The dragon's harem

If it wasn’t clear to everyone yet, that split second of silent rage had made it clear. Arad wasn’t a being they could challenge, a creature far above their understanding. None other than Hati could stop him had he snapped.

While everyone realized how far beneath him, they stood, this even had driven several nails into Merlin’s confidence, tanking her morale for the coming battle to the ground.

As Mira looked at Arad, it became clear to her that he needed to rest, the day had been a bit too long and he needed to put his head back on a pillow. Even for a dragon that could spend months without sleep, overworking his brain worrying about a stupid prophecy of her death was unhealthy.

“Come on, you need to rest a bit.” Mira grabbed Arad from the elbow and made him stand up. “Let’s go.” She said as her eyes shifted back to Lucia, “We’ll talk about this tomorrow evening. I’ll make sure he gets his homework done.”

She walked out of the guest’s room with Arad, leaving everyone staring at each other in silence. None knew why Arad got suddenly so angry, and even if he didn’t say a word, they could feel his rage burning like a dragon’s frightful presence.

Lucia knew that she must get Matilda and Selina back to the student’s living area, she knew of Arad’s true power and identity, and she wouldn’t want them potentially getting him more agitated. But to her surprise, Matilda spoke first. “Time to head back. Aron, see you

tomorrow!” She waved her hand. “Yeah!” Arad replied from the hallway and the atmosphere seemed to lighten up a bit.

“That was so much magic it was unbelievable.” Selina looked at Matilda with a scared face, “Wasn’t he a fighter?”

“He may be a fighter, but remember he’s also a druid.” Matilda smiled, “He defeated a Tall Neck and a death jaw, I’m certain he has more magic than any of us here. Otherwise, I can’t see why he’ll get chosen to guard a princess in a foreign land.” Even if Matilda still didn’t know of Arad’s true identity or power, she had seen him facing Maharaja and wasn’t about to underestimate what he could achieve.

When Lucia and the two girls left, Merlin leaned back on her chair and looked at Astrid and Frida, “So, what do you two think? Can you stop him?”

Astrid and Frida were still standing in the same place, blood had been drained from their faces. Unlike anyone else here, those two could sense the full extent of Arad’s magic. Like the monsters who were outside in the jungle and fled immediately, those two had the same urge to bail out.

Astrid remembered when she tried to beat Arad in the bed today and realized how stupid was it to think she could stand a chance, it took all of her courage to remain still and not flee the moment he showed a hint of anger. He was a full-grown lion, and she was nothing more than a newborn rabbit. Frida had felt the same, she wouldn’t last a second if Arad wanted to attack her, and she probably wouldn’t even realize she was killed.

Astrid shook her head, “I can’t… we can’t…”

“Guessed it.” Merlin sighed, taking a sip of her wine, “And I have to fight that and win…you two are going to start working overtime.” She looked at her nails, “This won’t be enough…” She stood, “Let’s go back to my room. We’ll change this into the black blood and use the clear essence for the engrained spells.”

Astrid stood silent for a second and then gasped as she realized what Merlin just said, “Wait! Do you want to change both your nail polish and tattoos? All at once?”

“Sister is right! You’ll die! Even enduring the red ones was nearly impossible!” Frida growled. “Nail polish for increased magic output, and tattoos to engrave spells and passive effects onto my body so I can instantly use them.” She walked in the front as the twins followed her. “For nail polish I want my right hand to have, increased elemental damage, balanced elemental control, longer attack range, tracking spells, and a redundant nail. For my left hand, I want, potent crowd control, reduced mana consumption, active tracking, potent domination, and of course a redundant.” She looked back at Astrid, “This would be your work.”

“For Frida, you’ll be working on my toenails and mobility. For the right foot, I want a fire jet, teleportation, gravity reduction, and a barrier, of course, a redundant nail is the last one. For the left, I want time slow, heavy impact, absorption, and detonation, don’t forget the redundant nail.” Merlin scratched her head, “For the tattoos, I’m still thinking about them…” “But if I’m going for it, better go all out. For the chest, I want mana regeneration and capacity since it’s close to the heart. For the back, it’s a large surface so I bet we can fit some refinement, barriers, and at least two contingency spells.” She looked at them with a smile, “How about one that activated if my heart stopped? We can make it inject a healing potion straight into my heart or zap me with a powerful healing spell. Another one…if I receive a fatal wound, it’ll teleport me into another layer of my labyrinth to buy time.”

“You’ll turn into an urn at this rate…” Astrid sighed.

“We’re using clear tattoo ink so it won’t be visible. I won’t want Arad to see them and guess what spell I have engraved. Plus, I can always remove them later, they are made to be interchangeable after all.” Merlin smiled.

“You make it sound simple when we had to chain you last night from how painful the magic nail polish was.” Frida scratched her head, “I don’t think you’ll survive the pain of all of this, you’ll die.”

“Come, I know it was painful.” The witch’s nail polish that they use to turn their nail into powerful casting focuses wasn’t that easy to put on. Due to it linking up with the body’s magic circuit, putting it on is accompanied by a lot of pain, like having a tooth pulled out without anesthetic, or just pulling your nail off.

The tattoos weren’t pain-free either as they felt as if you were being burned with an iron, most wizards would consider such a thing as torture, but to witches and Merlin, it was nothing but a test that separated low-ranked witches and high-ranked ones.

“But this is witchcraft, and I didn’t get to hair, blood, and bones yet.” She looked back at them with a smile on her face. “I wanted to remove two of my ribs and turn them into dust, then fill that dust into bullets to use. I bet I could pack enough power to drop Arad from the sky with them.”

“Stop…” Astrid sighed; her head had started hurting.

“I can also spike my blood with anti-dragon or anti-magic poison, then let Arad bite me, he is

a vampire after all and I watch him spazz out on the floor.” Merlin giggled, “For my hair…I

still don’t know, I’ll probably use it as a magic bomb or a control catalyst.”

Merlin walked into her room with Astrid and Frida to start changing the layout of her enchantments, she can’t take on Arad with a half-assed arsenal, she needs to come at her best, steeling her mind as if she was about to face a whole kingdom on her own.

As Arad walked into his room with Mira, they found Isdis waiting there. “You finally came back, did they leave?” While Lucia already knew that Isdis was Arad’s wife, Matilda, and Selina didn’t know that, she couldn’t just show up all the time without a reason, she’s a

princess after all.

“Yeah…” Mira replied with a tired face as she sat down, Arad approached the bed and dropped on it, exhausted more than usual.

“So…” Isdis stared at him, “What was that earlier? It felt as if you were about to blow this whole place up, you got me quite worried.”

“Sorry, it was nothing. I was thinking about something, and I just forgot to hold back my draconic presence.” All dragons had their frightful presence thanks to the sheer magic passively released from their bodies, it could get strong enough to overwhelm weak humanoids and even kill them. The way it works is that since dragons cast magic with their scales and claws, they have a minimum amount of mana that they passively release, like how human bodies release heat. When a dragon gets angry, that minimum amount can spike rapidly, which is a frightful presence.

Isdis stared at him for a second, “And…did you get taller?” She looked at him with a puzzled face, slowly running her cold hand on his chest, “And you even got a bit leaner.”

“I ate a whole cursed metal mine. That’s why I got like this.” He sat up, “I need to keep looking for it regularly. It’s not something that I only need when evolving, but a crucial part

of my diet.”

“I see…” Isdis smiled, licking her lips, “So…” She looked at Mira, “Who of us would take this

night?”

Mira closed her eyes, thinking for a second. “Isdis, leave. He’s mine.” She said with a sharp

glare.

“I’ll go with no… it’s my week.” Isdis replied with a sharp smile.

“Tina should’ve told you, right?” Mira looked at her with a passive face.

“I don’t care if you’ll die in seven months, you can’t be greedy on me.” Isdis replied.

“You don’t care if I die? Now that’s cold.” Mira glared at her.

Arad started sweating as he was sitting there, even if he fears no man nor God, he can’t help but feel stressed when his wives are about to get into an argument.