Book 4: Chapter 26 |
Isha felt that the atmosphere at this moment was a little… strange.
For some reason, those two idiots insisted on dragging her away from the little dragon girls’ sweet milky scent and soft cheeks, pulling her into a café, and telling the kids to go play on their own for the time being.
She and Claudia sat on one side, while Leon sat opposite with Rosvitha.
In front of each person sat a cup of coffee.
Isha folded her arms.
The rising wisps of steam drifted across her line of sight.
She looked at the younger sister sitting across from her, then looked at her brother-in-law.
She still couldn’t figure out what on earth this couple was up to.
The coffee was about to go cold.
Isha finally couldn’t hold it in any longer and asked,
“What is it you dragged me here to say?”
As she spoke, Isha also glanced at Claudia beside her.
The sea-dragon beauty raised her shoulders in an innocent shrug, meaning she had no idea what was going on either.
Helpless, Isha had no choice but to look back at the husband and wife again.
The two of them still looked hesitant, as if what they were about to say was hard to speak aloud.
Isha tilted her head.
“If you won’t say it, then I’ll guess.”
The couple exchanged a glance and still chose to stay silent for now.
After all, this was a pretty important matter.
Even for people who’d been through storms and waves, it was hard not to feel tense and at a loss.
So even though they had already decided to come clean to Isha, the two of them still needed a bit of mental preparation.
“I’m guessing it’s… Little Luo is pregnant again?”
Before the couple could even react to that, Claudia at the side couldn’t hold back and burst into laughter first.
“S-sorry… please continue, please continue.”
Rosvitha lightly bit her lower lip and shook her head.
“No, Sis. We do have the idea of having a third baby, but… for now it really is still just an idea.”
Isha raised her brows.
“Then what do you want to say?”
After a pause, Isha switched into an expectant smile.
“Don’t tell me you’re actually planning to hand A-Guang over to me? Relax—if you’re willing, I guarantee that two hundred years from now, A-Guang will become an even better Red Dragon King than I am.”
Even though Leon trusted A-Guang’s talent—and Big Sis’s fondness for her—
“N-no, that’s not it either…”
Isha let out an impatient little “tsk,” her ruby-like pupils sweeping over the couple.
“If this isn’t about your family falling apart, then don’t waste my time here. I still have to go play with the girls.”
“F-family falling apart—” Rosvitha repeated, carefully tasting her sister’s choice of words.
From a certain angle… it really could involve “family falling apart.”
Seeing her sister’s reaction, Isha felt like she’d guessed right.
“Don’t tell me it really is family falling apart? What—are you two getting divorced?”
This time, both of them shook their heads at once.
Rosvitha hurried to explain, “No, no. How could we possibly divorce? We’re already planning to have another baby—there’s no way that would connect to something like divorce…”
Leon also added tentatively, “Actually… what we want to say isn’t just about the two of us. More importantly it’s… you, Sis.”
Isha frowned, pointed at her own nose, and asked in confusion,
“Me?”
“Mm…”
Leon pressed his lips together, took a deep breath, and then looked again at Rosvitha beside him.
Rosvitha gave him a tiny, almost imperceptible nod.
Leon returned the same gesture.
Alright.
No matter what, the blade was already at his neck.
It was just one sentence, right?
A real man—what was there to be afraid to say?
Leon had never been this nervous facing the great Dragon Kings.
If you converted it like that… then Isha was officially promoted at this moment into the second-strongest Dragon King on the Samer Continent—
First was his wife.
Leon shook his head, chased off the messy thoughts, sorted out his wording, then grew serious and lifted his gaze to meet Isha’s eyes.
“Sis… actually, Rosvitha and I ending up together was completely an accident.”
“What?”
“It happened like this—”
……
Leon no longer remembered how much courage it had taken that day to tell Rosvitha’s own elder sister the entire story from beginning to end.
In those short ten-plus minutes, time felt as if it had frozen.
He could almost recall his heartbeat with perfect clarity—
The sweat sliding down his temple,
His fingers clenched so tightly they’d turned pale,
His lips and tongue growing drier and drier,
And his ears burning hotter by the second.
Of course, there was also Isha’s gaze as she looked at him.
It wasn’t that Isha spent the whole time suppressing her anger, but rather…
It was strange.
Isha’s eyes were first slightly startled.
Then, as Leon spoke, they gradually softened.
And in the end, there was even a kind of relieved feeling of So it really was like that?
Leon didn’t know if that was just his imagination—
But he felt Isha’s reaction was a little too…
Calm.
When he finished, the window-side table fell into a deathly silence.
Outside the window, voices bustled in and out.
Inside the café, customers and servers moved back and forth.
But only the four of them seemed detached from all the outside liveliness.
Sunlight poured through the window onto the tabletop, making the dust motes in the air sharply visible.
That line—formed out of dust—lay right between them.
“Ding—ding—”
Claudia gently tapped the rim of her coffee cup.
The airy, crisp sound was like a whistle that returned time to normal.
“Sis… we didn’t mean to hide it from you for so long,” Rosvitha said.
“Before, there were a lot of things that still hadn’t been resolved. But now everything’s settled, and Leon and I don’t plan to keep hiding it anymore. Sis…”
“How could you… do this?”
Isha’s voice turned desolate, her eyes trembling faintly.
“I’m your real elder sister.”
“Why couldn’t you tell me something like this?”
“I’m sorry, Sis… we—”
“Heavens above—why are the descendants of the Melkwei family all so rebellious?”
“My own brother-in-law is actually an outsider race, and I—this elder sister—only find out five years later—”
“If you look at it that way…”
“I’m the outsider here!”
The couple went a little blank.
“…Sis?”
But that call didn’t stop Isha’s “tearful” performance.
“Dragon God—if you truly exist in the heavens, why didn’t you give me a hint earlier?”
“Now this heavy truth is weighing on my heart.”
“It hurts so much I can’t even straighten my back.”
“Even breathing has become unbearably difficult.”
“Umm… Sis? Are you even listening to us?”
“I am, of course I am. If I weren’t listening, why would I be so angry?”
Leon froze. “Your brother-in-law is blind, Sis—I can’t see where you look angry at all…”
“I’m not angry?”
Isha looked at Claudia.
“Senior, do I really not look angry?”
Claudia took a graceful sip of coffee, then said,
“You look like you’re teasing children.”
“……”
One sentence—and it was like waking someone from a dream.
Rosvitha’s mind spun fast, and she immediately realized—
“So… Sis, did you already know Leon is human?”
With her act exposed, Isha pursed her lips in annoyance.
“I wouldn’t say ‘already,’ and I definitely wouldn’t say ‘know.’”
She continued.
“Actually, from the very start—especially that time Constantine invaded your Silver Dragon Clan—everyone said it was my brother-in-law alone who dealt with that mad dragon.”
“That’s when I started getting curious about his identity.”
“The descendant of a tribe that had already disbanded, and yet he could easily defeat Constantine.”
“Even though back then you gave me a reason like ‘for love and justice’ and thought you’d fooled me… the truth is I just couldn’t be bothered to press you.”
“And later…”
“It was when Constantine turned into a stitched abomination and attacked my Red Dragon Sanctuary.”
“My brother-in-law used a lightning-thrust move—”
Isha narrowed her eyes slightly and looked at Leon, continuing,
“But he called that move ‘Chidori.’”
“Very few races call that move ‘Chidori’…”
“And dragons are not among them.”
“So I listed a few races that habitually call it ‘Chidori,’ and I checked them one by one.”
“In the end, once only ‘human’ remained, I pretty much understood.”
“But just as I wanted to investigate further, Grandmother stopped me.”
At that, Isha shrugged.
“So my background investigation into this mysterious brother-in-law ended there.”
“But I still had a seventy-percent confidence that this man—who made me a promise he’d protect my sister, and then perfectly fulfilled that promise—didn’t belong to the Dragon Clan.”
Leon rolled Isha’s words around in his head, thought for a moment, then asked,
“Your grandmother… knew too?”
“Grandmother is also a very smart person.”
“If even I noticed something, then she must’ve discovered something as well, right?”
“Then why didn’t she expose me and Rosvitha—”
“The reason you and Little Luo could keep this family going until now is because Grandmother allowed it.”
Isha leaned back slightly against the chair, speaking in an unhurried tone.
“My grandmother often says we should leave the era to the young people, and let them make their own decisions.”
“So I think that’s why she never interfered with her granddaughter’s choice.”
“And finally…”
Isha slowly stood up.
The beautiful face that had been serious for so long finally lifted into a smile.
“The Melkwei family has already acknowledged your marriage.”
“So please carry this acknowledgement and blessing… and keep walking forward together.”
…
Footnotes:
- hú lu li mài de shén me yàoLiterally “what medicine is being sold in the gourd.” An idiom meaning “what are you really up to / what’s your hidden agenda?”
- tān pái“Lay the cards on the table,” meaning to come clean and reveal the truth openly.
- dà fēng dà làng“Great winds and waves,” used to describe having experienced many hardships or major events.
- hú nòngTo “fool / brush off / muddle through,” often implying someone tried to gloss over something and pretend it’s fine.
- fèng hé guàiLiterally “stitched-together monster,” often used for a grotesque abomination made from different parts; here rendered as “stitched abomination.”
- qī chéng“Seven-tenths,” used conversationally to mean “about 70% confidence.”
- mò xǔ“Tacit approval,” meaning silent consent—allowing something without explicitly saying so.
- zhù fú“Blessing,” often used formally or ceremonially to wish someone well.