The dragon's harem

Agnar rushed in the moment he heard Arad call him. The little boy had been in and out of the adventurers’ guild for a while now, training occasionally with Arad or Alcott to master his power. For a kid, he was already far too powerful, and he had lived for a decent while on his own.

“How is life in the city?”

The question was indirect, and Agnar froze the moment he heard it. The first thought that came to his mind was that Arad wanted to learn something about the city, maybe some noble messed up, and Arad wanted confirmation.

“Thieves are everywhere; you can take a wrong turn and end up with a few more holes.” Agnar frowned, remembering the day some weird-looking bastard stabbed him to try to steal what he earned from a quest. Of course, they didn’t live to see the next day.

The moment they stabbed him, he turned into a black jaguar and bit their faces off.

“I’m working on that. Give it a few days, and all of those ruffians would be under control.” Jack smiled beside Arad, “I hope you weren’t too hurt.”

“Not worse than them, that’s for sure. If they are too much of a failure to try and rob a kid, then they probably have more problems than just being thieves.” Agnar shrugged, then turned back to Arad.

“Besides that, we had some trouble getting water, and the number of inns is lacking. It’s getting pretty hard to find rooms. Not that matter.” He scratched the back of his head.

Arad stared at him, eyes glowing purple. “Yuwaku!”

Yuwaku appeared behind Arad; no normal human could see her move when she wanted to. “He says there are no rooms in the inns.”

“Yeah. We even spent a few days camping outside. Even with money, housing isn’t always available for adventurers on the move.” She looked at Agnar, smiled, then turned back to Arad, “Rations are also a problem. There have been a few days when we didn’t find any dried meat to carry on long quests.”

Gojo laughed beside Arad, “Little boy, he’s asking to see if it’s safe to let Astra live as an adventurer.”

Agnar froze, “Huh? Let her grow a bit first before thinking about that. She won’t be able to carry a sword until she is at least five, let alone use magic and fight for her life. By that time, this empire would’ve grown much safer and resourceful.”

Agnar was right, it might not be a good idea to prepare by today’s standards for something that’ll happen five years into the unknown future. Time would tell.

“Anything else?” Arad asked, and Agnar shook his head, “Nothing, the guild is fine, the city is fine, and the quests are as you’d expect, manageable unless some information is wrong, which is the scout’s fault.”

After that, Agnar left with Yuwaku, heading back to their table. “Now, you’ve gone and done it.” She poked him. “He’ll build more inns and fix it.”

“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” Agnar frowned and punched her on the shoulder.

“A good thing, I see.” She giggled. “Probably for the best.”

In the back, Gojo leaned back on his chair and smiled, his blue eyes glowing with a deep azure fire. “I guess I’m an uncle now. Probably I should start grilling a bit.”

Arad looked at him, “Grilling?”

Gojo nodded with a smile, “Where I’m living now, every uncle seems to have a hobby of grilling and fishing. We’ve got a whole frozen sea, ice fishing they call it.”

He looked at Arad, “A land of pure white snow and ice, frozen mountains and seas as far as the eye could see. It’s so cold that corpses can’t ever rot, you can hunt a fish and throw it in your backyard and it’ll be fine after six months.”

He leaned forward and flicked his fingers, spawning a blue bottle of pure liquor. “Blue Ice, local specialty.”

With a second flick of his fingers, he summoned a full set of glass cups, created mirror-clear ice balls inside them, and poured just a bit for everyone.

“This is a base. You add anything you like to it. For me, I fill mine with blackberry juice.” He poured on the liquor until he filled it up.

Each one ordered what they wanted to mix with Gojo’s Blue Ice.

Upon taking a single sip, Jack coughed and almost splashed his drink everywhere. “It burns!” He felt as if he swallowed fire; it went down his throat like sharp blades, cutting its way through. One sip almost took him down.

The other weren’t much better. Gabriel and Lucifer found themselves unable to endure it either. Abel seemed to realise what it was with a single sniff and refrained from drinking any.

The only ones who drank it without having much trouble were Gojo, Arad, and Alcott.

Alcott smiled, “Tear’s Blue Ice. As painful as I remember.” It had been fifteen years since he tried it last. Official source is novelꞁire.net

“You know about it? I was sure no one would know about it.” Gojo looked at him. “I found it in the core of a glacier.”

It had taken Gojo a whole week to dig through the ice, explore it, and find this treasure inside.

“Father…” Arad sighed, “What was in the core of the mountain?”

Gojo was the one to reply as Alcott was busy drinking. “A Nymph, an ancient one that spilled this wherever she went.”

Alcott had just finished his mug, “She was basically poisoning the water to get rid of the humans messing up the beautiful and serene Arctic lands. If I killed her, the whole area would’ve dried and rotten away, so I sealed her there.”

Gojo sighed, “You sealed that… I fought her; she almost wiped my whole kingdom a few days ago.” He looked at Alcott, “How did you deal with her at the time?”

“I had to fight her blindfolded, but at the end I managed to seal her with a spell. Merlin made the scroll, and it took her two months to write it.” He looked around the ballroom, spotted Merlin, and called her. “Hey! Gojo says the Tear Nymph is out.”

Merlin in the back paled, “What? My spell should still hold for another two decades!”

“Not your fault, he went on digging in the glacier.” Alcott shrugged, “But she is out. Probably should deal with her again.”

She rushed toward them. “Gojo! Why did you free her?”

“AH, don’t worry about her. She won’t be causing any trouble.” He patted his stomach, “I swallowed her whole. She now lives on a massive chunk of ice inside my stomach. I only let her out if she behaves.”

“You can’t do that for long. The area will wither and die without her presence.”

A large grin filled Gojo’s face. “That isn’t a problem. It’s the reverse. If she dies, the ice region would suffer. But if she is alive, she is the one who would suffer from getting separated from it.”

He poured a second cup for himself, “Besides, I didn’t free her because I wanted to. Some devils were already digging around for her. I don’t know what their plan is, but they seemed to want her.”

Merlin thought about it for a while. “I’ll write another sealing scroll. Arad is going to your kingdom anyway, so he’ll help you with any problem there.”

“Thanks, I’m counting on it.” He looked at Arad, “We’ve got a lot of work waiting for us.”

Arad nodded, “Aella clashed with those devils before. You’re right, we have a lot of problems to deal with.”

“ARAD! ARAD!” It was then that a voice called, and it wasn’t any of Arad’s wives, but he knew her. He turned around and saw Lucy, Isdis’s little sister, running toward him. “The food ran out!” She pointed at the empty tables, her belly jiggling with maximum efficiency.

“You ate five roasted bulls, eleven lambs, and who knows how many birds…” Arad sighed, “Gojo, she is as thick as a broomstick. Where is all that food going?”

“Don’t be surprised. To the hungry ones. All they need is to cover their plate with a piece of cloth and pull food out without looking.” Gojo waved his hand to summon a plate and an old shirt.

Gojo covered the plate with the shirt, then reached beneath it, pulling a whole roasted chicken.

“It only works with my believers, and if they are hungry. But Gojo is a special case.” Lucy crossed her arms with a proud smile. “What I eat is never going to waste.”

Arad smiled, “Don’t worry, more food is coming in, right?” He looked at one of the maids, and she shook her head. They were out.

Arad stood and rolled his sleeves up. “Well, time to cook.”

Gojo stood with a large smile, “I’ve got a massive grill ready. Uncle Gojo is coming in!”