Chapter 86 - Female Troubles (2)

Having taken some of Efari's life essence each time we exchanged, there was now a bond between the two of us. I could, at all times, feel the general direction where she was. And through this, I could also judge if she was close to me or far away from me.

I had also gotten used to this bond since I could ignore it if I did not focus on the bond too much. Thus, my feelings were not swayed in any particular direction over this establishing bond. Though I was a little on guard each time we would exchange.

Right now, however, I was feeling troubled.

The meeting had taken longer than I had expected and it was late afternoon now. I was outside of the Ffifth Manor House watching sections of the manor explode brilliantly into flames. There were servants, guards, soldiers, and knights all rushing over to see the commotion.

A young maid then came running toward me, seeing that I was the highest ranking person on the location. She was a somewhat pretty woman on initial observations.

“Commander Verath,” she said, her words coming out in quick bursts.

The maid had used commander instead of general as my title, since only a few knew of my position. The news would be spread soon, but for now, most people still thought I was a Gold Knight Commander.

“What happened?” I asked, though I already had a clue what was happening. The threads of magic and my bond told me.

The fearful look in the maid's eyes was also a big clue. “I was about to clean the hallways near your room when two women came bursting out of nowhere. Then flames also started appearing out of nowhere, burning the whole hallway. I ran out as quick as I could, warning the others!” The heaving maid took a deep breath.

Then she looked down at her torn black and white maid uniform. Some of the white frills on it looked blackened as if they had went too near a fire and there was a tear near her chest, most likely obtained from running. A look of realization crossed her face and she covered her chest.

By then, however, I was already ignoring the somewhat blushing maid.

Instead, I was more focused on what to do as I watched another section of the manor explode outward, two glass windows cracking into thousands of pieces. Out of another window, an enormous whip of flame came bursting through it.

I thought over my situation a bit with a calm look while the maid kept staring at me. Crowds of onlookers were now gathering outside, but none of them dare went in. The noises of the explosions and the random bursts of fire were too frightening.

I decided then.

They say that an experienced general knows when to retreat and that a very experienced general knows when to retreat before a battle even started. Right now, I knew that I needed to retreat.

At least, that was what I would have liked to have done. Instead, I went inside the Fifth Manor House, the crowd of people parting like split hair when they saw me.

The noises, the magic, and my bond told me that the battle was taking place in the third floor of the house. As I dodged a falling timber on fire, I made my way past the hallway and toward the stairs. The stairs were still relatively untouched, since they were made of stone and other not easily burnable material than wood.

On the third floor, I saw the most beautiful scene and the two most beautiful women I would ever see in my life peacefully getting along.

Hah, I am only kidding.

I only saw two monsters—a somewhat transformed Eden and an Efari with a cold glint in her dark, black eyes—battling each other amidst the flames. Kiara was on the side sitting gracefully on an elegant chair, and watching the battle with some amusement while occasionally stopping the fires from becoming too severe by using ice magic.

Three black horns had sprouted from Eden, two to the sides of her head which curved almost all the way around to the back of her head and one small middle horn on top her head. Strangely enough, the horns looked quite suitable on her with her long blonde hair, dark green eyes, and delicately tanned face.

On the other hand, Efari's jet black eyes had turned even darker, as if her eyes were black pools that could drown your whole being. Surrounding every tip of her body was a faint sheen of white aura. It did not look like magic, so I could only guess it was some sort of special ability a Matriarch Devourer had.

I grabbed a chair nearby in the living room and situated it beside Kiara, who was watching the battle.

Although Kiara had looked engrossed in the battle, she was not surprised by my appearance. I reevaluated her personality and strength once more at that. She was turning out to be a surprising character.

“How went your meeting, Verath?” Kiara said in her sweet, soft voice.

“It dragged on for a bit, I suppose,” I answered back, sitting on the chair I had put beside Kiara.

The two female monsters battling with each other still had not noticed me.

Efari was busy negating every fireball and whips of flames Eden sent at her, while at the same time busy trying to catch Eden.

Seeing that, I judged Eden to be more of a long-range type and Efari to be a close-range type. It was quite interesting to see Efari fighting, since I had never seen her done that before. I only knew that the Matriarch Devourer was strong since she had not seemed surprised at the existence of dragons.

The two females disappeared into a room, and that room suddenly burst apart with a flaming explosion a moment later. Then Eden and Efari reappeared inside the living room again, where we were calmly watching a distance away, about thirty feet or so.

Kiara suddenly turned toward me, her golden eyes tinted with red and white, strangely staring at me. They felt threatening, somehow. That was the feeling I got from her stare. “Is that woman your wife,” she asked in a gentle voice which sounded forced.

Forced into a somewhat troublesome spot by her question, I simply answered, “You could take it that way, I suppose.”

“Hmm...” Kiara said, stretching out the “hmm.” It would have certainly made me nervous had it not been for my control of my dampened emotions.

The silence stretched on for a while before she broke it. “I suppose I can share,” Kiara said with a smile on her face, “though I must admit, most dragons do not like to share. I just hope you can handle me.”

“Right...” I said, a little surprised by her words. I could not tell what the female white dragon was thinking.

“Oh. I think they have noticed you,” she informed me.

I turned my head toward Eden and Efari and saw their glares directed toward me. The flames surrounding them made an unnatural glint in their eyes, or it could have been my imagination.

“Good evening, Eden and Efari,” I said politely, a small smile formed on my face. “Your dresses look in need of repair. Perhaps we should all go for a nice shopping trip, and then a walk then?”

My words were factual. Parts of their dresses were burnt, especially around the edges and there were small holes, revealing pink and black underwear. As for who was exactly wearing what, I will let you decide.

A lash of flame snaked toward me. Its speed was fast enough that I had to block it with a hand covered by my own flames. Then I sensed and saw green threads of magic forming underneath my chair. I countered forcefully with my own black threads of magic.

An interesting fact I had found out about mages—it was difficult for your threads of magic to intrude on another mage's personal territory, especially if that mage was stronger than you in terms of magic. Thus, you couldn't just ambush a mage with a fire pillar from beneath—the opponent mage would either sense it coming or suppress it.

Eden and Efari looked at each other for a brief second, before nodding. As if forming some sort of temporary truce between the two of them with that exchange of nods, they then came walking toward me, who was still sitting on the chair.

“So, dear Verath, might I ask who these two...dragons are?” Efari asked in a voice that could cool a desert, a voice that could make a bear shed its skin. Yes, a forced shedding of not fur, but skin. “They are, I hope, certainly not two dragons you are engaged to.”

I carefully observed my surroundings.

The intense red of the fire burning parts of the floor and parts of the walls of the Fifth Manor House looked quite interesting. Beautiful. Like scarlet roses and blood dyed on a black surface.

“May I say that I was forced, and that these circumstances of mine are not of my own making, but of others?” I calmly said.

“What foolish nonsense are you speaking of, clown,” Eden said in a cool, collected voice, quite different from her usual nature. “I command you to sever all ties with this cur who is not even of our race.”

“What was that, you overgrown lizard!” Efari retorted back. “You should not speak such words lest you bite your own tongue.”

Safe, I thought to myself. Let the two women direct their dislike toward each other. I was content to be on the sideline, disinterestedly listening to their shouting contest.

“How about we have a truce for now, since we are among humans now and battling with each other will have many uncertainties. I also feel that this manor shall not last much longer,” Kiara said in a cheerful voice. “Let us just temporarily end with, say, each of us getting a favor from Verath?”

At that, all three females turned the full force of their stares onto me.

I could only let out a weak affirmative. “Right.”

Trust me, you would see the logic in my action too, and how I could only accept.

When you are alone in a living room with three female monsters, two of whom are dragons of comparable strength to you and one of whom is a Matriach Devourer, whose strength you still could not grasp perfectly—

You would also wisely choose the action to go along with them.

What can I say...Women are strange creatures.

Wait, let me rectify that. Women are strange monsters.

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When I came back out of the Fifth Manor House—correction, dragged out by the three monsters—I was quickly surrounded by the crowd of onlookers. Some of the males were also furtively staring at the tears in the dresses of Eden and Efari, who showed off some skin.

In the end, the situation was resolved before it became even more troublesome. Kiara, at my request, used large-scale ice magic to extinguish the roaring fire. It was quite an impressive feat of magic, but it only made me more wary of her.

When I was asked who the two new females were, I told them that they were from where I had come from, and were close acquaintances of mine. My shaky lies were accepted, and they didn't particularly dig deep into them. I was a general, after all, and had proven my loyalty many times over.

Still, Kiara, and Eden.

They were a mystery. I could still remember when I had first saw them in Navra's chambers after the first tribulation. The green colored wyrm and white-colored wyrm had been brought in by a large blue dragon together. It made me think that they both had survived the first tribulation, even though only one wyrm should have survived.

The greater mystery, however, was Kiara.

She was a white dragon, which was a rare color. Only a few dragons in past histories had been born with that color. And when I had asked the eldest for more details, he had only shown an amused smile as an answer.

Thus, I never asked again after seeing that strange, amused smile of the eldest.