The dragon's harem

Arad smiled and teleported away, leaving his seat empty. Baltos and the ministers stared at each other, wondering what he was up to.

"He said Roberta, where did I hear that name before?" Baltos combed his beard with his hand, playing with it.

"The head maid Roberta?" One of the ministers mumbled… "It's not her, is she?"

"Definitely not. She's probably someone else. But I swear I've heard that name before." Baltos looked toward the windows.

"If she's skilled we can recruit her as financial secretary. I'll need some help eventually." The prime minister smiled.

"Forget it. Arad said that she belongs to him." Baltos glared at him. "He'll kill you; remember that we aren't dealing with a human. He's a dragon and a world-class one at that."

"Even he won't try to kill a prime minister. And it's not like I'm trying to harm her, if I offer up enough money and power I'm certain she'll come to our side." The minister giggled.

"Don't, he'll kill you on the spot." Baltos tone shifted, growing harsher and deeper, "Arad said she belongs to him. We don't know what he meant by that, she could be a friend or a worker, and might even be a wife or a mate. He could even be seeing her as a property, a part of his hoard."

Another minister, the one responsible for agriculture nodded. "That last part could be true, especially if she's an important part of his money-making methods."

"That's true. Whoever he brings, remember that she's sitting in the lap of a kingdom-destroying dragon. Don't overstep his borders if you don't want to die, the human laws don't chain dragons, they are too big to arrest or lock behind bars." Baltos glared at them, praying to Amaterasu that those ministers wouldn't cause him a conflict with Arad.

ZON! Arad appeared again with Roberta beside him. Baltos immediately recognized her, "Gerald's daughter!?" Baltos gasped.

"The assassin's daughter…" A minister jumped off his seat, pulling his sword. But, nothing came out, he looked down, seeing blood dripping from his elbow, his forearm was missing.

"Another wrong word and I'll take your head off." Arad threw the minister's arm to his feet, "Scram."

The minister screamed his lungs off and the guards rushed in, "What happened?!" They asked.

"He pulled his sword at Arad's guest. Take him to get healed and attach the arm back if possible." Baltos replied as fast as he could lest the situation escalate.

"It's a clean cut. It'll attack back." Arad sat and made the confused Roberta sit beside him. "Arad, what's going on?" She asked.

"Don't worry about him. He tried to be a bit rude," Arad replied and quickly shifted his attention to Baltos, "The papers."

"Ah! Yes, here they are." Baltos gave everything to Arad.

"Can you take a look at this?" Arad showed her the papers and she started reading them. After several minutes, she sighed, "This is bad, and I mean a lot."

"Can you help?" He asked.

Roberta scratched her head, "I can, but I don't have the systematic authority, funds, or time to achieve such a thing. I need access to a lot of classified information, like about every copper the kingdom makes, their cash routs, and how much everyone in the castle is paid and how much they are spending and with whom." She then pointed at Arad's face.

"And most importantly, you, Arad. You own this land I can't just start working here without your permission. Even they can't."

Arad nodded, "Got it, I'll get everyone involved." He disappeared again and everyone looked at Roberta… "Don't look at me like that, even I don't know what he's thinking about."

"Do you think it's possible to get at least one thing working out?" Baltos asked.

"We'll need a lot of work, and workers. Even with that, and even if we got permission from Arad, the royal treasury doesn't have enough funds to kick-start a new economy in this region. And even if we did, we can't expect a stable income until next year." She ran through the papers again.

"We'll need to take a huge loan from somewhere. I'm certain Arad might have the money for that, but he's spending everything on building the castle and his alchemy experiments. This situation is bad, ugly, and worse than you think." She sighed.

ZON! Arad returned several minutes later, and this time he had a strange group around him. He put the small flower pot on the desk and Ignis crawled from his back and looked around, confused. Arad was carrying Grandma Shir in his arms and two elves were standing behind him.

"To introduce you." Arad smiled, pointing at the flower pot, "First, this is the most important figure here, Loci. She is the land you stand on. Make sure you give her the respect she deserves, or she'll crush you between the two mountains." The flow grew a mouth. "So this is King Baltos, I've heard several traveling merchants speak of you. Welcome on my back."

Arad rushed to the side and brought a chair for Grandma Shir. "This is Grandma Shir, she's standing in for the barbarians that live in my land. Their chieftain is out hunting, make sure to respect her. Her clan would be providing protection in the forest and to the roads."

"Barbarians…" A noble mumbled, "They can't even think, can they? How do we trust safety and protection to a bunch of near animals?"

Grandma Shir looked at Arad, "My feet tingle…"

"Go for it." Arad nodded and she jumped at a blinding speed, kicking the noble in the face hard enough that his nose almost collapsed into his skull.

"Grandson taught a lot…Insult kicked." She mumbled, going back to her seat.

"Just to let you know…she's Nina's grandmother, the blood berserker." Arad smiled, "There are countless reasons you want to stay on her good side."

He then quickly turned toward Ignis, "This red wyrmling is Ignis, I've adopted her as a daughter and she's currently living on my territory, I'll need you to avoid her hunting ground."

"This is your land." Ignis stared at Arad, speaking in draconic.

"You'll be staying here until you're an adult. No, even if you became an old dragon, you can still come back here any time you want." He patted her head. "She'll be living here for the next two hundred years at least, so be sure to mind her presence."

Baltos nodded, "And…who are those two hiding behind you?" Arad's back was too large it totally obscured the two figures behind him.

From behind Arad's shoulder, Cerilla poked her head with a smile, and everyone inside the room paled.

"The elvish queen?!" Baltos gasped, and she waved her hand at him. "King Baltos, it's been a while."

"What are you doing here?" He stared at her, "I've never heard of you coming into the kingdom."

"I just came four hours ago and I'm staying with Arad. He said that I could help." She smiled, and Dalla looked from behind her, "Why did you bring me as well?"

"And Dalla the slapper?!" The ministers gasped and the nobles backed away. They knew how strong Arad was, but his power was that of massive destruction, their death would be painless and sweet. But Dalla was different, albeit the weakest of the S-

ranks, her slapping art made her one of the most feared due to how painful her attacks were. Her enemies never die of damage, their hearts stop due to the extreme and agonizing pain.

Cerilla walked forward and sat on Arad's lap, putting one leg on another, and smiled, "I'll be the one lending you money to start off."

Baltos immediately shook his face, "We can't accept that money. In the condition we're in now, doing that is akin to accepting becoming a vassal state."

"Having your capital violated by Vlad is the end of your kingdom. Everything ended the moment that monster landed on your shores. You should've known that the situation was akin to a man losing his head." She giggled, "But, I'm not lending you help as the queen of the elvish kingdom. And I'm not thinking of you as Ruris's kingdom king." She lifted her hand, stroking Arad's cheek, "You're the friend of my friend, the dragon who landed on the elvish land." She shifted her legs and her eyes flashed green.

"I'm lending the money as Cerilla Zylphyra, one of the richest elves in the world. And you're taking it as the friend of Arad Orion. This isn't between kingdoms but between people."

"What are the conditions?" Baltos asked with a droplet of sweat dripping across his face.

"Give the money back in ten years. There is no interest, I'm doing Arad a favor, and he's doing me one. This is it."

"That can't be possible. What's in it for you besides Arad's favor?"

"I'll get nothing from you, but I'm getting a lot from Arad. In fact, I'm probably getting the better deal on this." She turned toward Arad, "Isn't that right?"

"Arad…" Roberta stared at him. "I don't like how happy she is about this. What is your deal?"

"Nothing big." Arad shook his head. "I'll just have to carry her to the peak of the world tree. To where Sylph's shrine is."