Leon struggled to digest everything his daughters had said. Though some parts still eluded his full understanding, one thing was crystal clear: if there was a chance to change everything, he would seize it, no matter the cost.
Twenty years absent from his daughters' lives—the guilt was a physical ache in his chest for a man of his responsibility. A father's absence inevitably changes a child's path, often for the worse. And Leon had been an excellent father, a fact even the estranged Noah had to concede.
And beyond his daughters…
Leon lifted his gaze to the crystal. Inside, the silver-haired beauty lay in perfect stillness. Her brows were smooth, her eyelashes delicate, her finely sculpted features soft and serene.
But this wasn't her. Not truly.
She was the Queen of the Silver Dragons. The mother of his children.
She was his wife.
This proud, wonderfully awkward dragon deserved a far better future.
Sensing their father's intense focus, Aurora raised an eyebrow. Tsk. Even as a child, squeezed between her parents, watching them exchange glances had been unbearably sweet. But now, with just her father gazing at her unconscious mother, the raw affection in his eyes was almost tangible. How much had this stubborn old man been repressing all these years?
This wouldn't do. Aurora realized if they lingered any longer, she and her sisters would be drowned in this silent, overwhelming tide of emotion. She nudged her older sister with an elbow.
Noah glanced at her, then followed her gaze to Leon. Understanding dawned.
"Well… time is tight," Aurora announced, making a show of checking non-existent notes. "The task is urgent. I'd better get back to my research on the reversal magic. You all carry on." She beat a hasty retreat.
"I'll stay and chat with Dad! I've got so much to tell him!" Muen chirped, practically vibrating with excitement. The little chatterbox who used to follow him everywhere, a constant stream of "Dad, Dad, Dad," had twenty years of pent-up conversation to unleash.
However—Noah snagged her younger sister by the collar, dragging her toward the door. "You're helping me with dinner. You can talk while we eat."
"No, no! I want to stay with Dad! Wuuu~"
"He's only a year older than you are now. If you keep calling him 'Dad' like that, you're going to die of embarrassment."
Muen's feet—and even her draconic tail—scraped three shallow trails in the floor as she was hauled out, her protests fading like distant noodles.
With the three sisters gone, Leon chuckled and shook his head. He appreciated the gesture—they'd finished the grim business and were now giving him time with Rossweise. Though Noah's jab about him being "only a year older" did sting his paternal pride a little. He'd been twenty-three when he entered the rift, his eldest daughters merely two. Now, they were twenty-two. He wanted to sigh, Twenty-two is such a prime age, but then remembered his own current biological age and turned it into, Isn't this prime age a bit too prime?
Shaking off the thought, he dragged the chair closer to the crystal and sat, studying the beauty within.
She was as stunning as ever. In truth, Leon hadn't seen Rossweise sleep much. When they lived together, they usually succumbed to exhaustion at the same time. On the rare occasions he did, it was catching her napping at her desk after lunch, her head pillowed on her arm, a bit of baby fat squishing cutely against her cheek. But those brief naps never seemed fully restful; her brow was always slightly furrowed.
Several times, he'd been caught staring.
"Creep," she'd call him.
"You drool," he'd retort.
Unfazed, she'd ask, "Did you wipe it away?"
He'd grin. "I drank it."
The Queen: Eeeww!!
They had their little games.
He gazed at the woman in the crystal, her beauty a sight he could never tire of.
How could she be this beautiful?
In the past, whenever he secretly praised her looks in his mind, he'd always immediately counter it with a critique. She's beautiful, but so stubborn. So sharp-tongued. What's the use of beauty if she shows no mercy in an argument?
But now, all he wanted was to offer his wife a silent, pure compliment.
She was so beautiful—like a masterpiece an artist had poured a lifetime into creating.
"Rossweise," he began, his voice low. "To be honest… I'm not very good at talking to people who are asleep. But Noah and the others said you can probably still hear me." He pursed his lips, looking down and nervously rubbing his palms together. "I have so much I want to say to you… but for you, these words… I should have said them twenty years ago. I just… never got the chance."
"Now I finally have the chance, but I can't hear your response."
He paused, then shook his head with a wry smile.
"Speaking of responses… the reason I never said these things back then was because… I was afraid yours would be… rejection. I was really afraid you'd turn me down."
"Whenever I led troops, I'd tell my subordinates: It's better to make mistakes than to do nothing at all. But when it came to my feelings for you… I became the type who would rather do nothing than risk a mistake."
"And the only reason I'm saying them now is… well, because you're unconscious."
His wry smile turned into full self-mockery. His palms, rubbed together, were now bright red.
"Really, Rossweise, I just can't get the words out when I'm with you."
"I guess that's your fault."
"Who told you to be so beautiful? You look even better when you smile."
"I was just a straight-laced guy who'd never been in a relationship. Of course, I panicked when I saw someone like you, right?"
"But logically, you're a dragon, I'm a dragon slayer. No matter how beautiful you are, I shouldn't have had any… inappropriate thoughts."
"So maybe… it really was just that you were too beautiful."
Every word was an unvarnished compliment to his wife—words that would never have passed his lips if she were awake. As he'd just admitted, it was only her comatose state, the lack of a response, that gave him the courage.
After this one-sided torrent of praise, Leon stood and patted the crystal.
"I'm going to check on the girls. I'll come back later."
He left the dark chamber and found himself wandering the unfamiliar underground layout, eventually stumbling into Aurora's lab.
It was a simple setup. Bookshelves lined both walls, crammed with ancient texts on spatial and reversal magic. A long stone table dominated the center, strewn with magical array materials and Aurora's handwritten notes.
Hearing him, Aurora looked up and adjusted her glasses. "Oh, Dad. Need something?"
"Just wandering," Leon said, shaking his head.
"Alright. It's a mess, but make yourself at home." The scientist was already diving back into her work.
"Mm."
He scratched his cheek. "About this reversal magic… is there anything I can do to help?"
"I've been on this for over a decade, Dad. However smart you are, you can't catch up to my research progress in a few days."
"Is that so…? Don't Noah and the others help?"
Aurora shook her head without looking up. "There are only three of us here. If my sisters also threw themselves into research, they'd have no time for combat training. So, my sisters handle the fighting. As a scientist, I don't have their kind of strength, so I handle logistics. We divided the labor from the start."
"Oh~ I see." Noah being a fighter made sense. But Muen? Going on missions? That little girl who used to hate conflict and killing?
"So, Dad, don't worry about helping me. Just focus on regaining your strength. Practice that Gate of Nine Hells more. It's powerful."
Leon shrugged. "I can open the fifth gate now."
"I'm at the eighth gate."
General Leon: ?
He recalled something Aurora C. Melkvey had said: "I'm just a scientist; I don't have their kind of strength."
The Gate of Nine Hells wasn't some common body technique you could master through brute force. While called a "body technique," its early stages demanded extremely fine control over the user's magic. A single misstep could cause a backlash during practice—muscle strains at best, fatal injuries at worst. When Leon first opened the First Gate, he'd needed the assistance of a Dragon King like Rossweise. Progress beyond the Fifth Gate was notoriously slow, often taking practitioners years per gate, which explained why Leon's own progress had stalled after the fifth, despite his talent.
Yet his youngest daughter, barely twenty, had opened the Eighth Gate… Unless she'd started training in the Gates while other little girls were still playing with dolls, this level was impossible.
"So… how old were you when you started practicing the Gate of Nine Hells, Little Light?" Leon asked, his voice faint.
Aurora thought for a moment. "I guess… about eight."
"Eight?!" General Leon was floored.
"What's wrong with eight?" Aurora leaned closer, a hint of a challenge in her eyes.
Leon waved his hands hastily. "N-Nothing… but… did your body even meet the prerequisites for the Gates at eight years old?"
The scientist chuckled softly. "Well, I didn't meet them. But I had a great teacher."