The queen cast a sidelong glance at her husband, silently noting down this "first-squat" grudge in her heart.
'What?'
'I can't be jealous, and I'm not even allowed to hold a grudge?'
Seriously.
While Rossweise was silently muttering in her heart, a tuft of pink hair entered her vision.
"Mama, hug~"
'Oh wow, looks like someone still misses me. So what if someone squatted down first and hugged the daughter? This is my daughter actively asking for a hug!'
'Way more advanced than yours!'
General Leon, who was currently snuggling with the kid, could never have guessed that his wife, who seemed noble and cold in public, could write a whole narrative essay in her mind while interacting with him.
The couple each carried a daughter and went up the steps.
Noah, seeing her parents walk over, straightened her posture, "Daddy, Mommy, you're back."
"Mm, did you take good care of your little sisters at home?"
Noah nodded with a smile, "I did, Daddy."
Leon, holding Luna in one arm, reached out and patted Noah's head with the other, "Noah is the best."
Little Miss Curly blushed and looked away.
Leon knew his eldest daughter very well, compared to asking things like "Were you good at home?" or "How's your magic coursework going?", Noah preferred Leon asking "Did you do a good job as an older sister and take care of your sisters?"
Because that made Noah feel like she was a grown-up too.
Of course, in some ways, she was indeed comparable to an adult, maybe even better than many adults.
The family of five, chatting and laughing, entered the sanctuary.
———
Dinner was prepared by the maids.
While Milan was serving the dishes, Rossweise noticed a smile lingering at the corners of her lips, as if something had made her happy.
Rossweise didn't ask much.
But when Milan brought the second round of dishes, she was still smiling.
Even though Rossweise was usually indifferent to the outside world, this sweet smile still stirred her curiosity.
"Milan."
"Yes, Your Majesty, is something wrong?", Milan stood by Rossweise's seat, slightly bowing.
"Did something happy happen to you?", Rossweise asked with a smile.
She tried to appear less serious, and her tone was very gentle.
Upon hearing this, a blush spread across Milan's face. She tidied her hair and said softly, "N-no, nothing, Your Majesty."
As soon as she finished speaking, Shirley somehow appeared from behind, slinging an arm around her best friend's shoulder, grinning, "Haven't you heard, Your Majesty? Milan is in love—mmph!"
Milan immediately covered Shirley's mouth, "What's a scout from the Guard Squad doing in our maid corps? Go back to your post!"
Rossweise's eyes lit up slightly, "Oh~ So love has come knocking."
General Leon, who was eating on the side, froze for a moment when he heard this, and inwardly grumbled, 'You dragon clan live for hundreds of years, and now love's just starting? Isn't that a bit late?'
"It's not like that, Your Majesty! J-just a bit of contact, that's all... the dishes are all served, please enjoy your meal."
With that, Milan pulled Shirley's hand and quickly left the dining hall, muttering, "Big mouth!"
Shirley giggled.
As the footsteps faded away, Rossweise turned her head back and looked at the food on her plate.
Milan had been in the maid corps for a long time, but she had never had any gossip spread about her.
And now she suddenly fell in love...
Could it be that when Rossweise had used her and Leon's "legendary love story" as promotion earlier, it resonated with the little maid?
Made her unable to suppress her yearning for a beautiful romance?
'Hmm~'
'Good, good, glorious are we Silver Dragons, every dragon shall share in this!'
"Hey, why are you giggling? You're not even in love," Leon snapped his fingers in front of Rossweise's nose.
Rossweise snapped back to reality, putting on a straight face, "I'm not in love, but I'm married. So what?"
That comeback rendered Leon speechless.
"Oh oh~ Mama's shy~", Little Light cheered from the side.
After a few jokes, dinner continued.
The three little ones quickly finished eating and went to the backyard to play games.
The couple took their time enjoying dinner.
"Speaking of which, when we were in the cave, you told your master that you wanted to practice Primordial Magic, and asked him to help find something," Rossweise asked, "Why didn't you just say it was me who wanted to practice?"
Leon put down his knife and fork, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and replied, "If I said you were the one who wanted to practice Primordial Magic, my master might overthink it. But if I said it was me, the old man would be more attentive and really help me out."
"So that's how it is."
Leon's eyes moved slightly, "Wait, don't tell me... you didn't think of that?"
Rossweise rolled her eyes at him, "Of course I thought of it. I just wanted to hear your answer."
"Then are you satisfied with my answer?"
"Not bad, I'm pretty satisfied."
She successfully activated the inherent skill "Stubborn Mouth" and successfully defused your provocation.
Leon chuckled, lowered his head, and fiddled with his fork.
The fork gently tapped the plate, making crisp, rhythmic sounds.
Not noisy, just a little motion to pass the time.
Rossweise, meanwhile, continued to eat at a relaxed pace.
"If you're full, why don't you go out and play with the girls?", Rossweise asked lightly.
Leon draped an arm over the chair back, lazily saying, "Too lazy to move."
"Too lazy? Hmph, or is it you're trying to fulfill your husbandly duty by staying to eat with your wife?"
"Ohhh—"
Leon's mouth twisted up to the sky, "Stop being so full of yourself, mother dragon. I just want to observe the Silver Dragon's eating habits."
"And then?"
"And then write a book. The title: Those Years I Was Captured by a Silver Dragon."
"Sounds like the kind of pirated book you'd find at a roadside stall."
"Haha, you're so funny, Your Majesty. Hurry up and eat your food."
Suppressing the wildly twitching corners of her mouth, Rossweise continued eating.
Soon, head maid Anna came to see them.
"Pardon the interruption, Your Majesty, Your Highness."
Just in time, Rossweise had also finished her meal.
Leon handed her two napkins. She took them, wiped her mouth, then looked at Anna, "What is it?"
"It's like this, Your Majesty. Not long ago, you encouraged everyone to fall in love freely and revitalize our race. Recently, the response has been very positive."
Anna said, "But... as you know, traditional dragons aren't very good at interacting with the opposite sex, let alone falling in love or expressing emotions."
Rossweise nodded thoughtfully, "Indeed. I didn't consider that."
"Mm, the past few days, quite a few people came to me, saying that since I've been by Your Majesty's side the longest, I must have learned a lot of romantic secrets from you and the prince. So they asked me to teach them."
Anna gave a wry smile and shook her head, "But I don't know anything about romance... so, Your Majesty, Your Highness, what do you think... would you personally share some valuable romantic experience with everyone?"
The couple looked at each other tacitly.
Then activated team voice chat.
Leon: 'What the heck do you mean by sharing experience? What can I even teach them? How to get captured by the enemy and then get her pregnant?'
Rossweise: 'Arranged marriage turning into love doesn't apply to everyone, so we have to take it step by step.'
Leon (?): 'You're seriously thinking about what I said, Your Majesty?'
Rossweise: 'I think Anna's suggestion is good. Since we started this, we can't just abandon them halfway, we need to fully teach them how to fall in love.'
Leon: You talk like you're some romance expert...
Rossweise: Don't I still have you?
Leon: Me? I never said I was going to help—
"It's settled then. Anna, tomorrow the prince and I will share our experience on this topic."
Leon: ?
'Fine, fine, mother dragon, have it your way!'
———
Evening, in the study.
The couple was discussing how to share their romantic experience with Rossweise's clansmen the next day.
Leon was deeply skeptical of this task.
"Your clansmen came to you sincerely for help, and you're giving them a fake romantic story in return. I think that's wrong."
"At a time like this, where do I go find real romantic experience? I'll just make do with yours."
"Bold! Mother dragon, I'm your legitimate husband, how is that just 'make do'?"
The queen crossed her arms and raised her brows, teasing, "One moment you say fake romance, the next you call yourself legitimate husband. You flip faces pretty fast, Casmodeous."
"When it comes to you and me, I have a very flexible evaluation standard."
Rossweise scoffed and shook her head, "Alright. Fake romance or legitimate marriage, we still have to summarize something tonight, or we'll have nothing to talk about tomorrow. That would be disappointing, and bad for our racial revitalization plan."
Leon sat in his chair, leisurely crossing his legs, "Then where does Her Majesty the Queen want to start summarizing from?"
"I don't really know how to share normal romantic stories... I'll check some novels."
Saying that, Rossweise walked to the bookshelf and grabbed a few romance novels.
Nowadays, romance novels are all about the same, with just a few standard steps: Meet, separate, reunite by coincidence, connect through some event, and finally hold hands, hug, and kiss.
Rossweise flipped for a while and found that the classic romance formulas didn't quite apply to her and Leon.
Her and Leon's meeting and relationship were pretty abstract.
So abstract that even to this day, she found it hard to believe.
"How do I beautify the way we met so that everyone can accept it?", Rossweise asked.
Leon furrowed his brows slightly and began to think. A moment later, he said quite seriously, "Isn't that easy? Just say you fell in love with me at first sight, chased me relentlessly for two years, and I finally agreed. Then—"
"Pfft! Leon, can you tell me what material your face is made of? I want to use it to reinforce the outer wall of my Silver Dragon Sanctuary, it'll be unbreakable!"
General Leon bared his teeth in a grin, then carefully analyzed for Rossweise, "I'm not making stuff up. Think about it, when you first entered the dungeon and saw me, what was the first thing you said?"
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