Dragon King's Harem Chapter 505. No Resonance
Dragon King's Harem Chapter 505. No Resonance
It hadn’t even been five minutes since Jyne and Sela left, when I heard it.
A soft knock.
Then the door creaked open with the subtle weight of hesitation.
I turned my head slowly. Half-smiling already. Half-expecting.
And there she was.
Maria. Or… what looked like her.
She wasn’t in her formal silks, or her velvet ceremonial robes, or the braid-twisted crownwork her court ladies usually insisted upon. No. She stood framed by firelight, wearing only a pale blue nightgown, sleeveless and edged with delicate lace. Not overly revealing. Not vulgar. Just enough to stir thoughts no king should entertain while in a negotiation chamber.
But I wasn’t in a negotiation chamber.
I was in my room.
And she had just crossed the threshold.
Barefoot.
Hair loose.
Eyes soft.
“I came, my love…” she whispered.
Her voice was low, like the hum of snow melting on warm skin. Sweet. So sweet it almost hurt. Too perfect.
My body moved first. I smiled, naturally. Instinctively. My muscles remembered how to welcome her even before my mind finished processing.
But then… I froze.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
Because I saw her, but I didn’t feel her.
No resonance. No spark.
Nothing.
Just absence wrapped in a pretty package.
Maria had a presence. An iron-willed frost to her aura. It clung to your lungs. It lingered. Even when she smiled, it was with that lingering bite. Cold and sovereign. Like a woman who carried the crown long enough to forget how to bow.
This?
This was perfume and stagecraft.
The scent was close, but too floral. She usually wore frostwine oil and that faint trace of spiced cinnamon, picked up from hugging Kaelen after his morning sweets. This one smelled like a bottle labeled Desperate and Trying Too Hard.
The mana?
Not even close.
Maria’s mana flowed like winter—controlled, sharp, regal.
This one?
It coiled like smoke. Illusion magic. Slick and artificial. There was something underneath it, something trying to mimic a queen’s weight, but it cracked at the edges.
I didn’t need my system to confirm it.
I didn’t even need a mirror to spot the lies.
I knew.
This wasn’t her.
And that voice?
Practiced.
Too clean.
Too flawless.
Not the real woman. Just the idea of her, twisted into a fantasy.
I didn’t flinch. Didn’t blink. I just watched.
She smiled and stepped in further, one hand still gripping the door handle behind her.
“I’m sorry I made you wait…” she said, layering on guilt like it was silk.
She reached back to shut the door behind her.
I lifted a finger.
Telekinesis.
The door froze in place.
She tugged lightly.
It didn’t budge.
Outside, I heard one of my guards shuffle. My mana pulse had already licked through the hallway, subtle but firm, just enough to unsettle, not alert.
The woman giggled. Softly. Delicately.
She turned toward me again, and her lips curved like sin draped in velvet.
“Argod,” she purred. “Do you really want your soldiers to witness our first night together?”
She started toward me, slow and graceful. The firelight caught the soft shift of the gown, hinting at the silhouette beneath.
“Don’t you think it’s a little bold?” she added with a tilted smile. “Even for a dragon king like you?”
Then came the dagger.
“Or is it… because we’re still in my palace?”
Ah.
There it was.
The mistake.
“My palace.”
I stood. Slowly.
No rage. No roar.
Just cold.
A colder fury than ice.
“You’re not the queen,” I said softly.
That did it.
Just a flicker, a blink.
The illusion shimmered. Just slightly near her lips, near her eyes. Like a drop of paint running in the rain.
“What do you mean?” she said, feigning confusion. “We just announced our marriage. And now you want to take this place too? From me? From my son?”
She clutched her chest as if wounded.
Instead of pitying her, I summoned the barrier.
Golden runes spiraled outward from my feet. Elegant. Measured. Unyielding. A cage of law, not violence.
The moment the dome finished weaving, she recoiled.
Just slightly.
She blinked again. Fast.
“What is this?” she whispered, her pitch cracking. “Argod, what does this mean?”
I walked to the edge of the dome, slow and sure, until the golden shimmer lit my face.
And I stared.
Through the illusion.
Through the act.
Until only truth remained.
“Stop playing dumb…” I said quietly.
My eyes narrowed.
“…Thiphania.”
The glamour shattered.
Light cracked down her figure like glass breaking in silence.
And there she stood.
Not Maria.
But Thiphania.
Daughter of the Witch King.
Smiling.
And completely, unapologetically, obsessed.
She stepped forward until her hands hovered just outside the dome, the runes casting golden flickers across her pale skin.
“Took you long enough,” she purred, as if this were a reunion between lovers and not an attempted infiltration.
I didn’t answer.
She tilted her head, hair cascading over one shoulder like spun illusion. “Don’t be so cold. You used to let me get closer.”
“I tolerated you,” I said flatly. “Because you never pulled this kind of stunt before.”
Her giggle was light, lilting, laced with something darker. “Stunt? I just wanted to see why you like her.”
I didn’t move.
She smiled again. “And maybe steal your attention. Just for a moment.”
I stared, voice low.
“If you had stepped into my bed wearing that illusion…”
“I would’ve let you touch me,” she whispered, eyes glinting like shards of moonlit ice. “And revealed myself halfway. Surprise.”
Her smile sharpened. “It could’ve been thrilling—sleeping with you first before Maria.”
The temperature in the room dropped instantly.
I stared at her. Hard.
“So that’s your intention? To throw discord between us?”
Her expression didn’t flinch. She even perked up a little, chin lifting with a playful tilt.
“Not discord,” she said lightly. “I’d invite her to join. I don’t mind sharing. A threesome is still a union, is it not? And you… you’ve had it with your wives before.”
She smiled sweetly. “It would be a win-win for us all.”