The dragon's harem

As Jack walked through the hall and inspected all of the tiny trinkets he could use for traps, he could see Lydia going to talk with Mira beside where Camilla stood, so he smiled and headed toward Arad. He moved silently like a ghost, and each of his steps was quick and precise, making him seem like he was sliding between the crowds instead of walking.

That was Jack’s nature, a rogue that was already far too used to sneaking around and silently moving among the people like a shadow. It was a trait that most couldn’t even notice, but those who could immediately get alarmed.

Two guards, who were at the bottom of the stairs leading to the auction’s stage where Arad sat approached Jack and stood in his way. “Where are you going, shifty.”

Jack blinked, looked at them, then down at himself. “Shifty? I even went as far as to put some perfume on. Well, Lydia forced it onto me, but that doesn’t matter here, does it?” He shifted his gaze toward the guards and smiled. “You’d better move out of my way, or else.”

“Else what?” One of the guards growled at him, and Jack simply pointed behind them. “I don’t know, ask him.”

As they turned around, Arad was there, glaring down at them with burning purple eyes. “Squires in training? It’s impressive that you noticed his suspicious moves, but… You should know his face by now.”

The two guards looked at Jack once more, and then one of them blinked. “He looks like the Hero Jack… but the hero is disabled, he lost an arm and a leg, and is much thinner.”

They were quite right. In this world where skilled rogues exist, and where illusion magic is accessible for disguise, the rapid healing Jack went through after absorbing Susanoo’s portfolio was too hard to look through.

Arad sighed, “He is the Hero Jack, with how much power I’ve managed to get so far, do you think we couldn’t find him help?” Arad shook his head, “Back to your posts, and leave him alone. Unless you want to end up tied up on some random tree, he does that a lot.”

The two guards didn’t say another word; they just gave Arad and Jack a bow before running away to their post.

“Don’t be harsh on the young ones. One of them almost shat himself when you appeared behind them.” Jack smiled, and Arad chuckled. “I’m not that scary.”

The two headed up the stairs to the stage, where there was a private table filled with food and drinks, and they sat there with Alcott and Gojo, who had arrived just a while earlier.

“Jack! How are things going on your side?” Alcott waved his hand, and Jack quietly sat beside him. “Well, I can’t believe that just a year or something ago I was nothing but a runt trying to learn echolocation from you, and now we are here.”

“Well, an adventurer’s growth isn’t always a gentle slope. Sometimes they find something that grants them power, they can get lucky, or spend years grinding. But that is the fun part, since you never know what to expect from them.” Alcott looked at a small table in the corner of the hall where Agnar, Yuwaku, and Ignis were eating. “Sometimes, you find a child monster, and sometimes you find experienced trash.”

“Can’t argue with that.” Jack poured himself a drink and then took a sip. “This is nice.” With a smile, he looked at Gojo, “Everything is fine for now, but I still found no traces of that monster. She must be wiping the memories of everyone she contacts.”

Gojo lifted a finger. “She isn’t wiping their memories, because if she did that, it would be obvious with parts missing. She is replacing their memories with fake ones, and to catch her, we must find a way to identify that.”

Alcott scratched his chin, “Hmmm… but, she is also masterfully evading that one, right?”

“Fernanda, yes. She still didn’t come into contact with Poppy.” Arad replied, and threw a glance at Alcott, “You can notice her?”

“I mean, those vessels of hers are eerie… they feel weird to me, I don’t know how to explain it.” He thought about it for a second, “There is something inhuman about them, like they are a powerful terror wearing human skin.”

“I can’t tell the difference.” Jack added, and Gojo titled his head, “Even for me, if I didn’t already know where to look, it’ll be hard to distinguish those vessels from regular people.”

“It’s about the flesh.” Pollo, Alcott’s friend jumped above the guards from the lower hall and landed beside the table. Of course, the guards were about to charge at him, but they stopped the moment Alcott glared at them.

“We werewolves are technically cannibals, human werewolves eat human flesh, and elf werewolves eat elvish flesh. Vampires are also similar, but we’re more restrained.” He pulled a chair and sat down. “I’ve been a werewolf far longer than any of you, so I’ll tell you a little detail.”

He poured himself a drink, “We werewolves are put off by the flesh of cannibals, and that Witch is one. I don’t know why, but it is the case.” He looked at Arad, “Poppy probably can tell her apart from other people, and is now scared.”

Jack shrugged. “I bet she is. Imagine finding out that thousands of regular-looking people in the capital are actually an ancient unholy horror wearing human skin.” He took a sip, “It’s even scarier when you know how powerful Fernanda is.”

Fernanda carried all of the power of everyone she consumed on top of her own power, and the power of the abomination that infested her world. She was a world-class threat and a creature of nightmares that couldn’t be stopped by normal means. Killing a few thousand of her vessels would literally do nothing, and just like a plague, she could infect and spread across every continent in a matter of months.

Everyone agreed that fighting the Tarrasque herself would be much better since it’s a simple job of killing the big beast, not hunting for an elusive horror that could be anyone. Fernanda and Poppy were similar in that regard; they weren’t a single existence that could be easily destroyed.

Arad thought that his ability to cheat death and still regenerate from full-body destruction, thanks to his multiple incarnations, was overpowered, but Poppy and Fernanda got him beat in that aspect.

But that wasn’t the part that Arad feared at all. Unlike everyone they faced until now, Poppy was smart, and she wasn’t mindlessly attacking. She was now trying to sow fear and distress, slowly chip away at them and the people’s morale. It was almost impossible to believe she was insane, and mentally ill.

That had quickly brought Arad to the point he wanted to make.

“From what we found so far, Merlin thinks that Poppy’s insanity is unique. She didn’t go crazy, but lost all sense of morality and empathy.” He lifted a hand. “Only her life matters; everyone else are just extras, tools for her to survive and grow in power. We who resist that will are enemies that she must weed out to maintain the safety of her life.”

Alcott sighed, “This is just sad, if she were only able to hold onto her humanity, or at least a bit of empathy.” He looked at his own hand, “I guess I also almost snapped several times.” He wasn’t strange to slowly losing his mind to either his power or suffering. There was a time when he got stabbed in the gut and kicked off a building, only to have to crawl through the gutters and sewers for two days while bleeding out and getting eaten by rats. After that incident, it wouldn’t be strange if he went insane and chose to just massacre everyone who was involved.

“I wonder what she is thinking about now, that little brat.” Alcott looked at his wine glass, watching the blood-red wine swirl.