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The guest rooms have no usual corners, the bedrooms are very spacious with high ceilings. The cave’s a little wet and chilly, so I dug up a warm shawl and I tucked myself into it, but whis fire in the fireplace it will be warmer in the night.

Under the rustle of the wind outside the window, in the arms of a warm shawl did not notice how she fell asleep. The knocking on the door woke up, a man came to accompany me for dinner. (Due to the complex architecture, we were strictly forbidden to move without an escort during the first two weeks, even if the space we seek to enter is located nearby.) I asked you to wait a little. Sleepy and slightly disheveled after sleeping (there was no time to take a bath, or to create a new hairstyle), but with my head held high out to the young man, and went to the verdict.

At the table all the participants gathered, something quietly discussed among themselves (I did not have time to make friends in a day, therefore silently hypnotized an empty plate). Our fire-breathing monster did not appear, but at the same time, a man entered to be 45 years old (if measured in human years) with gray temples, a proud bearing. On the whole, he may be considered beautiful, but an arrogant icy look repels him and makes him completely unattractive.

– Good evening, beautiful ladies.

Let me introduce myself, Lord Emiron, personal assistant of His Majesty. On behalf of His Highness, I welcome you and must inform you that the Heir has departed an hour ago for urgent business. It’ll take three days, he won’t be able to attend dinner. The castle gives you access to the castle’s library, but remember that it is strictly forbidden to be unaccompanied, so call the Companion (you will now be given communications bracelets). Tell us in advance of any travel outside the castle. His Majesty has decided not to remove anyone today, you continue to the selection at full strength.

Thank you for your attention, enjoy your appetite and let me leave you.

And I walked out.

After he left the room was quiet. But it was also cut by the sound of the dishes served, by the shuffling of the servants' clothes. The girls woke up, the sound became brighter and louder. I had no appetite for food, which is why I asked to serve me dinner in my room and walk me to my island of safety.

So, I eat a tasty muffin in room, drink milk, enjoying the warmth of the fireplace and the lack of a corset.

I am concerned that the emperor did not specify why I did not see the dragons, and in fact the magician invented the legend, which would explain the ignorance of this world. Poor Catherine lived on a small estate on the outskirts of the empire, only people worked on the estate. I was cared for, I wasn’t allowed outside the gate. So it happened that I was with a lot of things just do not come across.

But he didn’t asked, which means that he will start figuring out independently , and that is dangerous for me.

But back to the selection.

For me «selection» is such a TV show where the beauties a man comes with roses and every week informs who goes home. At the end of show there are two beauties, and the whole country guesses right or left, left or right… And now he is coming to the left brunette with a predatory smile, and you’re the whole month was a fan of the blonde on the right… and do not know who is more upset, you’re behind a screen or she there, getting royalties … Or like in fantasy, when the rivals poison each other, prove that they know how to rule the country, but the prince chooses tthe same one that in all behind, but was the sweetest and most beautiful.

So I imagined ’selection’.

But here in fact a monster instead of a handsome man with a rose…

Weedon laughed long after my version of the beauty contest and told me what was really coming.

Okay, first of all, the emperor have the right not to exclude anyone until the last day, just announce his decision when the time comes. There are no requirements for a new member, invariably only total number not more than thirteen participants

Third, the choice itself lasts six months (in this place I had to accept that I had lost my job, my belongings from the rented apartment will end up in unknown places, and the relatives will go mad with grief, because it is not possible to survive and not be discovered for so long).

Fourth, only the ceremony of acquaintance (meadow), the ceremony of announcement and the ceremony of marriage are regulated. The selection process itself and the types of competitive tasks depend on the Emperor’s preferences and are agreed only with him. Participants are notified in the process.

Why is that? He’s choosing a woman he can’t divorce for hundreds of years. Accordingly, the time limit for selection is quite long.

Now about me. Very tormented by the question, both physiologically and most importantly why a human being should be a wife and, more difficult, a mother of dragons. And I’m still an ordinary person, the portal does not aroused my dragon’s blood, did magician magician and so on… So why would the monster fire-breathing, even greater than the growth of me at least twice to choose me as a couple??

If in order, first to the question "How?" I was told the following:

Dragons look like ordinary people. They become monsters only when they want to fly, hunt or fight, generally at will or spontaneously for defense. Children from marriage to humans are born as an ordinary child, the transformation starts from the third year of life. The child must have a mentor by this time. (What about eggs? Magician said that there is an island of active volcanoes, where are living pterodactyls that lay eggs… But the dragons are viviparous) so the argument «I can not lay eggs» doesn’t work.

On the second question «why, we live much less», Vidon replied that it is necessary to tell about the history of the rulers:

So, a few thousand years ago, or a little more, an ancestor of the current ruler was wounded in the war, was to the brink of death in the mountains alone, but accidentally fell into my world, where he was found, rescued and loved by the beautiful maiden Feodosius. The dragon fell in love with the maiden, returned, married and lived happily, the soul in the soul, but not for long (people in this world Physically here feel better, the empress had the best doctors and magicians, and yet she lived to her 100 years and died).

The heir grew up, his father bored, mistresses changed, but one day he got drunk and flew to our world. Villages burned, forests fired, the arrows of the beast did not take, in general for my world catastrophe. But the alcohol weathered off, the dragon calmed and the locals went to negotiate. What can men do to appease a deity? Blood sacrifices and the most beautiful virgins.

Dragon ate Slaughtered lamb and moved into his world 13 girls of different compositions and appearance (although from tears they were not much like beauties already), settled them in his castle, and went headlong into affairs of state, leaving the girls in the care of son’s mentor.