"Arad, come here for a second," Aella looked inside the house through the window, "You need to try this."
"What is it?" Arad stood, walking out to see her.
"We've been testing the food for the wedding, and I want you to try it." She pointed toward a large pit fire with a massive pot above it.
"Why are you cooking outside?"
"Since we need to cook a large amount, the space inside the kitchen won't be enough," She replied. "The house is a bit small for all the work. So we're preparing things in the kitchen, then cook them outside where we can light the fire and line the large pots."
"So it's just a test," Arad approached the pot, "Then why all of this?"
Unlike what they usually cooked in, this pot was massive and probably had enough to feed twenty people.
Arad started counting inside his head. "You, Mira, Eris, Tina, Isdis, Rey,?and Ray," He looked at her, "We're eight, less than half this amount."
"Did you forget Meryem? You eat two people worth, and we have Nina who eats like you, and don't forget Merlin as well." Aella smiled, "You can always eat any leftovers, can't you?"
"Meryem? I thought she hated human food," The last time he remembers her trying to eat, she ended up preferring to hunt monsters. Arad can't blame her as he also prefers hunting monsters for food.
Arad looked at the boiling pot. For a dragon, this was no more than a spoonful of soup.
Aella took a ladle, filled it, and gave it to Arad, "How is it?"
Arad took a sip and smiled, "It's good as usual. But we should have more lined up,"
"Roasted chickens and some bison meat would do for the guests. I'm sure we'll have some elves, so I'll be preparing something for them as well."
"Speaking of other guests, who did you invite?"
"I don't really have anyone to invite, but I sent one to Dalla and the elvish queen. I also sent one to the slave market owner and the handler there." She smiled.
"Now that mentioned it, you're still a slave." Arad looked at her. "I wonder why they didn't contact us again."
SWOSH! Zephyr emerged from Aella's head, looking at Arad. "The slave contract has a race detection built in. I'm sure they discovered a few days after the sale that you're a dragon and gave up on interfering."
"Wait! What?" Arad gasped, "They knew I'm a dragon?"
Zephyr giggled, "Of course, they would. You don't want to sell a slave to a disguised devil, would you?" She looked at him, "Albeit dragons are a problem, once you sell them a slave, they consider it their property, and trying to tell a dragon what to do with his property is the same as asking for your whole city to be blown apart."
"So, they think Arad would blow Alina if they said anything,"
"We should check on them," Arad said with a tired face.
Knock! Knock! Is anyone here? Arad pushed the slave market door open, walking inside with Aella behind him.
"Welcome to out...AAAA!" The old man handler walked out with his usual smile, but the moment he saw Arad, a gasp escaped his throat. "Sir Arad?!"
"Why are you scared?" Arad looked at him, "I don't bite."
"I mean...no...I'm sure your contract didn't get triggered with lady Aella." The handler pulled a handkerchief to wipe the sweat off his old wrinkly forehead.
"By any chance, are you here to buy another slave?"
"No, I just came to check on you. Did you receive Aella's letters?" Arad looked at him.
"Letter?!" He gasped, looking toward the back, "Silis! Pull the mailbox, now!"
"Immediately!" A woman called from the back.
"Sorry, but we only expect mail once a week. People usually only ask about pricing, so we don't expect anything serious to come in." He looked at Aella, "You could've mailed us to the magic address link."
"Magic, what?" Arad and Aella looked at him, and the handler blinked, "Aella, remember the first course once you got enslaved? The magic charm?"
Aella remembered a woman teaching them a magic circle once she got enslaved, but since she at the time wasn't that proficient in human language, she could barely make heads or tails of what she was saying.
Aella closed her eyes, "?"
"Yes," The handler replied, "We give this to all the slaves to call us back secretly in case they got abused. But many simply use it to keep in contact with us,"
Arad looked at him, "You okay speaking about it in front of me?"
"It's an assurance for the slave. Each master must accept it. But I doubt you'll mind. Your contract is still clean."
"Long story short," Aella looked a the handler, "What do you know about Arad?"
The handler looked at her with a worried face, "That he's a young void dragon, vampire, and a type of werewolf. But has an angel sealed inside him."
Arad blinked twice, less surprised they knew about him, and more appeled by an angel making an appearance out of the woods.
^Doma! I'm sure he's talking about you.^
^[About that. I did have a spell that hides my nature so people wouldn't chase you and me with pitchforks as they sense flowing curses.]^ She said with a giggle. ^[Come on, it would've been more realistic if they thought I'm a devil with how many curses I have.]^
^Why an angel? Couldn't you put something normal?^
^[It's just what I put when I was little. Come on, Arad. Angels use holy magic, and devils use curse magic. Those are totally different.]^
^You're right,^ Arad sighed.
"Sorry if we intruded on your privacy. The magic of the contracts acts on its own." The handler said with a worried face.
"Don't worry about it," Arad replied, "We only came to check on you."
"Sir!" The woman rushed from the back, "There are two letters from Lady Aella. One for you and one for the owner." She gasped.
"I only opened yours, but it's an invite to Arad's noble party and her marriage with him."
The handler blinked twice, gasping, "Wait, really?" He looked back at them, "You two are getting married?"
The handler looked at Aella, "With a dragon,"
"Yeah, is something wrong with him?"
"Do you know he wrestled werewolves, punched vampires, and recently threw a whole labyrinth into the sky, and blasted an entire vampire kingdom?"
"Wait! How do you know about the last one?"
"Some of our slaves live by the kingdom's borders, and they reported a flying obsidian dragon that blew the vampires with an opal gem of light. You're been named Uranus, the first star of the night."
"How do you know that was me?"
"I saw you fly in that direction," He replied. "And the timing aligned. We do a lot of detective work to bring justice to our slaves, so finding that wasn't hard."