Book 4: Chapter 14 |
“Leon, are you planning to have another baby with me?”
Family, who gets it?!
My gentle, virtuous Dragon King wife—who never, ever talks tough—snuck into my room in the middle of the night just to ask me this kind of question!
Couldn’t you ask in private?!
Couldn’t you ask after the game ends?!
Even if I answer ‘yes’ right now, are you going to make me produce a third baby on the spot or what?!
Leon lay on the bed looking calm and composed, but in reality, he had already mentally passed away for quite a while. (
But he knew that continuing to pretend to sleep wasn’t a solution—he had to give Rosvitha an answer as soon as possible.
There would absolutely not be a third kind of answer.
Because a long time ago, Rosvitha had told him about the “two-thirty in the morning” thing.
After hearing it, General Leon had been utterly shocked.
How could someone as invincible as him have such an absurd weakness?
Leon had tried to overcome it, but in the end, he failed every time.
But thankfully, Leon had nothing to fear from shadows when he stood upright. Even if he told the truth every time, it didn’t matter. The bros were a top-tier good husband—he had zero secrets (other than the bunny-girl photo albums).
What Leon didn’t know was: back then, Rosvitha hadn’t told him the full truth.
She only said Leon would tell the truth at two-thirty in the morning—she didn’t say, “This isn’t actually guaranteed to trigger.”
So right now, Leon could completely keep pretending to sleep and claim that “the two-thirty truth mechanism failed to trigger.”
Ah—poor Master Leon, getting played in the palm of his wife’s hand!
After thinking it over, Leon slowly opened his mouth.
“…Thought… about it…”
The moment the words fell, he could clearly feel Rosvitha’s breathing stutter at the bedside.
Honestly, answering “I’ve thought about having another baby” was the most suitable response right now.
If he answered “no,” then judging by that faint expectation in Rosvitha’s tone when she asked, she would definitely be a little unhappy.
And as for the daughters hiding in the wardrobe—hearing that answer would also disappoint them more or less.
So there was no way around it. With the big dragoness not knowing the daughters were present—and not knowing Leon was pretending to sleep—she had unintentionally “forced” Leon into having to answer “yes, I want a baby.”
However, before Rosvitha could show any joy or excitement, a muffled thud sounded behind her.
Rosvitha snapped her head around, instantly alert.
Crash—
The wardrobe door flew open, and four tiny figures tumbled out.
Rosvitha stared in astonishment at the little dragon girls scattered across the floor. After a beat, she asked,
“Noa… why are you all in here?”
The four little ones scrambled up immediately, then lined up in a neat row, standing obediently—tails pulled straight as boards.
“M-Mom, we were…”
Noa stammered. She really wasn’t good at lying.
Should she try acting cute with her mom?
Even though Mom usually spoiled the three sisters too, compared to Dad—who could be easily taken down with a bit of whining—their mom probably wouldn’t fall for that.
Seeing Big Sis sweating bullets, Xiaoguang immediately spoke up.
“We’re doing a task!”
Rosvitha raised an eyebrow. She turned to glance at Leon, who was still “sleeping,” then turned back to the girls.
“You guys… came into someone else’s room in the middle of the night to do a task?”
The pink-haired girl’s eyes drifted, but her mouth kept babbling anyway. “Y-Yeah. There are lots of hidden tasks in the castle, you know.”
“Is that so… then—”
We can’t let Mom keep questioning us! We’ll get exposed!
Xiaoguang’s “for-the-fun” brain spun at max speed, and before Rosvitha could ask her next question, she blurted out,
“Mom, what you said just now—was it true? Do you really want another baby?”
In that instant, the offensive and defensive positions reversed!
Rosvitha froze slightly. The blush that had almost faded off her face immediately staged a countercharge and came rushing back.
She looked embarrassed. The tip of her tail curled without her noticing, and her right hand quietly pinched the hem of her dress.
Facing four little dragon girls with “gossip” written all over their faces, Rosvitha swallowed and said awkwardly,
“I-I was just asking casually. I originally wanted to ask something else. And your dad just happened to be talking in his sleep—sleep talk doesn’t count.”
Helena rubbed her forehead.
“Auntie… you came to Uncle Leon’s room in the middle of the night, asked a weird question, and then Uncle just happened to answer you… No matter how you look at it, you can’t explain that with ‘just happened.’”
“Yeah, Mom. Just now, Dad didn’t seem like he was talking in his sleep. It felt like… like…”
Xiaoguang couldn’t find the right word to describe the vibe of that conversation.
“It was like Truth or Dare.”
In the end, Mu’en nailed it with pinpoint accuracy.
Xiaoguang’s eyes lit up. “Yes, yes—exactly! It felt like they were playing Truth!”
Rosvitha covered her face in silence.
Kids these daysaree too hard to deal with. The queen immediately developed the thought of: Fine… maybe let’s not have a third child for now.
She shook her head, adjusted herself, and then said,
“Noa, Mu’en, and Xiaoguang—Mom knows you really want another little sister or little brother. But this isn’t something you get to decide, and it’s not something Mom alone gets to decide either.”
“This needs to be a decision our whole family makes together.”
“Even though Dad spoke just now, it’s like Mom said—sleep talk doesn’t count.”
“So after this game ends, let’s go home and properly discuss it, okay?”
Rosvitha recovered her rhythm quickly.
Even though her precious daughters had caught her at the perfect time, after that brief shock, she still handled it smoothly.
No matter how hard kids were to deal with, they still couldn’t outplay a Dragon King who’d lived for over two hundred years.
The three little ones looked at each other and felt Mom was right, so they stopped pressing the issue.
“Sorry, Helena. This is how our family usually is—we’re noisy, but we respect each other. I hope we didn’t scare you.”
In the end, Rosvitha didn’t forget to look after Helena’s feelings.
The little sea-dragon girl didn’t think anything was wrong at all. “No, no, Auntie. I really like your family atmosphere.”
That was the truth. The Merckwy family deserved the envy of every only child.
“Good. Then let’s leave Dad’s room now, so he won’t wake up later and catch us red-handed,” Rosvitha said.
“Mm-hm!”
The four little ones walked out first, one after another.
Rosvitha stayed behind to “cover the retreat.”
She stepped to the doorway, one hand on the door panel, but she didn’t leave right away.
Standing in the entryway, she half-turned back, looking at Leon.
“Get up. I know you’re pretending to sleep.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Leon’s voice quickly came from the dark room.
“How do you know I was pretending to sleep?”
“With that much noise just now, and you didn’t wake up—obviously you were faking.”
“…Mm. Then you should go back and rest early.”
Leon sat up and leaned against the headboard, meeting Rosvitha’s gaze from a few meters away.
But Rosvitha still didn’t move.
She kept pinching her skirt hem, lips pressed together, as if she wanted to speak but couldn’t.
After a moment of eye contact, Leon said,
“You want to ask whether my answer just now was the truth, don’t you?”
Rosvitha fell silent.
Silence, for her, meant “yes” and “definitely.”
Leon took a deep breath, paused, then lifted the blanket and slowly walked to Rosvitha.
He leaned down slightly and murmured a few words into the beauty’s ear.
Five minutes later, Rosvitha walked out of Leon’s room.
And at this moment, her face carried the flushed warmth after tenderness and… the satisfaction of finally receiving the answer her heart had been longing for.
……
“Leon definitely stole the Black Holy Stone. Everyone vote him.”
“Rosvitha is the one. Everyone trusts me—vote him,r and you can’t be wrong!”
“Do you have evidence?”
“Do you have evidence?!”
“……”
It was hard to imagine that the two people now clashing across the meeting table had been kissing tenderly for five minutes last night.
Do you two have some kind of passive skill that formats your brains on a schedule?
At least let last night’s brief warmth last until after breakfast, okay?!
The second meeting after the game began was nearing its end amid the couple’s mutual splashing of dirty water.
Claudia listened quietly from the side, with no intention of jumping in.
Then suddenly, her gaze drifted—by accident—to Isha sitting beside her.
The red-haired beauty was holdina g pen and paper, scribbling and sketching.
Claudia couldn’t see what was written, so she asked, “What are you doing? A task?”
“Hm? Oh, it’s nothing.”
Isha put the pen and paper away, swept her hair behind her ear, and glanced at her sister and brother-in-law who were still flinging mud at each other.
“They still haven’t stopped, huh.”
Claudia shrugged. “Are these two usually like this?”
Isha nodded hard. “Almost every time we get together, they fight back and forth like this.”
Claudia gave a soft chuckle. “Interesting.”
“Alright! Then let’s vote at the end—the masses’ eyes are sharp!” Leon proposed.
“Come on—like I’m scared of you!”
The voting began.
Those who believed Leon took the Black Holy Stone:
Mu’en, Noa, and Helena.
Those who believed Rosvitha took the Black Holy Stone:
Claudia.
That left Xiaoguang and Isha.
Aunt and niece looked at each other, and in the other’s eyes they both saw two words:
Fun.
Actually, based on last night’s investigation, Xiaoguang also leaned toward believing Dad had taken the Black Holy Stone.
But if she voted for Dad now, Dad would get voted out.
And if that happened, how would she and Isha keep watching Mom and Dad love-and-kill each other?
So… Xiaoguang cast her vote for Mom.
And for the tie, Isha naturally voted for Rosvitha as well.
“Oh? It’s a tie?”
The two “candidates” would obviously vote for each other, so the final result was still a tie.
“Hmph. Before the next meeting, I’ll definitely find evidence to expose you, thief.” Rosvitha folded her arms, supremely confident.
Leon rolled his eyes at her.
“Tch. Evil dragon—accusing first.”
After trading threats, the couple left the meeting room.
Everyone else filed out as well.
Claudia stood up last. After the people ahead had gone far enough, she slowly pulled an intel card from her pocket. On it was written:
“Love Strong as Gold: Seven-Day Lock!”
“Effect: After using on two players, they must act together for six hours; they may not be more than five meters apart.”
It was a prop card. It wouldn’t decide the winner.
But if it was used on the right two people… it could produce quite a lot of…
interesting things.
Claudia lifted her gaze toward the end of the corridor.
The ill-fated couple was about to “go their separate ways,” each searching for evidence unfavorable to the other.
Seeing that, Claudia smiled knowingly.
“Ah, you two—over the next six hours, please take good care of each other.”
…
Footnotes:
- “Family, who gets it?!”
- Pinyin:jiā rén men, shéi dǒng a
- Explanation:Internet catchphrase used for dramatic ranting: “Guys, who understands this suffering?!” Often comedic and exaggerated.
- “Mentally passed away / already gone.”
- Pinyin:zǒu le hǎo yī huìr le
- Explanation:Slang meaning “I’m dead inside,” “my soul has left my body,” used for secondhand embarrassment or shock.
- “Two-choice / pick one of tw.”
- Pinyin:èr xuǎn yī
- Explanation:Fixed phrasing meaning “choose one of the two; no third option.”
- “Nothing to fear from shadows”
- Pinyin:shēn zhèng bù pà yǐng zi xié
- Explanation:Idiom meaning:g if you’re righteous/innocent, you don’t fear suspicion.
- “Top-tier good husband”
- Pinyin:dǐng jí hǎo lǎo gōng
- Explanation:Internet phrasing meaning “an exceptionally good husband,” often used jokingly.
- “Played in the palm of herhanda.nd”
- Pinyin:wán nòng yú gǔ zhǎng zhī zhōng
- Explanation:Idiom: being completely manipulated/controlled by someone.
- “Sweating bullets”
- Pinyin:hàn liú jiá bèi
- Explanation:Literally “sweat soaking the back”—used for panic under pressure.
- “The offensive/defensive situation has reversed.”
- Pinyin:gōng shǒu zhī shì yì yě
- Explanation:Classic phrase meaning the advantage has flipped sides.
- “Eating melon / gossip-watching”
- Pinyin:chī guā
- Explanation:Internet slang meaning watching drama as a bystander, like “grabbing popcorn.”
- “Caught at the perfect timing.”
- Pinyin:zhuā timing / zhuā shí jī
- Explanation:Mixed internet wording; means catching the best moment/opportunity.
- “Caught red-handed”
- Pinyin:zhuā bāo
- Explanation:Slang meaning is being exposed while doing something sneaky.
- “Want to speak but stop.”
- Pinyin:yù yán yòu zhǐ
- Explanation:Phrase meaning hesitating—having something to say but holding it back.
- “Tenderly affectionate / eyes full of feeling.g”
- Pinyin:hán qíng mài mài
- Explanation:Describes a soft, loving gaze or intimate mood.
- “Needle-to-needle confrontation”
- Pinyin:zhēn fēng xiāng duì
- Explanation:Idiom meaning fierce verbal sparring, evenly matched.
- “Ill-fated couple”
- Pinyin:yuān zhǒng fū qī
- Explanation:Internet slang: two people stuck suffering together in ridiculous circumstances.
- “Splashing dirty water/smearing.”
- Pinyin:pō zāng shuǐ
- Explanation:Idiom meaning to smear someone’s reputation, frame them with accusations.
- “The masses’ eyes are sharp.p”
- Pinyin:qún zhòng de yǎn jīng shì xuě liàng de
- Explanation:Famous quote meaning public judgment can see through things—often used half-seriously or ironically.
- “Tie vote”
- Pinyin:píng piào
- Explanation:Voting term means equal votes on both sides.
- “Evil dragon accusing first.”
- Pinyin:è lóng xiān gào zhuàng
- Explanation:A playful twist on “the thief cries thief first” (often: zéi è xiān gào zhuàng). Here it’s styled to fit the dragon theme.
- “Go their separate way.s”
- Pinyin:fēn dào yáng biāo
- Explanation:Idiom meaning split up and head in different directions.
- “Knowingly smile”
- Pinyin:huì xīn yī xiào
- Explanation:Phrase meaning smiling with shared understanding, often implying you’ve got a plan.