The dragon's harem

After Zephyr distributed her wine, and Aella gave out her speech, which was written by Isdis to live the people’s morals and talk a bit about the empire’s future plan, the party’s end became near.

It was getting pretty late, and while most of those nobles were going to spend the night in the castle, the local ones were going to return to their estates. The number of the guests drastically reduced as the maids led them out one family at a time, some down to the carriage stables, and some into the guest’s accommodation of the castle.

Arad could finally breathe now that those nobles had left, leaving him nearly alone with his wives. Some still hang around drinking and taking the chance to discuss matters with their peers, and that really made Arad want to kick them out.

But he couldn’t do that, Isdis had warned him. They wanted the nobles to do their job well, to keep the land and people stable. Those nobles here are using the chance of this meeting to discuss matters that they would usually either ignore or have to travel weeks to fix.

For example, that noble woman who asked Ganta about the road. She couldn’t afford to travel weeks or even months just to appeal something she wasn’t sure would be accepted, but if she was coming here anyway for the part, she used that change to make her request.

She wasn’t alone. Some nobles requested ore from other nobles, some requested manpower, and some just discussed political marriages and their succession wars. Listening to them, Arad could feel himself getting more tired with each word.

Isdis, on the other hand, sat in the corner with Aella, pretending to drink while writing notes in secret about everything the nobles talked about. She wanted to fully understand how the empire is shifting, what those nobles are up to, and what she could expect in the future.

If anything caught his attention, it was the talk about the spirits and how the humanoids are planning to treat them from today onward.

A noble count, Sir Eldion of Raventhrone, had suggested to the other nobles around his territory, who were almost all barons, that they should monitor their forests in anticipation of spirits’ activities. Apparently, the forest in that area houses pixies, and they are now expecting that spirits have settled in there.

One stare at Zephyr, and she informed Arad that the noble was right. In that forest, there are two colonies of spirits: An old colony dating back centuries and belonging to the earth spirits, and a newer one of water spirits that was formed in the last decade upon the discovery of a mana water spring.

As Sir Eldion discussed the matter with the barons, he brought forth his two eldest sons, informing the barons that the two of them would soon lead an expedition into the forest to contact the spirits and establish a diplomatic relationship.

The two sons looked eager for their new mission, and the barons expected a lot. With the spirits showing up here today, they looked to be expecting the colonies in the forest to pay them taxes or something for the land they use… something they were really wrong about.

Arad silently listened from his throne, and what interested him wasn’t the sons, nor their father, nor the barons. What caught his eye was the little girl shunned in the back, Eldion’s youngest daughter, whom he brought with him today to look for a potential partner for. She was still young, so he wasn’t even trying, just hoping that the other nobles would know he had a daughter and consider her in the future.

As they talked, she spoke up and told them that the spirits actively loathed them, and that their search would be fruitless at best, or cause a war at worst. Her father immediately asked one of his servants to take her away, because she didn’t know what she was talking about.

Zephyr stood and looked at Aella. “Let’s go, I got something to do.” She flew and sat on her head.

“Something to do? Right now?” Aella sighed. “What is it? You’re not going to swim in wine, are you?”

Zephyr pointed at the little girl. “We’re going to talk with her. The little girl has a bit of spirit magic on her; she must have come into contact with a fairy before. Her words might not be so empty as father things.”

The two of them silently walked through the ballroom as Arad watched. Zephyr clearly used her magic to both hide themselves from Eldion and distract the servant keeping the little girl company. She knew that if Eldion saw the Queen and the Wind Spirit Queen approach his daughter, he would jump in to talk with them instead.

“Yo! What’s your name!” Zephyr flew away from Aella and floated in front of the little girl’s face, then waved her hand with a goofy face.

The poor little girl looked scared; she looked to be barely seven years old, so Zephyr had hoped she would be more comfortable with a friendly approach, which seemed to quickly backfire.

Aella sighed. “Zephyr, let me talk with her.” She approached the little girl and greeted her with a gentle bow. The little girl surprisingly responded with the same gesture. She must’ve been taking etiquette classes back home to become a proper noble lady; the only problem was that the bow looked to be clearly mimicked and not trained.

This little girl knew how to greet someone the noble way, but messed up her moves on purpose to look more childish and innocent. Either they are teaching her a bit too much, or she is just a terrifying genius.

“Q-queen Aella… Pleased to meet you. I am Loretta, the youngest daughter of the Raventhrones.” The little girl gave Aella a scared look, then shifted her attention to Zephyr for but a moment before taking a step back.

“Tell me, you said that trying to approach the spirits could cause a war. What did you mean by that?” As Aella asked, the little girl paled and looked away. “Nothing, I just thought the spirits won’t like seeing us approaching their land. Father said I’m wrong, so he knows best. Your highness should talk to him instead of me.”

Zephyr flew down, grabbed the little girl by the nose, and started pulling. “Come here you stinky brat! If you don’t speak, I’ll rip that big nose of yours off.”

Aella tried to stop her, but the two were already rolling away. “Stop it! It hurts!” The little girl cried, and Zephyr didn’t seem to care. “I know, that’s why I’m pulling it off. I know you met a spirit, and I know that you should know more than your father. Why aren’t you speaking? Is it because of him? A pact with that spirit you met, or are you plotting something?”

“I’m not!” The little girl growled and only gave up after being fully exhausted.

“I got lost in the forest once, and the fairies found me. They seemed to argue whether they should kill me or keep me in the colony to later use as a hostage. A group had been hunting pixies around the Raventhrone forest, and that pissed them off a lot. There is also another group of mages who seem to be searching for a spring in the forest, and the fairies lost a lot of soldiers fighting them off.”

She glared at Zephyr, “Is that enough?”

Aella looked at the little girl. “So, either by compliance or ignorance, your father is guilty in the fairies’ eyes. That’s why you think they won’t even consider peace with him.”

“No, I also want to know why you pretend to be a clueless girl, while you know a lot.” She flew in and tapped the little girl on the head.

The little girl shrugged. “I’m a perfectly normal human little girl. You are a spirit, so you can tell.”

Indeed, with all of her senses, and even Arad in the back, the two of them could confirm this little girl is without a doubt a human, a perfectly normal human girl. She isn’t a dragon, she isn’t a demon, an abomination, or anything else.

“Even though I can tell you’re human…” Zephyr glared closely at her, and the little girl started sweating. “But I still have this itch…” She then sighed and shook her head. “It doesn’t matter now. I’ll investigate the forest with Arad and Aella.”

As Aella and Zephyr headed back to the throne, the little girl sighed and found a chair to sit down. “Ah! Alex! Where are you?” She shouted, and the servant her father assigned to her rushed in. He was distracted by Zephyr’s magic earlier.

“Yes, My Lady. Did you need anything?”

She gave him a look, and sighed. “Useless…”