The dragon's harem

Arad looked at the wizard; he wanted to crush his skull right then and there, but he quickly tossed him back to the vampires. “Get everything he knows. I want details.”

As two vampires took the wizard away, Arad walked to the others. “How is the little girl?” He asked, but the vampires suddenly froze, “What little girl?”

Arad froze, “The one outside the mine. You can’t have missed her.”

The vampires remained silent for a while. They’ve got vampires throughout the whole village searching for demons, but none had seen a little girl. One or two vampires might’ve missed her, but a couple of dozen of them, there was no chance that a little girl would hide from them.

Arad spread his senses outside the mine, but couldn’t find the little girl, it was as if she vanished out of existence. A frown appeared on his face as he remembered that even with his power, she surprised him, appearing out of nowhere beside his leg.

As Arad was walking out of the room, he suddenly came to a stop, It was the little girl, he found.

Among the corpses, crawling toward the mine’s gate with her back ripped open by a sharp claw, hugging her bloodied teddy bear. The corpse looked old, at least several days old. He flipped the girl and looked at her face, it was indeed her.

Arad’s frown grew deeper, “How in the… no, I see.” He carried the little girl and walked outside. Following her scent, he walked until he reached an old house, which was the girl’s home. He put her back on her bed and covered her with her blanket.

“Rest well, I’ll get Eris to give everyone what they deserve.” He walked out of the house and could see the vampire bringing the villagers’ corpses out. Seconds later, Eris appeared from his shadow with a worried face.

“The hell happened here?” She looked at all of the corpses, and the stench of rot filled the air and made her scowl.

“Demons.” Arad looked back at the house, “Find the little girl’s parents and give them a proper burial, a golden grave for her.”

He lifted his hands, and suddenly a massive wave of blood rushed forward. From it, hundreds of vampire nuns and paladins appeared.

“Each paladin would lead a battalion of nuns, share them equally, and form teams. Each team would get one of my crows.” He saw them immediately separate.

Arad had over ten thousand vampires inside his blood, five thousand of them were a mix of paladins and nuns. It was around a thousand paladins and four thousand nuns. The two were similar as neither gained power from the gods; what he called paladins were just the nuns who preferred heavy armor instead of light garments.

The vampires separated into a thousand battalions, each having one paladin and four nuns.

“Spread across the lands of the empire, search and destroy any threat. I don’t need to explain how important it is to capture some alive to interrogate.” His words boomed across the village, and the battalions knelt down. In the next second, they all disappeared, running around the kingdom to fulfill their mission.

Arad looked around and disappeared, leaving the rest to Eris and the regular vampires. Soon, he stepped out of the darkness of the castle hallway and walked toward the knight’s training ground. In there, almost a thousand men and women were training under the supervision of the kingdom’s commanders.

There wasn’t that much of a threat, so what remained of the army could only train. But that was wrong, the empire wasn’t safe. Demons, devils, and abominations, threats were limitless, and Arad had just seen what a single rogue wizard could cause.

Even if the wizard was too weak to harm Arad himself or his wives, that mage was powerful enough to butcher a whole village. To the common people, he was a horror beyond comprehension.

Sadly, Arad can’t be everywhere at all times; more and more lives would be lost like that little girl. It didn’t matter how powerful and valiant their souls were, untrained bodies doomed the humans to death.

The little girl he saw at the village was most likely the girl’s soul. She didn’t manage to reach the mine’s gate before getting killed, but her soul persisted; against all odds, she escaped to call for help. With such powerful will, she might’ve ended up as another Lydia if trained well, but such a soul was lost.

As Arad walked to the training ground, everyone there froze, their eyes twitched, and their bodies shuddered. Their emperor was massive and powerful. Those soldiers knew that Arad had defeated Vlad, the powerful vampire lord. No one questioned his power; he alone could probably kill all of them.

But for some reason, his gaze looked sharper today. His purple eyes glared at the depths of their souls, making them shudder. But to their luck, or bad luck, Arad’s gaze didn’t linger long on them, and he sighed.

Arad called the commanders and gave them new orders, orders to train the knights harder and separate them based on lists that he gave. The reason was simple: he wanted to build an order of very powerful knights equal to A-rank or S-rank adventurers. Most of the soldiers in front of him were C and D ranks, the best being B-rank, which didn’t amount to much.

The soldiers were both shocked and terrified. The new emperor wasn’t even crowned yet, but he came in and asked for their training to be increased. They knew that what awaited them was a grueling hell… but none dared speak back. Not out of fear of Arad, but out of shame. Every one of them could remember how their capital, their families, and loved ones were violated by the flood of Vlad’s vampires.

They weren’t powerful enough at that time, but next time, they must be powerful enough to protect their land with their own hands.

Arad watched over the soldiers training with his fourth clone; this was his last one, but his eyes were already spread all over the kingdom. The crows watched over the whole forest, their eyes following after the vampire paladins as they searched and cleansed the lands.

****

At the castle’s gate, a woman walked up to the guard’s post and looked at them with glowing purple eyes. They were a bit taken aback, but Alcott, who was around, approached, laughing his guts out. “What’s up with that look? Don’t tell me Merlin played some trick on you!”

The woman shook her head, and her body shifted, turning back into the towering Arad. “I was inspecting the village.” He then pulled a list out of nowhere and gave it to Alcott.

The list had several names, descriptions, and orders. People to capture, people kill, and people to just warn. Arad had inspected the whole village for criminals and hidden bandits. None could escape his sharp eyes.

“You’re working hard.” Alcott threw the list to one of the guards.

Arad looked at the door, “This empire must know peace.” He then looked at Alcott, “My wives and children are going to live in it after all.”