The dragon's harem

Arad looked out of the small wooden window, surprised that he didn’t need to hunch his back. His surprise didn’t last long as he noticed marks of the wood stretching, too faint for normal eyes to see, but he wasn’t a normal man. Yggdrasil had modified this tiny cottage to fit him.

He looked back, and the place was indeed small.

One large hut with three rooms. You walk through the main door into the middle room, the living room, where there is a small table, a few boxes, and wooden shelves to store things. The room to the right was the bedroom, simple with one large bed, a box, and nothing else. To his left was the kitchen, where a simple stone stove was built.

There wasn’t even a toilet or a garderobe anywhere to be seen, so he had to build one first.

“What do you think?” Arad asked, and Tina, who was behind him, approached the table. “It is smaller than our house in Alina. I can take care of it alone.” She picked up the two wooden cards on the table. “She even left us with identifications.”

She gave Arad his, and he looked at it.

The two of them were husband and wife, the Orion family. He was a lumberjack, making a living by cutting trees and selling them. She, on the other hand, is his sickly wife, Tina Orion.

In terms of this world, they were mere commoners of no renown; the Orion family wasn’t well known. Just Arad seemed to have made a name for himself as a good lumberjack who specializes in dealing with massive trees.

He even got his family name, Orion, from a noble old lady after he cut ancient trees that plagued her back garden. So she named him Orion, after the stars of the night, when he finished that work.

Arad knew that this whole back story was made by Yggdrasil, so that old lady probably doesn’t exist, or she might be real; he didn’t know how the World Tree operated, but he was sure she could manage such a thing with ease.

“We should head to the school.” Arad looked at Tina, and she lifted an eyebrow. “She called it a sect. In this world, everyone worships the World Tree, but many groups do it differently than others; that’s why they are called sects.”

“That doesn’t matter, does it? If they teach, they are a school.” Arad looked at Tina as she approached.

“I believe it matters here, since this is supposed to be the oldest sect, the one closest to what the original religion was. They worship a branch of the World Tree and listen to her commands through it; that’s why she sent us here. She can control the sect to a degree.”

Tina approached one of the boxes and pulled several robes from inside it. “But before we go, we should change into some local clothes. You’ll stand out as you are, so it is best if we at least try to look normal.”

Arad looked at himself; he probably won’t find any three-meter giant like him anywhere in this world. He is literally twice as tall as Tina, and she was just an average person. Most people in this world won’t be taller than his belt, which is a bit concerning.

He looked at his hand and clenched a fist. As Yggdrasil said, he still has all of his power, but the people of this world won’t be able to tell unless he shows them.

After both of them changed into their flowing robes, Arad found himself feeling a bit strange. He never wore something like this; it looked more like something that Amaterasu would wear, but it was too different.

Long sleeves, too much decoration for his taste, and even a belt that wasn’t a belt, just a piece of cloth wrapped around his waist to keep everything together.

“This is probably just a cheap robe. Don’t worry about it.” Tina looked at him after she put on her.

Arad looked out, “I’m not worried that it’s cheap, price doesn’t matter. I’m just not used to such clothes.” He opened the door, and the two of them headed out, walking up the dirt road and heading toward the main city nearby.

Their house was barely on the edge of the forest, close enough to allow Arad to work comfortably. He could see his tools outside the small cottage as they left.

Soon, they got close to the city and could hear the people singing and cheering. Today was a festival, the Anointment Festival. From what Arad understood, this was just the school ’Sect’ entrance ceremony, which Tina needed to go through to enter the sect.

It wasn’t even an exam or a test, just a simple show of talent, and those who show potential get picked up. The sect has a hundred masters, and each master shall pick a thousand students and is tasked to make sure at least a hundred of those thousand succeed in their path and graduate.

The city was massive, as the sect alone supported a hundred thousand new students each four years.

As Arad approached the gate, the guards looked at him with a shocked expression. Not once in their lives have they seen such a huge man; he could even fit through the gate without ducking, his head would’ve smacked right into the armored barrier.

“Please, wait a moment.” One of the guards approached them with weary steps, looked at Arad and Tina for a second, and decided to move away from Tina for the time being. “Sir, your identification, if you don’t mind.”

Arad pulled his card, and so did Tina, as they handed them to the guard, his eyes opened wide. “The lumberjack? I’ve never seen you before, you’re huge!”

The guard smiled and handed the two their cards, “I totally thought you were some powerful master cutting trees in the forest for the city. I didn’t expect you to be so…”

“Massive.” Arad replied, “It is rare, but it runs in the family. My late, late, late, grandpa should’ve had it, if I’m not wrong.”

The guard smiled, “You know, with such good…” He then froze, “Ah, sorry to keep you held up. You can go ahead.”

Arad gave the man a smile and headed inside the city with Tina.

The guard sighed with sweat dripping across his face. “I almost messed up.” He looked back at Arad and Tina. “I almost told him that the noble houses might be interested in picking him up due to his blood. But that woman had Orion as her last name; she is his wife.”

The poor guard was but a mundane man; he didn’t count his chances of getting punched by someone as huge as Arad. Punching a guard was stupid, but what if Arad did? It doesn’t matter what punishment he’ll get if the guard’s neck is already broken.

“Better avoid trouble.”