Leon was well-reasoned, "As for being stubborn… I suddenly noticed a very interesting 'saying' in what you just said."
"What saying?"
"You said that Noah's concern for us couldn't be faked."
"Mm-hmm."
"Then… your concern for me… is that also something that can't be faked?", Leon asked with a smile.
Rossweise let out a cold snort, swept her tail across his face, "I don't need to fake it, Leon, because I don't care about you at all, I never—"
"Ow! Your tail hit me and it hurts!"
"Ah! I didn't mean to! Are you okay?"
Leon: ???????
Rossweise: ????
———
Over a month later, Leon and Rossweise went to the border between the human and dragon territories to exchange intelligence with Master and Rebecca.
Unlike the previous few times, this time Leon brought along some paper and pen, and even a memory stone, to record his conversation with Master.
Because he was sure that this information exchange would involve a lot.
After all, it was about both the Heart-Protecting Dragon Scales and Old Constant's resurrection, the Empire had stirred up too much trouble.
And Leon's counterattack had also been quite strong, enough to teach the Empire a lesson.
After such an intense clash from both sides, Leon believed that the Empire would definitely make even bigger moves next.
And if the Empire was going to act, some information would inevitably leak out.
Leon wanted to figure out the Empire's next move or general direction ahead of time, so he could prepare a response in advance.
The previous sudden attack on the Red Dragon Sanctuary by Constantine had completely caught Leon off guard.
If he and Rossweise hadn't gone to visit Isa at the time, no matter what the Empire's goal was in attacking the Red Dragon Sanctuary, they might very well have succeeded by now.
So he had to slightly change his future strategy, he couldn't always be a step behind the Empire.
Otherwise, sooner or later, it would lead to disaster.
A few hours later, Leon and Rossweise arrived at the mountain stream cave.
Passing through the waterfall and walking in, they hadn't gone far before they heard a familiar voice.
"Yo, Captain, still alive? I thought you got sucked into some spatial rift again~"
The twin-tailed girl sat on an old wooden table, raised one fleshy, beautiful leg and placed it on the table edge. A pistol was strapped to the outside of her thigh.
But Leon didn't respond to Rebecca's greeting.
Instead, he strode forward in large steps, reached out, grabbed Rebecca by the collar, and lifted her up like a puppy.
"Captain, what are you doing! Talk it out nicely!", Rebecca struggled a couple of times, but since her hands and feet were off the ground, she couldn't exert any strength.
Leon held Rebecca up with one hand and put his other on his waist, saying nothing, just staring at her.
Rebecca looked at the captain.
Judging by this dense straight-man expression, she must've done something that accidentally provoked him, and he wouldn't let her off easily.
That's not right.
They only met once every three months.
Everything was fine during their last meeting, so why did this one start off like he wanted her dead?
'I didn't even do anything bad!'
Rebecca swallowed, turned her head toward Tiger, seeking help from the sidelines.
"Pops, Pops, your disciple wants to beat me up, aren't you going to stop him?"
Tiger sat there wiping his katana and said without looking up, "Beat her if you want, just don't break your hand, she still needs to drive the carriage on the way back."
"So my only value to you is driving the carriage, Pops?"
Tiger pretended to think, paused, then nodded seriously, "Yes."
"AHHHH!!"
Rebecca then turned to the silver-haired beauty behind Leon.
"Sis-in-law! Sis-in-law, save me! Your husband's gonna use violence on me! That look in his eyes, it's the same one he used to have when he was slaying dragons, sis-in-law!"
"Sweetheart, you're not a dragon. Don't worry, he won't slay you."
Rebecca: ?
Fine, outside help is useless.
In the end, she had to rely on herself.
Rebecca finally looked at Leon. After hesitating for a bit, she spoke in a somewhat heroic tone,
"Before you deal with me, I want to know the reason, can I, Captain?"
"You were the one who told Rossweise about my dark history, weren't you?"
"...", Rebecca belatedly realized, "Sis-in-law, you backstabbed me!"
Rossweise blinked and was about to explain, but Leon beat her to it.
"It wasn't her. She didn't say anything."
He paused, then grumbled resentfully, "She just nagged me for a whole week about the graduation dance…"
Rebecca blinked her beautiful big eyes, "What?"
"Nothing. The things from my school days were only known by you and Martin. Martin's never met Rossweise, and conveniently, during the last meeting, you were alone with her for a long time, so… it was just a simple character relationship deduction."
"Captain, I did it all so you and sis-in-law could understand each other better, do you believe that?"
"I don't."
"You've got to believe me, Captain! Why don't you believe me?"
Seeing she'd been scared enough, Leon peeked at Rossweise and saw no reaction from her. He then leaned close to Rebecca's ear and whispered, "What else did you tell her last time?"
Rebecca's brain whirred as she searched her memory.
Eventually, she shook her head, "Also said you can't swim."
Can't swim.
'Oh… that's fine. As long as it's not something that can
make that mother dragon jealous.'
"Anything else?"
"No, Captain, I swear," The girl held up three fingers, looking solemn.
"I'll trust you this time."
With that, Leon put Rebecca down.
As soon as her feet touched the ground, the wild girl rushed to Rossweise's side, stomped twice, and looked up at her as if complaining.
Rossweise smiled like a fond aunt, looking at Rebecca with a gaze like watching a baby being cute.
Leon shook his head and chuckled, then walked over to sit in front of Tiger.
Tiger finished wiping his blade and sheathed it.
"Kid, looks like you've really pissed the Empire off this time," Master got straight to the point.
"What?"
Leon could roughly guess what Master meant.
It was when Constantine attacked the Red Dragon Sanctuary and Leon detonated the Heart-Protecting Dragon Scale sewn onto that super zombie dragon.
Of course, Leon's detonation magic wasn't refined enough to selectively detonate one at a time.
Once the spell was activated, it was a "whole family goes boom" situation.
This story tells us: wiring light bulbs in parallel is way harder than in series (not serious).
"About two months ago, one night, an explosion suddenly occurred somewhere in the Imperial palace. Rebecca and I rushed over as soon as we heard it."
"The Royal Mage Corps said the lab where they stored the Heart-Protecting Dragon Scales blew up. All the Heart-Protecting dragon scales in there were destroyed, none were left."
"I thought it was some chivalrous hero who couldn't stand the Empire's corruption anymore and blew up the lab as a protest."
"But afterwards I noticed the Empire didn't issue any wanted posters, which meant they knew exactly who blew it up, and that person wasn't even in the Empire."
After saying that, Master looked across at his disciple, "So, the one who dared stir up trouble with the Supreme was you, right?"
Leon scratched his head, "Actually… I was forced to."
Master frowned, "Why is it that ever since you turned twenty, everything's 'forced'?"
"Eh?"
"Forced marriage, forced childbirth, forced to have a third child, and now even blowing up the Empire's treasure was 'forced'," Master counted on his fingers, listing Leon's glorious yet absurd 24-year life.
Leon chuckled, then briefly explained to Master about Constantine's resurrection and the explosion of the Heart-Protecting Dragon Scales.
After listening, Master nodded thoughtfully.
"Brash but precise, that's your style."
Leon's smile stiffened. He immediately retorted, "Wh-what do you mean 'brash but precise'? I've always been precise, okay!"
"Does your wife know about this?"
"Of course she—wait, we're talking about combat style, not anything else, right?!"
Master waved his hand with a smile and then turned serious. "Anyway, that explosion caused the Empire serious losses. All the Heart-Protecting Dragon Scales they'd been accumulating over the years were destroyed. What a self-inflicted tragedy."
Listening to Master's words, Leon noticed something interesting.
"Master, you said 'the Heart-Protecting Dragon Scales the Empire had been accumulating for years'? You mean they've been collecting them since a long time ago?"
Leon only learned about the Empire recovering Heart-Protecting Dragon Scales after traveling 20 years into the future through a space rift.
But Master said the Empire had been doing it much earlier.
So how did Master know?
The old man was stunned at first, then thought for a bit and nodded, "Mm, probably about thirty years ago, I noticed the Empire was starting to take certain things from dragons. I didn't know back then that those were Heart-Protecting Dragon Scales."
"Then some things happened… which forced me to leave the Dragon Slayer Corps. After that, I stopped paying much attention to the Empire's movements."
Leon narrowed his eyes, "What happened?"
"That has nothing to do with what we're talking about now, Leon."
Master's answer was brief.
The implied meaning was: don't ask further.
Leon got the message and didn't pursue it.
Actually, he'd long suspected that the old man was keeping many things from him.
Judging from Master's reaction, it wasn't that he didn't intend to tell Leon, just that the time wasn't right.
Leon didn't know when the "right time" would be, but until then, he chose to trust Master.
"Then after losing the Heart-Protecting Dragon Scales, does the Empire have any new plans?", Leon asked.
"Mm. Not long after the lab explosion, there were frequent large carriage convoys going in and out of the Empire."
Master said, "Rebecca and I observed them up close. The carriages carried enchanted iron cages, and inside those cages were all high-risk-level dangerous beasts."
"Dangerous beasts?"
"Yes. The Empire normally hunts down dangerous beasts that threaten humans, but not with the frequency or efficiency we've seen recently."
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