Ch.244Side Story: Dragon’s Words

“Can you not hear my words, you beast in heat? I am personally asking you. What did you dare try to do to my husband?”

Charlotte’s voice carried an especially deadly tone, perhaps because our relationship was already far from amicable, and now she had witnessed someone trying to pounce on me right before her eyes.

Behind her, Serena and Christine were approaching me slowly, their eyes fixed coldly on Olivia, ready to start a fight at any moment.

I was pinned under Olivia, desperately trying to figure out how to defuse this situation. In stark contrast to my frantic thinking, Olivia remained cheerfully smiling.

“I’m right, aren’t I, Abel?”

“…About what?”

“You said it yourself, Abel. If we want to have sex, all four of us should do it together. So I arranged for all four of us to do it at once. Is there a problem with that?”

“You calculated that they would barge into the room at that exact moment?”

Olivia answered with a smile. Judging by that expression, she had truly orchestrated this situation deliberately.

But the question of “how?” remained. Olivia surely couldn’t have known when those three would return.

“Look, girls, I understand you’re angry, but could you please calm down for a moment? You’re not planning to fight here, are you?”

“Do not worry, my lord. I will cut off that woman’s limbs and rescue you.”

“Please have no concern, my God. This little lamb will save you from the clutches of that filthy heretic.”

“I am perfectly sane, my dear. Is that not obvious? I am merely doing what must be done.”

Seeing that a real fight was about to break out despite my intervention, I inwardly sighed and drained all four women of their power. The aura emanating from the three immediately subsided.

Olivia had only been sitting on top of me, but I absorbed her power too for fairness’ sake. I didn’t want to hear complaints about that later, especially since she was the root cause of this situation.

Not only Serena and Christine, but Charlotte and Olivia as well let out a small “ugh” before staggering and practically collapsing to the floor, gasping for breath.

Last time, I had given them advance warning and absorbed their power gradually, but this time I had done it abruptly to stop the fight, which seemed to have side effects.

Olivia wobbled, her center of gravity suddenly shifting downward due to the weight of her chest. I supported her by holding both her armpits and gently laid her down on the bed.

“M-my lord, why…?”

“Ah, my God… why would you do this to me…?”

Serena and Christine looked at me with sorrowful eyes. Charlotte was still breathing heavily, apparently not fully recovered. Her blue and yellow eyes were moist with tears.

“I told you fighting is forbidden. I have no intention of letting you fight in front of me. You should have listened when I asked nicely.”

I used telekinesis to lift the three and seat them on the bed. The sense of loss from having all their power drained must have been quite significant, as all four, including Olivia, sat quietly.

If only they could be this well-behaved all the time.

“How did you all get back so soon? I haven’t been back for very long.”

“What do you mean, my lord?”

“This little lamb fails to understand God’s words.”

“Not very long? What an ill-fitting jest, my dear.”

“…?”

Serena, Christine, Charlotte, and I all looked at each other in confusion. It seemed we each had different understandings of the facts.

“I returned just a few hours ago, didn’t I?”

“A few hours? What are you saying, my dear? Exactly 42 hours, 38 minutes, and 15 seconds have passed since you and I parted.”

“Huh?”

A bewildered sound escaped my lips. Something was off. Serena, Christine, and Charlotte all had thoughtful expressions. Only Olivia maintained her calm demeanor.

“You seem to know something, Olivia?”

“Of course. I told you I’ve been to the Dragon’s Lair before, didn’t I? I naturally understand why you’re confused.”

Olivia smiled brightly. No wonder she wasn’t surprised—she had known all along why we were confused. I looked at her, silently urging her to explain.

“It’s simple. The Dragon’s Lair is a space disconnected from the time of our world. Time there flows according to the Dragon Lord’s will. It can be accelerated dozens of times faster, or conversely, slowed down dozens of times. That’s probably what happened.”

“The speed of time flow is controlled by Ancient’s will? Is that true?”

“Ah, so he asked you to call him Ancient. Yes, that’s right. The Dragon Lord probably accelerated time inside the lair. While only a few hours passed in our world, they perceived more than a day passing, so the acceleration rate must have been quite fast.”

With that explanation, things started to make sense. Now that I thought about it, when I first returned from the lair, Olivia had greeted me saying I’d come back earlier than expected.

“Is that why you said I came back earlier than expected when I returned to the mansion?”

“Correct, Abel. I don’t know how much time passed inside, but from my perspective, not even an hour had gone by. So naturally, I had to say you came back sooner than expected.”

“…I see.”

I nodded in understanding. Olivia looked at me with a somewhat surprised expression.

“You’re less surprised than I expected. I thought you’d be shocked to hear that Dragon Lords can control time at will.”

“I can do that too. If I absorb all the power from the four of you, I can do something like that easily, so why would I be surprised?”

Just recently, hadn’t I rewound time several times using the power I’d absorbed from them?

Well, the reason had been to have sex with all five of us all night, but still.

“Now that I think about it, you’re right. You could do that right now too, Abel.”

Leaving Olivia to her own thoughts, I restored the mansion that had been completely destroyed when Charlotte had stormed in. Blue mana and divine power spread out from me.

The scorched ceiling and floor became clean, and the shattered walls were rebuilt piece by piece. The rising smoke turned back into clear air. The heat from the soot cooled down.

After completing the restoration of the mansion, I looked at the four sitting demurely on the bed.

“I’ll give your power back. But no more fighting, okay?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“Okay, Abel.”

Except for Olivia, no one answered. I put my hand to my forehead. Their silence was as good as saying they would fight to the death.

I wasn’t even asking them to become friends, but it seemed there was still a long way to go before they could even be civil to each other.

“Fine, I get it. I was planning to embrace you all again today as Olivia suggested, but if that’s how you feel, I guess there’s no helping it.”

“…!”

“…!”

“…!”

Upon hearing that I had intended to be intimate with them again, the three opened their eyes wide, then fidgeted uncomfortably with expressions of serious internal conflict as they watched for my reaction.

Really, was it that difficult to just promise not to fight?

‘It’s better than them fighting to the death behind my back, I suppose…’

Though whether that was truly better was questionable.

After struggling with various internal conflicts for over five minutes, the three finally managed to speak in barely squeezed-out voices.

“…Yes, I will do so, my lord.”

“If my God wishes it… this little lamb will gladly comply.”

“I shall endeavor to try sufficiently, my dear.”

Charlotte’s answer was a bit reluctant, but overall these were satisfactory responses. They must know that breaking their own words would provide an excellent pretext.

After giving their answers, Serena, Christine, and Charlotte all looked up at me with expectant eyes. Their intentions were obvious.

‘Have I been raising succubi instead of people?’

It felt like all four had been coming on to me constantly since their first experience. That’s why they gave in so quickly just now.

“I know what you’re expecting, but I’ll do that later. Right now, we have something else to do first, don’t we?”

“Do you mean the dragon language, my lord?”

“Yes, that. What’s the result? Did you learn enough to teach me?”

“How could we not? This Christine has certainly fulfilled God’s will.”

Serena and Christine both nodded at my question. Since they had learned the dragon language, we had definitely achieved our original purpose.

Though the reason why that Dragon Lord wanted to teach them the language in the first place was still a mystery.

“I discovered a most interesting fact about the dragon language. Would you like to hear it, my dear? I can guarantee you won’t regret it.”

Suddenly, Charlotte, who had been quiet, stepped forward.

“An interesting fact? What is it?”

“You know that dragon language can convey not only concepts but also the speaker’s emotions, do you not?”

“I know. Ancient told me that. So?”

“Listen.”

Blue mana leaked from Charlotte’s body. It was an extremely refreshing and clear mana. The blue light gathered in Charlotte’s throat. The blue light source filled the room.

Serena and Christine watched with disgruntled expressions. Sensing they might cause trouble if left alone, I restrained them with a look. Their fingers twitched slightly.

Charlotte, with mana compressed in her throat, slowly opened her mouth. Instead of her voice, an intense wave of mana burst forth.

—I love you, my dear.

The mana wave transmitted from Charlotte didn’t enter through my ears but resonated directly in my head and heart. A sensation of floating gently in the air enveloped my entire body.

Of course, I wasn’t actually floating—it just felt that way. The problem was that the sensation felt too real.

“…?!”

I felt something ticklish swelling up in one side of my heart. Before I could even be surprised by this emotion, the tickling intensified dramatically and spread from my heart to the extremities of my limbs.

Serena and Christine weren’t the type to stay quiet after Charlotte’s sudden love confession. They too drew blue mana and white divine power and transmitted dragon language to me.

It was dragon language filled with the same sensation of loving and adoring me. Another powerful shock hit my heart, which was already filled with alien emotions.

It was hard to keep my senses. It felt like I would be swept away by the wave of emotions if I let my guard down even slightly. My feelings toward the three swelled uncontrollably.

“W-what, is, this…?”

“It is dragon language filled with how much I love you, my dear. How is it? Can you properly feel my love?”

“Feel it? This is…!”

My body felt strange. My head was burning up on its own, and my lower body was twitching in response. My cheeks flushed deeply, and my breathing became rapid. My heart pounded as if it would burst.

My legs trembled. I couldn’t suppress the emotions that kept swelling endlessly, far beyond my capacity to contain. Should I shout that I love them right now? Is that what I need to do?

My vision spun. It seemed like I wouldn’t be able to calm down unless I said “I love you” out loud. So this is what those girls feel whenever they look at me?

“Now tell me your impression, my dear. Your impression of my love.”

Impression? There was no need to think twice. What I needed to say had already been decided.

“It’s… incredible…”

With those words, I collapsed to the floor, literally feeling “love.” My eyes slowly closed.