"What do you want Ghost Lotus Grass for?", Leon asked.
"Oh, it's for your master. His body still hasn't fully recovered, and every month he needs some medicine for assisted therapy. But the treatment course with regular medicine takes too long, and I don't really have the patience, so I just went straight with Ghost Lotus Grass."
"Is that so…"
"Mm… hmm? Wait, what's that expression on your face?", The Sea Dragon Princess suspiciously stared at Leon.
The next second, she understood, "Casmodeous, I might as well just hand you the whole Atlantis already!"
———
"That's everything that happened to me yesterday. How is it? Pretty fulfilling, right?"
Silver Dragon Sanctuary, husband and wife were drinking tea and chatting under the gazebo in the courtyard.
"It is pretty fulfilling."
Rossweise nodded, paused, and then asked, "But you took so many things from the Sea Dragon Clan. Even if you promised to return Claudia the favor, she really didn't say anything?"
"Nope. At the time I kept saying 'no, no, senior, I can't accept this,' but Claudia insisted on giving me so many good things. I could only reluctantly accept them."
When Leon said this, he secretly rubbed his still faintly aching butt.
The left cheek hurt because Claudia kicked it. The right cheek hurt because his master and mistress kicked it.
Sure, the Sea Dragon Princess had a huge family fortune, a few Scrolls and a stalk of Ghost Lotus Grass meant nothing to her. But you can't just let Leon take away so many benefits with a simple line like, "I owe you a favor, senior!" right?
So he deserved to be kicked.
His master and mistress also felt their disciple was being a bit greedy. To leave the Sea Dragons with the impression, "Our family's teaching isn't like that! Look, we're disciplining him right now!" they each kicked their disciple once too.
But honestly, getting kicked on the butt three times in a joking way by family, in exchange for all those good things. That was very worth it.
Not to mention, Claudia and his master weren't unreasonable.
Constantine might be short-tempered, but his strength was unquestionable. Especially after he mastered the Primordial Power, he was unfathomably deep.
So, in such an unstable situation, being able to win over Constantine as such a strong allt, sacrificing two Primordial Scrolls and a stalk of Ghost Lotus Grass was a great bargain.
On the other hand, with the arrival of the new version, General Leon's old tricks might still work, but no one could guarantee how powerful the next enemy would be.
So giving Leon a wave of strengthening right now was perfectly fine.
"Hmph, why do I not believe you? I bet you went there eating and taking their stuff, and they couldn't refuse, so they gave them to you," Rossweise exposed him in one jab.
Leon cleared his throat twice to cover embarrassment, "Some things are fine just knowing in your heart, don't say them out loud."
"So… what about the Ghost Lotus Grass?", Rossweise asked.
"Oh, on the way back I stopped by Constantine's place again and just gave him the Scrolls and the Ghost Lotus Grass."
Rossweise blinked her beautiful eyes, "That's it?"
"That's it."
"He didn't even thank you or anything?"
"He did thank me, but… kind of indirectly."
The queen raised her brows, quite interested, "Indirect? So how exactly did he thank you?"
"Cough! Cough—"
Leon cleared his throat, deliberately lowered his voice, sat upright, puffed out his chest, and imitated Old Con's usual cocky manner, "Casmodeous, don't think this makes me grateful to you. This is what you owe me. Oh, and in the future if you need me for anything, send a message dragon. Don't get me wrong, I'm just the kind of guy who enjoys joining the fun."
"Pfft—", Rossweise covered her mouth and laughed, her beautiful eyes curving like two crescent Lunas.
"This guy's mouth is really that stubborn."
Leon shrugged, "All you Dragon Kings have stubborn mouths, don't laugh at each other."
Hearing that, the queen immediately pulled back her laughter, pretended to be displeased, and bumped Leon's shoulder.
"What do you mean by that? This queen has always gone straight to the point, never stubborn-mouthed."
Hearing this, Leon's lips almost curled to the sky, then he said mockingly in a sing-song tone, "This queen has always gone straight to the point, ne~ver~ stub ~born~ mouthed~"
Rossweise laughed angrily and twisted his arm.
"Where am I stubborn-mouthed? It's always been like this for so many years. You think I'm stubborn, but have you ever thought the problem might be with you?"
Leon froze, "M-me? What problem do I have?"
"All these years, have you ever done your homework properly, ever been straightforward with me? Don't talk nonsense with your eyes wide open, okay?"
Leon immediately closed his eyes, "Then I'll say it with my eyes closed, Stubborn-Mouth Queen."
"I'll kill you!"
After the couple played around for a while under the gazebo, Rossweise returned to the serious matter from earlier.
"According to the clues and hints from your master, are you planning to return to the Empire in a while to investigate this Lord Shadow?"
Leon nodded, "There's very little intel about Shadow on the Dragon side. Constantine hunted Adam for thirty years and couldn't find him. So starting from Adam as a breakthrough point is unrealistic. I can only put the focus on the Empire."
"Mm… that makes sense."
Rossweise pondered for a bit, then continued, "But it really surprised me that Constantine even has a daughter."
"Right? When I saw that little dragonling, I was stunned too. How could that grumpy old Constantine have such a cute daughter?"
Leon paused, stroked his chin, and acted serious, "Do you think that little dragon might actually be his adopted daughter?"
Rossweise scoffed, "No way. Dragons basically don't adopt offspring, because that way you can't guarantee pure bloodlines, and the power can't be truly inherited. Besides, no one can be sure what kind of background an abandoned dragon hatchling might have. Nobody wants that trouble."
"Besides~"
Leon looked at his wife, "Besides?"
"You big dumb straight man can have three cute and clever daughters. Isn't it normal for Constantine to have one?"
"Eh, how am I a dumb straight man? And our daughters are so smart, obviously thanks to my paternal genes, okay?"
"Our daughters not graduating from Saint Heath Academy at age three, your paternal genes are the biggest stumbling block."
"Wow, amazing, Mother Dragon. You graduated from the academy at age three?"
"No, because I entered school at age seven."
"Then why even bring that up?"
The couple kept bickering back and forth in their everyday style.
And as they bickered, both of them laughed.
"Oh speaking of the academy, they start school next week. After they start, then you can go back to the Empire."
"Okay, that was my plan too."
Leon said, "I remember that when Noah starts school again, it'll be her last semester in the Hatchling Division, right? At the end she'll face the promotion exam, and if she passes, she'll move up to the Young Dragon Division."
"Mm."
The queen stood up, slowly walked to the gazebo railing, leaned sideways against a pillar, and looked out into the courtyard.
From that angle, she could see a corner of the training ground in the backyard.
In that corner stood a training dummy, already 'covered in scars,' all marks left by lightning magic.
"She's just turning six, yet she has to compete with a bunch of kids over ten."
Leon also stood up and walked to her side, following her gaze.
He too saw that old practice dummy.
The dummy's material was very special. Since it was for magic training, normal attacks wouldn't damage it to that degree.
Unless it was from long-term, day-after-day hard training.
Just like… Noah.
"She's no longer that little kid who just entered school, Rossweise. Age doesn't mean much. These years, she's been through so much. We shouldn't keep seeing her as just a child anymore, don't you think?"
Rossweise recalled Noah's experiences over the years. From her first sneak attack on the Star-Wanderer Dragon King Ravi, to protecting her friends in a trap-filled ruin in the far north. Along this road, she had grown so much, far more than Rossweise had thought.
Maybe Leon was right. She really shouldn't keep seeing Noah as just a child, nor worry about her too much.
But there was one thing Rossweise couldn't understand. She was clearly a pure-blooded dragon, and dragons were usually very strict with offspring, rarely showing "family" emotions.
So why was she so deeply concerned about her daughters?
"Oh, they're coming out, I'm going to play with them first."
After saying that, Leon propped himself on the railing, flipped out of the gazebo, and ran toward his daughters in the backyard.
"Daddy!"
"No problem, whatever you want to learn, Daddy will teach you!"
Listening to the father-daughter conversation, watching that man's eager back, Rossweise smiled absentmindedly.
She didn't even realize herself that she was smiling.
Maybe the question from earlier already had its answer.
"When you're with someone, you gradually become like that person."
Gentleness, responsibility, duty, those qualities in him deeply attracted Rossweise.
And without realizing it, they had also made her become that kind of person.
"Damn Casmodeous, you took my heart and still want to change my life. Dream on."
She smiled, lifted her skirt, stretched out her long legs, not as graceful as usual, but imitating Leon's move of vaulting the railing, then ran toward her husband and daughters.
The shabby training dummy lay in the corner, the only witness to the Melkvei family's past, present, and… future.
———
In a blink, it was the day the three little ones started school.
Since it was Noah's last, and also most crucial semester in the Hatchling Division, Leon and Rossweise personally took their daughters to school.
When they arrived at Saint Heath Academy, they found quite a few parents had the same idea.
The atmosphere felt a lot like the entrance ceremony years ago.
But this time, without Vice Principal Wilson that old B-dragon hovering around shipping couples, the husband and wife were much more relaxed.
Leon was holding Luna in his arms, Rossweise held Little Light's hand, and Noah walked a bit ahead on her own.
A family of five in full formation, enough to make others envious.
"I remember when the Melkvei kids enrolled years ago, there were only four of them… how come so fast it's five now?"
"Having kids doesn't take long. The couple's relationship is solid, they can have however many they want."
"Yo, those two aren't just any regular couple. The Silver Dragon Queen is one of the most outstanding young talents in our race, and her husband even represented the dragon race at the human-dragon negotiation meeting not long ago."
"Whoa, I only heard that the Silver Dragon Prince contributed a lot to ending the human-dragon war, didn't know he even represented dragons in negotiations."
"Yeah, he helped us regain some land. Rumor says he even uncovered some Dragon Kings secretly colluding with humans, and dealt with them together."
"Goodness, having someone like the Silver Dragon Prince, truly a great blessing for our dragon race."
"..."
Just like years ago when Leon and Rossweise brought their kids to the entrance ceremony, the surrounding dragons were once again marveling at their family size.
But this time, Leon's name resounded even louder.
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