The dragon's harem

Malina walked into a large dark room, and inside, one of Gale’s wives waited for her.

“So you’ve come. You’ve never replied so fast.” The Queen looked at her with an amused smile and sat on her wooden chair. Silence and blinding magic immediately swallowed the room so the two could talk in peace.

Malina looked at the Queen with a passive face, betraying any emotions.

“I wanted to say that I’m not taking any jobs now. See you later.” Malina immediately turned to leave. She didn’t come here to take missions. She had already done enough for the Storm Titan kingdom.

Metallic dragons are generally good-aligned and strive to serve the powers of good, unlike the selfish chromatics who see themselves above the mortal races of the world.

Through the past years here, Malina had served as both a royal maid and an assassin, taking down targets that the royal court deemed harmful. Of course, she accepted and refused contracts based on her own moral compass.

If Malina decided that a target didn’t deserve to die, she would usually refuse to take the contract outright.

But all of that had changed now. She had found a mate and metallic dragons mated for life. The first thing she wanted to do now that she was getting married was quit her job to focus on raising the wyrmlings and tending to her lair and mate. She was throwing her assassin’s life to become a housewife, a sit-at-home mom.

In fact, she had never expected a dragon as powerful as Arad to accept her. They hadn’t fought for it yet, but from what little she saw from him, she was certain he wouldn’t kick her out just for not being strong enough because he was the odd one, not her.

Malina is a steel drakaina. Her power over steel and lightning makes her nearly indestructible by normal means. She is by the right of birth immune to all steel weapons and objects, and her lightning resistance is near being immune. To be precise, she isn’t resistant but has an affinity for lightning. Her body can conduct electricity quite well and channel it into attacks. If she were to get hit with a lightning attack, she could absorb it and charge herself for a counterattack.

But even with her great power, she knew from the moment she saw Arad that he’d throw her around like a toy. Malina won’t claim that she knows Arad well, but if even the fake persona he showed here can toy with her, she believes that his full power would be enough to kill tens of her.

It was obvious from the start that no normal dragon would dominate Claug and marry other women alongside her.

She can finally settle down, and she won’t let her old work stand in her way. This kingdom doesn’t need saving and helping anymore. And if it needed help, the royal family better find someone else to help them.

“You aren’t taking missions?” The Queen looked at Malina for a few seconds. “Are you in the middle of a mission? Depending on who sent you, mine might take priority. The kingdom’s future rests upon it, after all.”

Malina remained silent for a long time, then asked in a calm voice. “The kingdom’s future? If that is the case, then why are you here asking me? Get someone more reliable to do it.”

“You’re the most reliable person I can think of. You’ve never failed a mission before. And you’ve done hundreds of them. I think this will be just like them, another job well done.” The Queen waved her hand and pulled a huge suitcase from her storage ring.

“I was about to pay double your usual rate for this mission, but since you aren’t taking missions now, how about I sweeten the deal a bit? Four times your usual rate?” She pulled another suitcase and flashed it open.

Both suitcases were filled to the brim with gold, clinging, shiny gold coins. But there was a catch: the Queen is a titan, and so is Malina. Those two suitcases looked normal from their perspective, but from a human’s perspective, each of them was at least forty meters wide and full of several dozen tons of gold.

The coins themselves were massive. One meter in diameter and 0.2 meters thick, reaching a weight of three metric tons(3000 kilograms).

Malina was now presented with four of those suitcases, each full of several hundreds of those titanic coins, a wealth large enough to make most mortals faint.

Melina wasn’t tempted at all because she had already seen this much money before and saw even more.

Malina had finished at least a hundred missions for the royal family, each costing them one or two suitcases based on the mission. She had a hundred and thirty-five such suitcases in her layer, and that was the money she got from the royal family alone. She didn’t count all of the sidequests.

In total, Malina has exactly two hundred and seventy-one suitcases full of those gold coins. Since she worked as a servant in the castle and hunted for food in the chasm, she never needed to spend money in her life and now slept on a mountain of gold.

“Fine, one last mission. But you pay in advance, and I might double the cost based on the target.” Malina sighed, and the Queen smiled. “Good, good, those four are yours. And I’ll give you another four once you finish the mission.”

Malina blinked, “If you’re throwing that much money, how much of a problem my target is?”

The Queen remained silent with a somber face. “Arad Orion, I want him dead. You’re already by his side. Just find a way so that he never wakes up from his sleep.”

Malina frowned. “There is a healer that specializes in sight and hearing problems. You better go see him.”

The Queen froze at Malina’s words. It took her a long moment to realize what she meant. But before she could speak, Malina started talking in a calm, neutral tone.

“You saw what he could do. You saw him blast the chasm and heard that explosion. What makes you think that I can kill someone like that.” Malina knew that Arad was far stronger than that, but just that power alone would’ve made her refuse the contract before.

But this was beside the point, and Malina knew it. She didn’t want to kill Arad, not because he was strong, but because he wasn’t evil. She only picked targets that were a threat to the kingdom. Arad wasn’t a threat. He was a wind of change.

“I saw his power, and I think you’re the only option. That is why I’m willing to pay this much for his life.” The Queen looked a bit worried.

Malina sighed, “Fine, I’ll take the contract.” She turned to leave, and the Queen called her.

“Your gold.”

“Keep it. I’ll collect it later.”

Malina never intended to finish the mission and thus won’t take payment for it. She is only taking it so the Queen doesn’t hire another assassin. She’ll stall for time until Arad leaves and then ghost them.