Chapter 76: Training, Feelings and Raven's Dream

Back at the mansion

Kasumi delved into the mission assigned by her future master, Aron, training all the girls for one month

Honestly, it's a difficult task to transform these women into somewhat decent fighters; some of them didn't even hold a sword in their lives. Yet, her Master gave her this test, and Kasumi will see it done no matter what.

Aron was a master worth serving, and after Kasumi found out that he was a dragon, she wouldn't let this chance slip away. She could never ask for a better master to serve, someone who could bring out her fullest potential.

Dragons were at the pinnacle of creation; their connection to mana is unlike anything else, respected and feared by all. Once Dragons ruled this world, Kasumi remembered reading about them in history books, but now they are extinct, as far as she knows, no dragon has been seen for more than 800 years.

This led her to wonder about Aron; many questions came to mind, like why is he in human form, how old is he, and more importantly, who is he? But since his memory is lost, these questions remain unanswered.

"Kasumi," a familiar voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

Kasumi glanced at the elf girl in front of her.

"What's wrong, Luna?" she asked.

Luna pointed at the other girls and asked, "Should I train like them or not?"

Kasumi shifted her gaze to where Luna was pointing.

The other girls were running around in a circle; Kasumi chose this as the first training, to see who had the most endurance. This also would give her a better idea of what each girl can do. Kasumi then scanned the place; it was a massive underground facility with multiple rooms.

During the cleaning of the mansion, one of the girls accidentally pressed a button on a painting on the wall, which revealed a secret staircase behind the hearth.

Elina was confused by this; since she was the one who bought this mansion with Aron, the merchant guild gave her the mansion's blueprints, and in them, there is no mention of anything underneath the mansion.

Kasumi studied Luna for a moment, taking in her unique characteristics. Luna was an elf, and her lineage held incredible potential for magical abilities.

With a faint smile, Kasumi replied, "Luna, your training will be different; you and any other girls that have magical abilities, all need to learn how to better control it." Taking a moment to think, she added, "If you want to try Luna, go ahead; I think physical training will be good for you also."

Luna nodded in understanding and quickly made her way to the girls and joined them in their run. The truth is that Kasumi didn't want to force Luna to socialize with the other girls with the excuse of training, but seeing that Luna was excited to train filled her with hope that one day the little elf would be more open to people.

Only three individuals didn't join the training.

The first one is Mia; she didn't need to, or for a better term, Aron didn't ask her to train, and since he hired her as a maid, Mia is now in the kitchen preparing some food for the girls to eat after their training session is over. She took a mental note to ask Kasumi or Scarlett about picking up some groceries.

The second person was Scarlett; the redhead was sitting in the master office next to Aron's bedroom; currently, she was reading the journals that they took from The Rats.

Scarlett wants to know everything about how they work or used to work; what remains of the Rat faction is now her own subordinates. She will use them as a stepping stone for her future faction.

Scarlett flashed a smile, remembering how Aron easily supported her crazy idea. Creating a faction with the goal of taking over Larton is a difficult thing to accomplish; it's possible, true, but extremely difficult and dangerous with all of those nobles, merchants, factions, and most importantly, the town's council who control everything behind the scenes.

However, Aron didn't care about any of this; Scarlett asked for permission, and Aron gave her his full support, which caused some warm butterflies to dance inside her.

Scarlett lowered her gaze to the floor and slowly touched her lips; her mind shifted to the passionate kiss between Aron and Freya in the bath. She was happy for her former cellmate on finding a good man, with Freya giving him her mark; her fate was sealed with him, and even if something happened to Aron, Freya would never choose another partner. Werewolves pick only one partner for life.

Scarlett was happy; however, to say she wasn't jealous would be a lie. Aron checked all of her list requirements.

He's kind, understanding, strong, values his relations with the family at the top, and more importantly,

'Damn he's hot'

Slap!

'Focus Scarlett' 

Ahem…what she meant is that he's extremely handsome; Aron in her eyes surpasses even elves who are known for their beauty.

However, when she thinks about it, Aron's appearance is logical in her eyes; he is a dragon, and dragons have the best connection to mana.

Now the reason for this conclusion is there is a theory someone gave a hundred years ago; the theory is the more you have a stronger connection to mana, the better your physical appearance becomes. On paper, it may seem true, but it's still a theory.

Although Aron is the ideal man in Scarlett's eyes, she won't seek him in a relationship; she wants to with all of her heart, but Scarlett won't act on those feelings and desires, all because the last time she did, she ended up as a slave to a sick perverted man.

Just remembering how foolish she was caused her blood to boil; she wanted to go back in time and slap herself so hard just to wake from that pink dream.

Sigh

"Let's just focus on making the faction for now; love is for later after I make sure everything in this town is under my control."

Scarlett stood up, and walked to the window; her red eyes glowed for a second, activating her 'Scout' skill every five minutes. After what happened last night with those intruders, Scarlett won't take any more chances.

From her skill, everything is in order; most girls are inside the mansion, with only two outside. Pethra was at the back in the field, practicing her Earth magic. Aron gifted her a really good staff.

A black wood staff with a red gem at the top; this was Red's staff that Aron took after he… brutally split him in two.

The staff is high quality, allowing Pethra's mana to flow much smoother; now she's trying to figure out how to control it.

The other person outside the mansion is Freya; the werewolf is currently not just outside the mansion but on top of it.

Freya is currently sitting on the roof above Aron's room, and to say that she's in her best condition would be a lie.

Freya is experiencing a problem, and that's not all; the bad thing is that Freya herself didn't know what the problem was.

She knows that there is something wrong with her, but she can't put a finger on it. Her feelings were in chaos from the moment she woke up.

A strong desire inside of her grew into something that she herself feared; a desire formed into someone, Aron.

A primal instinct is trying to force her to seek him now, be close to him, take his side, smell his scent, hear his voice, and swim in his existence.

"UGHHHAA!" Freya cried almost pulling her hair out; embarrassment washed over her when she remembered this morning.

When Freya saw Aron at the breakfast table, she almost lost control; not because of him or anything, but because of this scent.

Freya smelled multiple scents on Aron, all of them women except Raum's. And that drove her insane; she recognized to whom they belonged, and her first thought was to kill those women for daring to approach Aron.

Fortunately, nothing happened, and she managed to control herself at the last second thanks to Mia's fake cough that snapped her out. However, Freya spent that entire time just thinking about how to wipe away the women's scent and replace it with hers.

In her mind, Aron is her partner, the one she chose, and nothing is going to change that; all she cares about is how to keep him solely for her. However, Freya understood that she couldn't do that, not because she wanted to 'share' her partner with other women, no.

It's because she can't do anything against Aron; in this 'relationship,' Aron is the dominant partner, and Freya knows this. Aron may be weaker than her physically for now, but being a dragon forced her to 'submit' to him and obey him.

After all, dragons are at the peak of creation.

Scarlett checked slightly, seeing the state of Freya and her struggle to understand her emotions.

'Choosing a partner was a basic instinct for her, but in love and relations, Freya is dense as a black hole' Scarlett sat back at the desk resuming her work

'It will be more fun teasing her now…hehehe~'

…

Meanwhile, high above in the sky, a black raven can be seen making his way to a tall building. Raum felt a sense of loss these past days; it all started when Pethra and the former slaves appeared. At first, he didn't pay much thought to it; however, the girls began to present their abilities, taking Aron's attention to themselves. Aron was relying more and more on them, making Raum feel like he was pushed to the side.

He knows that Aron didn't mean it, nor did he do it actually. In fact, Raum noticed that Aron didn't treat him differently from before.

But deep down, Raum was frustrated with himself. Besides the fact that he can fly and scout ahead without fearing getting caught since he is a bird, he has nothing else to bring to the table.

And that didn't sit well with him; from observing Aron, he understood that if he showed weakness, Aron would leave him.

Raum won't accept this, NEVER!

Aron was his first friend, the first living being who treated him well; he even went ahead and avenged him.

Seeing the people who did him wrong, kneeling in submission was a dream come true for the little raven.

However, Raum wants to be able to take his revenge by himself, to force anyone who hurt him to kneel in fear.

Which led him back to Larton; Raum flew directly to the outskirts of the town, where misery and poverty prevail.

The outskirts are where all of the town's slaves live, those who belong to the town, not individuals. Most of them are criminals serving their time.

Larton has few contracts with neighboring kingdoms to have their criminals as slaves doing all kinds of hard labor; they are a cheap working force that built more than 50% of Larton over the years.

Raum saw from above a few slaves gathering under a small bridge; from what he could make, they were cleaning the town's waste.

He flew above them until he found a small wooden beam coming out from the bridge. Raum focused his eyes and mind on the slaves; he kept staring at them for a few minutes without even blinking.

'Kaaah?...nothing happened…Did I do it wrong?'

Raum took a deep breath and closed his eyes, relaxing his body; a few seconds later, he opened his raven eyes, focusing on the slaves again.

This time something did happen; his eyes glowed in red for a moment, and what he saw almost made him jump from excitement.

A thick black smoke was gathering above the slaves; Raum calmed himself quickly; this was his first step, and now to test what he came here to do was the hard part.

Raum kept focusing on the black smoke; he opened his beak wide; he didn't know if this was going to work or safe, but he was willing to take his chances.

And to his surprise, the black smoke moved towards him, and Raum welcomed it by absorbing it with his beak completely.

'So what I saw last night was real and not just a dream.' Raum was stunned; he couldn't believe this actually worked.

Last night he had a dream.

In the dream, he saw a massive raven with three legs and three eyes; this raven was flying under a red sky above the aftermath of a battlefield with an endless sea of corpses.

This raven opened his beak, absorbing all the negativity on the battlefield; all of those bad feelings transformed into a cloud of thick black smoke, and when the raven absorbed it, he grew more in size.

When Raum woke, he felt that what he saw was more than just a dream; it was a message for him, so he had to try and see if it was true or not.

And with the outskirts home of misery and death, his guess was right.

Raum suddenly felt something inside his chest forming. A core. It was small, barely the size of a bean, but it was a core nonetheless.

"I can grow stronger now." Raum was happy; for him, this meant that he could always stay by Aron's side.

With eyes full of determination, Raum saw more of that black smoke in the area around him; he flashed a smile and flew to it.

"I need more…more, to grow like the Raven in my dreams."