The dragon's harem

Leaning on a cracked wall in the middle of the night, a young man in his late teens gagged and then threw up. The sky was clear, the moon was full, and the stars burned brightly above the world.

The world around the young man was spinning, and he could barely keep a hold on reality. He should’ve stopped drinking hours ago, but what could he have done?

“Are you okay, uncle?” A sharp and gentle voice called, and when the young man looked into the dark shadows of the alleyways, he saw a little ginger girl wearing rags looking at him. She looked barely five, so he frowned.

“The fu…what are you doing here?” He pushed against the wall and tried to stand straight, but he could barely see. His arms flailed in front of him as if they had a mind of their own, and a part of his mind was already telling him that he must be hallucinating from all that he drank.

“Forget about me. You need to rest.” The little approached, grabbed him by the wrist, and started dragging him toward the darkness. He already couldn’t tell dreams from reality, so he couldn’t even resist, and the little girl dragged him away as if he were a stray sheep.

“Look what we got here?” A deep voice growled from the shadows, and the little girl froze. “A drunkard, that armor is sweet.”

Another voice spoke right after. “Now that’s a fine sword on his hip, I bet that purse is fatter than the lord’s wife.”

“Who’s the kid, though? His daughter? No way, look at her rags, she’s from the slums.” From the shadows, four men emerged with knives at hand. “Now, brother, strip down, give us that armor, your weapon, and everything you got, and we’ll buy you a beer.”

The drunkard gasped, “Strip naked… ugh, if only… You were a sweet wench…” He staggered, stared at them, “But… you’re ugly, hairy, fuckers…” Then quickly closed his mouth, stared at the little girl, and corrected himself, “Shitheads!” and chuckled.

“Yo… guys, I might’ve seen this bastard before…” One of the thugs was already taking a step back, but they were already too late. The little clicked her tongue, and her eyes had a faint red glimmer, but the drunkard moved first.

It was a single step, too fast to be seen. It looked as if he teleported, but it was just sheer speed. One moment he was standing behind the little girl, but in the neck, he was standing an inch away from the first of the thugs.

The thug froze, but the drunkard didn’t wait. He reached down, grabbed the thug’s pants, pulled on them, and puked his guts inside.

The thug was horrified, his friends disgusted and appalled, but the drunkard had a smile on his face. “That… feels better.”

Immediately, the thug who got his pants filled up burst into action, drew a short sword, and swung it at the drunkard’s neck. “Die! You fucker!”

CLAP! The drunkard caught the thug’s wrist, and stared at him with a dazed face. “Don’t… curse… there is a child… back there…”

The thug tried to pull his arm back, but was horrified to find it stuck; the drunkard’s grasp felt like steel shackles, like his arm was glued to a stone wall. He was strong, could probably pull a whole cart, but for some reason, he couldn’t move this stupid drunkard.

The thug, who was getting suspicious from the start, finally remembered where he had seen the drunkard and immediately cried and fled away. “Run! He’s the slayer!”

But before the thug could get far, a knife hit him in the thighs, and he dropped to the ground in agony. The drunkard had stolen the knife of the thug he was grabbing and threw it at the fleeing one. It was sucking a swift and precise move that the thug didn’t even realize he was missing the knife.

“ALCOTT!” A deafening roar burst inside the nearby building, and a large table burst through the wall and smacked one of the thugs, burying him beneath a mountain of rubble.

The young man was Alcott Demorian, and he had just been promoted from B-rank to A-rank after successfully driving away a green dragon. On this beautiful night, he had been drinking away in celebration with his party at the tavern.

While it took the thugs a while to recognize Alcott, they instantly recognized the woman who just shattered the wall at a glance, because she was notorious for carelessly killing anyone who tried to hit on her. She even murdered the lord’s son when he tried to speak to her, and even broke his father’s legs when he came with the guards to drag her to jail.

Nina, the Bloody Berserker, had killed a lot to earn that title, and she was feared. The only reason she wasn’t in jail was that the cost of keeping her locked up would be even higher than it takes to keep giant monsters.

The thugs had pulled a bad one today, not just Alcott, but the barbarian in his party was here as well. They might be able to reason with Alcott even if he was stoned to the bones, but there was no talking to Nina. If she catches them, they’ll die brutal deaths.

“Look… a girl…” Alcott let the thug he was grabbing go, staggered back, and showed Nina the girl. “Her head… is on fire…”

Nina glared at him for a second, and then her eye shifted toward the little girl as steam rushed out of her nose. The night was cold after all, and the little girl wasn’t shivering. Her barbaric senses went haywire, and she swung her axe at the little girl without thinking a second time.

The axe hit, and the ground shattered into a storm of debris and a loud bang. The walls of the nearby buildings cracked, and the thugs were already looking like the victims.

“Bitch.” The little girl growled as the dust cleared, and she had caught Nina’s axe with her tiny hand. “And here I thought I would get a nice and fat blood bag tonight.”

Nina’s eyes stared at the girl, and before Alcott could even speak, she kicked the little girl away as hard as she could.

The little girl hit the wall, bounced back, and landed on the ground with a smile. “Well, I guess I have no other choice. Sorry for the trouble.” Her body turned into a swarm of bats, and they flapped away. The only problem was that those bats hit an invisible wall just a few meters away, and the little girl fell back to the ground as that form of her reverted.

“Can’t you all be quiet?” A tall woman in a fancy wizard robe walked out of the hole Nina blasted in the tavern’s wall. She looked at them with a smile, and then at Nina. “I locked the place, so can you calm down a bit? I’ll give you jerky.” She pulled a piece of dried beef, and Nina immediately rushed toward her like a happy dog.

The little girl growled. “Damnable wizards.” With a silent curse, she jumped at the wizard woman first, who was Merlin. But she realized that all of her powers weren’t working, and got smacked on the head hard with the large wooden staff.

An hour later, the little girl woke up in a small room and found herself tied and hanging upside down from the ceiling. All of her limbs were tightly packed behind her back, and even her mouth was gagged with a stick.

On the ground beneath her were several circles of salt, holy water, and even spells designed to weaken and seal vampires.

She growled and soon noticed the four individuals sitting in the room and watching her. They were Alcott, Nina, Merlin, and the last one was Amber. Alcott was still drunk and zoning away, Nina was wolfing down a mountain of jerky like a wild animal, Merlin was staring at the little girl with a weird face as if she was seeing a lab rat, and the only one who looked worried was Amber.

“You didn’t kill or turn me to the church.” She easily bit and crushed the gag and then spoke in a calm voice.

Amber replied. “Alcott here fucked three nuns just last week, so the church is also looking for him. Merlin wants to use you to test her spells, and Nina… she doesn’t care.”

The little girl smiled. “A horny guy who only thinks with his lower half, but is martially skilled. A wizard who is a wizard, and a dumb and aggressive barbarian… A nice party you got here.”

Amber sighed, “I got up to my throat trying to manage those fools. But…” She stood, approached the little girl, and stabbed her in the eye with a silver knife.

As the little girl screamed, Amber set the eye ablaze and burned the wound before it could bleed a lot. “See? You can’t heal above those circles, so speak, or I’ll slowly roast you alive. What are you doing in the city you fiend?!”

The little girl growled and giggled. “Ah, name is Poppy, little sweet Poppy.”