Hearing the door open, a cheerful voice, identical to Noah's, came from inside, "Sis, Little Light, you're finally back!"
"Did you find anything this time?"
"Mom's still the same, I've been insisting on keeping her company and chatting with her."
"Sis, I want to eat grilled steak. Could you go make some later… please. Dad, D-Dad?"
———
Luna was always the one who couldn't hide her thoughts and emotions. Ever since she was little, it had always been that way.
At the moment she saw Leon, she didn't suppress her emotions like her younger sister Little Light and calmly prove her identity;
Nor did she rush up to throw a punch at their old father like the eldest sister.
Her way of expressing emotion was always simple and sincere.
Luna almost used all her strength to throw herself into the man's arms, tears like a flood breaking through a dam, utterly unstoppable.
The spread of emotion was like a bomb, and Luna was the fuse that detonated it.
Watching the father and daughter reunited and crying after twenty years, Aurora lowered her head, took off her glasses, and quietly wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes;
Noah had both hands in the pockets of her jacket, biting her lip, her pupils trembling, and in the end, she simply turned her head away.
Leon gently stroked Luna's hair, just like when she was a little girl.
Her ahoge was still there, and her facial features were just as delicate as Noah's now, but even though the two sisters had exactly the same face, Noah looked like a beautiful and cool mature big sister, while Luna seemed more like the sweet girl next door.
Luna also hadn't cut her hair short like Noah.
She kept it long, just like Rossweise's radiant hair that shone like the Milky Way.
After crying in her father's arms for a while, Luna sniffled and backed away, the ahoge on top of her head bouncing with the rhythm of her sniffling.
Leon smiled and patted Luna on the shoulder, "You've gotten prettier, Luna."
"Dad, you… haven't changed much, still the same as twenty years ago."
The pink-haired goofball nearby composed herself, put on her glasses, and interjected, "Dad, why did you only compliment second sis for getting prettier? What about me and big sis?"
"Ah, this…", Leon realized it. She was stirring the pot.
"Luna and I are twins, complimenting her is the same as complimenting me," Noah leaned against the stone wall, playing the cool sister seriously, "So the only one he didn't compliment is you, Little Light."
The scientist was stunned, 'Big sis has a point.'
And so, the fire-starter goofball was actually the first one to go red with heat, "Oh wow, you old bastard. So just one uppercut wasn't enough to make you remember your love for your youngest daughter, huh?"
Leon scratched his head and chuckled awkwardly, having no choice but to patch up his earlier comment, "You're all beautiful. Didn't I faint the moment I saw you two? I didn't get the chance to compliment you yet."
Luna blinked her big beautiful eyes and looked at Leon, "Dad, why did you faint?"
"..."
'Baby, you're still just as curious as you were back then.'
"It's nothing, just a bit tired, that's all."
Leon casually made up a lie.
Getting knocked out by your daughters… that kind of thing is better left untold.
Still, the fact that Luna didn't punch him like her sisters did when she saw him made Leon quite relieved.
See? This is a real little cotton-padded jacket.
Those two? Pure thorny armor.
"Alright, Dad. Next… it's time to see her."
Leon restrained the smile on his face and became serious.
He knew exactly who Aurora meant.
Leon nodded, "Alright."
"Mom's in the innermost room, let's go."
The three sisters led the way, Leon followed behind them.
From the entrance to the innermost room wasn't actually that far. After all, it was just an underground space, not very big, barely enough for the daily living of one or two people.
But even in that short walk, with every step Leon took, his heart grew heavier.
Clearly, he was already so close to Rossweise, yet the unease in his heart only grew stronger.
Suddenly, he recalled something Luna had said earlier through the door when the sisters brought him into the underground space:
"Mom's still the same, I've been insisting on chatting with her."
'Still the same, what does that mean?'
'Why use such a strange phrase like "chatting with her"?'
'That dumb dragon… what on earth happened to her?'
Too many questions in his mind, like a mountain threatening to crush him.
Leon tried his best to regulate his breathing, calming himself down.
"We're here."
The three sisters stopped in front of a stone door.
This time, the stone door wasn't some illusion magic. Aurora raised her hand, pulled a hidden mechanism on the wall, and the stone door slowly opened to both sides.
Behind the door was a small room, torches lighting up the walls on either side.
In the center of the room stood a chair.
Directly in front of the chair lay a horizontal slab of about two meters… a crystal.
The light at the entrance was dim, Leon couldn't make out the details.
However, once the daughters led him inside the room, and he clearly saw the crystal. He was struck like lightning and froze in place.
Inside the crystal, a silver-haired beauty had her eyes gently closed, hands crossed over her abdomen, a photograph pressed beneath her palms.
She was quiet, so quiet she looked like she was merely asleep.
But who would sleep soundly in some inexplicable crystal like this?
The unease in his heart finally exploded, instantly overwhelming Leon's entire being.
Leon felt chilled all over, his spine unable to bear the weight of his body, about to collapse at any moment.
His eyes widened, staring at his wife inside the crystal. He opened his mouth, but all the words were stuck in his throat like stones.
Couldn't swallow, couldn't speak.
Almost suffocating.
Leon reached out, his hand trembling uncontrollably.
Just placing his hand on the crystal took everything he had.
The crystal was cold, like his gradually chilling heart.
"Rossweise… Rossweise…", Even his voice trembled.
Noah stepped forward, looking at her 'sleeping' mother, and slowly said, "You disappeared into the spatial rift alone to stop the disaster, then vanished without a trace. No one knew whether you were still alive."
"After that, Mom fell into a slump, spiraled downward, numbing herself every day with alcohol."
"Seeing her like that reminded me of when she had just given birth to me and Luna. She was also out of it, always staring blankly at the unconscious you."
"But this time, it was different."
"She had no one to stare at blankly anymore, didn't know whether the long wait would ever end."
"No one could understand the pain and sadness she felt from losing you. Anna said that without you, she became the loneliest king on the throne."
Noah calmly spoke the entire truth. For this moment, for every day of the past twenty years, she had been practicing these words silently in her heart.
All just to speak them word for word when Leon returned.
"Later, Mom stopped drinking and returned to work."
"We thought she had moved on from the sorrow, but that wasn't the case."
"She worked like mad, sleeping less than six hours a week, no makeup, no socializing, no heart-to-heart talks with Aunt Isa, rejecting everything from the outside world."
"That's when we realized she hadn't adjusted at all, but had fallen even deeper. Alcohol no longer worked on her; only insane work could divert her attention."
At this point, Noah paused and turned to look at Leon.
The man's face was already full of regret and guilt.
He was on the verge of collapse. Noah quickly slowed her speech and shifted to another topic.
"Do you know why I tried so hard to become strong when I was little?"
Leon looked at her and shook his head.
"For you guys."
Noah said, "I thought that only if I became strong could I stop you from leaving us and stop Mom from showing that sad face again. But in the end, I didn't accomplish either of those things."
"You disappeared into the spatial rift; Mom cried every day."
"Ever since I was little, the thing I feared most was this family falling apart. Even if it had once been built on lies."
"But like you said, the appearance of family might be false, but the love between family members is very real."
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly, as if adjusting her emotions.
"In the sixth month after you disappeared, the Silver Dragon Clan was attacked again."
"Two dragon kings, plus a human named Nacho Salaman, attacked us day and night."
"Aunt Isa was also surrounded and couldn't help."
"In the end, Mom killed one of the dragon kings, but by then, she was already exhausted and no match for the other."
"But miraculously, in the final moment, she erupted with unbelievable power and destroyed the careless dragon king in one blow."
"However, that move wasn't a life-for-life self-destruction of her Heart-Guarding Dragon Scales. Mom didn't die, but she became so weak she couldn't even get out of bed."
"She realized that this wouldn't be the last time the Empire and dragon clans tried to wipe out the Silver Dragons. But as the Dragon King, she could no longer fight, and there was no one in the clan fit to inherit the throne."
"So Mom disbanded the clan, sending everyone into hiding. Only that way could most people survive. But Anna, Sister Shirley, and the others didn't leave. They said they'd stay with Mom until the very end."
"During the time Mom was bedridden, she told us sisters the story between you and her. From meeting, to knowing each other, to finally… falling in love."
"She said she didn't really understand what love between a man and a woman was, but she thought she probably loved you."
"She said she would wait for you, until you came home and told her with your own mouth that you loved her."
"She wanted to hear your confession, face to face, not just some heartfelt emotion in a life-or-death moment."
"But…"
Noah reached out and gently stroked the crystal.
"She never got to hear it. The sun and moon took turns in her window, but the you she longed for never came back. That move that killed the enemy wasn't powered by the Heart-Guarding Dragon Scales, but a miracle created by a mother at the edge of death."
"And the cost of that miracle… was falling into a deep sleep."
"Mom's final words to us were to live no matter what, until our father came home."
"Because she believed. As long as you were here, everything would change."
"Later, Great-Grandmother returned. She created this crystal for Mom. It can preserve her bodily functions. As long as she wakes up and uses even a little power, the crystal can be broken from the inside."
"Of course, it can also be opened with certain external magic commands."
"Great-Grandmother said that even though Mom is asleep, she should still be able to hear our voices."
"So Luna has always been talking to her. She doesn't want Mom to be alone, trapped in a dream of longing for you."
"For the past twenty years, Great-Grandmother and Aunt Isa have been searching for a way to wake Mom up; and we've been waiting for you, trying another way to change everything."
Luna dragged the only chair in the room behind Leon, then tugged at his sleeve, signaling him to sit down.
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