The dragon's harem

Walking out of the Spirit Queens’ meeting, Arad sighed as he was exhausted to the bones. He looked around the hallway for a second, and then used a single void step to teleport to an isolated room, where he fell to his knees and growled.

His entire body pulsed, his hair stood, and his skin turned black for a second. He could feel his own heart beating like a drum, and feel his veins on the verge of bursting. But what made it all worse was the growing fog clouding his mind

Then, a deafening shockwave exploded just from beneath his skin as he groaned. He was on the verge of going into hibernation, but he had been delaying the inevitable for a while now, and his body had started to fight back.

After resting for a few minutes there, he finally felt a bit better. Arad didn’t know how long he would stay hibernating this time, so he didn’t want to go to sleep before finishing all of the crowning ceremonies of his wives.

He stood and took a deep breath, looking at his hands. He had asked Linda if she could accelerate his evolution with her time magic, but she told him that it would be best to let it happen naturally, since if she accelerated it, they wouldn’t be able to react if anything went wrong.

She suggested that he ignore everything and go into hibernation as quickly as possible. She said that his wives’ ceremonies can wait or be canceled if needed. Her argument was that the ceremony needed them, and not him, to be carried out, and that they could be easily delayed until he wakes up.

Linda was right. She probably doesn’t understand how important those ceremonies are to his other wives. To be honest with himself, even he couldn’t fully understand why they were so important, but he didn’t need to understand to be understanding.

If his wives want it, then he will make it happen.

Closing his eyes, he focused on another of his incarnations, and this was the one that went back to check on Nina. She had to rest after getting yelled at by Loci, and she had now headed back to her village to check on them. Her ceremony was now complete, as he had shown her power to her clan and made the entire world know of her existence as a Tarrasque.

No one would dare underestimate her or start a needless fight. Usually, it was better to hide one’s power, but in Nina’s case, making it clear that she was a threat was the best way to protect her. To everyone, a Tarrasque is an unkillable monster that can even consume the gods.

She should be back in a few hours, so he decided to leave her alone for now and head to check on the next of his wives to get a ceremony, but on his way out, he found Isdis waiting for him.

"Are you okay?" She asked with a worried face, and Arad smiled. "Yes, it is just that my body wants to start hibernating. I can barely hold it in." She looked down. "I know I shouldn’t be the one saying this. I’m here keeping you awake for all of those ceremonies... but if you need to hibernate, just go for it. I’ll handle everyone."

He scratched the back of his head, pulled her close, and kissed her on the forehead. "Relax, I’ll be fine. Now, what’s next?" She blushed, and then smiled. "I would like to show Nina briefly here in the capital, and maybe have her transform outside the walls so the merchants can start spreading the news on their own instead of us having to tell every nation."

"That doesn’t sound like a problem. It probably won’t take more than a few hours." He lifted an eyebrow, and it was then that Isdis told him about the real problem. "With the dark elves moving to live in Yggdrasil’s roots, the news of the bugs there had spread, and now the high elves are blaming them. Both sides are calling for war..."

"Those abominable bugs?" Arad growled. "I’ll go and get rid of them immediately. That will solve the problem, right?"

"It won’t. You have to get rid of them in Yggdrasil’s world to end the problem, not in ours. Besides, the bugs are just a reason that people latched onto. Even if we got both queens to marry you and live together in happiness, the people see it differently."

Arad sighed. "I’ll go and check on them. There should be a way to calm the people down... Wait, since Cerilla is the demi-goddess of elves now and is destined to take over Sylph’s throne, can’t she do anything about it?"

Isdis shook her head. "We tried that, and the high elves are saying that Jasmine had tricked Cerilla, who is a budding goddess, to allow the dark elves back to the tree."

Arad simply shook his head and walked with Isdis until they reached the elves’ section of the private quarter. As it seemed, the elves loved their decorative style and furniture so much that they refused to let the maids arrange their stuff, which ended up in a large section where only the elves lived.

The high elves’ rooms were built entirely of marble, decorated with several exquisite pottery pieces and refined glasswork. All of the high elves living there were Cerilla’s personal guards, and they walked around only wearing a single white robe that stuck to their skin so closely that they could’ve just walked around naked.

The high elves greeted each other with gentle bows, but when Arad and Isdis walked, they knelt and kissed their feet, which made walking across really exhausting.

The dark elves section was even weirder, as their whole section was built entirely of wood and decorated with ship helms, fish trophies, and countless pieces of jewellery that they hung on the walls as decorations. But what drew Arad’s attention the most was that they had hammocks instead of beds, that none of the rooms had doors and instead only had hanging curtains that they called Portière. Lastly, the entire floor swayed slightly as if they were inside a massive ship.

Looking around, Arad noticed that unlike the high elves, who wore a simple and tight white robe, the dark elves walked around naked, since they were all women and basically a part of one massive family. Looking into one massive room that had an open ceiling, Arad could see nine dark elf women tanning themselves under the bright sunlight of Eris’s sun.

Just like the high elves, they greeted each other with simple bows, and when Arad and Isdis passed by, they knelt and kissed their feet instead. This was probably the only part the high elves and dark elves agreed upon.

After that, Arad and Isdis walked past the wood elves’ section, which was just recently built. This was the weirdest of them all, as it was one massive tree house that linked directly to the upper branches of Plum’s True body. They lived in tiny huts made of thatch and overgrown vines, and all of their furniture looked to be grown naturally in the tree.

Arad could see two of the wood elves tying the budding branches with wire to shape them into chairs and tables; that was how they got their furniture, which seemed like an art form.

What drew Arad’s attention next was that the wood elves were the only ones to wear regular and decent clothes. Instead of bows, they greeted each other with kisses on the cheeks, and when Arad and Isdis walked past them, they knelt and kissed their hands instead of their feet.

"No wonder they wanted separate sections... Did Merlin make all of this for them?" Arad asked, and Isdis nodded. "Indeed, and they love her for that more than their queens. You should’ve seen how the dark elves and wood elves cried when she made the floor sway like a ship or magically created a hallway that leads to the upper branches of Plum."

Walking past the three-quarters, Arad finally reached the Royal Elvish Quarter, which, strangely, looked as normal as every other royal quarter of the other queens. At the entrance, six armed and armored guards stood. Two dark elves, two high elves, and two wood elves.

As the guards saw Arad and Isdis approach, they took their helmets off, put their weapons on the ground, and knelt down. Every one of them was a true beauty and probably powerful enough to bully A-rankers. That could be said for every single elf they passed by so far, as those in the quarters are just guards that aren’t on their working shift.

"Are they inside?" Isdis asked, and the guards all nodded. "Yes, as you asked. Our High Queen Cerilla is waiting inside."

"Our High Queen Jasmine is waiting as well." The other added, and finally, the wood elves spoke last. "Princess Li is waiting inside with the other Queens as well."

"Good work." Isdis walked past them, and Arad followed her.