Dragon King's Harem Chapter 172. Firestone Fortress II (Patreon)

Dragon King's Harem Chapter 172. Firestone Fortress II

"Stop blaming yourself, Evelina," I reminded her in a gentle voice. I had already talked about my reasons why I asked her to stay in the fortress and concentrate on healing the wounded soldiers. Especially about the possibility that Uraugh did this to lure Evelina to this place. Since what the orc king knew Evelina was not my wife yet, no dragon tribe could stop her if she decided to come to this place. Simply, he used my absence to take Evelina forcibly from me. So yeah, I guessed he wanted to kidnap her.

I had told her before we went to this place. Even though it sounded bitter to her ears, she couldn't deny it either. Still, I knew it was not enough to get rid of her guilt.

"I'll try, Your Majesty," she said in a low voice. Her doubts were evident in her tone of voice.

I answered her with a nod. My hand gripped hers tighter, hoping it could soothe her feelings a bit, though I couldn't hope much about that.

We arrived in front of a huge door that looked bigger and stronger than the rest. Although it was not as big as my throne hall's door, it was big enough for four people to pass through at once.

Once the door was opened, a long table with chairs lined up neatly around it entered our vision. A large map was on it and a crystal, which was commonly used to show the topography, on its side. Just like the other parts of the fortress, this room was also dominated by dull colors. It was just that the trophies hanging around it were far more numerous than before.

Before we entered it, General Guillotine spoke.

"I'll call the others," he said.

“I will also help him,” said Eir. Then they bowed to me and left.

Evelina and I trod into the room. Our eyes swept in all directions, especially at the trophies which were dominated by weapons of various sizes. Well, this fortress was older than my age so there were a lot of heroic stories here.

“This is my first time seeing this many weapon collections,” Evelina muttered in amazement.

“Don't we have more collections in the Crimson Flame Palace?” I reminded her. It was inside the king's collection warehouse and filled with the weapons from every strong opponent the royal dragons had ever slain. I remembered the real Argod once took her to that place.

"Yes. But this is the second place where I've seen a lot of weapons like this." Her footsteps stopped at a 10 meters long giant Hallberg. Her eyes fell on the terrifying weapon.

"Especially this," Evelina said.

I also stopped my steps and stood by her side.

"Oh, it belonged to Gnoll's Duke. Around a thousand years ago, he brought his army to attack this fortress in the middle of the night once and tried to cast the blame on his king by pretending to be defeated. He said it was his king's order and he couldn't do anything about it. Unfortunately, we caught him lying. He was simply trying to use us to overthrow his king, so he could take over the throne for himself. "

Yes, although Igixar was not much different from the animal kingdom, the tricks and intelligence were something else. There were a lot of dirty schemes in this world so if I was not careful I might end up becoming their pawn. That was the reason why I had to be careful with everything and investigate every information I got.

I exhaled a long breath before I spoke again.

“Since we managed to dismantle his plans, he decided to go all out and turn to his original form. That thing---” I pointed at the weapon.

"That was his best weapon when he fought in his original form." Well, a gnoll's real form was about 12 meters in height so he had no problem wielding that weapon.

"Did your father kill him?" asked Evelina curiously.

"No. It was a new soldier who killed him when the gnoll duke was on a rampage. It was big news at the time. My father even asked for all the details to the soldier himself,” I explained.

Her jaw dropped in surprise.

"A new soldier?" She asked in disbelief.

"Yes. It was Eir's father who killed him,” I declared.

That made her turn to me and I returned it with a proud smile.

“B-But how?” said Evelina in confusion.

“Even though he was a new soldier, his swordsmanship was almost the same as a master's level. Not to mention his bravery. That helped him to defeat the Gnoll duke,” I explained. It was an X factor that every king and noble was aiming for, a rare talented warrior who could defeat an enemy that was far above his level.

“That's why my father gave him a peerage and chose his son as my assistant. Eir doesn't come from a normal dragon, he is a prodigy just like his father. His swordsmanship is above master level,” I added.

"Why didn't you ever tell me?" Evelina said.

I shrugged.

"You never ask."

She pouted in response.

I chuckled at her reaction.

"Don't make that face. I hate that ugly frown. Smile for me,” I demanded in a teasing voice.

"I don't want to," she pouted.

Instead of being angry, a devilish smirk appeared on my lips.

"Fine. Then I have no choice but to fix it by myself.” Without a warning, I put my hand on the back of her head and bumped my lips on hers. It didn't stop there, my tongue also slipped into her mouth and explored it.

It made her freeze like a rock.

But a moment later, I broke my kiss and looked at her shocked face. My thumb grazed her lipstick on the side of my lips as I enjoyed her expression.

"That's much better," I said with a mischievous smile.

"What's with the sudden kiss?" She asked in a stammering voice. Her nervousness was clear while I didn't bat an eye. The palace was fine, but this was elsewhere.

"I want to remove that frown and make you smile, of course," I said in a teasing voice. But then I realized she wasn't smiling yet.

"Oh, I think I haven't managed to make you smile." I leaned closer to her once more and almost kissed her, but she stopped me by placing her index finger on my lips.

“I will smile. I will smile," she said quickly. Her embarrassment was evident in her tone of voice.

"Then show me. Or I'll kiss you again," I said as I pulled my face away.