The receptionist looked him up and down. Judas was dressed simply, but the woman didn't show any dissatisfaction.

"The Royal Suite is available," she said. "It includes a private hot spring, meals, and soundproof chambers. The price is three gold coins for the week."

It was an exorbitant price. An average family could live for a year on three gold coins. A single gold coin was worth a hundred silvers, and a silver coin was worth a thousand coppers.

In his beginning village, the old Judas had bought his land and house for ten coppers. Although it was in the Wastelands, the value of money was still almost the same everywhere.

Three gold coins were enough for a family to live for a few years. That was also the reason this inn didn't have much of a crowd.

Judas didn't blink. He reached into the pouch Nyx had stolen and placed three heavy gold coins on the counter.

"Done," he said.

The receptionist's eyes sparkled. "Right away, sir. Here is your key."

Judas took the key and headed up the grand staircase.

As he walked, his mind began to race with plans. The assessment for the Dragon Academy was in a week. That gave him time.

'Since I am here, I might as well make the most of it,' he thought. 'I need to get stronger, and this place is a goldmine for resources.'

He thought about his wives. They were currently safe, but they needed to get stronger too.

'It's not a bad idea to enroll them here as well,' Judas mused. 'If I can get them into the Academy, they can become Dragon Riders. Imagine the power boost.'

He pictured his wives riding on majestic dragons. It was a cool image.

But dragons were extinct—well, except for Nyx. People bonded with monsters that had dilute dragon bloodlines. That was enough to make them stronger.

The cultivation style of the Dragon and Phoenix Alliance was different from the rest of the world. They highly depended on their bonded creatures.

Their skills would all be highly compatible with their companions, and two of them together on the battlefield would be a nightmare for anyone.

If the dragons and phoenixes weren't extinct, their power should be enough to rule the world. In the old times, the Riders were a terrifying gang of madmen.

Now, after the bloodlines in the monsters here thinned, their powers too slowly started to dim.

However, Judas had an advantage no one else had: The System. There were bloodlines suitable for bonded monsters in the market.

The affection points required for them were exorbitant. Currently, all the affection points he was earning were going toward clearing his debt.

At the rate he was gaining passive affection points, it might take a month or more to pay the debt. He had to speed up this process.

'I can buy cheap mounts—lizards, drakes, whatever—and use the System items to purify their bloodlines,' Judas plotted.

The potential was limitless.

He reached the top floor and found his room. He unlocked the heavy oak door and stepped inside.

The suite was massive. It had plush velvet carpets, a huge four-poster bed, and a balcony that overlooked the entire city.

Judas locked the door behind him and closed the curtains.

Nyx immediately hopped off his shoulder onto the bed. She looked at him, her eyes intense.

She let out a low growl, her tail thrashing impatiently.

She was staring at him, her eyes practically screaming for him to let her into the Couple Space. The curiosity was suffocating her.

Judas smiled.

"Alright, alright. Don't rush me."

He extended his hand. "Let's go."

The world twisted. The luxurious hotel room vanished, replaced by a lush, vibrant landscape.

Judas and Nyx appeared on the soft grass of the Couple Space. The crops he had planted had taken their spot in the space.

The air inside the dimension was filled with a calmness that didn't exist in the outside world.

It wasn't just mana; it was a vitality that soaked into the soil, turning the crops golden and heavy with yield.

Here, the laws of nature seemed accelerated, pushing the vegetation into a perpetual state of harvest.

Judas took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the sweet air.

Beside him, the small black lizard on his shoulder blurred. Shadows coalesced, twisting and stretching until a human figure stood in its place.

Nyx had abandoned the cloak he had given her. She preferred to be naked.

Judas didn't mind it. It wasn't like she was a hairy dude.

Her human form was as imperious as her dragon form, with sharp eyes that immediately began scanning the horizon.

She didn't look at Judas. Her attention was entirely consumed by the environment, her pupils contracting as she tried to parse the strange atmospheric rules of this place.

"Husband!"

A shout tore through the tranquil silence.

Judas turned just in time to see a blur of motion rushing toward him from the direction of the fields.

Nina was sprinting, her feet kicking up dust. In her excitement, she completely forgot the woven basket in her hands.

With a joyous squeal, she threw her arms up. The basket went flying, sending a shower of white rice raining down onto the grass.

Impact came a second later.

Her body collided with his chest with the force of a battering ram.

Judas grunted, staggering back a step to absorb the momentum, his arms instinctively wrapping around her waist to keep them both upright.

"You're back! You're finally back!" Nina buried her face in his neck, sniffing deeply.

Her tail wagged furiously behind her, creating a rhythmic thwack-thwack sound against the air.

Judas patted her head, chuckling. "I wasn't gone that long, Nina."

"It felt like forever," she muffled against his shirt. Then, she pulled back, her hands resting on his chest as she looked him over.

"Are you okay? Did that dragon hurt you?"

Worry etched deep lines into her forehead. She checked his arms and face for injuries, her nose twitching as she sniffed for the scent of blood.

"I'm fine," Judas assured her. "Everything went according to plan."

Nina let out a breath of relief. "Good. I was worried you'd get eaten."

Her gaze shifted past him. For the first time, she noticed the woman standing a few feet away.

Nyx was ignoring them.

The Dragon stood motionless, staring at the sky. Faint, glowing runes flickered within her irises, spinning rapidly as she attempted to decode the laws of this pocket dimension.

Nina's eyes narrowed. The wagging of her tail slowed, then stopped completely.

"Who is she?" the wolf girl asked, her voice dropping an octave.

Judas opened his mouth to explain, but Nina beat him to it.

"Did you find a new woman already?" She stepped away from Judas, circling him to get a better look at the stranger.

"You bring home a stranger without telling us?"

Nyx didn't react.

She was too engrossed in the flow of mana, her brows furrowing as she hit a mental wall.

The laws here were alien, defying the standard magical theory she had known for centuries.

Nina crossed her arms, tilting her head. "Well, at least she isn't much competition."

Judas blinked. "What?"

"Look at her," Nina said, gesturing vaguely at Nyx's chest.

She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, though it was loud enough to carry in the quiet field.

"Her breasts aren't nearly as big as Summer's. They are kind of... flat."

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