The other wives and the Officers come into the room as I laugh out loud, but I'm interrupted by Roxanne suddenly giving me a tight hug from behind. She immediately rests her head against mine, her horns looking quite floppy, as if they were made of rubber, then she closes her eyes and lets out a long sigh of relief.

We all go silent as we give her a warm look, then I grab her arms with my claws and bring one of her hands up towards my lips so that I can give it a kiss.

"Thank you for being so reliable," I whisper lovingly.

She smirks and cheekily adds, "And also being a magical genius."

"And also being a magical genius," I repeat, and her horns harden again.

"[G-genius indeed]!" The marmot-headed mage exclaims, accidentally reverting back to Reo, then he clears his throat and repeats, "Genius indeed! I can't believe you successfully performed a Soul Surgery on your first try, mere minutes after being given a simple explanation on how [Alteration Magic] works!"

Roxanne's rapidly inflating ego is pinpricked by Ciel's "Cheater!" echoing in her mind repeatedly, then the wives surround me and give whatever body part they can hold a reassuring hug or squeeze. Lina goes for the tail, and I raise it for a second, lifting her up off the floor along with it, just to mess with her.

"As expected of the Young Lords," the deer-headed mage affirms.

"As expected of those chosen by the Gods," Poosh adds as she timidly walks towards us.

I extend my hand towards her to invite her closer, and she happily takes it, then I caress her cheek and pull her face towards me so that I can give her a peck on her lips. She doesn't know how many close calls we've had already, so it seems that she still worries unnecessarily. The wives were all concerned about the "Soul Corruption," of course, but aside from a mild bout of panic at the beginning, we were all pretty confident that we'd find a way to fix it.

"Have you thought about learning [Alteration Magic], Lord Roxanne? You certainly seem to have a talent for it," the rabbit-headed woman kindly suggests.

Roxanne raises her head, opens her eyes, and politely replies, "Perhaps later in my life, I'll have time for it, but for right now, I still need to use all my soul potential on combat-related skills." Then she rubs her cheek against mine, making our horns grind against each other's, and rests her head against mine again.

The three Alteration mages share a look.

"We don't know how long we'll 'live,' so perhaps our descendants will have the honor of teaching you," the rabbit mage supposes.

Lina suddenly feels like saying something, but her shyness keeps her silent, so I give her a push through our connection and force her to share, "But we'll be thrilled to read your books about Alteration, if you write them one day."

I nod and immediately follow, "I also have some interest in [Alteration Magic], so I'd be happy if I could read something that was personally written by masters of this school because all we have available right now are second-hand reports."

"Y-you honor us by giving us so much recognition," the marmot mage hurriedly replies, and the three mages lower their heads.

After exchanging a few more pleasantries, we let them leave, but then I make everyone who was exposed to the otherwordly invader go through a soul scan to make sure that there's nothing "stuck" onto their souls.

With the crisis now over, I pass by the Lord's Hall and call Osaria out of her meeting to explain what happened.

When I'm done explaining it all, she makes an anguished face and pulls my head into her cleavage. "I don't like it that you're messing with such a dangerous spell," she hesitantly confesses.

I pull my head out of her breasts and try to appease her, "I won't cast it again until I can alter spells with confidence."

"But you won't stop."

"No."

She sighs and hugs my head tighter. "Do you have a single project that isn't dangerous?"

Alissa laughs out loud through [Bind]. "Hahahah! No, he doesn't," she amusedly affirms through the connection, but the laughter quickly dies out, and she sighs tiredly.

"Food?" I tentatively suggest.

"I think that barely qualifies as a 'project,'" she quietly replies, and all the girls agree, humming inside my mind in unison.

I look away embarrassedly and try again, "Sex…?"

"You fucked a dragon," Yunia calmly states, and the Council judges me as "guilty" without even allowing me to defend myself against the accusation.

I also personally tell Klein, Hukarere, and Kaatohe about what happened, but considering how they themselves are constantly doing dangerous work, their reactions are a lot more muted than Osaria's.

Now that the [Otherworldly Summoning] experiment is officially put on hold, I have to decide on something else to occupy myself with, at least for today, but before I start working on anything, I receive a notice that Nour Asaf has entered Escanso.

I wait for him to come to the castle, but he goes to the commoner's Lord's Hall and formally requests a meeting to discuss a "business proposal" on behalf of his family's airship-building company.

Oh… I guess we're kind of business rivals now, aren't we?

I invite him to the castle, and Hana, Ciel, Yunia, and I go down to our main hall to receive him and his two wives. Hana wants to see Midori again, her fellow dragonkin, Ciel just wants to spend some time close to me since she's still feeling a bit scared due to the close call, and Yunia is here because of course she would participate in business talks.

"Well, I also want to participate in the talks a bit," Ciel timidly admits.

Surprisingly, Alissa isn't acting clingy, but that's only due to how proud she is of how she managed to access my system while I was sleeping.

While we wait for Nour to receive our response, Alissa decides to retell her little tale through [Bind], "It wasn't easy. Your brain is like a maze, but I still managed to find my way through it with only my intuition because of how many times I've gazed upon it from afar."

And Aoi excitedly joins in, "I like diving into his brain, it's like swimming through buildings, and there are so many different architectural styles there that every dive is different."

Alissa nods internally in agreement. "Exactly! If I didn't have other things to do, I think I'd stay in there forever."

"Alissa does seem like she'd gladly let her mind be consumed by Wolfy's," Lina suddenly chimes in.

"What…?" Alissa mumbles confusedly.

"I know you have to control yourself, or else, you'd just 'melt' into his mind," Lina accuses her, sounding both teasing and concerned.

"Oh yeah, that happened once, but only with her," I remark curiously.

"Because she's a chicken dragon," Hana teases.

"A flying dwarf," Lina chimes in.

"A celibate succubus," Roxanne continues.

"A raving druid," Ciel guiltily participates.

"A goblin architect," Aoi coos with an internal grin.

"Gih," Gify chirps, and we all chuckle.

In essence, Alissa is a bit crazy.

Her pride starts to be replaced by embarrassment, so we tone down the teasing to not ruin her moment. Her dedication to me is ridiculously strong, but it's also so innocent that it doesn't feel right to make fun of her for it.

I grab the bundle of "blankets" that makes up her presence in my mind and give it a warm hug as I whisper, "I love you just the way you are."

"Awn…" She moans softly and whispers, "I love you too…"

"We know…" Yunia dryly comments, and Alissa and I smile at her teasing, but we don't respond.

I release her after a short moment, then something suddenly occurs to me. "But… I didn't know that you guys could explore my mind without me noticing it," I admit with a slightly uncomfortable laugh.

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And Alissa cheerfully explains things, "Not quite as easily as you can with ours. We can read each others' minds like they are open books, but for some reason, you can perfectly understand what you read, while for us, it's like you're written in a different language. We can only hear your thoughts and sense your feelings, but we can't read your memories."

Curious.

"You do have a 'piece' of our souls inside you," Yunia points out.

And I hum in understanding, "Ooh~… It's like I have a 'decoder' to your souls inside of me, and it allows me to not only see whatever I want, but also control it."

"Not a scary concept at all," Ciel sarcastically remarks with a snort.

"It's a bit late to complain about that now," Roxanne retorts, and the rest of the girls mutely agree.

Ciel now feels a bit awkward because she isn't actually expressing any regret about allowing me to use [Bind] on her, she's just surprised. "Well, the spell just goes way beyond what I think is reasonable. Just imagine what kind of warped mind you'd need to be able to come up with this spell in the first place."

"Looking at [Otherworldly Summoning], they were definitely insane," Yunia puts it succinctly, and we all emphatically agree.

Soon after, we receive notice that Nour has finally arrived with his two wives. It seems that he still hasn't married the rest of his harem, so only these two have the required "standing" to meet with us at his side for official business.

Then the double doors open, and the trio walks in. Nour is still the same young, fair-skinned, brown-headed teen as before, though his current expression is perfectly solemn instead of his normal easygoing smile he would usually show the world. Midori struts forward with pride, completely sure of herself as she knows that she looks stunning with her glorious emerald hair and bold grin, as expected of a dragonkin. Safiya looks like a perfect match for Nour with her prim and proper demeanor, while her brown drills and freckles make her look adorable.

They stop a good distance away and give us a deep bow. "Lords of the Ryder family, I'm Nour Asaf," he begins the introductions.

I sigh internally and politely reply, "Nour, I believe you might remember my wives, Hana and Ciel, but this is the first time you'll have met Yulania, the newest member."

He straightens up and smiles cordially as he flatters her, "Her portrait doesn't do justice to her beauty."

"Indeed, not even the greatest sculptors in existence have been able to capture true elven beauty," she pompously replies.

I roll my eyes and wave my hand. "Let's stop with these formalities here; they don't sit well with me," I assert, then a set of sofas between our two groups starts to grow out of the white grass-carpet.

Nour sighs and relaxes his posture as he shares a look with his two wives. Midori shrugs casually while Safiya suddenly seems quite shy and anxious.

"And we're thankful for that," he replies with a wry smile. "Imagine my family's surprise when they realized that my adventurer friend from Rabanara was somehow now a Lord who ruled over half of the High Forest."

We stand up from our thrones and start walking towards the sofas.

"'Don't fuck it up' was the main point they tried to shove down our throats," Midori adds wryly.

"And making you three act as stiff as shields was a thing, too?" Hana asks teasingly.

"The flame between us would've been snuffed out instantly if we had offended you the first moment we saw each other, no?" The emerald dragonkin returns the sass.

We all sit down, and a couple of maids start serving us tea with chocolate cookies.

"Oh? You already got chocolate?" Nour coos in amazement.

"I'm a bit of a sweet-tooth, so I might as well use part of my influence to get some," I gently reply.

He confusedly raises an eyebrow at me. "'Sweet-tooth'…? I think I get what you mean."

"There was a good chance that you'd become conceited. You're now royalty and also part dragon," Safiya continues and hesitantly points out.

"And we know how the dragonkin are," Midori smugly remarks.

"Yeah, well, sometimes I do need to keep up appearances," I tiredly affirm. "But anyway, how have you been?"

Though Nour has been living the adventurer life, it hasn't been that eventful. He has risen to the number two position among the fellowships in Rabanara, but he's trying to keep his distance from the Anara family. Even he knows that they're a bit "radioactive," and he wants to enjoy his time, not get caught up in politics.

"Which is why I was quite reluctant to come here," he confesses with a bitter smile.

"In the end, you can't escape your duties," Yunia sagely states, and he slowly nods.

"So, what kind of business deal do you want to strike with us?" I finally broach the main topic.

Their training kicks in, and the trio before us suddenly become serious.

Nour clears his throat and assuredly announces, "The Chimeras under your wing, we want your permission for us to recruit them, and also perhaps to exchange expert airship builders with your Institute."

I hum in thought and lean back in my seat as my tail slowly sways behind me. "That is quite an important deal, but wouldn't your parents be the more appropriate representatives to negotiate this?"

He grimaces and looks away. "They would, but they also want this to be a sort of trial for me."

Yunia smiles subtly and stares at Nour intensely, looking quite interested. "I assume this will be an ongoing negotiation, not something that we'll be able to work out in a single sitting?" She confidently guesses.

Nour shares a concerned look with Safiya, then he shakes his head tiredly and admits, "Exactly."

Yunia turns to me and casually remarks, "I believe he's only responsible for opening the negotiations while his parents will take over once things have become more concrete."

"Well, you've seen through us," Midori admits and raises her palms in defeat.

"With how merchants are, maybe being seen through was also part of their plan," Hana comments amusedly and makes us all chuckle, lightening up the mood.

Then I pull the conversation back on track, "The Chimeras are their own people, and though they might be loyal to me, they aren't forbidden from leaving and following their own paths."

Nour nods once and firmly states, "We don't want to seem like we're poaching them from you, but everyone in Faium and the Mainland are curious about what kind of knowledge the Chimeras would be willing to share with us, so we really did have to ask first."

And I reply in kind, "The ones hired by the Institute are off limits, though, at least until the first prototypes are ready to be revealed."

He knits his eyebrows in concern. "Does that mean that there's no chance of an exchange of experts?"

"Yes, for now."

He nods and relents. "I understand."

I smile gently and appease him, "I'll introduce you to Oritiki. She's responsible for the well-being of the Chimeras, so she can help you find people who might be willing to be recruited."

He brightens up a bit and lowers his head for a moment. "We're thankful for your help."

I nod and smile politely.

Then he sighs and lets his posture relax. "Those were the only matters we wanted to discuss with you."

"Then let's fully drop these masks of formality and chat until it's time for dinner," Hana cheerfully announces.

"We're very curious about your tales regarding the dungeon you conquered," Midori immediately replies, sounding fairly eager, and the other two members of her family quickly mirror her demeanor.

I invite in the rest of Nour's harem, and my girls slowly also join in, turning the casual conversation into an impromptu party.

Iana, the black-skinned archer from Sommerland, has officially joined the harem while Bellatrix, the red-skinned, androgynous, Devil-type demon Blood Slave seems to have quite an intimate relationship with Midori, because of course a dragonkin would be like that.

The newest member of his harem is called Farzaneh. She's a Krampus-type demon priestess that Ciel recognizes. The Krampus are a goat-like race with a natural talent for magic, and this one is a fine specimen of her race, in both magic power and body type. The curvy shortstack is less fluffy than my Poosh, but she's got two nice pairs of assets to compensate for that.

"Watch this," Hana calls out, then her whole right arm glows with a green light for a second, and once it's no longer glowing, her skin is visible again, but it's now covered in shiny emerald scales.

"Wow…" Midori coos, visibly impressed, then she grabs Hana's arm and starts to inspect the scales. "What is this…?"

"A skill I created, it's called [Draconic Body]," Hana proudly announces and starts describing it.

To showcase it some more, she also covers her chest with scales, and a few spikes appear on her back, pulling her loose dress taut around her large, round breasts.

"Punch me," she dares Midori.

The ruby-scaled dragonkin doesn't hesitate and cracks her knuckles against Hana's impenetrable defense.

"Fuck me! That's hard!" Midori exclaims as she shakes her quickly reddening hand, then Farzaneh sighs and starts chanting [Heal].

"The skill also gives me a little bit of 'Strength' with each level, so I'm fucking invincible, now," Hana brags and waves her scales, making them scintillate with their shine.

Midori stares at Hana's mounds, enthralled by their magnificence, and Hana puffs up her chest, almost shoving them in Midori's face, who then cups them both and gives them a squeeze. "Amazing," she coos, and Hana grins fearsomely.

The hall goes silent as we stare at the two of them. I share a look with Nour, but neither of us wants this to stop.

"Why are you fondling her breasts if what she was showing us was only her scales?" Safiya questions, sounding completely unamused.

"Well, they're both amazing!" Midori replies and grins at Hana.

"Let's… let's not abuse their goodwill by being so aggressive," Nour suddenly puts an end to it, and Midori releases the funbags, though she still continues to stare at her shiny cleavage.

"I don't mind, touch me as much as you want," Hana casually assures them.

"Well, I do," Nour immediately replies and a wave of courage washes over him as he stiffens his posture and glares at Midori. "You can't let a dragonkin loose, or they'll start pushing past boundaries."

"Well said," I agree with him, but I send Hana a nod of approval instead of rebuking her like Nour.

Safiya dryly remarks with tired eyes, "I can see where this is going…"

Bellatrix discreetly approaches Midori, and Alissa hears her whisper, "Just think of what your mother will say."

The emerald-haired beauty rolls her eyes and sighs, then takes a step back from Hana and raises her hands in surrender. "Alright, alright," she relents, but then she shows a very dragonkin-like mischievous grin. "But you have to tell me how to get that skill."

"I'll gladly help my kin spread the skill I created," Hana politely asserts and nods, then mirrors her grin.

With the lewd air now gone, everyone resumes their conversations, then I approach Nour and tease him a bit, "Having a bit of trouble with keeping your dragon between your legs?"

"A bit," he softly replies and chuckles nervously. "She knows me very well, and she loves to find new ways to get me… 'excited.'"

I candidly suggest, "Have you tried chaining her up and choking her until she submits? I mean that literally."

He gives me a side glance and turns his eyes back to Midori, who's still subtly flirting with Hana. "Yes…"

"How about chaining her up and making the rest of the harem submit to your virility in front of her while she gets nothing until she's begging for it?"

He raises his eyebrows and stares at me in astonishment. "We don't really do that kind of… 'intense' roleplaying."

I shrug. "Something new to try, then. Dragons love hierarchies, I know because I'm one, myself, so pressing your boot on her throat might have some interesting results."

He blinks blankly. "'Interesting,' not 'positive'?"

I smirk teasingly. "That's a risk that you'll need to be willing to take. Dragonkin are all about high-risk, high-reward, so there's not much point in being gentle with them."

He chuckles again, though now with a bit more energy to it. "I thought that the sex skills would be the end of it, but I guess I need a few more levels and 'Stats' to properly take care of my harem, huh?"

My smirk widens. "'Skills'? As in, plural?"

He glances at me and has the audacity to blush. "Yeah…"

I give him a painful slap on the back, and my scales clink loudly against each other. "The brotherhood congratulates you, stallion, on your growth as a true man. I wish you many quivering pussies and spread cheeks. May our cocks be ever erect."

He shakes his head as chuckles heartily. "I'll drink to that. May our cocks be ever erect," he repeats, and we both take a sip from our glasses.

I offer them some of my Cinco Flores Eia extract, and the party becomes more lively as the ambrosia allows us to loosen up a bit more.

Then I invite Oritiki, Hukarere, and Kaatohe to join us, and Nour immediately delves deep into business talks with Oritiki. He gives them a glance, but then diligently keeps his eyes up, expertly avoiding the temptation of looking at the alluring sets of naked breasts and pussies openly displayed before him. Though I'm sure Bellatrix and Midori wouldn't mind, the rest of his harem makes it quite obvious that they think differently.