder why did he join the alchemist class.”

“He’s quite good at making potions.” Lucia replied, “And his learning speed is out of the chart. I even wonder if it’s for the best if I just showed him all that I know at once and let him finish studying in a day.”

“No one can do that. Even if he seemed to be a fast learner, don’t try to push him too hard, you’ll end up breaking his rhythm.” Ramy stared at Lucia and waved her hand, “I too got his wife, Mira was her name. I’ve never faced such an energetic ball of creation and talent. She spends hours glued to her desk trying to make failed projects work. And she’s progressing quite fast.”

“Such talents, no wonder they got married.” Lucia kept rubbing Arad’s back, “There is also something else, I think Aron is far stronger than he shows up to us. I swear he once saved Mira from a point-blank explosion. It was that big one, with the refractory freezer.”

“The machine that detonated in the yard?” Ramy titled her head, “Aron should’ve been in

your class.”

“He was, I could see him rush out of his seat and jump out of the window, and then come back. It all happened in a fraction of a second.” Lucia lifted Arad again and looked at his eyes, “Freaky, isn’t it? To be that fast and still look normal. He even managed to stop all of Zara’s claws while sitting on his chair.”

“That only means that Mira found a powerful man to marry, the genius little girl. but you say normal, but he’s over two meters tall, and his arms are thicker than your hips.” Ramy shook her head, “I’ve seen too many men with muscles-for-show only, but I doubt his muscles are just decoration.”

Lucia looked at Arad’s face, “What do you say, Mister Nightcat.” She already gave him a name. Arad blinked twice, thinking deeply about it. ^Am I really that scary? I was trying to be a normal human… I mean, I had to save Mira, it couldn’t be helped.^

“You’re asking a cat as if it’ll reply.” Ramy giggled.

“He also reminds me of Alcott…do you remember him?” Lucia hugged Arad, almost choking

him with her chest.

“Yeah, that playboy.” Ramy looked away, “You don’t see many men like him, do you?”

“Aron looks awfully similar to him.” Lucia rocked her head, “They both are big and do

ridiculous things.”

^Alcott said something about him possibly being my dad…but the time doesn’t line up. Neither I nor him want to shun the possibility, but it’s extremely unlikely.^ Arad remembered his conversation with Alcott. ^Cerilla and Jasmine were right, it’s best to be thought off as true until proven otherwise.^

“Lucia, more came again.” Ramy stood and pulled her wand, three massive tiger men approached the camp. They are of the youngsters that Arad beat up this evening, they were

still scratched.

“The chieftain allowed us to camp here, the area is off limits as students are asleep.” Lucia stood there and glared at the coming three beastmen.

“You aren’t the one setting rules in our land, human female.” One of them replied, “It’s us who set rules.” He replied.

“It indeed wasn’t me who set the rule, it was your chieftain, go talk with him instead.” Lucia growled and Ramy stood beside her, “They don’t understand words, those only communicate

with fists.”

“Now that female understand.” One of the three cracked his fists, “Let’s get right into it.”

It was then when a loud MEOW Boomed across the air, Arad was sitting between the beast

people and Lucia, glaring with those glowing purple eyes.

“A cat?!” One of them gasped.