General POV
It’d been an hour since the horrible occurrence that was thwarted by the appearance of Lailah and Exedra, and Lisa had yet to really recover from her shock.
Exedra had come back after only twenty minutes smelling of smoke and blood.
Neither of the girls asked him what he’d done because they already knew and they weren’t the least bit bothered by it.
There was no need for a grand explanation, no need to feel guilty.
In their world the lives of the weak were held by the strong.
To the inhuman races survival of the fittest is the supreme law of the world.
They had both seen things like this for as long as they’d been alive.
That belief had slowly taken root in the mind of Exedra since he’d transmigrated, and was giving him the mental fortitude needed to survive in this world and achieve his goal.
He took no joy in what he did, but he didn’t feel like he made the wrong choice either.
He only felt bad that those kids had such a piece of filth as a father so he ended their lives quickly and painlessly.
The youngest child was already thirteen, so it wasn’t as if he was killing infants.
While he noticed the ease at which he made the decision, it didn’t scare him.
He figured that nothing that has happened to him so far had hurt him unnecessarily, so he could probably trust in these new instincts of his.
Despite that, he wouldn’t make a habit out of what he’d done today.
It had only turned out this way because that man actually dared to raise his voice at his wife and call her something other than her name.
For his wives and mother there was no line he wouldn’t cross and no blood he wouldn’t spill.
Their honor would not be sullied under any circumstances or the consequences for those involved would be apocalyptic.
“Why..did you guys come back?” Lisa asked sheepishly.
As soon as they heard the question Exedra stared at his wife in amusement as she scratched her cheek in slight embarrassment.
“Ah… Well I was coming back to buy those other four books I saw. I thought I could be satisfied with what I had but I just couldn’t help it.”
As she listened to the reason why she was saved, Lisa smiled in amusement at the words of the young girl in front of her.
Who knew she’d be saved by her favorite customer’s love of reading.
“Tell you what, since you saved me you’re welcome to take any book like you like for free. “
“How could I do that Lisa? I’d be more than happy to pay for them.” Lailah refused.
“It’s fine. I’ll honestly be closing up the store soon anyway.”
“Eh?! Why??”
“Well..”
Lisa began to explain that the men from earlier had been extorting money from her for several months.
Normally, she could’ve handled them on her own but they belonged to the Snow Scale clan, one of the four dragon clans that were led by a dragon lord.
After she refused to spend a night with the young master of the clan he sent those thugs to harass her every week having her cough up more and more gold to prevent her shop from being destroyed.
While he could’ve taken her by force, Jeddah is a sick bastard who enjoys breaking women mentally before he takes them to bed.
When he heard she was a single mother, he immediately concocted the plan to have her offer herself up on a silver platter.
Given that she did not come from a clan and was a lesser dragon, she naturally had no real power to fight.
Now that those goons had been killed, it naturally wouldn’t take them very long to come for her and investigate.
“W-why didn’t you tell me you were going through all of this?” Lailah was incredibly distraught.
How could all of this be happening to her friend and she not even know about it?
“It’s not your burden to carry my lady. How could I trouble you with something like this?” The kindness in Lisa’s voice only made Lailah feel worse.
She was afraid she was going to lose a dear friend and be powerless to stop it.
“My wife do you trust me?”
Hearing Exedra who had been silent this whole time suddenly speak, Lailah was once again filled with confidence.
Her husband could do anything and make anything happen so what did she have to fear?
“Yes!” She replied without hesitation.
Exedra came forward and sat down so that he was eye to eye with Lisa.
“Would you be interested in marrying me?”
“…eh?” Lisa’s brain immediately short circuited.
Was he really asking that ?
Was he really asking her?!
They just met today!
𝑜𝑣xt.𝗇t
Lailah on the other hand, quickly understood what her husband was getting at and was actually excited!
“That’s perfect! You’re a genius!!”
Exedra still hadn’t gotten used to being complimented, so he naturally showed signs of a small blush on his tanned cheeks.
As Lisa watched this scene, she became more certain of the choice she was about to make.
“I’m sorry but I can’t marry you.”
Exedra looked like he somewhat expected this. “May I ask why?”
“W-we just met today! A-and I have a child and I’m a great deal older than you!”
Exedra chuckled when he heard her reasoning before he looked her in the eye and began to explain.
“This wouldn’t be a normal marriage. You’d be marrying me in name only just for protection from those bastard ice dragons. You are by no means obligated to act like a wife with me and you can even be placed in charge of all the books in the castle library. “
Lisa wanted to stop him but Exedra wasn’t done.
“As for you having a child, I do not mind. In the brief time I’ve known her I’ve actually become sort of fond of her as well. I think she likes me too, she did say I was cool after all.” Seeing the cheeky grin on Exedra’s face Lisa didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“And as for the matter of your age…” Exedra closed the distance between them so that he could’ve kissed her if he felt like it. He bent down and whispered in her ear so that only the two of them could hear.
“I’m quite attracted to older women.”
Lisa’s face became as red as a tomato upon hearing the teasing words of the man in front of her.
Since when were young men so shameless?!
“Husband do you mind if I speak to her alone?”
“Of course not call me when you need me my love.” With that, Exedra walked away towards the back of the store.
When Exedra left, Lailah and Lisa stared at eachother for a moment before Lisa broke the silence.
“Why are you so okay with this?..”
“Hm? What do you mean?” Lailah tilted her head curiously.
” I mean your husband just asked another woman to marry him.. and you’re not upset in the slightest.” Lisa was absolutely baffled.
“Well.. I’m probably okay with this only because it’s you.”
“If it were another woman I would probably curse them in their sleep, or have Bekka crush all their bones.”
Hearing the words coming from her usually passive friend’s mouth Lisa couldn’t help but shudder when she realized she was deadly serious.
What did he do to this girl to make her so crazy over him?
“Are you worried you will fall in love with him?” Lailah suddenly asked.
“W-where did you get that idea?!” Lisa’s blush had returned and it was even worse than before.
“I noticed the way you look at him. When we first came in your eyes never left his face. “
Lisa wanted to say she was admiring his abs and chest too, and she’d even imagined what he had in his pants at one point, but she quickly realized that would hurt her case even more, so she chose to remain silent.
“He’s a very good man. It’s easy for women to fall for him but he himself doesn’t really seem to realize it.”
Lisa couldn’t believe it.
Dragons were prideful by nature, so humility was usually only present in lesser dragons as life had already pulled them from their pedestals.
For a noble dragon to be humble, Lisa could only imagine the life he’d lived.
Lailah walked up to Lisa and gently took her hand.
“If you’re worried about being disloyal to me, don’t. You and Bekka are the only women on this planet I wouldn’t mind sharing my husband with.”
Lisa said nothing and continued to think.
To be honest, she hadn’t been able to get Exedra out of her mind since he’d shown up and saved her earlier.
He was decisive, cruel and overwhelmingly powerful.
Her natural instincts were screaming out to her that he’d make the perfect mate.
And her motherly instincts screamed that he would defend her and her daughter just the same way he’d defended his wife earlier.
She wanted that.
She wanted to be protected.
She wanted her daughter to be protected.
She was strong of course.
Even a lesser dragon is still a dragon.
But sometimes being strong is exhausting.
She wanted to be able to leave all her worries with someone she could trust just for once and not have to do everything all on her own with no one to cry to but her pillow.
Not because she wanted to abandon her responsibilities, just because she simply needed help carrying them.
Deep inside, she knew he would give her all that she needed and more even if they never shared a bed together.
And that was why she was afraid.
If he treated her like that when they were just married on paper, she thought she’d be greedy and want more.
She’d want to really be his wife body and soul.
In exchange for freeing her from her burdens and worries she would offer her all to that man at the snap of his fingers.
Would Lailah not resent her for that?
What would his other wife think?
Would she truly be welcome in the castle as a lesser dragon?
She had a lot to think about.
–
POV : Exedra
I walked to the back of the store where more of the books were kept.
When we left earlier, I was trying to leave as soon as possible in order to not make Lisa uncomfortable so I didn’t really look.
It’s unfortunate that there’s no fantasy genre in this world. Anything close to it is just a myth or a fable.
As I flipped through the rows of books, I finally got to the section where spells are located.
Spell books aren’t rare per say, the problem is the most useful ones are exceedingly difficult to understand.
If you’re studying a high level spell, even if you possess the corresponding element, you could take weeks to learn to execute it properly.
And If you don’t have the same affinity as the spell you’re studying? Be prepared to spend a few months minimum trying to learn that spell.
Witches are the only exception to this rule.
They learn spells as easily as reading a simple recipe and can even teach others and drastically cut down their learning time.
Although the fee they charge is beyond extortionate.
As a result, most beings try to come up with their own spells, which produced crude results at best.
As I browsed through the spell books Lisa had for sale I realized she had quite a fair amount of offensive and defensive spells.
Although I guess it’s not surprising since there is a dungeon nearby.
I found a few dark element spells and I realized this was quite a good find.
Dark element spell books are usually found on the vampire and demon continents, as their percentage of those with the darkness affinity is fairly high.
I picked up a spell book called umbral chains and sat down on the ground to read.
It’s a dark affinity spell that manipulates the shadows around the user to create chains that can be used to attack or restrain.
One of my favorite superheroes from earth used chains as his main weapon so that probably factored a lot into my decision to pick up this book.
While I wasn’t expecting to finish it today, I figured I’d atleast kill some time while the girls were talking.
As I opened the first page I got a message from my good friend system.
< Spell book detected.
< Would you like to learn this spell?
I stared at the screen in front of me for a minute before I finally realized this wasn’t a joke.
‘Isn’t this too much of a cheat?’ I thought amusedly.
‘Yes.’
Almost instantly, I felt a headache invade my mind and the book began to glow with a white light.
After about a minute the headache faded and I had a new notification.
< Host’s unique mana has altered the spell’s properties.
< Spell : Umbral Chain, has evolved into Chaos Spell : Abyssal Chains.
Evolved?
I didn’t realize spells could evolve too but maybe it’s something unique to me or more specifically my system.
As I closed my eyes to process the information I’d just learned, I realized this spell was really incomparable to its predecessor.
For starters, even if I’d mastered the spell and had a large mana pool, the number of chains I could summon would only be a measly twenty.
My evolved spell on the other hand…
Not only did the number of chains not have a limit, but they were bigger, stronger, and allowed me to sap an enemy’s strength and add it to my own or give it to someone else.
It was even a permanent change!
The downside? The mana cost is unbelievable. Even with a plentiful mana pool for my age and stage, I can only cast that spell and hold it for about twenty five to thirty seconds.
Depending on the strength of the target of course.
Any longer than that my mana will absolutely run dry and I’ll pass out.
The spell will not regenerate my mana or my mental fatigue so the absorption effect is sort of useless.
Even with that massive drawback this is still a monumental gain and I’m quite happy.
As I turned my head to look at the stacks of spell books next to me I felt a wild toothy smile breakout across my face.