My Taboo Harem!-Chapter 253: Dragoness of Paradise

"Girls," Phei said, louder this time, cutting through the simp-account admiration like a knife through cheap silk. "I have something really pressing right now. Can we table the fan club discussion for later?"

Delilah sighed, the sound heavy with the kind of exhaustion that came from living in a world where being late could literally end you.

"He’s right. We’ve heard about the summon and we need to hurry." Her eyes darted toward the path they’d come from, paranoid little flicks. "The assembly’s over. He can’t be late to the Dean’s office by more than ten minutes or the consequences..."

She didn’t finish the sentence.

She didn’t need to.

They all nodded—the grim, silent agreement of people who understood that in Paradise, deadlines weren’t suggestions; they were guillotines with very polite timing.

Sierra crossed her arms, all business now, the playful edge gone, replaced by the cold efficiency of someone who’d grown up negotiating with monsters.

"What do you need to know?"

"Everything," Phei said. "Anything. Whatever you’ve got on the Dean." 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"First thing you should understand—" Sierra’s voice dropped, something almost like respect creeping into her tone, rare as diamonds in this crowd. "—she’s one of the most intimidating women I’ve ever met. And I’ve met a lot of intimidating women."

Phei raised an eyebrow.

"After the two uncrowned empresses of Paradise," Sierra added quietly, "she’s probably third. Maybe first one on a bad day."

Fucking hell.

This was coming from Sierra Montgomery. The girl whose family’s power in the legal world made high-ranking government officials shit themselves. Senators went pale when Montgomery lawyers came calling. Judges suddenly found urgent reasons to recuse themselves.

The Justice Department had an unofficial policy of "don’t poke that particular bear unless you want to lose the arm—and possibly the torso."

And she found the Dean intimidating?

That was... actually, that was really something. That was really, really something.

Maddie leaned against a tree, arms crossed, tone dismissive but sharp underneath.

"But here’s the thing," she said. "All that reputation following her around? Overrated."

Phei looked at her.

"Think about it." Maddie shrugged. "She’s supposed to be ruling this academy given her reputation and how people fear her, yeah? The Dean. The big boss. Top of the food chain. But she still has to bend to a Heavenchild. Still has to follow orders from Marcus’s family like a good little puppet."

"Intimidating or not," Maddie continued, voice flat, "she’s still a slave to the system that runs Paradise. Just like everyone else."

Delilah nodded slowly. "All those intimidating stories about her... they’re from when she was in her prime. Years ago. Now?" She gestured vaguely toward the academy buildings in the distance. "Everyone sees her current image. The puppet Dean. The woman who has to follow Heavenchild orders whether she likes it or not."

Phei listened.

But something in his mind was already clicking. Already finding the thread he needed to pull—the one that might unravel the whole fucking tapestry.

"These stories," he said slowly. "The ones from her prime. Tell me about them."

Maya smiled.

That small, knowing smile that said she’d been waiting for him to ask exactly that question. Like she’d known he’d see past the Puppet Dean surface, past the current image, to the woman who existed underneath.

"Dravenna Ashford," Maya said, and her voice took on an almost reverent quality, "was known as the Dragoness of Paradise."

The fire pit seemed to go quieter.

Even the wind held its breath.

"During her prime—high school and college both—she conquered everything. Every competition. Every challenge. Every social battlefield the academy could throw at her." Maya’s silver hair swayed as she tilted her head. "And she did it as an Immediate Legacy. Not a Main. Just an Immediate from the Ashford House, going up against the most powerful Main Legacy young generation Paradise had seen in decades."

"The Harold’s generation," Sierra murmured. "My father’s generation."

Maya nodded. "Harold Maxton. Damien Ashford. Elliot Heavenchild. All of them. The titans. The boys who were supposed to inherit Paradise and rule it like kings."

Phei’s jaw tightened at the names. Harold. His pathetic excuse for a guardian. And Elliot Heavenchild—Marcus’s father.

"Yet Dravenna was undisputed," Maya continued. "Untamable. Neither the male nor female Main Legacies of that time could touch her. There’s a story—" She paused, something glittering in her eyes. "—that when the boys of that generation tried to corner her once, tried to put her in her ’place,’ she beat them. All of them. Single-handedly."

"And her cousin," Delilah added quietly. "Damien Ashford. The current Ashford Patriarch. He just... watched. Didn’t help them. Didn’t help her. Just stood there and watched her tear them apart."

"She crowned herself," Maya said. "Queen among the Legacy Princesses. Untouchable until she graduated. High school and college. No one ever beat her. No one ever came close."

Phei’s mind was racing.

"And then?"

"Then she left. Disappeared for years. Built a life outside Paradise." Maya’s voice softened. "And five years ago, she came back. Became the Dean. And for the first year... she was exactly what everyone remembered. The Dragoness. The woman who bent to no family except her own Ashfords. The reason Damien Ashford chose her for the position in the first place."

Sierra picked up the thread, her voice quiet now. Almost sad.

"And then, four years ago... something changed. Suddenly she became this." She gestured vaguely toward the academy. "A puppet. Bending to the Heavenchild family like everyone else. Following Marcus’s orders. Doing whatever they told her to do."

"No one knows what happened," Delilah added. "No one knows what they have on her, or what they did, or how they broke her. But the Dragoness... she’s gone. Has been for four years."

Silence settled over the fire pit.

Heavy. Contemplative.

And in that silence, Phei finally understood.

The system’s words echoed in his mind:

[Some people also manage to tame or kill dragons.]

It wasn’t a warning.

It was a hint.

The system was referring to her. To Dravenna Ashford. The Dragoness of Paradise—tamed, broken, leashed by the Heavenchild family through whatever dark leverage they held over her.

And suddenly the mission made sense.

What are you: Dragon or fool?

Because only a fool would fail to understand the truth about dragons. And I am no fool!

Dragons—unless they submitted willingly—never truly bent. Never fully broke. You could chain them. Cage them. Force them to heel through threats and leverage and whatever cruelty you could devise.

But underneath?

Underneath, the fire still burned.

The pride still smoldered.

The fury still waited, patient as stone, eternal as the mountains, for the moment—the single, precious moment—when the chains weakened and the cage cracked and the opportunity for freedom finally, finally arrived.

And when that moment came?

When a dragon finally broke free after years of humiliation and servitude?

Those who had enslaved it would burn to crisps. Would be reduced to ash and memory as the ruler of the skies unleashed every ounce of fury she’d been forced to swallow for four long years.

Phei almost laughed.

Because hadn’t he in the same situation?

Hadn’t he been chained? Caged? Broken down and humiliated for ten years by the very families that now trembled at his transformation?

And how had he gotten his freedom?

The system.

The system had given him the tools to break his chains. To rise from the ashes of the pathetic charity case and become something more.

So how would Dravenna get hers?

The answer crystallized in his mind like ice forming on a winter lake—sharp, clear, undeniable.

Phei Ryujin Tiamat.

He would be her system. Her opportunity. Her crack in the cage that let the light in after four years of darkness.

The Heavenchilds thought they’d tamed a dragon.

They were about to learn how wrong they were.

Phei stood.

The girls looked at him—Sierra with curiosity, Maddie with interest, Delilah with concern, Maya with that knowing smile, Emily with absolute faith.

"I know what I need to do," he said.

"You figured something out?" Sierra asked.

"Yeah." His smile was sharp. Dangerous. The smile of a dragon who’d just found another dragon in chains and decided to set her free. "I’m not going to seduce the Dean."

They stared at him.

"I’m going to liberate her."

It was time to break the Dragoness free.