'Aaand—the doors are closing,' Maple announced, the rumble of debris overlapping with her voice. The cavern behind Konrad collapsed, separating him from his scouts as planned.
"Hold on tight, bossman," they yelled. "We'll dig you out of there soon."
Their words were already muffled by the tons of salty rocks between them.
Konrad appreciated their enthusiasm, but kept himself to the plan.
"Return to the surface," he barked, leaning against the ruins. "I'll find my way out elsewhere."
"B-but boss—"
"I can turn myself invisible if all else fails," he reminded them. "But only if I don't have to babysit you all. If I don't return within an hour, Welf has command and begins the search."
'Aww, only an hour?' the dragon complained. 'That's all the fun I get after waiting for so long?'
He turned to face her, but no matter how much he strained his eyes, all he saw was darkness.
The torch he carried got buried under the rubble.
He was about to summon some light when Maple finally appeared in her human form. Her crimson hair was almost glowing in the dark tunnel; an expectant grin spread across her face.
"Finally, I have my little saviour all for myself," she murmured, her movements slow, sensual.
Until she froze in place, turning pale.
While Konrad couldn't read her mind, from the way she rolled her eyes, he could guess what had happened. And sure enough, a few seconds later, the familiar voice entered his mind, too.
'No worries, sweetheart," Lily's thoughts boomed. 'I only reminded her who's your number one.'
"Come on, we're not here to play around," he groaned, but couldn't suppress a smirk.
Who wouldn't appreciate two beautiful women fighting over him? Except in his case, they were also crazy strong, and the crossfire could've killed him a thousand times.
If only his plans worked, and the situation was brighter—
"So how do you want to do it?" Maple asked, leaning against a cold stone wall.
That was the real question here.
"Any idea how a human like me could actually kill you?" Konrad turned it around. "Even if I leave most of it to their imagination—if I can't make it believable, we're only wasting time."
The dragoness paused, her slender fingers drumming on her lower lip as she thought about it.
"Your adamantite sword could penetrate my scales, but couldn't cut deep enough," she said. "To make it worse, you specialise in illusions and fire magic—neither of those could hurt me."
"How about earth magic?" Konrad asked.
The funny part? He learned that from Maple.
"Yes, as I said, collapsing the chamber on me would be your most realistic bet," she noted. "That way I wouldn't have to shed my scales, either, but you want the mines intact, so it's tough."
"Intact and goblin-free," Konrad added, still annoyed by how things had turned out.
"Come on, can't you compromise at least on one thing?" Maple raised an eyebrow.
She pushed herself off the wall, summoning tiny orbs of fire to light the path ahead.
"I can take control of all the monsters, in case you forgot," she noted, walking towards the chamber. "But you're adamant that your men have to get rid of them instead."
"I have a duchy to run, and a king to impress," Konrad said to remind her. "With my limited resources, of course, I'm trying to use them all in the most efficient way possible."
The dragoness chuckled, her hips swaying wide as she led him on.
"Always the logistician," she purred. "Sometimes, you could try to do nothing and have fun."
Konrad could guess the exact second when Lily gave her a second warning, as her curvy shapes went rigid. But the demoness was right about her—this dirty leaf never learned.
"What did she say?" he asked, only to let her know that nothing avoided his perception.
"T-that tearing my wings off will also be fun."
He could almost hear a demonic cackle, making him shiver.
It seemed like his lover still couldn't make up her mind about their harem arrangements.
But he had more important things to worry about, too.
"Okay, how about this?" Maple offered, surprising him. "I'll take control of the goblins and make them attack your men-at-arms outside. Or attack you here? A little sword practice?"
Given that she had that ability—
"Sounds like a plan," Konrad nodded along. "How about sending half of them to the surface, and you lure the rest here? At least the chamber will look like there was a fight in it."
"And as for my corpse," she muttered, pointing at the ground.
It started to shake, stone crackling as a wide hole opened up between them.
"Let's pretend you smashed me into the ground until I hit the bedrock, and then it all collapsed on me," she conspired. "I'd leave a scale or two, mix it with the goblin blood, and—"
It was a sound idea.
But from her heavy breathing and the blushing face—
She must have been thinking about something perverted again.
Then she almost jumped, as if an electric jolt hit her out of the blue.
"Oh, come on, can't a girl at least dream?!" she complained, and Konrad didn't have to guess to whom. "It's cute how he'd want to push me down, and all that."
"No, actually, that was your idea," he reminded her, earning himself a pout.
"This harem sucks," Maple claimed.
To underline her words, she slammed her feet into the ground, causing the entire mine to shudder. The hole she opened became deeper, and huge boulders fell into the abyss.
"Anyway, the goblins are on the way," she said, taking a few steps back. "Should I transform?"
"Won't you lose control of them when you do that?" Konrad asked, remembering what happened with the wyverns earlier. "Not that it matters, they'd swarm my men either way."
"I've been practicing," she pouted again. "But I can only shed my scales in my real form."
That made sense.
He nodded, and the shapely redhead started to grow, turning into a giant red-scaled dragon.
That fissure on the ground, or even the enormous chamber they were in, felt much smaller when she finished. No matter how many times Konrad saw her change shape, it never got old.
'I'm much cuter when I shapeshift,' Lily's thoughts invaded his mind.
He didn't get a chance to respond, but Maple must've heard it, too, because she scoffed.
"Okay, how about a game, then?" she asked, raising her now-enormous nose all the way to the ceiling. "Since you'll be fighting goblins, I'll give you one scale for every ten you have defeated."
Konrad raised an eyebrow.
"One for every ten?" he repeated the offer. "That wouldn't be a lot of scales now, would it?"
"I'll have you know that even five of them would be worth more than all the adamantite you've created." She sounded mad, but Konrad couldn't help but think about the math involved.
"Even then," he said, "that'd mean I have to kill fifty goblins by myself. Are there that many left?"
The dragon flashed an eerie grin.
"You said I should split them in half," Maple purred. "Which means, seventy goblins will pour through that cave—right about now."