Book 4: Chapter 50 |
Leon didn’t want to cause unnecessary misunderstandings, so he didn’t talk with Constantine for long.
After Constantine finished his “my kid will be better than your kid” declaration, Principal Orlet appeared in the academy plaza at just the right moment.
Constantine went to speak with the principal and vice principal.
The two of them left the rooftop one after the other, about two minutes apart.
Leon left the teaching building, moved through the crowd, and found Rosvitha and Claudia still chatting.
“Hey, Senior. Here to send Helenna off?” Leon greeted me.
Claudia nodded. “Originally I planned to let Helenna come by herself, but I wanted to try a different approach to family education.”
She smiled and looked at Leon. “Learning from you and Rosvitha. When you have time, you’ll have to teach me too.”
“Senior, you’re joking. We don’t have any special method. We just let things happen naturally.”
Leon nodded. “Yeah.”
“What did you talk about?”
“We talked about the process of re-enrolling his clan’s children. Constantine is pretty responsible—he came personally to meet Principal Orlet about it.”
Rosvitha nodded. “That is rather formal.”
“You borrowed the dark lotus herb from me earlier and said it was to save Constantine’s daughter,” Claudia said. “Did he mention that just now?”
“Yeah. Hephae—right, Constantine’s daughter is named Hephae—she’s fine now. She’s slowly recovering with the help of the Crimson Flame clan’s apothecaries.”
Leon paused and scratched his temple, as if there was more he wanted to say, but he hesitated.
Rosvitha tilted her head. She could tell at a glance that the dog-man was only saying half of it.
“What else did he say? Don’t lie to me. I can tell from your expression,” the queen said seriously.
But before Leon could continue, Claudia said with surprise,
“Can you tell even that?”
Claudia was a seasoned veteran. Usually, she could read subtle expressions to guess intentions.
But Leon hadn’t been obvious at all just now. Claudia had thought he and Constantine only exchanged a few short lines.
“I’ve been married to him for nearly six years. I know exactly what he’s thinking.”
“He’s thinking about you, honey.”
“……”
“Idiot.”
“Alright, I’ve had my fill of couple-flirting,” Claudia said. “Can you two get to the point already?”
Rosvitha’s face reddened slightly as she turned away, arms folded, tail tip awkwardly sweeping the ground.
Leon cleared his throat, chose his words, and said,
“Constantine said…”
Claudia lifted an eyebrow, curiosity piqued. “Said?”
“He said~~”
Rosvitha turned her face back too, urging, “What did Constantine say?”
“He said he wants us to have another baby.”
Rosvitha and Claudia: ?
A breeze passed by, unable to disperse the stunned awkwardness in the air.
It even felt like a crow flew over their heads, leaving a row of ellipses behind.
But no matter how many things were wrong with that one sentence—so many that you didn’t even know where to begin—it still couldn’t “freeze” the Silver Dragon Queen, who had seen countless big scenes.
“Ever since his head got cut off by you, he’s been kind of weird. Saying something like this is… understandable,” Rosvitha sighed and spread her hands.
“So why? My sister urging us would make sense. Grandmother urging us would make sense. But Constantine has absolutely no reason to meddle in our family business.”
“So the Melkvi family likes children this much…” Claudia couldn’t help remarking.
Hearing that the entire family was urging them to have more kids, even Claudia felt moved.
Leon rubbed the side of his nose. “Constantine said he’ll defeat me someday.”
“And then?” Claudia pressed.
“And then he said his kid will definitely defeat our kid too… But for fairness, he won’t make Hephae match up against Noa and Mu’en, so he wants us to have another one—so everyone starts from the same line.”
“……”
“What an absurd reason. But when you remember it’s Constantine, suddenly everything makes sense,” Rosvitha said.
The Crimson Flame Dragon King was a famously battle-crazed maniac. Every Dragon knew that.
Even so, Rosvitha hadn’t expected him to transfer that obsession to the next generation.
Looks like Old Constantine’s fixation on beating the dog-man ran deep…
“Did you agree?” Claudia asked the key question.
“I… haven’t decided yet.”
As Leon spoke, he stepped closer and naturally looped his arm through Rosvitha’s.
“Actually, Rosvitha and I discussed whether to have a third child a while ago. But we still haven’t made up our minds.”
Claudia folded her arms and looked at them. “Is there something you’re worried about? Afraid that if you have another baby, Noa and the others will get jealous?”
Rosvitha shook her head. “We’re not worried about that. Noa and the others are very sensible. They wouldn’t get jealous. They’ve even brought it up several times themselves, saying they want another little brother or sister.”
“Mu’en said she wants another older sister,” Leon added.
Rosvitha gave him an amused glare and bumped his arm. “She’s little and doesn’t understand that. Don’t tell me you don’t understand either.”
Leon grinned and didn’t respond.
Rosvitha snorted and continued,
“What we’re actually worried about is… the situation isn’t clear right now. The Empire may have fallen, but the new clues we’ve found mean we can’t ignore it. If we have a baby during this period, it might delay Leon from doing what he needs to do.”
Claudia’s gaze shifted slightly, her blue eyes blinking.
“Delay what you need to do? What is it? Continuing the investigation into the Empire’s remnants and the mastermind behind it?”
Leon pressed his lips together and nodded. “Yes.”
“Oh, then that is important. But—”
Claudia deliberately paused, forcing the couple to listen more closely.
“That doesn’t mean having another baby isn’t important too.”
The two of them froze, exchanged a look, and said nothing, waiting for Claudia to continue.
“Strictly speaking, it’s not just the Red Dragon King and your grandmother who like children, is it?” Claudia smiled slightly.
“You two also clearly like kids. Otherwise you wouldn’t have raised Noa and the others so exceptionally.”
What Claudia said was true.
Whether parents truly like children shows directly in the children they raise.
And Leon being a shamelessly devoted “daughter addict” wasn’t just well-known in the Silver Dragon clan—Claudia had heard plenty about it too.
As for Rosvitha, after living with Leon for so long, some of her deeply rooted ideas had been quietly shifting as well.
During the two years Leon was unconscious, she was extremely strict with Noa and Mu’en. Compared to “mother and daughters,” their relationship looked more like a strict “ruler and subjects” dynamic.
That wasn’t wrong—Dragons commonly raised children that way.
Even Claudia herself, before becoming close to the couple, treated her daughter Helenna similarly.
But six full years of living together had already turned the once cold and detached Silver Dragon Queen into a truly excellent mother.
So neither she nor Leon feared a new life being born.
They were simply unable to decide because of the current environment.
“Senior, you’re right. Leon and I both like children, but…”
“If you like children, and you don’t reject having another baby, then what ‘but’ is left?” Claudia said gently, looking at Leon and then at Rosvitha.
She understood their hesitation perfectly.
They were afraid pregnancy might slow down what they were doing.
But deep down, their desire to have another baby was also strong.
The two ideas conflicted—so they were waiting for a reason.
A reason that would let them finally decide.
“Investigating the Empire’s remnants is important, so having a baby isn’t important?” Claudia asked. “Our Dragon race is already small in number. You two have contributed three already, but it’s still far from enough.”
“……”
“Senior, our population being small is true,” Rosvitha said, “but putting the entire burden of expansion on Leon and me… isn’t that a bit—”
“But you have advantages!” Claudia cut in.
“What advantages…”
“First, you’re very much in love, with no looming risk of divorce.”
“Second, the quality of human–dragon mixed blood is obviously higher than pure-blood Dragons.”
“Third, cocoon-born Dragons can’t reproduce too much, or the mother’s body becomes severely weakened. That’s one reason our numbers are small.”
“But live-bearing Dragons don’t have that issue. Ten months of pregnancy, and two weeks after giving birth, the mother can recover completely.”
Claudia clapped her hands once, eyes smiling in a crescent.
“So, in summary—after you get home, start preparing for baby number three immediately.”
…