The dragon's harem

Aella walked upstairs carrying the wiggling Serin in her arms. It was Tina's turn to cook, so she had to take care of the baby. Even though most babies were active, Serin was an extreme case. Letting her unwatched for even a few seconds, she'll disappear like a ghost.

Aella laid Serin in her cradle and closed the top with a large cover to prevent her from jumping down.

Serin watched Aella lock her in and sat down looking at her. The moment Aella finished locking her. She climbed into the side of the cradle and started rocking it. After just a few seconds she had built enough force to knock the cradle down and the cover fell off.

Serin crawled out, running away but Aella caught before she could make it far. "Who taught you to do that?" She stared at her. No baby should have such strength, but Serin seemed to be extremely healthy, and with how much she played with Arad, she had put on a lot of stamina mana.

"GAAA GAAAA!" Serin replied, waving her arms.

"It was Arad, wasn't it?" She carried her with one arm as she lifted the cradle up. "Now I have to care for you until he wakes up. You'll play all day long tomorrow before we head back to school." She laid her on the bed and kept playing with her.

Outside, Eris walked toward the center of the village with Ignis. "What are you doing now that it's winter?" She asked.

Ignis lifted her head and looked back at her. "You can understand draconic?"

"My father was a dragon and I lived with him and several dragons long enough to master the language."

"I'm doing what a dragon does best. Eating, growing my hoard, and building a temporary lair within Arad's territory." Ignis replied, looking forward. It was rare for a dragon to be welcomed like this in a human settlement, but the people here seemed to love her. She did help them greatly in the winter by heating the whole area, and she's even going on quests to kill monsters, usually with the brat called Agnar. He had registered into the guild as an adventurer and has been doing quite well through the low-ranked quest.

After walking for a while they reached a small cave on the outskirts of the village. "We're here, can you crawl?" Ignis asked.

"I did expect that so I came wearing work clothes." Eris smiled.

"Then follow me." Ignis crawled into the small cave. Just after the entrance it quickly opened up into a large room where a person could stand without hitting their head on the ceiling, almost 7 feet high.

Ignis didn't stop, she approached a crack that was barely 10 inches wide and crawled through it like a cat. Eris stared at her, "I probably can't fit." She looked at the crack.

"You said you don't mind crawling." Ignis turned around and looked at her.

"I don't mind crawling, but it's too tight I'm certain my chest would get stuck." Eris replied.

"You can squeeze them down, they are soft, aren't they?" Ignis stared at her.

"Then my butt would get stuck. I can't fit in that crack." Eris looked inside, "How far does it go?"

"Like from here to Arad's house." Ignis replied.

"Wait! That... several hundred meters at least." Eris gasped, "And it's all this tight?"

"There are some spots that are tighter and some wider, but I say the widest don't surpass this." She showed her the equivalent of a foot.

"No human would be able to reach that." Eris sighed.

"That's the goal, isn't it?" Ignis stared at her. "Why would I build a lair in a place where humans could easily raid?"

"I don't know. You'll soon grow large and not be able to reach your own lair."

"I still have years before that, I'll figure something out."

A flower bloomed beside them. "If you want her to reach the lair, I can help." Loci said.

"You can do that?" Eris looked at the flower.

"Is that possible?" Ignis added.

"Of course. I was the one that opened that crack for you, wasn't I? I can simply make it wide." As Loci talked, the 10-inch crack grew to be almost 7 feet tall and created a long and straight cave leading straight to Ignis's lair.

As the two walked through the cave it closed behind them returning back into a crack. Creating a lair within a massive ooze like Loci is a perk most dragons can't get due to their personalities. The dragon would usually try to make the ground submit, only to get kicked out.

At the moment, Loci seems to have mostly recovered and her power has started to surge back up due to Arad's existence on her. She's a creature that feeds off the mana of everything that lives on her back, the stronger they are, the more food she has. And to her, Arad was like a fossett to an endless buffet.

"So this is your lair, it's wide…" Eris looked around.

"And empty," Isdis finished as she walked toward the center and started digging out. From the dirt, she pulled a pouch with her claws and poured the content on the ground. "I've only amassed 78 gold coins and I have them here. I do remember where every copper of them came from." After showing the gold to Eris, she buried it back up and went to another spot to dig.

"Here I got some jewels. The Kobolds gave them to me for heating their forges. I do like this shiny pale one, they called it an opal." She then hides the gems back up.

After just a few seconds she pulled a half-rotten human head. "This woman was a formidable foe. A bandit leader we faced in a quest that almost killed me. I kept her head as a trophy alongside her equipment and clothes." Everything was stored with the head.

"You threw the rest of the body?" Eris looked at the head. "Bring the corpses that you don't need to me to cremate. They'll rot and spread diseases or turn into zombies."

"No, I ate it. The whole body barely lasted me a few days." Ignis was a dragon after all. She eats everything and has a taste for human flesh like all dragons do.

"I only suck human blood. Do you think their flesh tastes good?" Eris asked.

"They are tasty, at least to me." Ignis replied, "If I had to suggest something, try a young virgin human woman. They are soft and taste sweet."

Ignis stared at the head, "This one tasted a bit bland. She was a bit older and wasn't a virgin at all, in fact, I expect she's been having fun with all the bandits in her band. Avoid those, they are the worst."

The two kept exploring the hoard while Yuwaku was training on the other side of the forest.

Yuwaku swung her fist forward in a stance and with a passive face. "Like this?" Her eyes slowly turned toward the little girl standing beside her.

"NO! Like this!" The pink-haired little girl swings a fist, and the wind bursts around her small arm. "Put your whole weight into it. Imagine you're trying to break something with it."

"Kali, she won't get it." The black-haired man sitting on a stone at their side sighed. "She doesn't look like a pugilist."

"Daddy! Then what do you suggest? We leave her?" Kali cried.

"I doubt a nymph would be in danger, let alone one in Arad's territory…but fine if you want to teach her then I'll help." He lifted his hand and pulled a sword similar to his from a blob of black mist, it was a silver-colored katana with the words [Yuki] engraved onto its blade.

"I bought this several years ago from a blacksmith. It's sharp and decent, but I won't call it a great blade. Certainly not something I will ever use." He sheathed the blade and stared at it.

"Daddy! You bought that because you said it'd be a good decoration for the house. Mommy would get angry!" Kali approached him.

"We never painted the rooms white, so it'll never be used. And I'm probably the only idiot to blow several gold coins on a real sword only to have it as decoration." He threw it toward Yuwaku and she caught it.

"It's a beautiful blade, give it a look." Kayden said with a smile.

Yuwaku unsheathed the blade and looked at it. "You're right, it's beautiful." She smiled.

"Now, swing at something. Those bushes over there are a good target." He pointed.

"I'll give it a try." Yuwaku approached the bush and slashed at it. The sharp blade sliced through easily, but the bush ended up freezing.

"It has ice magic?" Yuwaku stared at Kayden with a surprised face. "I didn't sense any mana from it."

"It doesn't have ice or cold magic. A nymph's power is beauty, as long as you consider something beautiful, that beauty would manifest as power." He pointed at the katana in her hand.

"The word [Yuki] Means snow, and coupled with the white handle and silver blade, it pains a pristine image of cold, frigid winter. That beauty of the sword is what you're drawing the power from. Usually, nymph's strongest weapon is their own body as they are the incarnation of beauty, so they mostly roam naked to instantly kill anyone who sees them. But since you're covering yourself most of the time, you'd better pick beautiful weapons, clothes, and jewelry to bolster your fighting power. This would also give you more abilities than what a nymph usually can achieve only with her body." Kayden explained.