Constantine paused, silently turned his head toward Leon, and stared at him without saying a word.
Leon froze for a moment, then pointed at the tip of his own nose, "What? Don't tell me you ditched the headmaster and vice headmaster just to come chat with me?"
"Heh, this is your honor, human."
Leon: "This is your honor Human." (Imitating)
"You're really asking for a beating. How has the Silver Dragon Queen tolerated you all these years?"
Leon shrugged, "Love rises with the child, stops with the child, and the heart can't rest until then."
"...", Constantine sighed.
To this day, he still couldn't accept that back then his head had actually been chopped off by this kind of idiot.
"Oh right, speaking of that, I want to ask you something... rather personal," It was rare to see Constantine stammering.
Leon raised an eyebrow, "What?"
"Are you and your wife planning to have another child?"
"..."
Leon's eye twitched, and his hand, which had been holding something, involuntarily lowered, "Why are you asking that?"
He thought to himself, 'Don't tell me this guy came to ask for parenting advice?'
But as expected of Old Con, his thoughts couldn't be predicted, not even by the strongest dragonslayer.
Constantine: "If you're thinking about it, then hurry. I hope Hefi can enroll in St. Heath Academy at the same time as your next child."
"Huh? W–Why?"
Old Con, in a strangely fired-up yet serious tone, said, "I will defeat you, so my child will also defeat your child. Absolutely."
Leon: "....."
'Only a battle maniac like you would come up with something like this.'
Leon didn't want to cause unnecessary misunderstandings, so he didn't talk with Constantine for long.
After Old Con said, "My kid will definitely be cooler than your kid," Headmaster Oullette happened to show up in the academy plaza.
So Constantine went off to talk business with the headmaster and vice headmaster.
They both left the rooftop, about two minutes apart.
Leon walked out of the teaching building, crossed the crowd, and found Rossweise and Claudia chatting.
"Hey, senior. Here to see Helena off?", Leon greeted them first.
Claudia nodded, "Originally I wanted Helena to come on her own, but I also wanted to try out some different parenting methods."
She smiled at Leon, "Learning from you and Rossweise, when you have time, you'll have to teach me too."
"You flatter us, senior. We don't have any special parenting methods, just letting things flow naturally."
"Did Constantine come to you just now?", Rossweise asked.
Leon nodded, "Mm."
"What did you talk about?"
"We talked about his people's children re-enrolling. Constantine is actually pretty responsible, he even personally came to discuss it with Headmaster Oullette."
Rossweise nodded slightly, "Oh, then that is pretty formal."
"You borrowed Ghost Lotus Grass from me before, saying it was to save Constantine's daughter. Did he bring that up just now?", Claudia asked.
"Mm, Hefi. Oh, Constantine's daughter is called Hefi, she's fine now. With the help of the Crimson Flame dragon alchemists, she's slowly recovering."
Leon paused, scratched his temple, like he wanted to say more, but held back.
Rossweise tilted her head. In one glance, she could tell this mutt of a man hadn't finished his words.
"What else did he say to you? Don't lie, I can read it on your face," The queen looked dead serious.
But before Leon could answer, Claudia was already surprised, "You can tell that?"
As the Sea Dragon princess, she was well-traveled and experienced. Normally she could read people's micro-expressions to guess their intent.
But Leon hadn't shown anything obvious just now. Claudia thought he'd only had that short exchange with Constantine.
"Been married to him for almost six years. I know exactly what's on this guy's mind."
"He's thinking about you, wifey."
"Idiot."
"I've had enough of this lovey-dovey dog food. You two, can we get to the point?"
Rossweise's cheeks turned slightly red as she looked away, arms crossed, the tip of her tail brushing the ground awkwardly.
Leon cleared his throat twice, chose his words carefully, and said:
"Constantine said..."
Claudia raised an eyebrow, curiosity piqued, "Said?"
"He said~"
Rossweise also turned back toward him, urging, "What did Constantine say?"
"He said he wants us to have another kid."
Rossweise & Claudia: "?"
A breeze passed by, but it couldn't clear away the confusion and awkwardness in the air.
It even seemed like a crow flew overhead, dragging a line of ellipses across the sky.
But no matter how many complaints one could make about that sentence, not knowing even where to begin, it wasn't enough to faze the Silver Dragon Queen, who'd seen countless big scenes.
"Ever since you chopped off his head, he's been weird. Saying stuff like this actually makes sense now."
Rossweise sighed and spread her hands.
"So why though? I can understand my sister pushing us to have another, and even Grandmother, but Constantine has no reason to meddle in our family matters, right?"
"So the whole Melkvei family is this into kids...", Hearing that the whole clan was pressuring the couple to have more babies, even Claudia couldn't help but sigh.
Leon scratched his nose and said, "Constantine said he'll definitely defeat me in the future."
"And then?"
"And then his kid will definitely defeat my kid. But, to keep it fair, he won't let Hefi face off against Noah and Luna. That's why he wants us to have another one, so everyone starts from the same line."
"What a ridiculous reason. But once you remember it's Constantine, it makes perfect sense."
The Crimson Flame Dragon King was infamous as a battle maniac, well-known among all dragonkind.
Even so, Rossweise hadn't expected him to push his obsession onto the next generation.
'Looks like Old Con really is dead set on beating this mutt of a man...'
"Did you agree?", Claudia asked the key question.
"I... haven't decided yet."
Leon walked over to Rossweise's side, naturally took her hand, and continued, "Actually, we were already discussing whether to have a fourth child recently, but we still haven't made up our minds."
Claudia crossed her arms, looked at the couple, and asked, "What's the concern? Afraid another baby would make Noah and the others jealous?"
Rossweise shook her head, "That we don't worry about. Noah and Luna are very mature, they wouldn't get jealous. They've even told us several times they'd like another little sister or brother."
"Luna said she wanted another big sister," Leon added.
Rossweise playfully nudged his arm with a laugh, "She's too young to understand that. You don't get it either?"
Leon chuckled and didn't continue.
Rossweise shot him a tsundere glare, then went on, "What we really worry about is... the current situation is unstable. The empire has collapsed, but the clues we've uncovered since force us to keep investigating. If we have a baby now, it might delay Leon from doing what he has to do."
Hearing this, Claudia's thoughts stirred, her beautiful blue eyes blinking.
"Delay business? What business? Continuing the hunt for the empire's remnants and the mastermind behind them?"
Leon pressed his lips together and nodded, "Yes."
"Oh, that really is important. But—", Claudia deliberately paused, making the couple listen more carefully.
"That doesn't mean having another baby isn't important business too."
The couple froze, glanced at each other, but stayed silent, waiting for Claudia to continue.
"Honestly, isn't it not just the Red Dragon King and your grandmother who love kids?"
The beautiful woman chuckled softly, "You two clearly love children as well, otherwise you wouldn't have raised Noah and Luna so excellently."
She was right.
Whether parents love kids or not can be seen straight from how their children turn out.
And Leon being a doting girl-dad wasn't just known in the Silver Dragon clan, even Claudia, of the Sea Dragon clan, had heard of it.
Meanwhile, after so many years with Leon, even Rossweise's deep-rooted ideas had quietly shifted.
Back when Leon was in a coma for two years, she was extremely strict with Noah and Luna. Their relationship was more "queen and subjects" than "mother and daughters."
That wasn't unusual, dragons all raised kids like that. Even Claudia had been that way with her daughter Helena before meeting this couple.
But six years of living together had already turned the once cold and distant Silver Dragon Queen into a qualified, excellent mother.
So neither she nor Leon feared a new life being born. They were just constrained by the current circumstances, unable to make up their minds.
"Senior, you're right. Leon and I really do love kids, but..."
"If you love kids, and don't reject the idea of another baby, then what 'but' is there?", Claudia smiled gently, looking at Leon, then at Rossweise.
She understood them.
They worried that pregnancy now might delay their duties. But deep down, their desire for another baby was just as strong.
Those two thoughts clashed, leaving them waiting. For a reason, one strong enough to help them decide.
"Hunting empire remnants is important. But is having a baby not important too?"
Claudia said, "We dragons are already few in number. Even if you two have already contributed three lives, it's still far from enough."
"Senior, yes, our numbers are scarce, but to dump the whole task of growing the population on me and Leon, isn't that a little—"
"You two have advantages!"
"What advantages..."
"First, you're loving and not at risk of divorce;"
"Second, human-dragon hybrids clearly turn out stronger than pure-blooded dragons;"
"Finally, cocoon-born dragons can't reproduce too much, otherwise the mother's body suffers extreme weakness. That's why our numbers are so low."
"But for womb-born dragons, there's no such risk. After ten months of pregnancy, within two weeks of giving birth, the mother's body recovers completely."
Clap!
Claudia clapped her hands, narrowed her eyes with a smile, "Well then, to sum it all up, you two, when you get home just go straight ahead and start preparing for baby number four~"
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
patreon.com/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining Patreon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through Patreon.