The dragon's harem

Chapter 1457: Into Arad’s World

D went around the wooden mansion to try and find a spot to build herself a room, only for her to realise a few things. This whole place was built like a wooden shack, just bigger. Plum didn’t seem to have any architectural knowledge, and so she didn’t bother building anything beyond a simple square house.

”Plum! Size alone doesn’t matter; you have to at least make it work. Like, the door can’t be opened. They are a bit too heavy.” D called out as she found a corner for herself.

”Are you sure about that?”

Plum replied with a single sentence and flick of her wrist, making the doors lighter by hollowing them out. ”Just, don’t hit them.”

D sighed, pulled a tiny wand, and started casting a few spells. First, she wasn’t that good with wood magic, so she would rather use earth. With mud, she managed to close off a small room for herself, furnished with a stone table and chair, a decent bed without a mattress, and a tiny window that looked into the mansion’s insides.

Of course, an exalted wizard such as herself won’t sleep on the cold, hard, rough stone. She rolled her sleeves up and showed a tattoo that she had on her forearm. That was her storage magic.

Unlike Merlin, who wanted to have the largest space possible and thus drew the tattoo on her chest, D was willing to lose space in exchange for not having to pull anything from between her breasts.

From her wrist, she pulled a massive bag. Those were her camping gear. A tent, a bedroll, rations, a firepot, an endless water urn, and a portable force shield. Most were useless for her now, except the bedroll and the endless water urn.

She carefully rolled the bedroll on the stone bed, made sure it was tidy, and then shifted her attention to the endless water urn. After the long trip, the harrowing horrors she saw, and the disgusting bugs they had to fight, she deserved a bath.

Walking to the corner of her new accommodation, D hung the endless water urn high above her head using a stone hook made with magic. She tapped on it with her wand, and water splashed out. D tested the water with her hand and quickly frowned. It was freezing cold, colder than how she liked her beer.

She turned around, grabbed the firepot, and hung it beside the water urn. She then drew several lines with her wand linking the two magic items. After a few minutes of grunts, curses, and several failed attempts, she finally managed to link the two old pieces of scrap.

”Good riddance, I might need to get new ones.” She looked at the water urn, ”This one, gods, over ninty years old. Most only last thirty years.”

Testing the water again, everyone could hear her scream like a goat. It was boiling hot and she burned her hand.

”God damn it!” She pulled a healing potion from her bag and regretfully had to use it on her hand. Such a waste of a perfectly fine healing potion that could’ve healed her in a pinch, not looking at the bottle date that said it was at least twenty years old.

”Guh! Tastes horrible. How long has this thing... oh, twenty years.” She looked at her hand healing and shrugged, ”If it works, it works.” She then headed back to the water urn and the firepot, tuning them to get the water’s temperature just perfect.

She nodded in satisfaction and then quickly drilled a hole to drain the water out of the wooden mansion. She then looked at her makeshift door, wondering if she should call Jasmine. The queen must want to take a bath as well, or at least shower, especially after her fight with the wasps.

After thinking about it for a while, D decided to go call Jasmine first. She opened her door and went deeper into the mansion, looking for everyone else.

She didn’t find anyone; they’ve all disappeared without a trace.

”Your Majesty!” She called, but no one replied. ”Angel, little fairy!?”

”Strange.” She waved her hand and summoned a tiny blue moth, and soon five more moths appeared. ”Go, find them.”

Those were her familiars, moon moths.

Seconds later, the moths returned; they didn’t find anyone, but they found something strange. A black hole in reality inside Arad’s room. One of the moths touched the hole, and it got erased, ripped out of D’s senses in the blink of an eye.

”Don’t tell me.” She stood and went into Arad’s room, slowly pushing the massive door open. Looking inside, she could feel the tremendous pressure the tiny black hole exerted. It wasn’t really a black hole, but just a dark spot that floated in the middle of the room, spinning on itself with enough magic to make D hesitate.

”Arad’s magic. That monster, if any wizard saw this, they would’ve shat themselves.” That tiny black hole pushed at least thirteen times more mana than D’s entire reserve.

As she walked into the room and approached the hole, she could feel her magic shaking; all of her defensive layers were getting undone by the sheer interference. Her magic was like a tiny candle, standing in the middle of a raging forge. She could feel her wax melting, and her life rapidly draining.

On the ground, beside the hole, a few words were engraved on the wooden floor.

”Touch the black ball.” This was Jasmine’s writing; she seems to have scratched it on the ground with her flyssa.

D gulped, ”Please tell me this leads to Arad’s stomach or whatever that place was, not another hellhole of this damned tree.”

She reached forward, and before her hand could touch the black ball, she got sucked inside and fell face-first on the soft dirt. ”I hate this...” She growled, trying to sit up. But then, she felt a harrowing gaze upon her.

”Lady D, welcome.” A woman’s voice rang above her head, and when she looked, a vampire nun was standing there.

”So, this is Arad’s stomach?”

For a moment, D sensed a wave of bloodlust rushing from the nun, but that quickly faded away. ”Lord Arad, yes. This is our Lord’s stomach. I was asked to wait here and lead you to everyone else if you arrived.”

”You were about to kill me just now.” D waved her wand and formed a few barriers. ”Is this really Arad’s stomach?”

The wave of bloodlust rushed once more. ”Yes, we’re in Lord Arad’s stomach. And, please don’t just use his name. Call him Lord Arad, if you know what’s best for you.”

The nun pointed behind her, and D could see hundreds of vampires going about their daily lives. Each and every one of them was powerful enough to cause a disaster, and strangely enough, they all either wore nuns’ clothes or paladin armor.

”Lord Arad is our Blood Lord; we worship him as a god, our only god. And if you dare disrespect him here, I’ll punch a new hole up your ass.” The nun smiled, pointing at a garden that was a bit hidden out of view, where several bandits and demon worshipers who caused trouble in Arad’s lands were impaled from the arse to the throat, still alive, but bleeding to death.

”I see... Can you please take me to where everyone else, including our Lord Arad, is?” D said with a worried face, and then the nun stared at her for a long moment.

”Good enough, follow me.” She sighed and guided D toward the inner districts of the small world.