"Congratulations, Prince Consort. Both mother and daughter are safe and healthy," the head maid, Anna, announced warmly.
"Daughter?" Leon's eyes lit up with pure joy. "It is a girl?"
Anna nodded, her smile widening. "Yes, Your Highness, a beautiful and healthy little princess."
A wave of excitement surged through Leon. He strode quickly to his wife's bedside.
Rossweise lay there, visibly exhausted but serene, her brilliant silver eyes half-lidded with weariness. Their newborn daughter rested peacefully beside her, swaddled in soft, luxurious fabric.
The baby, who had been crying energetically moments before, was now calm. Leon felt that familiar, indescribable mix of overwhelming love and relief, just as he had when each of his daughters was born.
He knelt by the bed and gently took Rossweise's cool, tired hand in his. After a long, loving look at their new daughter, he turned his full attention back to his wife.
"You have worked so hard, Rossweise. Thank you."
She offered him a faint but deeply contented smile. In a soft, breathless voice, she said, "Look at her... is she not adorable?"
"Of course she is," he whispered back.
After ensuring that Rossweise was comfortable, Leon turned his focus fully to their newest family member.
The little dragon girl lay calmly in her swaddle, her bright eyes curiously scanning the unfamiliar world around her. Leon's gaze was immediately captured by their striking color—a vivid, unblemished, and brilliant red.
If Aurora's unique pink eyes had been the result of a blend between Rossweise's silver and Isha's red, then this pure crimson shade was something entirely its own.
Could this be a sign of my ultimate genetic victory? he wondered, inwardly amused.
"Wow! Such beautiful eyes!" Isha exclaimed as she leaned in to admire her niece. "They are like perfect rubies! Absolutely gorgeous!"
Isha, who had already boasted endlessly about Aurora's pink hair, now seemed ready to make this new red-eyed niece the next focal point of her exuberant pride.
"This is clearly a victory for justice!" she declared, playfully jabbing Leon in the arm. "Tell me, Leon, is your family's genetic code lost in the woods? How do your kids keep looking more and more like my side of the family?"
Leaning closer to Rossweise, Leon whispered with a mock pout, "Seriously, why do our kids always seem to lean toward your side for their most striking features?"
Rossweise chuckled weakly. "Oh, please. You do not exactly contribute much in the eye color department either. Noah and Muen have blue eyes, Aurora's are pink, and now this one's are red. Are you really in a position to complain?"
"I may not help with eye colors, but I have definitely contributed to their hair!" Leon retorted playfully.
"Well, I have given them tails," Rossweise shot back with a sly, tired smirk. "Why do not you check this one's tail?"
Nearby, the maids, who were still bustling quietly to tidy the room, began whispering among themselves.
"I did not see a tail on the fourth princess," one murmured softly.
"Really? Are you sure?"
"Yes, I am certain. I helped clean and swaddle her."
"Impossible. All dragon babies are born with tails."
Isha, who was doting over her niece, overheard the conversation. Her smile faded slightly, replaced by curiosity. Quietly, she peeled back the blanket covering the baby and glanced at her lower back.
Her brows furrowed in confusion.
"She really... does not have a tail."
Leon started to approach, but Isha quickly motioned for silence with a sharp look. He stopped, puzzled, and raised a questioning brow at her.
Isha's expression had turned uncharacteristically serious. Trusting her instincts completely, Leon remained silent and waited.
Carefully, Isha lifted the baby, adjusting the blanket just enough for Leon to see clearly. His heart sank for a moment.
There was no tail.
His emotions were a sudden, conflicting mixture of surprise and a strange sense of satisfaction.
On one hand, he was perplexed. All three of their previous daughters had been born with tails—how could this one not? On the other hand, the absence of a tail hinted at stronger human traits, a small yet significant triumph in his long-standing, playful rivalry with Rossweise over their children's draconic and human characteristics.
Still, a thread of concern wove through his thoughts. If the baby never grew a tail, would others find it strange or suspicious?
"Isha," Leon asked quietly, "you have seen many dragon births in your long life. Is this... normal?"
Isha shook her head, her expression still grave. "I am not sure. I have never seen it. Let us clear the room first. Noah and the others should leave as well."
Leon nodded and whispered quick instructions to Anna, who efficiently ushered everyone out under the gentle pretense of needing privacy for the recovering Queen and her new child.
Noah lingered by the door for a moment, glancing back just before it closed. She saw her father kneeling by the bed, speaking softly to her mother, but the door clicked shut before she could hear any of their words.
Back inside the quiet room, Rossweise struggled to sit up. Leon immediately moved to support her, carefully propping her up against the headboard. Isha placed the baby gently into her arms, and Rossweise's silver eyes softened as she gazed down at their child.
"She really... does not have one," Rossweise murmured, her voice a mix of wonder and confusion.
Isha leaned in to gently stroke her niece's cheek with a finger. "Her dragon eyes are perfectly normal and powerful, but there is no sign of a tail, not even a small bud. Are you two absolutely sure you did not do anything unusual while, uh, preparing for this pregnancy?"
Leon and Rossweise exchanged a long, knowing look, both silently recalling their actions. Then, in perfect unison, they shook their heads.
"No. Everything was... completely normal this time," Leon confirmed.
"Then why do Noah, Muen, and Aurora have tails, but not this one?" Isha pondered aloud, her brow furrowed in deep thought.
Leon's mind drifted, sifting through past moments and magic. Suddenly, his eyes lit up with realization.
"Oh! I know why!"
"What?" Isha asked, her skepticism evident.
"You asked if we did anything unusual while preparing. Well, we did not. And that is exactly the problem!"
Isha raised a hand to stop him. "Wait. What? That logic makes no sense. Rossweise, did you understand that?"
Rossweise, after a moment's thought, nodded slowly as she understood his meaning. "I think I do."
Isha shuddered. "Okay, let me rephrase this for the sake of the children who are not in this room. Whatever you two are talking about... it is not something inappropriate, is it?"
Leon shook his head vigorously. "No, no, Sis. It is about Blood Charm magic."
Isha's brows shot up in surprise. "Blood Charm? That is the one-time-only, forbidden magic that bound you two together in the first place, is it not?"
Leon nodded. "Exactly. We used it when we conceived Noah and Muen in that dungeon. And we used it again when Aurora was conceived."
Rossweise sighed softly but confirmed with a reluctant nod. "Yes... it was me who initiated it the second time."
Isha slowly clapped her hands, her tone dripping with mock admiration. "You two never fail to redefine my understanding of boundaries."
She sighed and summarized the theory, "So, when you used the Blood Charm, Noah, Muen, and Aurora were born with tails. But this little one, conceived without it, does not have one. It seems the Blood Charm magic is the only variable that changed."
Leon nodded in agreement. "That is what it seems like. But, Rossweise, does not Blood Charm only work once in a lifetime for a human and a dragon?"
"Yes, that is the rule of the forbidden enchantment," Rossweise confirmed.
"So I have already used up my chance," Leon concluded, a wide, triumphant grin spreading across his face. "Which means... from now on, none of our future children will ever have tails again! I win, Rossweise! I win for life!"
Rossweise gave him a cold, withering glare, though she was too weak to throw the pillow she desperately wanted to launch at his head.
"Do not forget all the promises you just made to me during my labor, dear husband," she reminded him sweetly, her voice laced with threat.
"What promises? I do not recall any promises!" Leon replied, feigning ignorance.
"Brother-in-law," Isha chimed in, grinning wickedly, "I recorded every single word you said on a memory stone. You are welcome."
Leon groaned in defeat. "I hate every single adult female in the Melkvey family!"
Despite the playful banter and rivalry, none of this diminished the immense, overflowing love they all felt for their new daughter.
Leon carefully cradled the baby and walked to the large window. The first brilliant rays of dawn were breaking through the night sky, bathing the child in a soft, golden light. Her ruby-red eyes sparkled like precious gems, radiant and full of untold potential.
—Outside the Silver Dragon Sanctuary—
In the deep shadows at the base of the fortress walls, Constantine stood over the corpse of a small, strange-looking danger beast. He crouched down, extracting a dark, crystalline fragment from its body and holding it up to the faint morning light.
"Is this the same material as the black dragon scale we found in Adam's remains?" he murmured to himself.
Behind him, a young voice called out. "Father, we have been stationed out here for days. Why will you not tell me the reason?"
The wind tugged at the red banners of the Crimson Flame Dragon Army as Constantine pocketed the shard. Without turning, he replied, "I owe a certain fool many debts. This is my way of repaying a very small part of one of them."
He gazed intently toward the shining silver castle in the distance.
"During the Blood Moon Forest expedition, Leon casually mentioned he was expecting another child. I calculated the timing and have been waiting here, watching."
He glanced down at the beast he had just killed and the black shard he had collected from it.
"We will not need to return tomorrow, Hefei. But remember this scene."
"What is it, Father?" Hefei asked, her voice young but earnest.
Constantine raised a hand, pointing directly toward the heart of the sanctuary. "The child born in that castle today is someone you must surpass in the future."
Hefei did not fully understand her father's cryptic words, but she nodded solemnly. "I will remember, Father."
As Constantine continued to gaze at the distant castle, a strange and powerful feeling stirred within him—a sense of an inevitable and converging destiny.