But once he thought about how this father was only one year older than his daughters, he couldn't help but turn that sigh into, "Is this blossoming youth perhaps a little too blossoming?"
Leon shook his head, no longer wanting to think about these messy things.
He dragged a chair over to the side of the crystal and looked even more closely at the beauty inside.
She was still as beautiful as she was back then.
Actually, Leon hadn't seen Rossweise's sleeping face much, because when the two of them lived together back then, they almost always fell asleep at the same time.
And sometimes they would fool around until midnight or even early morning, and both would be exhausted, directly sleeping until dawn. Where would there be any energy left to admire the sleeping face of the person next to you?
However, Leon would occasionally see Rossweise taking a nap with her head down on a table when he passed by the sanctuary hall after lunch.
Just like back when he was in Dragon-Slaying Academy, and his classmates would get up too early, so they'd all catch up on sleep during morning self-study.
There was a bit of baby fat on her face. When she rested her cheek on her arm, the flesh would be squished out a little. It was very cute.
But that kind of short nap wasn't enough to allow Rossweise to fully relax. Her eyebrows would always be slightly furrowed. It was clear she wasn't sleeping well.
Several times, Leon got caught secretly watching Rossweise nap.
Rossweise said he was a voyeur.
He retorted that Rossweise drooled in her sleep.
Rossweise would never lose composure like that, so she asked back, ("Then where did the drool go? You wiped it?")
Leon smiled: ("I drank it.")
The queen: ("Ewww!!")
Sometimes the couple would have fun being a little "gross."
He stared at his wife in the crystal, her beautiful and delicate face, he just couldn't get enough of it.
How could she be this pretty—
In the past, whenever Leon secretly praised the mother dragon's looks in his heart, he would always deliberately nitpick afterward.
For example, 'She might be pretty, but she's hypocritical'.
Or, 'What's the use of looking so good? She's ruthless when arguing.'
But now.
He just wanted to silently praise his wife in his heart.
She was so beautiful, beautiful like a work of art that an artist spent their whole life creating.
"Rossweise, actually I… I'm not very good at talking to someone who's already asleep. But Noah and the others said that even though you're in a coma, you can still hear the sounds of the outside world."
Leon pressed his lips together, lowered his head, and awkwardly rubbed his palms, "I have a lot of things I want to say to you… To you, these words… I should have said them all twenty years ago. But back then… there wasn't much of a chance."
"Now there's a chance to say them, but I can't hear your response."
At this point, Leon paused, then gave a bitter smile and shook his head.
"Speaking of responses, back then I didn't say those things to you because I was afraid… that your response would be… rejection."
"I was really scared of being rejected by you."
"When leading soldiers into battle, I always told my subordinates: 'Better to make a mistake than do nothing at all.'"
"But when it came to my feelings for you… I became someone who would rather do nothing than make a mistake."
"Even daring to say these heartfelt things now is also… also because you're still in a coma."
Leon's bitter smile turned into a self-deprecating one, and the palms of his hands were rubbed red by himself.
"Really, Melkvei, every time I face you, all those words reach my mouth but I just can't say them."
"I think, this is all your fault."
"Who told you to look so good? And your smile is even better."
"I'm a straight man who's never been in love, and when I see a beauty like you, of course I panic. That's normal, right?"
"But logically, you're a dragon, and I'm a dragon slayer. No matter how pretty you are, I shouldn't have any improper thoughts about you."
"So maybe it's… you're just too beautiful."
Every single one of his sentences was sincerely praising his wife.
These compliments, if Rossweise were still awake, no matter what, he wouldn't be able to say them out loud.
Just like Leon said earlier, it's only while Rossweise is in a coma and unable to respond that he dares to speak his mind.
After showering his wife with a wave of praise, Leon stood up and patted the crystal.
"I'm going to find our daughters. I'll come back to see you later."
After speaking, Leon turned and left the dark room.
Once outside, he realized he still wasn't too familiar with the layout of this underground space.
So he could only wander aimlessly.
In the end, he really did find Little Light's research room.
Although it was called a research room, the conditions were still quite simple.
On both sides of the room were bookshelves filled with various ancient texts and literature on space magic and reversal magic;
In the middle was a super long stone table, with all sorts of formation materials and handwritten notes by Aurore scattered on it.
Hearing movement at the door, Aurore looked up and pushed her glasses up from the corner of her forehead, "Oh, Dad, are you looking for me?"
Leon shook his head, "No, I'm just wandering around."
"Alright, but my place is a bit messy, make yourself at home," With that, the scientist went back to her research.
"Mm."
Leon scratched the corner of his mouth and asked, "This reversal magic… is there anything I can help with?"
"These things I've been working on for over ten years. No matter how smart you are, Dad, you couldn't possibly catch up to my research progress in a short time."
"Is that so… Then Noah and the others aren't helping with your research?", Leon asked.
Aurore shook her head, "Because it's just the three of us here. If Big Sis and Second Sis both put all their effort into studying reversal magic, they wouldn't have time to practice their own magic."
"In other words, the two sisters are in charge of fighting, but I'm just a scientist. I don't have their kind of strength, so I can only handle the support work. That's what we agreed on from the start—division of labor."
"Oh~ I see."
But Noah being good at fighting, Leon already knew that;
Could Moon also 'go on missions'?
That little girl doesn't like fighting and killing, does she?
"So, Dad, you don't need to think about helping me. Just focus on restoring your strength. That 'Nine Gates Hell,' train it more, it's very powerful."
Leon shrugged, "Right now I can open the fifth gate."
"I'm at the eighth gate."
General Leon: ?
Really liked something Aurore K. Melkvei once said: I'm just a scientist, I don't have their kind of strength.
A top-tier body technique like the Nine Gates Hell is not something that can be trained just because one wants to.
Although it is called a "body technique," in the early stages of cultivation, it has extremely high demands on the user's precision in controlling magic power. A slight mistake during training could lead to the technique backfiring.
At worst, it would injure the muscles and bones; at worst, one would go straight into the ground.
Back then, when Leon opened the first gate, he even needed someone like Rossweise, who was at the Dragon King level, to assist him.
Moreover, the further one progresses in the Nine Gates Hell, the more difficult the cultivation becomes. The book clearly states that after the fifth gate, it's common to be stuck for several years without a breakthrough.
This is also the reason why General Leon, even with talent plus effort, speedran to the fifth gate but then experienced a sudden drop in progress afterward.
But his youngest daughter, at such a young age, had already opened the eighth gate...
Unless she started practicing the Nine Gates Hell when other little girls were still playing with dolls, it would be impossible to reach this level at only twenty years old.
"Then... Little Light, how old were you when you started practicing the Nine Gates Hell?", Leon asked.
A body technique like the Nine Gates Hell is different from magic.
With regular magic, as long as the magic circuits in the body have matured, one can officially start learning.
Ordinary young dragons generally begin to get exposed to magic around five or six years old; while Noah had started studying with Leon when she was barely over one.
But the prerequisite for training the Nine Gates Hell is that the body's physical strength must meet various standards.
Leon still remembered a few of those standards, like staying alive for twelve hours after being gravely injured and near death.
If Aurora really started training the Nine Gates Hell during childhood, how could her physical strength possibly meet such exaggerated standards?
Aurora thought for a moment, "Probably... when I was eight years old."
"Eight years old?", General Leon was shocked.
'That's f**king eight years old?'
"What's wrong with eight?", The pink-haired girl leaned closer.
Leon quickly waved his hands, "N-nothing... but those prerequisite requirements for the Nine Gates Hell, you had already met them at eight years old?"
The scientist chuckled, "I hadn't met them, but I had a good teacher."
"A good teacher?"
The first person Leon thought of was his master, that old man.
Because in this timeline without him, the daughters had learned about his true identity and past.
So it's very likely that Rossweise had told them about the master.
And since the Nine Gates Hell were originally given to Leon by the master, it's entirely possible that over eight years, the kids managed to contact the master through various means.
"Yeah."
Aurora said, "Someone you'd never guess, Dad."
Leon blinked, guessing, "An old man named Tiger Lawrence?"
"Not Grandpa Tiger."
Grandpa Tiger.
That affectionate title immediately made many things clear, at least confirming for Leon that the daughters had already met the master.
But this also raised another very important question:
How are the master, Rebecca, and Martin doing?
It had been twenty years, had they already left the Empire?
Or... had something unfortunate happened?
His thoughts jumped to this point, and Leon's expression suddenly grew heavy.
Aurora seemed to sense her old man's concern and quickly added, "The last time I saw Grandpa Tiger was a few years ago. He was already quite old and couldn't continue operating in the Empire, so Grandma Charlotte took him back to her hometown."
Charlotte was the name of Leon's master's wife.
Which meant, over these twenty years, the master and Rebecca had been secretly sabotaging things in the Empire?
That old man, knowing his beloved disciple had been sucked into a space rift and still didn't draw his sword to go fight the dog emperor, was already being pretty restrained.
If this were back in the old days, stirring the Empire into chaos wouldn't even be enough to vent his anger, he wouldn't rest until he made a big scene. [T/N: Just big scene not destroy? Fu*king pathetic]
"If it's not my master, then who is your good teacher?"
Anna? Isa? Rossweise's grandmother?
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