Leon smiled, "A man must never break his word."
Rossweise lifted her eyes and silently looked at this fool who always had "A man should do this and that" on his lips.
As the strongest dragon slayer, he had some childish and chuunibyou-like tendencies that didn't quite match this honor.
But that was no big deal.
On the contrary, it was precisely these little flaws that made Rossweise feel that the person she lived with every day was a real "human" rather than a perfect template created by a biased Creator.
The queen slowly closed her eyes, listening to Leon and Isa chatting about their little daughter.
The exhaustion and weakness after childbirth quickly overwhelmed her body and mind.
Before falling asleep, the silver-haired beauty's lips curled slightly.
'Truly, a morning worth remembering.'
.
.
.
When Rossweise woke up, it was already afternoon.
Isa had already left. She couldn't stay too long—without a Dragon King overseeing the tribe, it would be vulnerable to disturbances.
The warm afternoon breeze flowed in through the window, gently lifting the sheer curtains.
A unique, milky scent of a baby wafted from beside her.
Rossweise turned her head to look. Her little daughter was lying quietly beside her pillow, sound asleep.
Her tiny pink fists were clenched tightly against her chest, and her chubby little face was peaceful and adorable. Just looking at her was incredibly healing.
On the other side of the baby lay Leon.
Rossweise's gaze traveled past the baby and landed on Leon's face.
His breathing was steady, his eyes slightly closed, and his black bangs fell down, partially covering his brows.
On that strong and determined face, there seemed to be a faint new scar.
Rossweise wasn't particularly sensitive about her own beauty and charm, but she was quite confident in her aesthetic taste.
Three years ago, when she first met Leon, she had said that scars were the perfect decoration for that handsome face.
Shedding all softness, leaving only a man full of masculine charm.
Dragons, deep down, longed for conquest. But at certain moments, Rossweise also longed to be conquered.
She despised those dragon noblemen and princes, finding them unbearably dull and effeminate.
If someone truly wanted to conquer her, at the very least, they'd need a face as oozing with testosterone as Leon's, right?
Oh, of course, that didn't mean Leon had already conquered her.
What a joke. If he wanted to conquer her, this brat needed to train for another two hundred years.
But that didn't stop Rossweise from secretly admiring her captive's face.
The queen admitted it—she was a shallow face-con.
Besides, he just happened to match her preferences—note the wording: just~ happened~ to.
Looking wasn't a big deal. Looking didn't mean anything.
Rossweise slowly reached out her hand, arm passing over her daughter's head, her warm, soft palm gently pressing against Leon's hair.
Her fingertips slowly moved downward, tracing over his forehead, earlobe, nose tip, philtrum, lips, and chin.
"I really want to give you a tail," Rossweise muttered softly.
"I really want to cut your tail off."
Her delicate fingers froze slightly. After a moment of panic, she retracted her hand at lightning speed.
"Yo-you weren't asleep?"
"I woke up the moment you started secretly watching me."
"Who was secretly watching you? Have some shame. I was looking at my daughter."
"I~ was~ looking~ at~ my~ daughter~," Leon mimicked Rossweise's tone in an exaggerated manner.
Rossweise gritted her silver teeth. If their daughter weren't lying between them, she would've kicked him right now.
'If you love sleeping so much, just wait till you die—you'll have all the time in the world to sleep!'
Rossweise ignored him and turned her back.
Rustle—
She heard movement behind her. Leon sat up, leaned against the headboard, and exhaled tiredly.
He ruffled his hair, sobering up slightly before sighing,
"This morning was really dangerous. I almost got caught by your sister."
Rossweise's pupils twitched, and she also sat up.
The couple leaned against the headboard, beginning an afternoon chat.
"My sister is very smart. But what surprised me was that your nonsense actually worked—she believed it."
"That wasn't nonsense. It was based on reality."
Rossweise raised an eyebrow and glanced at him. "Based on reality?"
"Yeah. Every sentence in that story has a real-life counterpart."
Rossweise recalled the fairy-tale-like nonsense he had spun earlier and immediately asked, "We will meet in a special place and recognize each other in a special way—what does that correspond to?"
"Didn't we first meet in your Silver Dragon clan's dungeon? And I got to know you because you were drunk and came to torture me," Leon shrugged, "That's special enough."
Rossweise pursed her lips and asked again, "Then, 'You traveled across all the dragon clans, crossing mountains and rivers'—what about that?"
Leon spread his hands, "I graduated from the Dragon-Slaying Academy at fifteen. Before meeting you, I had already served in the military for five years. I've killed more dragons than a butcher has slaughtered pigs. That counts as traveling across all the dragon clans, right?"
Rossweise took a deep breath, narrowing her eyes, "So that's your 'traveling' method? Fine, fine, you're unbeatable, you damn man."
Leon let out a long sigh, staring ahead, "Your sister really is smart."
Rossweise pressed her lips together, recalling their exchange of glances that morning. This damn man had even considered silencing Isa for good.
She knew he was joking—Leon would never actually do that.
Even if he didn't care about her feelings, he had to care about their daughter's. That was her aunt, after all—how could he possibly harm her?
But Rossweise still decided to use this to interrogate him, "So, because my sister is smart, you wanted to silence her?"
"Of course not. I was just talking nonsense to lighten the tense atmosphere," Leon continued, "Besides, if someone could die just for being too smart, I'd have been hacked to pieces long ago."
"...Constantine would never believe that he died at the hands of such a shameless man."
"What do you mean, mother dragon? Are you saying I'm not smart?"
Rossweise gave a fake smile, "Oh, you're smart, very smart—you're the smartest of them all."
Leon was about to continue bickering, but then his expression suddenly turned serious.
He frowned, lost in thought.
Rossweise noticed his change and asked, "What's wrong?"
Leon looked down, fiddling with his fingers, "Your sister almost figured out my human identity, but Constantine… actually knew."
Hearing this, Rossweise felt a chill down her spine and tensed up, "How did Constantine know your identity? This was your first time meeting him, wasn't it?"
Leon nodded, "Yeah, it was our first meeting. Before this, I had only fought the Crimson Flame Dragons. I had never seen their Dragon King."
Rossweise thought for a moment, "Dragon Kings live too long. It's possible for them not to appear on battlefields for ten or twenty years. You've only been in the dragon-slaying army for five years—it makes sense you hadn't fought him before."
"Yeah… but how exactly did he know I was human?", Leon sighed, "Did he recognize my Black Gold War Chariot? But I had already disguised my armor, and it was dark at night. It's unlikely he would recognize it..."
The couple fell into silent thought.
Then, Rossweise suddenly realized something.
Constantine started stirring up wars among dragon clans about a year ago.
And Tiger had specifically told Leon not to return to the Empire for a year.
These two "one year" coincidences… were they really just coincidences?
———
For Leon, the amount of information he had in his hands was extremely limited. As for how exactly Constantine knew about his human identity, he had no idea where to even begin thinking about it.
It was as if he was only given fragmented descriptions and a riddle-like ending, then asked to perfectly deduce an entire story based on these few clues.
No matter how sharp Leon's mind was, this was simply impossible.
As for Rossweise, while she had thought about Tiger's one-year agreement and the fact that Constantine had started becoming active a year ago, she couldn't quite connect the two with a clear line of reasoning.
Adding too many useless clues and speculations would only make thinking more burdensome.
Rossweise decided to first sort things out on her own before discussing the matter with Leon.
Leon, on the other hand, did not dwell too much on this completely clueless matter.
Indeed, he was someone who enjoyed thinking and researching, but for a riddle-maker like Constantine, who gave neither beginning nor end, he really couldn't be bothered to figure it out.
If he had known things would turn out this way, he should have left Constantine with a little breath back then, asked him clearly, and then finished him off.
But what was done was done. It was better to look forward.
Leon let out a breath, turned to glance at Rossweise, and asked, "What's for dinner?"
The queen was stunned, "Jumping straight from exposing your human identity to what to eat tonight—don't you think the topic shift is a bit too big?"
"People need food as iron needs steel. You have to be full to have the energy to solve riddles, right?"
Leon spoke with confidence, "Besides, from killing Constantine at dawn yesterday until now, I haven't eaten for more than ten hours. Is this how you Silver Dragons treat your savior?"
Rossweise rolled her eyes at him.
'Fine, fine, you made a contribution, you worked hard. This queen is fair and won't argue with you.'
"What do you want to eat?"
"Dragon meat."
Rossweise was speechless. She knew Leon was deliberately provoking her.
During the ten months of pregnancy, this damn man had restrained his sharp tongue and played the role of a responsible "husband" seriously, doing his best to meet all of Rossweise's needs.
He had almost never argued with her.
But now that their little daughter had been successfully born, his mouth was finally back in action.
However, even after so long without bickering, Rossweise had not lost her skill. She responded unhurriedly, "Heh… Constantine was so big, enough for you to eat for a year. Go ahead."
"I don't eat dead meat."
"And now you're picky?"
Rossweise got annoyed and directly stretched her tail to Leon's mouth, "Here, this is fresh dragon meat. Eat it. Go on, why aren't you—AH!!! You bastard, you actually bit me?"
"You put it right next to my mouth. Wouldn't it be impolite if I didn't take a bite?"
"CASMODEOUS! I'LL KILL YOU!!"
Third Child's Thoughts: 'Wonderful. Just born and already witnessing such a fantastic show. Definitely worth the price of admission.'
———
A few days later, on a clear morning, Rossweise decided to take her little daughter outside to bask in the sun.
Compared to human infants, dragon hatchlings were more adaptable to their environment. Even though she had just been born not long ago, she could still be taken out for a walk and to breathe some fresh air.
This was also the little baby's first time leaving Rossweise's bedroom, her big eyes filled with curiosity about this brand-new world.
The couple arrived at a bench in the backyard and sat down side by side.
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