Charlotte rushed into the healing chamber, her face a mask of pure, unvarnished worry. Leon and Rebecca moved quickly to meet her.
"Mistress? Why are you here?" Leon asked, his voice filled with bewilderment.
Rebecca held her head, her eyes wide with confusion. "I am so lost! First, Dad insisted on coming to the Sea Dragon Clan, and now Mom Charlotte just appears out of nowhere! It feels like I'm missing a huge part of the story!"
Charlotte looked at Leon, a mixture of urgency and relief in her eyes, but now was not the time for explanations. She brushed past them and hurried to the bed of Abyssal Ice.
The moment she saw Tiger lying there, pale and still, barely clinging to life, she staggered, her legs nearly buckling beneath her. Claudia was there in an instant, stepping forward to support her from behind.
Charlotte stared in disbelief at the man on the bed. Her trembling hand reached out, her fingers gently brushing against Tiger's weathered, beloved face. His skin was cool, his warmth fading, his breaths shallow and his heartbeat faint.
Her lips quivered, and then the tears came, streaming uncontrollably down her cheeks.
"Tiger… I'm here, Tiger… won't you open your eyes and look at me?"
Her voice broke, the sadness in it so sharp it seemed to pierce the very air.
It was as if Tiger had heard her call. His eyelids fluttered, then slowly opened. At the very edge of life, each movement was a monumental effort. But he strained to focus, to see the face of his beloved Charlotte.
A soft, weary smile touched his pale lips. Weakly, he murmured her name, "Char… you finally came."
He tried to lift his hand to touch her face, but he was far too weak. Even the simple act of breathing was a struggle now.
Charlotte clasped his hand in both of hers, pressing his palm firmly against her wet cheek.
"I'm here, Tiger. Can you feel me?"
As his hand made contact with her skin, Tiger felt the warm dampness of her tears.
"Are you crying? Char… don't cry… your face will get all messy… and less beautiful…" He was wracked by a sudden cough, flecks of blood spotting his lips.
The damage to his heart was so severe it could no longer pump blood effectively. His life was hanging by the thinnest of threads, sustained only by Claudia's powerful magic and the emergency treatment.
Once that magic and the medicine faded, it would be over.
"Why… why is she here?" Leon whispered, stepping closer to Claudia.
"Your master once told you that after you chose to stand against the Empire, he sent Charlotte somewhere safe," Claudia replied quietly. "This is that safe place."
Leon's mind raced, flashing back to that conversation. His master had indeed said something like that.
But…
"My master told me… he said she had 'gone back to her family.' So, does that mean…"
Halfway through his sentence, the stunning truth dawned on him.
"Yes," Claudia said calmly, confirming his realization. "Tiger, much like you, took a dragon as his wife."
"W-what—?"
The revelation was short, but its impact was earth-shattering, like a bomb that had been waiting to detonate for over two decades.
Leon took the news with stunned silence, but Rebecca, even with Rossweise steadying her, looked as if she might faint.
"Now you understand why he insisted on coming to the Sea Dragon Clan as he neared the end," Claudia continued. "He knew the severity of his injuries. All he wanted was to see Charlotte one last time."
"One last time…" Leon repeated, the words feeling heavy and final.
Claudia placed a comforting hand on Leon's shoulder. "I know about your plans against the Empire. This is a revolution, Leon, and all revolutions demand sacrifice."
Leon barely registered her words, moving as if in a trance. He walked over to Charlotte and wrapped a gentle, supportive arm around her shoulders.
His Mistress clung tightly to Tiger's hand, refusing to let go, her face streaked with tears.
"Leon…" Tiger's voice was a ghost of a whisper. "Did Rebecca give you the memory stone?"
"Yes, Master… she did."
"Good… that stone contains the evidence to expose the Empire's schemes. Use it well; it will clear your name."
"I understand, Master…"
"How are things with the Silver Dragon King?"
"We're doing—"
"My granddaughters…" Tiger interrupted, his mind drifting. "The older girls must be four now… and little Aurora… she must be two…"
"Master?" Leon's voice was soft, barely audible.
"Why has everyone gone silent?" Tiger laughed weakly, the sound mostly to himself. "It's only me talking… I must be so boring…"
He could no longer hear their responses.
The light in his eyes began to dim, fading like a dying ember.
"Kid… someday, make sure you bring Charlotte to meet them… and tell them… that their grandpa was actually… a great man…"
"I wish… I wish I could hold them just once—"
"But I guess… it's not meant to be."
Tiger's gaze drifted upward, as if drawn by an invisible force, though he continued to murmur, "My life passed by in such a messy blur, without grand achievements… but, in the end, I think I'm content."
"In my younger days, I served in the Dragon-Slayer Corps, fighting in wars, always without a home."
"After I retired… I thought I was too old for love and marriage."
"If I hadn't met you, Char, this old man would've stayed a lifelong bachelor."
"I used to think the whole world was my home, but it turns out… my home was always with you, Char."
"It's just… your family never really accepted us, from all those years ago…"
"But we still spent half our lives together, and at the end of mine, I'm grateful to have you by my side, Char."
"I remember… I remember a line from a novel. It felt like it was written about us…"
"The dragon must return to the sea… yet the sea does not welcome me… only then do I return…"
His hand slipped from Charlotte's cheek. In that final moment, he used the last of his strength in a final, tender attempt to brush away her tears.
"Tiger?… Tiger! Tiger!!" Charlotte's cries were a raw, desperate plea.
"Master… Master!" Leon's voice joined hers, thick with grief.
"Dad!" Rebecca cried out, clutching his arm as she sobbed uncontrollably.
Charlotte seemed to have cried all her tears. She leaned heavily against Leon, the crushing weight of despair leaving her numb and hollow.
Yet, Tiger's last words echoed in Leon's mind.
The dragon returns to the sea…
A man who had roamed the world with no fixed home had finally found his place to belong. And when death came, he faced it with acceptance.
Tiger Lawrence, a legendary dragon-slayer of the past, had died at the hands of the very nation he once served with unwavering loyalty.
How… how was anyone supposed to accept this?
"I'm going to save him."
In that moment of all-consuming despair, Charlotte's voice rang out, steely and unyielding, like a sharp sword cutting through the darkness.
"His heart is beyond repair, Charlotte. Even the Ghost Lotus couldn't save him," Claudia said, her voice heavy with regret.
"I am going to save him."
Charlotte stepped up to Claudia, her eyes blazing with fierce, unwavering resolve.
"His heart is destroyed, right?"
"Yes…"
"Then I'll use my Heartguard Dragon Scale!"
Heartguard Dragon Scale?
Leon's eyes widened in shock. He had only heard of it in legends—a ultimate safeguard for high-ranking dragons, a crystallized source of their very life force, used in times of mortal peril. To create a full Heartguard Dragon Scale took over two hundred years of a dragon's life. In the future timeline, Rossweise had fallen into an irreversible coma after a life-saving attack, unable to recover precisely because she had lost her scale.
Leon had never imagined the scale could also be used to… save someone else.
"No, Charlotte! If you give him your scale, what will happen to you?" Claudia's voice was sharp with alarm.
"I don't care. I'm going to save him."
"Charlotte!"
"Four hundred years!" Charlotte's sudden, furious outburst surprised even Leon. He had never seen his gentle, nurturing Mistress like this. "Four hundred years, Claudia! I've obeyed you and father. Marrying Tiger was my one rebellion. I hadn't returned home for thirty years because of it!"
"And Tiger saved my life back then, so now it's my turn to save him. What is wrong with that?"
"And if I don't even have the right to defy orders twice in four hundred years, then what is my life even worth?!"
"Charlotte…" Claudia's voice softened.
"Please…" Charlotte's anger melted into a desperate plea. "Let me do this, Claudia."
Claudia's expression shifted, the frustration fading into helpless resignation. She exhaled a long, deep breath, finally relenting.
"Do as you wish." She turned to the others. "Everyone else, come with me. Only Charlotte stays here."
Claudia shepherded everyone out of the chamber, leaving Charlotte alone with her husband.
Charlotte moved back to the ice bed, gazing down at Tiger with a look of fierce, absolute determination.
"I won't let you leave me like this, Tiger."