The dragon's harem

Chapter 2120: Charlie’s Speech I

After making sure the orcish King and Queen are working with them, Isdis had to go back home. She still had far too much work to take care of there, and it had nothing to do with her royal duties. She had her ceremony and had even become a true divine goddess quite suddenly. The people still couldn’t process that or how their emperor could keep getting away with it.

She wore the expensive, azure dress that Isabelle made for her and stood in front of the mirror surrounded by her maids. Yesterday, she was but a regular mortal, but today, she was a divine. She could store much more heat, get far colder than before, and even had access to both control and peace divine powers.

She looked at her hands, the white gloves she wore, the dress on her skin, the jewellery attached to her body, and the room she was standing in. The entire world looked strange, different, and unlike how she saw it before.

Her heartbeat had slowed down to nearly half, and the blood in her veins had long since frozen. Her body had become frozen in time, a mortal shell to hold her divine existence; in the same way Eris’s insides are boiling plasma, she cannot by any means be seen to have a regular anatomy.

”Have I become... an immortal monster?” As Isdis mumbled, the maid behind her froze and pissed herself, sending a cold eye glaring right at her soul, her mind getting chained, and her entire existence dancing on the palm of a cold, ruthless divine authority.

”Most likely...” The maid still maintained her composure and replied, even though she was terrified to the bones. ”The emperor’s gaze feels ineffable, Lady Eris’s gaze is sadistic bloodlust, and yours is cold indifference.” She looked at Isdis and got a stare right back.

”Cold indifference?”

”Yes, the emperor’s gaze made me realize that I, that we all, don’t matter in his presence. Lady Eris’s gaze made me feel horny and ecstatic, wishing to be torn to pieces by her and killed. But yours makes me feel like a tool, a mindless cog that you can move however you like.” The maid looked down at herself and the piss dripping on the ground.

”My fear doesn’t matter; my body doesn’t matter. That’s why I can still keep talking now. You asked, and as a tool under your control, I answer. Simple as that. You see me as nothing but a pawn.” She then lifted her gaze and looked back at Isdis. ”Yes, you have become an immortal monster that we mortals cannot even begin to fathom.”

Isdis approached and hugged her. ”It’s okay; you calm down. Sorry for scaring you.” This maid, much like Rey and Ray, had been with her for ages, long before Arad even arrived. While the twins were raised with her, this one was a bit older and had watched over them. On this day, this maid was nearing her thirties, having helped raise Isdis as an older sister.

When the maid calmed down, Isdis let her go and looked at the rest of the maids. ”Today, the empire takes a new step. It wasn’t the first, and it shall not be the last. I might’ve become a divine, but I still hold very little power over our future.”

”Arad holds it all; he is the one sitting on the obsidian throne. I have faced Eris once and felt a fraction of her power, but Arad had taken it all and survived. You maids serve us, the queens, but you must understand one thing: we queens aren’t the ones who hold the power; we aren’t the ones wearing the crown. We are replaceable; he isn’t. He can always make more of us, and we can’t even fathom the extent of his power.” She glared at them. ”You serve him, not me. Keep that in mind. This divine of control and peace is nothing but a tool in the emperor’s hand, the same way you’re tools in hers.”

As Isdis walked past the maids, they slowly followed her. ”Time to meet the people and see what could be done. I bet they are also asking a lot of questions. How come the emperor keeps getting more divine deities to himself?”

After walking across the hallways, Isdis finally found herself standing in front of the large balcony where she would do her speech, before going on a parade all around the capital. The people were already waiting outside; thousands of them had gathered in the castle’s courtyard and around the walls to listen to her.

But before she could reach the balcony, she saw someone else standing there, glaring down at the people with a nonchalant, tired face. That was her older brother, Charlie.

”So... who among you said the royal bloodline is blessed?” Charlie looked down from the balcony and spotted the noble who said it. The old man was sitting at one of the fancy tables, looking up with a wine glass in his hand.

”So, it was you? Stand up, speak up. What makes you think it’s blessed?” As Charlie pointed at him, the noble stood in a panic, ”Ah... yes, Your Highness. Both Princess Lucy and now Queen Isdis had become divine gods; how can the royal bloodline give birth to two gods without being blessed?”

Charlie nodded, ”Good, good, that’s a good argument. But didn’t you just say something odd? Think about it. You said the bloodline gave birth to two gods -isn’t that wrong?” He leaned on the balcony and stared down at the noble. ”Last, I remember, neither Lucy nor Isdis were born gods.”

”Don’t you think it’s odd? Mira, Eris, and Cerilla aren’t of the royal bloodline either. Do you know what all of those people have in common?” Charlie smiled, ”Come on, think about it. I don’t want to tell you; I want you and the people to reach your own conclusion, to understand it on your own.”

The noble looked troubled as he was thinking about it. Why are a lot of gods emerging now? Was it their bloodline? Were they born with it? Was it the emperor?

”It’s King Gojo and the Emperor.” As the noble mumbled, Charlie clapped his hands for him with a smile. ”There you go. I knew you were smart.”

Charlie then threw a glance back at his sister, who was watching from the inner shadows of the castle, before speaking again to the crowd.

”This world is plagued by monsters, savage demons, deceitful devils, and far more unknown horrors than we poor people can endure. We cannot even stand face to face with a lesser demon. Now, remember, who stood against those monsters, who was the one shielding us from those terrifying creatures?”

He then looked at a few of the people who were standing at the corner of the courtyard. ”You, people of Riverside. After Vlad blasted your city, who stood up to him? Who went to that monster’s kingdom and blasted it to the clouds? Who brought you all the way here to live in his land?” He then shifted his gaze toward the barbarians. ”Who stopped the disaster? Who granted you refuge here?”

Lastly, Charlie stared at the people of the capital. ”When the kingdom fell apart, when Vlad tore our capital from its roots and turned it into a sea of blood. Who stood to that ancient, unreachable monster and won.”

This was Charlie’s strategy to help both Arad and his sister. It was easier to accept that Arad, who was a dragon, could become the monster. If the people started to believe that anyone could become a divine or that the royal bloodline was somewhat a sacred power, he, his father, and everyone else’s lives would be at risk.

The only path to the peak should be too strong and serve Arad, and the empire. That way, all of the control would remain safely within Arad’s hands.