The dragon's harem

Chapter 1771: The Start of the Preparations

Tina walked through the darkness and soon found herself standing back in the light of a warm hallway. This place had changed a lot in the past weeks. The ceiling was now higher, the halls wider, and even some of the chairs were changed to bigger ones to accommodate Arad and all of his large wives.

But what surprised her more was that Arad had become a bit shorter, standing just at seven feet tall (2.13m). This was the height all of his wives agreed on, the normal ones at least. Claug, Balina, and Tyal, for example, wanted him to be as large as he could. Of course, because they too were just as big.

But that was still huge, especially since he now weighed over 400 pounds of pure, raw, lean muscles and bones. He still looked as intimidating as a monster, being far taller and wider than any man that she had ever seen, and what made him scarier was his sharp, dark purple eyes. Whenever Arad looks at something with magic and tries to use his void eyes to see the flow of mana, his eyes would glow, causing his expression to resemble a sharp, menacing glare.

Even now, when walking by her side, Arad looked mad, but he wasn’t. The shadows cast on his face darkened it just enough for the light of his purple eyes to overpower all light, making his face look shrouded in darkness with just two glowing dots that burned with magic.

“This size should be easier for everyone to deal with.”

Arad spoke as he walked by her side. Hearing his voice, she realized that his scary parts didn’t stop at his size and intimidating look. He can read minds and stare at people’s souls, causing them to feel a deep and disturbing feeling of horror and disgust.

Some maids saw them approaching and bowed, greeting them. Those maids were new, and none of them seemed to know who Tina, was as they were hired after she left. They threw her a glance for a moment, then one of them asked Arad. “Your Majesty, she is?”

Before Arad could reply, Tina looked at the maids with a smile. “Keep this a secret from the Queens, but I got a child here…”

One of the maids paled immediately, and the other rubbed her temples and sighed. “So, you’re Headmaid Tina.” She bowed to her once more, and the other maid gasped. “Wait, what? How do you know?”

The maid looked at her friend and smacked her on the head. “Short stature, long brown hair and eyes, a decent body, pale ivory skin, and having a child here. That could only be the Headmaid the queens told us about.”

The other maid only then seemed to realize it. “Yeah! Queen Merlin watches the entire place anyway, so she would’ve already known. And the only child here besides Lady Astra is Lady Serin.”

Arad tapped Tina on the shoulder. “As you know, all of the maids here work for the queens, not me. I don’t have any personal maid besides her. Thus, while each of you has a queen to answer to directly, you also must obey commands from her.”

The power structure and hierarchy of Arad’s Royal court were simple, but complex at the same time. He stood at the top as the one and only Emperor, and beneath him were his wives, the Queens. Those queens could then pick concubines to stand right beneath them, and mistresses to be beneath the concubines, followed at the end by the maids and then the servants.

Arad<Queens<Concubines<Mistresses<Maids<Servants.

Tina was in a special place, being a maid that the Queens agreed to let stand beside them beside Arad. That means she is living the dream all the maids who sought this job dreamt of. While working the simple job of a maid, she always stands beside Arad, and one whisper from her into his ear could bring ruin to entire noble families and even kingdoms due to how large Arad’s power is.

She can play the Great Emperor as she wants between her fingers. The Queens already warned the maids and servants about Tina, as she reports everything back to Arad no matter what, and she was a ruthless and stern woman who never let anything slip by. If any of the maids or even the queens were to try anything funny, she’ll have them hanged.

While that story was just to scare the maids a bit, it held a lot of truth behind it. Arad had made it clear that if two wives or more disagreed on something, Tina would be the one to judge them, so he wouldn’t be biased.

Tina approached the two maids, looked at them, and smiled. “Nice outfits, were they made by Merida?”

The two maids froze for a second, and then one of them shook her head. “No, Lady Isabelle made it.”

Tina slowly turned toward Arad and bowed. “I’ll go with them to her. If you’ll excuse us.”

Arad lifted an eyebrow. “Why?”

“The design has changed, and I specifically asked Merida not to let it change. The maid outfit we picked first was designed to allow the maids to move with ease, had a lot of pockets, and weapon straps beneath the skirt.” She looked at one of the maids. “Would you mind showing us? It’s fine if you don’t want to.”

The maid smiled and lifted her skirt, “Of course I don’t mind.” Beneath her puffy maid skirt, she wore short cargo pants with scissors, a pen, a roll of paper, a lighter, a crystal orb, and several other tools that she might need. The skirt itself had no internal pockets or hidden spots to carry a weapon.

“See? I want to know why were this was changed.” She then ordered the maid to put her skirt down, and then sighed. “Also, don’t tell me they are skipping their training.”

Arad smiled. “They are. The servants do most of the heavy lifting, so I got the maids to focus on learning how swim, use a bow, and ride horses.”

Hearing that, Tina nodded. “If it were your order, then I won’t complain. I’ll go check on Serin, then talk to Isabelle about this. See you.” She walked away, and the two maids followed her.

Arad found himself alone, almost as Doma was inside his head, and Merlin was watching him through the walls. Now, next week, Aella would be the first to have her crowning ceremony, mainly to display Zephyr to everyone.

Having the Queen of the Spirit Queens supporting one of his wives was bound to help bring all races of the world closer to unite under the empire. Just as they all showed up when Zephyr was sealed, now that she was out, they would support Aella thanks to that. This is what Isdis and Baltos believe, and Arad was inclined to trust them.

It was the time for serious business, and he’ll have to make sure everyone hears that Zephyr is here. With one step through the void, Arad appeared outside the private quarter, right outside Balots’s office.

Right now, he had a meeting with all of the nobles of the land to ration the resources and roads needed for the Queens’ crowning ceremony. As the guards saw him, they saluted him, opened the door behind them, and let him in without any trouble.

As he walked past them, they closed the door after him, and then gasped for air.

“Did you see him? He appeared out of nowhere!” One of them whispered.

“Brother! He is as wide as three of your mother! This is the first time I saw…” The other cried, “Did you see those arms?”

“I bet he can choke bears for fun.” The other giggled, and his friend smiled. “Did you see the queens? Especially that one… what was she called again? Witch doctor Claug! You’ll need to be a monster to crack that one.”

The other smacked him on the shoulder. “Bastard! Did you forget your alliance? Nothing beats Queen Isdis.” He smiled, “My daughter applied for the private maid test weeks ago, and she was called in for the last test. I heard they are locking the maid ranks after this batch…” He chuckled. “I might not be standing here with you next month.”

The other guard laughed. “Like they would take your ugly spawn. Give up, you’ll be stuck here for the rest of your lives. Besides, I doubt they let commoners serve in the private quarters.”

“Babble as much as you want.” The guard smiled. “But my daughter always wanted to serve in the royal court like her aunt was. If she is picked up for any role, I’m sure she’ll be happy. That is all I care about.”

“Suit yourself…” They then went silent as they saw one of the nobles approaching. The old man gave them a sharp glare, snorted as they took a second too late to let him in, and walked in cursing under his breath as he slammed the door.

The two guards looked at each other and then sighed. Their job here was safe, but boring as hell.

“What’s up with him? Walking in like that?”

“Emperor Arad said no taxes on the people as the city builds itself, as they were already suffering enough due to moving from the capital, but that one was still taxing the locals of his estate, so he might’ve been called here for that.”

The other looked at the window. “Yeah, a growing city is the prime spot for corrupt nobles and criminals to sink their teeth into and abuse the new, unrefined laws and rules.”

Outside the castle, in the dark streets and alleyways of the poorer regions of the growing domain, a seven-foot-tall man shrouded in a black cloak walked, his face hidden with pure darkness beneath his hood.

The Emperor of Nothing was on the move.