The dragon's harem

Walking past the armored guards, Arad and Isdis soon found themselves standing in front of a massive golden gate, which had another six guards standing by it. Those guards, like the ones before, immediately knelt, took their helmets off, and put their weapons on the ground.

"Great Emperor, Queen Isdis, welcome to the Elvish Royal Chamber." All six guards spoke at once, and it was the same as the last time Arad was here. Jasmine and Cerilla had decided to live in the same room instead of having their separate quarter to maintain the image that they are getting along and prevent their own guards from turning on each other.

That was right, even here, the feud between the Dark Elves and High Elves still burned, so fights and arguments were common. But unlike the elves outside, the fights here didn’t start out of hatred or fear, but from pride.

Cerilla’s guards say she is better than Jasmine, and Jasmine’s guards hit back, claiming that Jasmine is a far more competent queen, causing the two sides to start trying to one-up each other, and eventually, fists would start flying around.

Things only got worse when the Wood Elves joined. Especially since Li, the Wood Elf princess, wanted her own quarter, but the other two queens had her live with them. Arad told her that he would give her a quarter, but she refused, saying that she would listen to the more experienced queens.

As Arad pushed the door open, the light from inside the room washed over his face as he walked inside with Isdis. The room he was now in was the office where the three queens worked.

The room was large, half of it was open to the sun, and had four desks and two tanning hammocks, several paintings on the walls, and ten guards of each elvish faction.

Jasmine and D were, as Arad always found them here, naked and lying on the hammocks under the bright sunlight. But they weren’t just getting a tan. Each of them carried several papers in their hands as they read and signed them. The two always worked like this.

To the side, Li and her maid Noel had pushed their desks together and were working hard on a pile of papers. While Noel seemed to hold herself well, Li was bothered and exhausted, having not managed to get through half of her papers.

Arad can’t blame her. She was still young compared to the other two queens, and she was now handling all of the foreign matters of her kingdom, which had never been taken care of for centuries. She was pioneering a whole new era for her people.

Then there were Cerilla and Dalla, who were relaxing on fancy chairs, having two of the guards massage their feet as two more poured them fancy tea. But they weren’t lazy it was the opposite. Those two had long since finished their work for the day.

While Jasmine and Li only recently started their job as queens, Cerilla had been doing it for more than two centuries. The experience gap was just on a whole different level.

The moment they saw Arad walk in, all of them immediately stood and approached him. For a moment, it looked as if they were about to jump on him, but then they stopped. "Arad, we were waiting for you." Cerilla spoke with a smile, and Jasmine nodded. "Indeed. I was getting bored from reading those dry reports."

Li was the only one to grumble. "Guh... and I didn’t even get through half of my work yet." Hearing that, Arad patted her on the head. "Don’t worry, I’ll get Cerilla and Dalla to help you with it." He looked at them, and the two nodded.

"But before that..." Isdis interrupted them, "We should probably discuss the elephant in the room." She clapped her hands and gave an order to all the elvish guards. "Go bring everyone else here this moment. We’re going to do an open meeting."

While the elves absolutely hated taking orders from anyone beside their queens, they immediately obeyed Isdis’s command and went to bring everyone there.

Two minutes later, the room was almost full as all of the elves gathered inside. Arad himself sat on a large golden chair with Isdis by his side, and the three queens and their maids faced him, with everyone else surrounding them.

Arad spoke first. "I heard the war could start again." Hearing those words, everyone in the room looked down. "Cerilla, Jasmine... what exactly is the problem?"

"Since we moved to live in Yggdrasil’s roots, we had to clean for ourselves, carve houses, and exterminate the abominable bugs infesting the place. It isn’t that bad, but rumors are being blown out of proportion like a wave." She threw a gaze at Cerilla, who finished talking for her.

"Some high elves say the dark elves brought the bugs with them to infect Yggdrasil’s roots. Then some say that because the dark elves tried to burn Yggdrasil’s roots in the past and were banished, they couldn’t stay and care for the roots, which caused the infestation, so the blame falls on them anyway."

"It’s lose-lose argument." Jasmine shrugged, "We can’t do anything about it."

Arad crossed his arms and started thinking, then spoke. "Anyone got any idea? Speak up."

A few seconds later, one of Jasmine’s guards wanted to speak. She lifted her hand, and Arad gave her permission. She stood, approached Arad, and knelt in front of him, between him and the queens.

"My Emperor, I do believe the hatred has nothing to do with the bugs. Those are just sparks, shallow reasons the people use instead of speaking of what really drives them." She lifted her head and looked at Arad’s face.

He nodded. "So? What are the real reasons you talk about?" As he looked at her, she flinched, threw back at her Queen Jasmine, and then looked toward Cerilla with a worried face before taking a deep breath to speak.

"My father fought in the war. He got captured and tortured by the High Elves for information for months before getting rescued. My aunt was also killed in battle, and my older sister lost both of her sons at sea as they were delivering war supplies." She threw a second glance toward Cerilla.

"Raymon Filesore, I remember the report of his interrogation. That happened eighty years ago. We’ve also sunk several supply ships..." Cerilla shook her head. "That’s war."

The guard nodded. "I know." She looked back, and the High Elf guard wanted to approach as well. Arad gave her permission, and now, the two were both kneeling at his feet.

The Dark Elf guard looked at the High Elf guard. "I only met her here, but her hatred toward me has already surpassed the point where forgiveness is possible."

The High Elf guard looked at the Dark Elf guard and then shifted her gaze toward Arad. "She... speaks of how her father was tortured, how her relatives were killed... but she too had her own share of darkness."

The Dark Elf guard nodded. "I was in the Royal Investigation Court before serving the queen, and I had tortured and executed both of her parents."

The two elves looked at each other and then turned toward Arad. The High Elf spoke next. "The war is what fuels the hatred. It’s a never-ending cycle."

The Dark Elf nodded. "We elves are long-lived, and we hold grudges for life. The war might have ended months ago, but to us elves, it is like a ceasefire that was declared an hour ago. Our hatred is still hot, our wounds still bleed and hurt, and we... will never see eye to eye for centuries from now."

Arad closed his eyes. "So... the war itself is the reason. Like a fire that only grows bigger."

The two elves nodded, approached, and kissed his feet. "Please, no matter what happens. Don’t let the war start again. It will only brew more hatred." The Dark Elf looked up at him, and then the High Elf nodded. "Until our generation, the one that suffered fully perishes and those who were raised in peace grow, true peace will never be an option."

As the two returned to their places, Isdis nodded with a grim face. "Yeah... that is a problem we cannot solve."