The dragon's harem - Chapter 1951: Painful Past

Chapter 1951: Painful Past

That day, Poppy got locked up. She wasn’t thrown in a normal jail, though, but inside a sealed house inside Arad’s stomach, floating through the dark nothing on a stray meteor. The entire meteor was no bigger than a kilometer, and the house itself was very simple with a single bedroom, a kitchen, a bath, and simple a living room.

Looking at herself, she had five shackles on, one on each limb and the last one was on her neck, all designed to both seal her power and constantly keep a check on her mental and physical status. There was a real threat of Cain having left some bug inside her mind.

Strangely enough, it wasn’t Arad who locked her up here, and it wasn’t Death either. It was Arad’s wives, and to be exact, the two called Eris and Merlin, two monsters wearing human skin. Eris had provided the meteor from Arad’s stomach, and Merlin made everything with magic, and of course, she was constantly watching.

“Listen, can’t you give me some privacy at least?” Poppy called to the ceiling, and Merlin’s voice rang a second later. “Eris said to skin you alive, then impale you from the anus to the throat on the castle’s walls. To be an example for anyone trying to attack the castle. I suggested we keep you whole until Arad decides what to do with you.”

“That doesn’t answer my question…” Poppy sighed, and Merlin giggled.

“To answer your question, I kept you here so I can watch and study you, the only Pricolici besides Arad. If I can’t study you, then go take a bath and get ready to be skinned by Eris.” To Merlin, Poppy was more like an endangered animal than an enemy, and she wanted to at least study her well before getting rid of her.

It seems that as long as Merlin has something to see in Poppy, they won’t kill or harm her. But the moment that Merlin gets bored, Poppy would meet her end. There was a problem, though, with all of her magic and power sealed; she was no different than a normal human little girl, with nothing interesting about her.

“What is Arad doing?”

“He is dealing with the aftermath of your stupid attack. A lot of buildings were destroyed, and many also died.” Merlin sighed. “And, no, your attack didn’t harm or lower our attack power by any measurable extent. You didn’t kill any important hitter.”

Poppy stared at her hands, “Which of the two? The mother and little girl, those vampires?”

“The mother died; she had no link to Arad’s blood and thus perished. The little girl did die, but she returned to Arad’s blood, so she should spawn again soon from his blood. And no, those two weren’t that important at all, even though you’d think someone who can summon Arad should be pretty high ranking.”

Arad didn’t just ask those two to keep an eye out for Poppy; he asked hundreds of vampires who lived around the capital, and it just happened that those two ran into her. As it seems, even through Mira’s crowning festival, Arad had managed to keep his wives and those important to him quite safe.

“Your efforts were all for nothing. You tried too hard to eliminate Arad as a threat and only ended up falling into his hands. You would’ve survived and lived just fine if you kept to yourself.” Merlin watched closely as Poppy sat on the bed, hugged her legs, and stayed silent for a long while.

Right now, Merlin had a goal that she didn’t tell Poppy about, the true reason she was going to observe her all day long, and that was to accurately find and understand the details of her madness. This girl wasn’t right in the head, and they had to know just what kind of damage she got.

The problem with madness as a problem is that it can be very subtle and deadly. The afflicted can live a pretty normal life until whatever ailed them comes to light. You can have someone who is blessed with a good life and peace, yet they lack human empathy and don’t value life. As long as they don’t deal with human lives, no one would be the wiser, and only when someone else’s life depends on them would their mad nature show itself.

What Merlin defines as madness is any unreasonable behaviour that defies the person’s own understood values. Humans, by their nature, understand the value of life, so a murderer would be mad, and a man who treats human lives without care would also be counted as mad.

Merlin did talk a lot with Poppy, and strangely was able to get a lot of direct answers from her, even about personal matters. It seems that whatever Arad did to her in the expansion clash was enough to make her willingly obedient enough, albeit that he himself claimed that he did nothing but force her to drink his own blood.

Poppy belonged to a family of traveling nomads and had spent her childhood traveling with her parents across the continent. They transported goods from one city to another and never stayed in one place; they were always on the road.

One day, when she was five years old, their cart got attacked by an awfully strong monster. Her father was extremely powerful, but he fell quickly in battle, and her mother and two older siblings followed right after. Since she was the youngest, they had her hidden inside the cart’s hidden storage, where her father sometimes hid illegal goods that he traded for high profit.

When the fight was over, the monster was slain by a witch who arrived just as the fight was about to end, and that witch was the one to find and pick Poppy.

The witch took Poppy to her hut and cared for her for about six months, until her mind calmed down after the attack, and each night the witch would bring her a calming tea. It was only two years later that Poppy found out that the tea was a witch’s drug made to keep her young and mailable.

After those six months, the torturous training began. The witch wanted to turn Poppy into a witch as well, make her one of her kind, and so, she had to pass the trials. She was stuck in her young body now, and each day she had to run until she passed out, bathed in ice-cold water, and have all of her nails torn off with pliers then healed with magic.

The training was designed to prepare Poppy for the first stage, to increase her body’s endurance and pain tolerance, so after a year, she was finally ready for the first step. The witch dropped her alone in the middle of a monster-infested forest, gave her a list of pants and monster parts that she had to gather, and left.

Poppy had to survive alone, fight for her life, and fight both infection and starvation for three months as she gathered everything that the witch asked for. When she returned, she had lost an arm, her right eye had rotted from a wound, and she was so malnourished that she could be called a bag of bones and blood.

Strangely enough, the witch did heal and allow her to rest for a week while she prepared the concoctions for the second phase of the trials. She knew that what awaited her after the peaceful week was hell, but she couldn’t escape from the witch; her fate had been sealed.

When the week was over, the witch brought Poppy to her lab, stripped her down, and tied her to a steel chair. With thick needles, she injected the concoction into her eyes, beneath her nails, and into every organ inside her body.

The concoctions began the painful and slow process of breaking down her entire body and rebuilding it to be suitable for witchcraft. She remained tied to that chair and screaming for nine days, and on the tenth, she was finally released.

She could see a lot better, and even in pure darkness. Her body felt far stronger, and she could even jump five meters into the air. Her magical powers also grew so much that it was astounding. Poppy couldn’t believe how much power she had gained, but the witch assured her that it was a process that every witch has to go through.

The witch assured her that she is doing all of this for her sake, so she can leave the hut for her after she dies. She is her apprentice and would take on the torch. For that time, Poppy believed the witch and spent ten years studying magic and alchemy with her, getting every lesson burned into her mind.

At that time, Poppy didn’t know that the witch was preparing her as a vessel to extend her life.

Merlin sighed. “You know, each witch is born differently. I dare say that I went through much more pain than you, but in my case, I was born with a broken and weak body I was born with the pain, not forced into it.”

Poppy giggled. “Born with a sickly body? You just needed to take care of your health.”

Merlin burst laughing. “Does that include failing organs? Having to hunt and kill bandits to steal their organs, and then perform surgery on myself to transplant those organs? I remember when I was thirteen, I had to hunt a serial killer, kill and steal her kidneys to replace my own. And all the help I had was five healing potions and a stick to bite on.”

“I see… I would’ve just laid down and died.”