Book 4: Chapter 24 |
“You won, Sis!”
Mu’en ran over excitedly and threw herself straight into Noya’s arms.
Helena and A-Guang also crowded in, offering their congratulations one after another.
The little dragon girls surrounded their “Princess,” celebrating noisily.
Yet even while she was happy, there seemed to be a fleeting trace of blankness and shock in Noya’s eyes.
But she adjusted quickly, and together with her little sister and best friend, she held hands with them and spun in a circle.
“Not bad, brother-in-law. To hold out three rounds under my genius big niece’s ferocious offense—”
“I now unilaterally declare you the Silver Dragon Clan’s third-strongest.”
But he did the math in his head and felt something was off.
“I can understand second-strongest. Noya beat me.”
“But why third?”
“Second is your wife.”
“Got it.”
Family status: -1.
After her joke, Isha also joined the little dragon girls’ celebration.
Rosvitha walked up beside Leon and said softly,
“We did agree you should ‘go easy’ and lose to Noya…”
“But I didn’t expect you to lose… this fast.”
Leon gave a low chuckle and sighed lightly.
“There are a lot of things you haven’t expected yet.”
The Queen lifted a brow.
“What do you mean?”
“Actually… I wasn’t planning to lose on Noya’s third attack.”
Leon rubbed at his waist—where the bell had been tied.
He replayed that moment briefly, then said,
“The wind-up to her third attack was the same as her first, so it was easy to counter.”
“I was going to counter successfully and then put on a little show—”
“Say something like, ‘The same move only works on your old man once,’ or whatever.”
Rosvitha covered her mouth and laughed, listening earnestly.
“And then?”
“And then…”
“Noya used a variation I didn’t see coming—her tail.”
“Of course, it wasn’t just that.”
“The direction of the tail sneak attack was vicious too. Impossible to guard against.”
Rosvitha thought it over carefully, then summed it up:
“So basically…”
“You got genuinely captured by our daughter, yeah?”
“……”
Leon’s mouth twitched slightly.
“I said all that just to cover up that fact.”
“Why do you have to say it out loud?”
To be fair, it wasn’t entirely like that.
Because before Noya’s successful strike, Leon had plenty of chances to take Noya’s bell.
He just didn’t.
And the tail ambush really was something Leon hadn’t anticipated.
“Ugh. If I’d known, I would’ve watched out for Noya’s tail.”
“If you’d known, you should’ve let me fit you with a fake tail.”
Rosvitha seized the chance to bring up old history, smug as she spoke.
“Five years ago I told you, and you wouldn’t listen.”
“What, so if I had a tail, you could wrap yours around mine, right, Your Majesty?”
The Queen’s face turned red, and she jabbed his arm in irritation.
“Stop talking nonsense.”
“Who wants to wrap around you like a snake? So disgusting.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’ve seen those dragon romance novels in your study.”
“When the male and female leads get really into it, they wrap their tails together.”
“Can’t even separate.”
“Shut up, human.”
“I don’t want to wrap tails with you.”
The couple bickered back and forth.
After trading a few jabs, Leon suddenly remembered something.
“Oh right.”
“That thing you promised me in the cellar earlier—still counts, yeah?”
Rosvitha blinked.
She knew exactly what “that thing” was.
“Of course…”
“Not anymore.”
Rosvitha folded her arms, a wicked little smile tugging at her lips.
“Why doesn’t it count?! We agreed!”
“Because our precious daughter beat you fair and square.”
“It wasn’t you letting her win, so it doesn’t count.”
Rosvitha continued teasing him.
“No way. You’re cheating.”
“I’m not cheating.”
“It’s you being careless, losing not only the bell…”
“But also—”
Rosvitha rose onto her toes, leaned close to Leon’s ear, lightly pinched the rim of his ear, and said in a soft, gentle voice,
“One chance to spend the night with a bunny girl.”
Yes.
Back in the cellar, to fire up that dog-man’s fighting spirit, Rosvitha had promised him:
As long as Noya won the final victory, she would wear the bunny-girl outfit one more time.
And the outcome was exactly what Rosvitha wanted.
Leon took down Big Sis, and Noya got the Black Holy Stone.
This story teaches us:
How important it is to understand your partner’s XP.
Rosvitha admired the little lion’s devastated expression with satisfaction.
In his eyes, it was like he’d lost, on the same day—
A game championship…
And a bunny girl.
Tragic.
Honestly, even more tragic than failing to kill a Dragon King.
“All right, all right. I’m just messing with you.”
Rosvitha obviously wasn’t going to go back on her word with her silly captive.
She just wanted to see Leon’s pitiful little face.
Sigh. This Queen has such a tiny hobby.
So of course I have to seize every chance.
Rosvitha stepped forward and hooked her arm through Leon’s.
“I’ll wear it for you when we get home.”
“Happy now?”
Leon pursed his lips.
“Like I even want to see it.”
“Oh?”
“Since you don’t really want to see it, perfect.”
“I was thinking that bunny-girl outfit is pretty tight anyway.”
“……”
Rosvitha held back a laugh.
As expected, trying to get Leon to say something like—
“Please, wear the bunny-girl outfit for me”—
Was basically impossible.
He would rather regret it for the rest of his life than abandon his pride to beg Rosvitha.
At most, he’d complain twice.
“I really love how stubbornly hard-mouthed you are, idiot.”
If there weren’t so many people around, Rosvitha would’ve given Leon a light kiss no matter what.
A reward for reverse-killing Big Sis, and for letting Noya win.
While the couple was being all lovey-dovey over here, several staff members walked over.
“Sir, please hand over the Black Holy Stone you hid.”
“That is a game prop, not made from real Night-Spirit Crystal.”
“We’ll still need it for the next game.”
“Oh, oh, sure.”
Leon briskly walked to the armor set by the meeting room entrance.
Then he removed the leg armor and fished the Black Holy Stone out of the boot.
That action made everyone else stare in shock.
“So the Black Holy Stone was hidden right by the meeting room door?!”
“We went in and out so many times—how did we never think to search there?”
“Princess, please play with us again!”
Everyone sighed and lamented.
Whether they wanted to retrieve the Black Holy Stone…
Or destroy it…
Or run away with it…
No one had expected that precious thing had been hidden almost right under their noses.
Even Isha hadn’t guessed in that direction at all.
“Brother-in-law, I couldn’t tell before.”
“You’re really good at hiding things.”
“Yes.”
“I’m very good at hiding things.”
And here, it couldn’t be helped—
They had to mention again the bunny-girl photo set Leon had hidden.
Years had passed, and no one had found it—
Heck, even Leon himself was starting to forget where he’d hidden it.
Back to the point.
Leon returned the prop-version Black Holy Stone to the staff.
Then, another staff member placed the real “Black Holy Stone”—the Night-Spirit Crystal—into an exquisite wooden box and presented it to Noya.
“Congratulations, Miss Noya.”
“In this round of ‘Castle Secrets,’ you achieved the final victory.”
“This Black Holy Stone is yours now.”
Noya accepted it politely with both hands.
“Thank you.”
She opened the wooden box.
Inside lay a black bead, neatly placed.
An ornament made from Night-Spirit Crystal really was beautiful.
Noya lightly brushed her fingertips across the crystal’s surface.
Cold, icy cool.
And the instant her fingertips touched the Night-Spirit Crystal, the magical circuits inside her body seemed to produce a subtle reaction.
“You’ve been refining primal power for so long.”
“Your magic circuits are no longer what they used to be.”
“And just now, the residual primal power in your circuits awakened it.”
“It’s fine.”
“That proves this is indeed a genuine Night-Spirit Crystal.”
The old ancestor explained.
“So that’s how it is.”
Noya stared at the clear, lustrous bead, quietly feeling the resonance between the primal power in her body and it.
…
Footnotes:
- lái gē yīnLiterally “Bro-Leon voice.” A joking label for speaking in a swaggering, buddy-buddy, slightly cocky “bro” tone.
- zuǐ yìng“Hard-mouthed / stubborn-tongued.” Describes someone who refuses to admit what they truly want or feel, insisting on pride even when they’re clearly tempted.
- XPInternet slang borrowed from gaming; here it means someone’s personal “kink/turn-on preferences” or what specifically excites them.
- chū ěr fǎn ěr“To go back on one’s word.” Used for someone who breaks a promise after agreeing to it.
- nì shā“Reverse kill.” Gaming slang meaning to turn the tables and defeat someone who had the advantage, often by a comeback play.
- xī xūThe sound/idea of people sighing, lamenting, or expressing regret collectively—often written to convey a chorus of “what a pity” reactions.