He looked at his precious daughter's knowingly mischievous smile, which gradually overlapped with that wicked grin of Rossweise in his memory.
'Oh Ghosty, no wonder you're truly my child. No matter how cold, cool, and arrogant you look on the outside, deep inside you still hide the same scheming side as your mom.'
'Baby, couldn't you have inherited a bit more of your dad's personality?'
'Look how honest your dad is, always speaks his mind, never pretends.'
"Daddy's throat isn't uncomfortable," Leon replied.
Noah tilted her head, her smile unfading, "Then why did you cough, Daddy?"
"Daddy's face suddenly got dry."
"Your face got dry, so did your throat get dry too?"
"Yeah, that's called a chain reaction."
"Oh oh, then what should we do, Daddy?"
"..."
"Why aren't you saying anything, Daddy?"
"So you're just not planning to give your old dad a kiss—", Before Leon could finish that complaint, Noah leaned over and gave him a light kiss on the cheek.
"Daddy, what were you about to say just now?", Noah still smiled, smiling like a little fox whose plan had succeeded.
Leon scratched his nose tip, turned his head away, and rubbed the ahoge on Moon's head in his arms, "N-Nothing."
Although the process was a little bumpy, in the end he still got a kiss from his daughter.
After that, they talked a bit more about the general arrangements for the play, then Noah took her younger sisters and went back to sleep.
The hot pot banquet also neared its end.
Leon and Rossweise strolled out of the yard.
"I won again," Rossweise suddenly said, with unmistakable pride and boastfulness in her tone.
Leon rolled his eyes at her, "What did you win again?"
"Noah kissed me first, then kissed you."
"That's because you were the one who made the final decision to join the play."
Leon began analyzing with sound reasoning, "If I had made the call, Noah definitely would've kissed me first."
"Tsk tsk tsk, that's not for sure," Rossweise crossed her arms, her tail tip proudly curling up slightly.
"Tch, not arguing with you."
Rossweise gave a small snort-laugh.
When the dog-man said "not arguing with you XX," it meant he admitted defeat in this round.
'Oh dear, who told our General Leon to be thin-skinned and too shy to admit it out loud~ As the wife, of course I should take care of him a little—'
Even a fake wife is still a wife. To get by day to day, she also has to shoulder some real wife responsibilities when necessary.
"Well then, let's get ready,"Ro ssweise said, "We're about to meet that legendary... Claudia."
———
On the weekend, the couple headed to Saint Heath Academy.
The daughters usually spent weekends at home, but with less than a month left until the academy's stage play competition, everyone had to rehearse overtime.
And the rehearsal location was an empty classroom at the academy.
As for why not rehearse at someone's home, the reason was simple:
Rehearsing a play couldn't be counted as a 'proper reason' for contact among dragons.
Especially for the 'leadership class' of each dragon tribe.
If they went to another tribe for rehearsal, whether someone might use the opportunity to stir up some 'political strife' among tribes was one thing;
But just saying, if during the rehearsal some important dragon member had an accident, it would be a very troublesome matter for both tribes.
So rehearsing the play at the academy was undoubtedly the best and most stable option.
There weren't too many students at the school over the weekend.
Most of the ones going back and forth were young dragons, mostly busy with graduation tasks, making use of every minute.
Occasionally, some dragonlings passed by the couple wearing all kinds of costumes.
Rossweise recognized that they weren't specific dragon tribe attire, they were probably prop costumes for play rehearsals too.
"When we see Claudia later, how are you planning to approach her?", Rossweise asked.
Leon had both hands in his pockets, looking ahead, strolling leisurely,
"I'll just chat normally as a parent first. Can't exactly just walk up and ask, 'Miss Claudia, do you know Tiger Lawrence? He's my master, what's your relationship?' right?"
Rossweise covered her mouth and laughed softly, "Then your first line to Claudia would probably be your last one too."
"Mm. The Sea Dragon Tribe has been secluded from the world for thirty years due to some reason, so they must be highly wary of outsiders."
Leon paused and added, "That being the case, it really is a miracle that Noah's classmate Helena managed to convince Claudia to join the play."
Rossweise shrugged, "That's not a miracle."
"Then what is it?"
The queen stopped in her tracks, turning to glance sideways at Leon, "It's a mother's support for her daughter."
Leon was stunned for a moment, then snorted and laughed, looking into her silver eyes, "Ever since Little Light was born, the wife-flavor on you is getting stronger and stronger. Now even when you talk, it's like you want to plaster 'I'm a mom of three' on your forehead."
Rossweise gave him a look, turned away, walking with a kick in her step and swaying her tail, saying leisurely, "It's not that exaggerated."
"I don't even have to look at you. Lady Dragon, you're definitely holding back laughter right now."
Rossweise's steps paused, and she quickly pressed down the corners of her mouth.
But that slight pause in her step still gave her away.
Leon smiled smugly, and said in mock regret,
"Sigh, I miss that cold queen who always wanted to get revenge on me back then."
"Hmph, if you really miss her that much, I can bring her back."
"No need."
Rossweise gave a playful shove to his arm.
The couple laughed and chatted all the way to the empty classroom Noah had mentioned.
The classroom door was open.
Leon stood at the doorway and glanced inside, finding that no adults were around, and the beloved daughters weren't there either.
Only a blue-haired girl was sweeping the classroom floor with a broom.
Leon was momentarily stunned, thinking they'd gone to the wrong room. He knocked on the door and asked, "Sorry to bother, is this Noah's group's rehearsal classroom?"
At the sound of his voice, the blue-haired girl turned her head.
Upon seeing the girl's face, Leon and Rossweise recognized her as the classmate Noah had brought home a while back, Helena.
Although blue hair was already quite distinctive among humans;
It wasn't that rare among dragons.
Just in the few years Leon had lived here, he'd seen all kinds of hair colors, of course, his favorite was silver.
And of course, liking silver had nothing to do with Rossweise (important note, this will be on the tsundere exam).
So the couple hadn't directly assumed she was Helena just now, to avoid the awkwardness of mistaking someone else, Leon knocked on the door.
"Uncle Leon, Auntie Rossweise, you're here~", Helena put down the broom in her hand and came forward to warmly greet them.
"Hello, Helena. Why are you the only one here? Where did Noah and the others go?"
"Oh, they went to get the props and costumes, they'll be right back."
"I see. You've already got props and costumes figured out, that means you're all really well-prepared," Rossweise said with a smile.
Helena nodded, "Mm-hmm! Because Noah really cares about every competition, we have to give our all for every rehearsal, and aim for a great result in the final performance."
Hearing the sea dragon girl say that, Rossweise leaned toward Leon's ear and whispered,
"You were just complaining that Noah didn't inherit more of your traits, well, here it is. Her obsession and desire for winning is inherited straight from you."
"As if you're not competitive yourself."
"How am I competitive?"
"You even compete with me over who our daughter kisses first."
"Tch~"
"Uncle, Auntie, please have a seat."
Helena brought out two chairs and poured two cups of hot water.
The couple sat down, and Helena handed over the script for the stage play.
Leon flipped through the script, the general plot was about the same as what Noah had said the other day.
A brave and skilled knight falls in love with a princess from an enemy country, and they eventually end up together.
"Helena, Noah said you wrote this script?", Rossweise asked.
"Mm-hmm, I did," Helena answered obediently.
"Oh, that's impressive, Helena. So young, and you already wrote a script with such complete structure and story."
Though while reading this script, Rossweise had the feeling she was reading an autobiography.
Still, she had to admit. It was truly impressive for a ten-year-old to write something this structurally sound.
"Ah, not really, Auntie~", Helena smiled modestly, a little embarrassed as she scratched her head, "When I was writing the script, my mom gave me a lot of inspiration."
Keyword caught: her mom.
The couple exchanged a glance, feeling that they could follow this thread to learn more about the mysterious Miss Claudia before rehearsal began.
"Your mom... she's good at writing these kinds of stories?", Rossweise asked.
"Hmm... I wouldn't say she's particularly good at it," Helena pulled up a chair and sat nearby, speaking slowly, "My mom often organizes and compiles ancient books and texts, so she's very skilled at word usage and rhythm control. As for this script..."
Helena sat on the chair, lightly swinging her long legs, beneath her school skirt were white stockings, bathed in sunlight, soft like half-melted ice cream.
She squinted with a smile, looking at Leon and Rossweise, "My mom said the inspiration for this script... came from life."
Hearing that, the couple couldn't help but draw in a sharp breath.
'Could it be that your Sea Dragon tribe also had some world-shaking, taboo-breaking human-dragon love story?'
'N-no way... right?'
Anyway, General Leon didn't really believe there could be a second "dragon rider" as brave and mighty as him in this world.
Rossweise, naturally, didn't believe it either.
But there was one thing she did feel was worth pondering.
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