Chapter 185: Leon Is Reminiscing

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Rebecca instantly pulled a pistol from behind her waist and pressed it against Leon's temple, "Old Tiger, step aside. I'll clean up the house right now and shoot this traitor who colludes with the enemy!"

Tiger remained calm. He knew Rebecca was just joking. Her gun's safety was still on, and her index finger was far from the trigger.

Crazy as she was, this girl still had her limits.

"Before you shoot him, why not listen to what he has to say?", Tiger said, "When the Silver Dragon King came to find me a year ago, he didn't tell me any details about you two."

"Master… can we talk about Constantine first before discussing me and Rossweise?"

"Constantine is already dead. What's there to talk about? You and the Silver Dragon King, however, are still alive. Now tell us, how did you two end up together? Who pursued whom first?", Back when he met Rossweise, Tiger had held back his curiosity to maintain his dignity and presence. He hadn't asked too much about her relationship with Leon.

But now, since his disciple had returned, and they were all family, there was no need for pretense anymore.

Time for an interrogation.

Leon glanced at his master, then at Rebecca, who outwardly claimed she was going to clean house but was actually eager to hear the gossip. He sighed inwardly.

It seemed that unless he spilled the "shameful" history between him and Rossweise, these two wouldn't let him off today.

"…I guess she pursued me first," Leon said.

"Oh? My disciple actually has such charm? Tell me, how did she chase after you?", Leon answered straightforwardly, "By imprisoning me."

Rebecca was thrilled: "Exciting!"

But the master was older and naturally didn't understand what "imprisonment" meant in modern romance.

'Still, it seems… quite beautiful?'

A dragon king falling in love with a human, afraid of losing him, so she imprisoned him.

'Yes… that must be how it worked', Tiger thought.

"When the Silver Dragon Queen met me before, she left me a photo," As he spoke, Tiger took out a folded photo from his pocket. When he unfolded it, it was a family portrait of Leon and his family.

Rebecca leaned over curiously.

She also wanted to see just how stunningly beautiful this dragon queen was to make her dense and straight-laced captain fall for her.

One look, and Rebecca exclaimed, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, she's really a beauty."

Leon raised an eyebrow, "She even gave you the photo?"

"Yes. At first, I just thought it was already a miracle that you were alive. Whether you were missing limbs or had suffered inhuman torture, as long as you were breathing, that was good enough."

Tiger gazed at Leon in the photo, then at the two little dragon girls. A gratified smile appeared on his lips, "But I never expected you to be living so well, not only marrying the Silver Dragon Queen but also having two such adorable daughters."

Pausing for a moment, the master muttered under his breath, "So it seems that humans and dragons really don't have reproductive barriers…"

"But, Captain, this little girl without an ahoge looks pretty grumpy," Rebecca pointed at Noah in the photo.

"Ah… Noah had some misunderstandings about me back then. But later, when we cleared things up, she started to like me."

"Her name is Noah? What about this one?", Tiger had kept the photo for a year, but he didn't know the names of his two adorable granddaughters.

"Luna, it means 'the Moon.'"

"Oh, good, good, a great name."

Leon pursed his lips, rubbed his hands, and asked, "Master, can I take a look at the photo?"

"Sure, here."

Tiger handed the photo over.

Leon took it, pinching the corner, and lowered his eyes to carefully examine it.

In the photo, he and Rossweise were forming a heart shape, him with his hands, and her with her tail. It was a romantic pose, according to the photographer.

But back then, they had only found it awkward and embarrassing.

Now, looking back… it was indeed quite romantic.

A human and a dragon, using their own ways to form a heart shape, how romantic.

At that time, Rossweise and Leon didn't get along well. She was always thinking of ways to make his life miserable.

Noah also had misunderstandings about him, always keeping a cold little face and ignoring him.

Only Luna would follow him around sweetly calling him "Daddy."

It had already been a year, but looking back, those memories were still vivid.

This photo marked the beginning of their "fake" family, carrying some of Leon's most cherished memories.

Of course, he didn't want those days to just be a memory.

If possible, he wanted them to continue, what was wrong with that?

Leon's fingers lightly brushed over the faces of his two daughters, then slowly moved to Rossweise's face.

Silver hair, silver eyes, an unmatched beauty, she was so beautiful, like someone who had walked out of a painting.

Staring at the photo for a long time, Leon smiled.

Seeing their captain acting strange, Rebecca leaned toward Tiger and whispered, "What's wrong with him?"

"Isn't it obvious? He's reminiscing."

As expected of a master, he immediately saw through it, experienced and wise.

After a brief moment of nostalgia, Leon returned the family photo to his master.

Even while risking his life in the Empire, his master never forgot to carry this photo with him. That must mean the old man really liked these two granddaughters he had never met.

Unfortunately, Leon's younger daughter had just been born not long ago. Before he even had the chance to take some pictures of her, he had already returned to the Empire to help his master. Otherwise, he would have shown the little one to him as well.

When people reach a certain age, they stop thinking about themselves or even their own children. Instead, they start thinking about their grandchildren.

That's the whole idea of skipping a generation when it comes to affection.

Tiger carefully put the photo away and returned to the main topic, "You just said Constantine invaded the Silver Dragon Clan?"

Leon nodded, "Yeah. I don't know if Constantine deliberately chose to attack the Silver Dragons when Rossweise was at her weakest, or if it was just a coincidence. There isn't enough information, so I can't speculate too much. But Rossweise did remind me of something."

"What is it?"

"Constantine started stirring up trouble and waging war within the Dragon Clan about a year ago. And, Master, you also returned to the Empire a year ago."

Leon's expression was serious. In fact, when Rossweise pointed this out to him, he had already made the connection.

It was just that… he didn't dare follow this line of thinking any further.

Because if he did, the conclusion he might reach was one he couldn't accept.

Seeing Leon's expression, Tiger vaguely guessed what his disciple was about to say, "Are you suggesting… that the Empire and Constantine… had some kind of collaboration?"

Rebecca raised her hand, "Wait, wait! You two are jumping straight from clues to conclusions. Is there no logical reasoning in between? I don't get it. How does Tiger's return to the Empire a year ago have anything to do with Constantine causing trouble among the Dragons?"

Leon looked at Rebecca and patiently explained,

"Constantine was creating war and conflict as a distraction. His true goal wasn't to conquer other Dragon Clans, his target was always the Silver Dragons. Before launching the full attack, he even stationed some forces at the Silver Dragons' kin, the Red Dragons, to feign aggression against them."

"While everyone thought Constantine was acting like a mad dragon, picking fights everywhere, he suddenly gathered the elite troops of the Crimson Flame Dragon Clan and launched a lightning-fast strike against the Silver Dragons. He even showed up on the battlefield himself to ensure absolute victory."

"But when I fought him, he recognized me as a human. Yet among the Dragons, only Rossweise knows I'm human. There's no way she would've told Constantine, there's absolutely no reason for her to do so."

"So, if no Dragons other than Rossweise knew this secret, then the only other possibility is… the Empire."

"Three years ago, during the Battle of the Silver Dragons, I was betrayed by an insider and severely wounded. My comrades had no choice but to leave me behind. After the battle, everyone must have assumed I was dead, even you and Mistress thought so. Even I believed it."

"But who could've predicted that not only did I survive, but I also managed to contact you two years later?"

"When you learned that I was alive, you returned to the Empire to clear my name of the false charge of treason. But the Empire insisted that 'a dead man should stay dead and take the blame in silence.' Because of that, they even framed you for murder."

"So, just like you said earlier, you've been pressuring the Empire all year, trying to force them to compromise. But the people in the Empire aren't fools. A retired, secluded old man wouldn't suddenly develop an obsession with clearing his disciple's name."

"That means they might have already guessed that I wasn't actually dead. So, they sent Constantine to create chaos among the Dragons and eventually attack the Silver Dragons, just to completely eliminate me."

"And after I killed Constantine, the Empire must have panicked. They had to eliminate you as well, even resorting to unleashing dangerous creatures they had tamed. Because they knew that if I returned to the Empire and reunited with you, I might uncover their dirty secrets."

"So, in summary:"

"First, the Empire and the Dragons are working together. Constantine was part of this collaboration, though we don't know if he was the only one."

"Second, the insider who betrayed me three years ago was likely acting under orders from the Empire. Simply using a 'dead man as a scapegoat' wouldn't be enough to justify all the effort they've put into trying to kill me."

Leon pieced together everything from the past three years, and Rebecca slowly absorbed and understood it.

His master remained silent, staring at the fire with a heavy expression, deep in thought.

Leon exhaled slowly. He had thought that saying all this out loud would bring him some relief, but it didn't.

Because these were only conclusions based on the current clues.

This was just the tip of the iceberg.

There were still countless unanswered questions.

Why was the Empire collaborating with the Dragons? What was their goal? And why were they so determined to kill Leon?

So many questions weighed on Leon like a mountain.

Adjusting his mindset, he looked at Rebecca, then at his master, and said, "So, my next step is to find the traitor who framed me back then and see if I can get any information about the Empire from them."

Tiger had no objections, "Alright. No matter what you do, I'll support you."

"Oh, I thought you were going to say, 'From now on, you are no longer my disciple, and I am no longer your master. If you cause trouble, don't use my name—' Ow, damn it!"

Tiger kicked over the small stool Leon was sitting on and cursed with a laugh, "You think I'm helping you? I'm helping myself. If anything happens to you, Mistress will cut me into pieces. And most importantly—"

Leon, now sitting on the ground, raised an eyebrow, "Most importantly?"

"If you die, who's going to put horseshoes on the donkey?"

"..."

Alright then. This was the hierarchy in Leon's human family:

Mistress > Donkey > Master > Leon

And among these two men at the bottom of the chain, one was completely controlled by his wife, and the other was in a long-distance relationship.

The sheer absurdity of it all was enough to make anyone laugh.

After this small joke, Leon turned to Rebecca.

His master was helping him because they were as close as father and son. Teaming up in the Empire was a given.

But Rebecca was just a former teammate.

Even though they had fought side by side countless times, defeating monsters and Dragons alike…

This time, they were facing something far darker.

Once they stepped into this abyss, there would be no turning back.

Meeting Leon's gaze, Rebecca already knew what he was about to say.

Before he could speak, the twin-tailed girl cut him off, "Captain, I already told you during the day, I abandoned you three years ago. But three years later, I won't leave you behind again. So this time, don't even think about pushing me away."

Leon sighed with a wry smile, "But this is really dangerous, far more than any battle we've faced before."

He could tell, this crazy girl still felt guilty for leaving him behind at the Silver Dragon Sanctuary.

She had carried that guilt for three years.

Now that Leon was back, she wanted to do everything she could to make up for it.

It didn't matter what Leon thought. Once Rebecca made a decision, nothing could change her mind, "No, Captain. I think the real danger is spending every day goofing off in the patrol squad."

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