The dragon's harem

As Arad and Alcott’s party were going around the whole castle checking anyone with blue and red magic, Arad in the half-angel kingdom had many things to tend to as well.

First, the incarnation who spent a night with Kali was now back in the vacuum of space training under Diana. The training today wasn’t that different from yesterday, except that the targets that Arad was supposed to sneak past or assassinate from stealth were now moving and looking for him as well.

Diana was sitting on his head as she did before, watching over his every step and giving notes in real-time. Sometimes, she even cheats and summons a demon right beside him so he’ll have to disappear without being noticed or caught.

What was scarier than a deadly void dragon? A void dragon that can attack with full force from stealth in the darkness of the vacuum of space. That was Diana’s plan. Making Arad skilled enough in stealth to the point of not giving his enemies the luxury of even noticing him before he kills them.

As she explained it to him, Arad doesn’t need to care. If he is certain that someone is an evil villain, then there is nothing to talk about. Just appear out of thin air, kill them without a word, and vanish. Carry on with your life as usual. He doesn’t need to listen to their grand plan, sad backstory, or moral motives. They need to go, and so they go, plain and simple.

Of course, Arad didn’t miss the chance to ask Diana how she would locate magic dragons.

“Depends on the situation, explain, and I’ll give you a sure way to smoke them out.” Diana seemed confident, so he told her the whole story.

Diana thought about it for a few seconds and then seemed to have found an answer, “Simple, ruin whatever they plan, and they show themselves. If you’re their goal, you can either fake your death or make it clear that you aren’t taking any more wives.”

She smiled, “If you can’t outskill them, you can outsmart them. No matter what anyone thinks, since they are the ones posted in your territory, you’re the one with more leverage over the situation.”

Arad thought about it for a long while, “Can you sniff them out?”

“I’m certain I can, but isn’t their whole point that you must find them, not anyone else? They aren’t marrying me.” She looked at him, “Have you tried looking at their souls? Dragons can change their shape, reform their magic, and erase their presence, but only a rare few can go as far as mask their souls.”

“Very few?” Arad lifted an eyebrow, even though he didn’t have one as a dragon.

“They immerse themselves in their shapeshift and forget their true self for as long as they are shifted, they become their actual guise. Even their souls change to reflect that. But still, the dragon remains aware in the back of its head that it’s a dragon.” She scratched her head, “It’s like… All humans are aware they are souls controlling flesh carcasses, but no one actively thinks about it. Some even say that a human is a brain that controls a flesh golem.”

Now that Arad thought about it, it was true. The two drakainas are aware of their draconic nature, but they might be believing in their own shapeshifting too much that they are becoming it. It was like what Alcott told him, a new level of shapeshifting that is above what Arad understands.

This also explained how Sena could notice them. She was doing the same, after all. She had managed to live as a human for so long that her true nature as a horror bigger than the world itself never showed up.

How would he find them based on all of that? He has an idea.

A direct approach to solving problems and the people’s souls. This had given Arad a good idea to smoke them out, but it’ll have to leave everyone in the castle terrified to the bones.

Arad, who was inside the castle, stood still, and Alcott looked back at him, “What are you doing?”

Arad closed his eyes, “I’m just going find them. I’ve been thinking as a human for long, but as a dragon, finding them should be as simple as kicking a door open.”

Merlin looked at him, “You aren’t going to blow the whole castle and say they’ll survive as dragons.”

“Something close, but I’ll compensate them with a bonus in this month’s pay.” Arad took a deep breath, and his eyes flashed purple.

The only one in Alcott’s group who noticed what Arad did was Merlin, and she burst laughing, “I see, sure, this is like blasting the whole castle in a sense.”

“What? What did he do?” Alcott asked with a confused face, and Merlin glanced back, “We’ll have a lot of piss and puke to clean up.”

Inside the kitchen, one of the maids was stirring the large pot for lunch, humming a tune with a smile on her face. She had finally saved enough money for a luxurious vacation in the beach city of Alvanor. This summer, she’ll have a whole month to relax and get a tan. She had dreamed of that for so long, to see the sand, the ocean, and the… She froze, and her eyes shot open as she felt so disgusted, horrified, and threatened that she emptied her bowls straight into the pot with a loud scream. She had never felt such anxiety and fear since the day she applied to work here as a maid, and her acceptance notice came a day late.

She wasn’t alone. Looking around the kitchen, everyone was drowning in their own piss and puke, crying in fear. But, she had quickly understood what was happening. It was something that the castle notified them about before. She just didn’t expect it to happen like this out of nowhere.

It wasn’t just them. Everyone all around the castle was falling down to their knees, terrified and shaken by the sudden dreadful feeling of doom.

Inside the royal office, a maid had just brought a stack of very important papers to Isdis, “Your Highness, those are…”

But before Isdis could grab the papers, the maid dropped them on the ground, then pissed on them while she vomited on Isdis’s desk in horror.

Isdis cried, “Are you all right?”

The maid waved her hand, “I’m fine… It’s his majesty’s soul stare. We were warned that something like this might happen. But it took me by surprise.”

Arad was already standing behind the maid, glaring past Isdis with burning purple eyes. “Found you!”

This reaction is involuntary when a weak soul gets subjected to the harrowing pressure of Arad’s soul. If Arad was acting like a dragon, this suppression would be active all the time through his whole lair by now. All weak souls would wince and recoil from it. Of course, a few who got used to it, like Tina, can endure it while still showing grace.

That wasn’t the same for all the maids and servants of the castle. So if anyone managed to take it without flinching, it’s probably as strong, if not stronger than Arad himself.

Now, there are only two maids who don’t seem affected at all and are standing right behind Isdis.