Book 4: Chapter 13 |
At midnight, the recording stone had just delivered a message: the next meeting would begin at eight o’clock the next morning. During the interval, players could choose to rest, or continue doing tasks.
Leon lay on the bed in his room, one hand tucked behind his head as a pillow, the other idly tossing the recording stone up and down.
He couldn’t fall asleep.
The reason was simple: it was his first time playing a novel, immersive game like this. Even Leon couldn’t help feeling a little hyped and excited.
So not being able to sleep was normal.
Still, he didn’t particularly want to go out in the dead of night to do tasks.
The game lasted a full seventy-two hours. Sleeping a nice six or seven hours was totally fine.
“At eight tomorrow morning, that dragoness is definitely going to come for me hard and get everyone to vote me out.”
Just as Big Sis Isha had said, Little Lo’s motive might not be complicated at all—she’d do it simply because it was funny.
She wouldn’t miss any opportunity to make Leon suffer.
And if she really managed to eliminate Leon early in the game, that achievement alone would be enough for her to brag about for a whole year.
For the next year of Leon’s life, he’d be trapped inside the Queen’s holy scripture of: “I, Rosvitha Merckwy—took down the strongest dragon slayer right at the start. Do you even understand how valuable that is?”
So, to avoid getting single-killed by Rosvitha at the opening, Leon had to plan a countermeasure for the eight a.m. meeting.
As he thought, time slipped by into the early morning.
Leon was still lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling, planning the speech and action plan he’d use a few hours later.
And then—his door lock suddenly clicked.
Leon instantly tensed, raising his head slightly as he looked toward the door.
The door slowly opened inward. A beam of hallway light escaped inside, and with it, two tiny shadows were revealed.
“Dad, Dad, are you asleep? Mu’en can’t sleep… I want to sleep with you.”
The moment he heard it was his sweet daughter, Leon was about to answer.
But after parting his lips, Leon didn’t respond.
He remembered: when they drew identities, Mu’en had drawn “The Princess’s Friend”—meaning Noa.
With Little Moon’s sister-obsessed personality, if she couldn’t sleep, she should be going to her big sister. Whether you looked at it as their real-life sister relationship, or the in-game identity setup, Mu’en going to Noa would be the most logical choice.
Not coming to Leon—the “King’s Old Friend.”
After a brief analysis, Leon decided to pretend to be asleep.
“Dad? Dad?”
No answer. Mu’en whispered two more times.
“Okay, Dad’s asleep. Xiaoguang, go go go!”
Once she confirmed Leon was “asleep,” the two small figures finally slipped in quietly from outside.
Lying in bed, Leon smiled to himself.
As expected—these two weren’t here because they couldn’t sleep.
They definitely had another motive.
Leon kept pretending to sleep, wanting to see what kind of trick they were trying to pull.
“Xiaoguang, the intel we found… are you sure it’s pointing at Dad?”
Xiaoguang lowered her gaze to the intel card in her hand. Printed on it was a single, simple word:
“Only.”
“Even if we can’t be one hundred percent sure it’s Dad, his suspicion level is still high. And he didn’t even attend the first meeting. No matter what, we need to check him.”
Mu’en nodded. “Okay. Then hurry up and flip the place. If Dad wakes up later, we’re done.”
“Mm-hm!”
Hearing his daughters talk, Leon caught a key word:
“Only.”
What did that mean?
Was it a clue they got from completing a task?
Leon knew he was the lone-wolf role, so this “Only” most likely referred to him.
And just as Xiaoguang said, he hadn’t attended the first meeting—his suspicion was truly massive.
So the little dragon girls visiting in the middle of the night was honestly pretty reasonable.
Leon stayed still, continuing to listen.
Mu’en and Xiaoguang began searching Leon’s room, light as cats.
The sofa, the coffee table, the bedside cabinet, the bathroom, the fridge—they turned everything over. But aside from the initial prop wooden box, they found nothing valuable at all.
“The Black Holy Stone isn’t in Dad’s room.” Mu’en sounded a little disappointed.
“Yeah… If I stole the Black Holy Stone, I definitely wouldn’t hide it in my own room,” Xiaoguang said.
The two of them were whispering when they suddenly heard movement at the door.
They went alert immediately.
“Why is there someone else?” Mu’en asked nervously.
Xiaoguang frowned, glanced at the wardrobe beside them, and said, “Hide first. Let’s see what’s going on.”
“Okay!”
Swish, swish—
The two of them zipped into the wardrobe at top speed, then pressed close to the door, listening to the outside.
“Noa-chan… if Uncle Leon wakes up and finds out we snuck in, he won’t spank us, right?”
“He won’t. I just have to act cute at him, and he’ll behave.”
The workaholic princess was also extremely good at reading human nature.
Her dad might as well have “daughter slave” written on his face.
Of course, Noa had never actually used “acting cute makes him behave” to achieve her goals before.
She was only saying it to make her bestie feel safe enough to do “bad things” with her.
After all, Noa had snuck into her dad’s room more than once. But Helena probably had never done something like this.
“Oh oh! Then let’s start searching quickly!”
“Okay.”
The bestie duo followed the same search route the sisters had used earlier.
Inside the wardrobe, Mu’en and Xiaoguang cracked the door open a tiny slit. Two big eyes appeared—one above the other—peeking out.
“It’s Big Sis!” (sparkly-eyed)
“And Helena.” (pouting)
Mu’en’s expression changed so smoothly that compared to her Queen mother, she might actually be even faster at switching faces.
“Xiaoguang, should we go out and join Big Sis?”
The pink-haired girl’s eyes flicked, and she shook her head. “Not yet. If we run into them, they’ll definitely ask what clue made us come to Dad’s room.”
“But our identity is ‘The Princess’s Friend.’ Sharing a clue isn’t a big deal, right?”
“Second Sis, the identity card only says we’re ‘The Princess’s Friend.’ It doesn’t say we’re ‘The Guard’s Friend.’ If Helena has her own hidden mission or win condition, then we can’t share clues with her.”
Mu’en nodded in sudden understanding, then praised her sincerely. “Whoa, Xiaoguang, you’re actually really good at this!”
“Second Sis, if you didn’t get eliminated first every time our family plays Werewolf, you could be good at it like me too,” Xiaoguang said bluntly.
Mu’en: (teary)
Meanwhile, outside, the bestie duo also found nothing at all.
“Could our clue be wrong?” Helena said, pulling her intel card from her pocket.
“Only…”
Hearing that clue again, Leon—still lying in bed—couldn’t help the corner of his mouth twitching upward.
Hiss—
This game is targeting me!
Why does everyone have this clue?
Why do I have nothing?!
“Could it mean the only male in the game?” Helena guessed.
Noa thought carefully and shook her head. “Probably not that simple. This ‘Only’ should refer to some other kind of uniqueness, not something shallow like ‘boys and girls.’”
“That makes sense… we were thinking too simply.”
“Yeah. Looks like we still need to gather more clues.”
Even though all three daughters had placed him as their number one suspect, the father lying in bed still felt deeply gratified.
He was happy you’d all learned independent thinking and analysis!
Dad is proud of you!
So Dad has decided—painfully—
After I stab your mom, I’ll stab you too.
The Merckway family’s ancestral tradition of “benevolent father, filial daughters” can’t be missing!
As he was plotting in silence, Leon suddenly heard another door opening.
“Wait—there’s another top-tier player?!”
Noa and Helena heard it too.
Just like before, in a panic, they also dove into the wardrobe.
So—
Noa: ?
Helena: ……
Mu’en: (blank stare)
Xiaoguang: Shura field? Shura wardrobe! Fight, fight, fight!
“Why are you two in here?” Noa asked in a hushed voice.
The pink-haired girl blinked. “Uh… night jogging?”
“Night jogging into Dad’s room? At least try to make your excuses believable!”
“Then what are you doing here, Big Sis?”
“Midnight snack,” Noa said with a straight face.
“…Big Sis, you too—be serious! It’s almost two-thirty in the morning. What midnight snack?!”
“Shh—someone’s here, someone’s here.”
The little dragon girls fell silent at once.
This time, the wardrobe gap showed four big eyes stacked from top to bottom.
“Who is it?” Xiaoguang whispered.
“From the shadow… they’re tall,” Helena said.
“Mom, Aunt Isha, and Aunt Claudia are all tall.”
“And the hair is long.”
“Mom, Aunt Isha, and Aunt Claudia all have long hair.”
“And the figure is amazing.”
“Mom—”
“Enough, Xiaoguang. We already know all three of them have amazing figures. You don’t need to keep saying it.”
Xiaoguang shook her head like a rattle drum. “No, no, no. I mean—the person coming is—Mom!”
Hearing that, the kids held their breath even more carefully, staring out with tense focus.
Soft footsteps of heels approached.
A silver, graceful figure slowly came to Leon’s bedside.
It really was Rosvitha.
Leon strained every muscle in his face to keep it neutral.
Good grief—tonight is truly “a bountiful harvest.”
The little ones haven’t left, and now the big one comes too.
What—did the dragoness also get a clue about “Only”?
Rosvitha slowly folded her arms and looked down at Leon.
After a moment, she lifted her head and glanced at the wall clock.
Perfect—two-thirty a.m.!
The queen smiled smugly, then asked softly,
“Leon, let me ask you—about the Black Holy Stone—”
But halfway through, Rosvitha stopped.
She wiped the smile off her face and frowned slightly.
“If I use two-thirty a.m. to pry information out of him… that’s using too much out-of-game advantage.”
Rosvitha rubbed her forehead, hesitated for a tiny moment, then gave a light snort.
“This queen doesn’t cheat.”
“But… I also can’t waste an opportunity like this. I’ll ask you a different question.”
Leon, internally: Don’t ask something weird! Don’t ask something weird! Don’t ask something weird! Don’t ask something weird!
Your daughters are in the wardrobe behind you!
“Leon… do you plan to…”
Rosvitha bit her lower lip lightly. Moonlight poured in through the window, falling on her faintly flushed cheeks.
Her silver eyes trembled slightly as she continued,
“…have another baby with me?”
Leon: ?
Noa: ? pro
Mu’en: ? pro max
Helena: ? pro max super
Xiaoguang: (sparkly-eyed)
“Masaka… does this mean I, Aurora, am getting a little sister too?!”
…
Footnotes:
- “Single-killed”Pinyin: dān shāExplanation: Game slang for taking someone out alone—one player directly eliminating another, often early and cleanly.
- “Holy scripture / queen’s scripture” (bragging meme tone)Pinyin: shèng jīngExplanation: Internet slang that jokes about someone repeatedly reciting their “canon” lines—endless bragging like it’s scripture.
- “Daughter slave”Pinyin: nǚ ér núExplanation: A humorous internet phrase describing a parent (usually a dad) who is extremely soft toward their daughter(s).
- “Act cute”Pinyin: sǎ jiāoExplanation: A common expression meaning to use cute, spoiled, or coquettish behavior to get someone to give in.
- “Shura field”Pinyin: xiū luó chǎngExplanation: Fandom/internet slang for a chaotic, high-tension rivalry scene—often romantic or jealousy-fueled, where multiple parties collide.
- “Shura wardrobe”Pinyin: xiū luó guìExplanation: A playful variation on “shura field,” created here because everyone is crammed into one wardrobe, turning it into a rivalry “arena.”
- “Rattle drum” (shake head like a toy drum)Pinyin: bō làng gǔExplanation: A vivid idiom-like comparison meaning shaking one’s head rapidly left and right in strong denial.
- “Masaka”Pinyin: mǎ sà kǎExplanation: A loaned exclamation used in pop-culture/anime-style internet speech, meaning “No way?!” or “Could it be?!”, for dramatic shock.