The dragon's harem

Chapter 1591: Newborn Party

The entire castle was in an uproar. The Emperor had a child, a little princess. Astra was her name.

Of course, she wasn’t put on display or anything like that. Astre was lying on her crib beside Arad’s throne, where she kept playing with thin air. At least, that was what almost everyone saw. But in reality, she was playing with her older brother.

The throne room was full. Arad expected it to be empty because the news was sudden, but he was wrong. The nobles were still in the city after attending his mother’s party.

As expected, many nobles were talking about Astra’s mother. Arad had been married for a long while, but where did this new woman come from? And she already had a child, which sounded weird. Of course, many of them didn’t even know that Linda was a time drakaina, let alone understood the specific circumstances.

But what no one knew besides Arad’s wives was that he now has five children, not just two.

Serin, Tina’s daughter.

Ignis, the red wyrmling that he adopted.

Yuwaku, the Nymph that was born from him and Zephyr.

And now, Astra and Aether, Linda’s children.

Serin was playing with Valeria in the back, happily running between the chairs and forcing the half-angel to chase her all over the place.

Ignis, Yuwaku, and Agnar were on the balcony, eating at their own table.

Arad gave Astra one last look and headed down to the crowd, letting Stella and Bella guard the little girl. As noisy and lazy as the two Cupids were, they were the most skilled when it came to dealing with people, and especially kids.

Arad soon found himself walking between the guests, getting greeted by a familiar face. “It’s been a while.”

Gojo smiled, “Not really, we met an hour ago.”

Arad had arrived in Gojo’s kingdom just an hour ago, and the two used Gojo’s void step to return here. That had led to many powerful people gathering in one place.

Sitting around a table that no one dared approach were Gojo, Alcott, Jack, Lucifer, Gabriel, Zeus, Baal, and Abel. Arad pulled a seat back and sat beside Gojo.

“Two in a row, this castle never calms down.” Abel looked at Arad with a smile, “You’ll be known as the Emperor of parties.”

“What party? I didn’t even plan this. People heard the news and started coming in waves. Before we knew it, we had a whole ballroom filled to the brim.”

Arad reached forward and grabbed a large bottle of dwarven blood wine. With one finger, he snapped the top off and poured it whole into a beer mug.

Taking a sip, Arad once again was reminded that no matter how much he drank, he could never get drunk. Little Astra was a human, small, fragile, and weak; even the weakest cold breeze could get her sick. Aether was a wyrmling, but just a bodyless soul, unable to exert any power over the world.

Arad’s previous children were at least somewhat powerful. Serin had her powerful divine magic surging across her body even when she was just a baby. Yuwaku was born a Nymph, her power far surpassing mere mortals with ease. Even Ignis was a healthy red wyrmling, powerful enough to survive on her own in the vast world.

But Astra wasn’t the same, even getting her out of Linda’s room and down here to the throne room wasn’t simple. They had to cover her well, hold her right, and prepare a second warm crib for her to sleep in.

He turned around and looked at the crib beside the throne.

“She’ll be fine. You don’t need to worry too much.” Alcott patted him on the shoulder.

Arad looked at his father with a faint smile, “What would you know?”

Technically, Alcott never had a proper child. He never had to deal with kids, so he was probably just as clueless as Arad was.

“One or two things. Like, they should be fine. Many children live, and she has it better than most commoners.” Alcott shrugged, and he was right.

The living conditions of commoners in Arad’s empire were fine, but that wasn’t necessarily the case everywhere else.

People had to fear winter, suffer through summer, and fight each day of their lives. Being born here, Astra had a better, safer, and easier start to life than anyone else.

Arad looked back at Astra. She was indeed well protected and cared for. She might look alone, but her brother’s soul was always beside her, countless maids were looking straight at her from beside the curtains, and in their shadows, tens of powerful vampires lay watch.

One sneeze and all hell would break loose. Arad watched a fly attempt to land on Astra’s crib, only to end up snatched and evaporated by a vampire without anyone noticing.

She was pretty safe, but that in itself was a problem. Arad was already thinking about how to raise her, and he didn’t want her to grow too sheltered. If he were to protect her from everything, she would most likely turn weak.

Both Arad and Linda thought the same; they wanted Astra to be able to stand on her own. But they also understood that she wasn’t a dragon; she is a human. They must raise and protect her for a few years first, make sure she makes it to an age where she can finally call on her bloodlines.

Astra had both void and time draconic bloodlines, which made her potential far higher than any other human. But it wasn’t simple; just as those bloodlines are powerful, they were hard to control.

The only other person that Arad knows to have a void draconic bloodline is Matilda. She was standing on the opposite side of the ballroom, gourging herself on the feast of roasted meat lined up on the massive dining tables. Who wouldn’t eat when they are presented with several roasted cows, lambs, and pigs, massive piles of tender, succulent, and juicy roasted meat?

Matilda had lived her whole life without knowing she had the bloodline, so her skill with it was low. Astra should grow to be different, since she’ll know what her powers are from a young age.

“Got too many guests here.” Abel looked around the room with a smile, “Strange, I know many of them.” He chuckled, and Arad didn’t like it.

“What do you mean?”

Abel shrugged, “Those nobles, many of them are customers of mine. Got enough dirt on them to build a whole island. Call me if you need any of them to disappear.”

Arad looked around and remembered all of the documents he had gone through. “Until now, none of them has done anything bad.”

Arad’s growing empire functioned differently from any other kingdom. Instead of demanding taxes, he demanded development and advancement from the nobles. He won’t take money from them, but he’d better see new roads and houses built for the commoners. If a noble wants more land, they had better either use it for farmland or housing, workshops, and trading hubs.

That strategy had allowed the empire to start rapidly developing, but it also meant Arad’s royal court was left without a solid income. Which wasn’t really a problem, because like all other nobles, the land around Arad’s castle was getting developed directly by the royal court, which funneled funds right back to the castle.

Mainly, the land Arad owned directly and developed for the royal court’s treasury was anything on Loci’s back.

^It might be a good idea to get her a home when she grows up a bit.^

“What are you thinking about?” Abel poked Arad, and he got a shrug back. “Astra, who else. Was thinking it would be nice to give her a house and some land, that way she’ll have a place to return to that isn’t this massive castle.” ᴛhis chapter is ᴜpdated by novelꜰire.net

Abel lifted an eyebrow and turned toward Alcott, “Your son has a problem. He’s thinking about kicking the little baby hours after she was born.”

Alcott laughed, “Probably not. Giving her some land and servants isn’t a bad thing.”

Alcott leaned back, “If she wants to study magic or anything else, we can send her to Betty’s university. If she wants to learn a craft, we’ve got endless talents here, and if she wanted to be an adventurer to make her living that way, we can support her.”

Jack took a sip of beer in the back, “I’d say that giving her a house if she wanted to become an adventurer is a bad thing. Inns are a good place to meet people and make connections. She might get a broken nose every now and then, but I say that’s worth it.”

Gabriel scratched his long beard, “I’d say it’ll be a bit bad though. She might get used by someone.”

Lucifer shook his head, “It’s not a ’might’ she’ll get used and exploited. The only reason most people survive living the adventurer life without getting mogged is that most of them are poor to begin with.”

Jack nodded, “You’re right, I didn’t count on that. Most wealthy adventurers are already too powerful to rob or assault. Think of Nina, who would try her? Nothing is that crazy…” He then looked at Arad, “Beside this one.”

“Yeah…” Arad scratched the back of his head, “I don’t want her to grow sheltered and spoiled, but I also don’t want to throw her into the fire.”

Arad thought about it for a while, then decided to call an expert. “Agnar, come here for a second.”