Leon heard and tentatively asked, "Then... should I step out for a bit?"
Grandmother shook her head, "It's fine. Leon, you can stay and listen too, it's no problem."
"Alright."
Rossweise sat upright with a solemn expression, "Grandma, go ahead."
Grandmother's expression was serious as she spoke slowly, "In fact, I had planned to return three years ago. Because I heard that the top-tier dragon-slaying army of the humans was planning to attack your territory. Leading them was that man in black armor. It is said that he is the strongest dragon slayer among humans. Before this, several Dragon Kings had already fallen by his hand."
Leon: 'Maybe I really should step out for a bit?'
'Old lady, you don't stab often, but when you do, it goes straight for the heart.'
The couple exchanged glances.
Rossweise shook her head almost imperceptibly, meaning, 'It's fine, keep listening.'
"As soon as I received the news, I planned to set out immediately. But at the time, I and a few other Dragon Kings were still conducting surveys in the extreme north of the continent. Even flying at full speed, it would take at least a month to return to the Silver Dragon territory."
"Luckily, 'Starwanderer Dragon King – Ravi' was also there at the time. He said he could use his space teleportation magic to send me part of the way, which would save about half the time."
"But it required a few days to prepare the teleportation array. I agreed."
"However, by the time Ravi's teleportation array was ready, another message arrived, saying that the Silver Dragon Queen had already defeated the human dragon-slaying army."
"So I gave up on the idea of returning."
The old lady narrowed her eyes slightly, reminiscing about the situation back then, "At the time, I was thinking, that man in black armor doesn't seem to be as powerful as the legends claim. How did he manage to kill so many Dragon Kings in a row? Was it just a coincidence?"
General Leon: 'Should I give you a live demonstration? Someone, fetch my black-gold war chariot!'
Sensing a trace of displeasure from the scoundrel, Rossweise quickly smoothed things over, "Ah, actually, that guy was really strong. I was just lucky to hold the territory."
Rossweise indeed felt gratified knowing that her grandmother had been keeping an eye on her and worrying about her. But if the conversation continued in this direction, someone might start getting heated.
Normally, if he got heated, Rossweise would just keep pushing his buttons for fun.
But with Grandmother here, if she got too emotional and said something wrong, leading Grandmother to suspect something, that wouldn't be worth it.
So… it was just to keep Grandmother from noticing, definitely not to protect the scoundrel.
"The next time I heard about you was during the invasion of the Crimson Flame Dragon King – Constantine."
At this, Grandmother looked up at Leon across from her.
"The messenger said that the Silver Dragon Queen did not personally take the battlefield. Instead, a person using thunder magic fought in her place. Thunder magic is quite rare among dragons. Generally, only some... minor dragon tribes' survivors are capable of using thunder magic, right, Leon?"
'Minor dragon tribes' survivors'—this was the background story Rossweise had fabricated for Leon. Just earlier, he had introduced himself to the old lady using this identity.
This explanation might fool outsiders, but with Grandmother, it didn't seem to work as well.
Judging by her tone, she didn't believe the background Leon had just introduced.
However, she didn't expose him outright but instead threw the question to Leon to see how he would respond.
Only then did Rossweise realize. Grandmother hadn't actually suspected Leon was human, but she was doubtful about the 'survivor of a minor dragon tribe' story.
So… when Grandmother said she didn't mind the background of her grandson-in-law, was she just humoring her granddaughter?
'Sigh, indeed, the older, the wiser,' Rossweise sighed silently in her heart.
"You're right, I killed Constantine."
A little out of Rossweise's expectations, he admitted it so directly.
But that was fine. There was nothing to hide in the first place. If he hesitated and beat around the bush, it would only make Grandmother more suspicious.
"At the time, Rossweise was about to give birth. Constantine had spies planted within the Silver Dragon clan who informed him of the timing, so he launched a surprise attack at that moment. To protect Rossweise and my soon-to-be-born child, I fought with everything I had and barely managed to defeat Constantine."
Fought with everything—meaning Constantine's life was on the line.
Barely—meaning it took a whole ten minutes to defeat him.
If he could store up more mana, five minutes would have been enough?
'Yeah, that's about right.'
Grandmother smiled and replied, "Leon, you don't have to be so tense. I won't pry too much into your past. Since Little Rose chose you, that means she trusts you."
Leon let out a slight breath and took the opportunity to glance at Rossweise again.
The beauty was smiling, a hint of pride in her expression.
'Stupid dragon, what are you so proud of? Keep it in check.'
Grandmother continued, "In just three short years, the Silver Dragon clan has suffered two large-scale attacks. This has given me a vague sense of foreboding."
"So I thought, once the northern survey was over, I would hurry back immediately."
"Fortunately, in the days that followed, I didn't hear of any more wars happening here, so I was able to relax a little."
"But… not long after, Starwanderer Dragon King – Ravi suddenly withdrew from the northern survey for unknown reasons."
"Without Ravi, who specialized in space magic, our survey couldn't continue, so we had to pause. I took the opportunity to return and visit you and Isa."
"On my way back, my informants also gathered some interesting news."
"For example… besides Ravi, two other Dragon Kings proficient in space magic, 'Black Sun Dragon King – Bly' and 'Chaos Dragon King – Jaggs' also suddenly disappeared. Yet, their clans remained stable as if nothing had happened."
Grandmother looked up and glanced at the couple, who were listening intently, but did not continue.
Rossweise immediately caught on and picked up where Grandmother left off, "The Dragon Kings disappeared, but their clans remained functioning normally, which means they made arrangements before leaving."
Grandmother nodded in satisfaction, "Exactly. I'm not sure if Ravi and the other two Dragon Kings' secretive actions are related to the recent attacks on your clan, but such important intelligence is something you ought to know."
A sudden secret gathering of multiple Dragon Kings was never a good sign.
Grandmother's intelligence was indeed crucial. At the very least, it gave Rossweise some time to prepare instead of being caught off guard by another crisis.
Rossweise asked more about Ravi, and Grandmother answered everything in detail.
Meanwhile, Leon mulled over the three names Grandmother mentioned: Ravi, Bly, Jaggs.
All of them…
He had never heard of them.
Just like… he had never heard of Constantine before, either.
'It's hard not to connect these old monsters…', Leon thought to himself.
.
.
.
That evening, Leon went to Rossweise's study.
She wasn't working overtime as usual but was instead writing a letter to her sister, Isa, informing her that their grandmother had returned and would be staying with her for a few days before heading to her sister's place, so Isa should prepare in advance.
Leon crossed his arms, leaning lazily against the study's doorframe, and slowly spoke while watching Rossweise writing at her desk, "The old Dragon King said she had some kind of survey operation in the Far North. What does that mean? Surveying what exactly?"
Without looking up, Rossweise continued writing, "Unlike humans, dragons don't follow a hereditary system, so my grandmother is not some 'old Dragon King.'"
After correcting the dog man's form of address for her elder, Rossweise picked up the finished letter, carefully placed it in an envelope, and continued, "As for the survey my grandmother mentioned in the Far North, I don't know either. I only know that she seemed to have been active there for many years now."
The Far North of the continent was practically a desolate wasteland, covered in ice and snow year-round, almost uninhabitable.
Even dragons couldn't survive there for long, let alone other races.
It was said that the ice layer in the Far North was so thick that even Constantine, the Crimson Flame Dragon King, who symbolized 'burning,' couldn't burn through it.
This claim was debatable. After all, no one knew if Constantine could actually break through it if he went all out—
But then again, no one would probably ever find out (lol).
So to Leon, there really didn't seem to be anything in the Far North worth the old lady and several other Dragon Kings surveying for decades.
Rossweise's thoughts were actually similar to Leon's. She figured her grandmother was just using the survey as an excuse.
In reality, what she was doing in the Far North, she wouldn't explain in detail.
Of course, since the old lady wasn't saying anything, the couple didn't ask further either.
After sealing the letter, Rossweise got up, slipped on her dragon-wing slippers, and walked to the balcony.
Leon followed behind her.
The message dragon perched on the balcony railing had been waiting for a while. Rossweise placed the envelope into the bamboo tube on its back, then gently patted its head.
The message dragon let out a soft chirp, flapped its wings, and soared into the night sky.
"About those 'Starwanderer Dragon King' and the other two Dragon Kings the old lady mentioned earlier. Do you have any clues?", Leon asked from behind her.
Rossweise leaned on the railing, her gaze drifting between the stars and the bright moon, "Those three are all very ancient Dragon Kings. Ravi is even a generation older than Constantine."
Leon nodded thoughtfully.
'Truly a bunch of old monsters.'
These three Dragon Kings had never crossed paths with him in all his years of war and battle.
He had no idea how strong they were.
But if they were all about as strong as Constantine... then there wasn't much to worry about.
After all, just one blue bar of magic power was enough to insta-kill Constantine. That didn't mean that this Crimson Flame Dragon King actually required Leon to use his full power.
To put it simply: A top student and a genius both take the same exam. The top student scores 100, and so does the genius.
The top student smugly tells the genius, "See? Our levels are the same."
The genius calmly replies, "No. Scoring 100 is your limit. But scoring 100 is the limit of the test."
The point being, General Leon could use just one blue bar of magic power to one-shot Constantine, but if a few more Dragon Kings showed up, he could still try to take them all down together.
That was pure brute strength. What made Leon slightly more curious was the 'spatial magic' he had barely heard of before.
"The old lady said that Ravi suddenly withdrew from their survey operation, and not long after that, the other two Dragon Kings also disappeared. Their common trait is that they all know spatial magic."
Leon asked in a low voice, "Can you tell me what this spatial magic is all about?"
Humans had only been researching magic for a few hundred years.
But dragons had been at it for a thousand.
No matter how much knowledge Leon had accumulated, there were still things he couldn't have learned. Especially something that had never appeared in human history before.
Like this spatial magic.
"Oh, that... Even for dragons, spatial magic is considered a relatively new thing. The Starwanderer Dragon King, Ravi, became a Dragon King three hundred years ago by creating his own spatial magic."
Rossweise said, "Later on, some other Dragon Kings started following his lead and researching it too. They've made some progress. As you can see, although we don't know exactly what my grandmother and the others were doing in the Far North, they definitely needed Ravi's spatial magic. Once Ravi left, the operation was put on hold."
"Oh~ is that so...", Leon rubbed his chin, deep in thought.
Rossweise turned around, leaning against the balcony railing, and looked at Leon, "You seem to have something on your mind?"
After living together for so long, of course, she could tell at a glance when this dog man was scheming something.
Leon gave a faint smile, "It's not exactly a thought... more like a gut feeling."
Rossweise tilted her head, "A gut feeling?"
"Yeah. Constantine was a Dragon King I had never heard of before and never fought against. Even among your dragons, he hadn't been active for years. Yet the moment he showed up, he got completely exposed, revealing his secret dealings with the Empire."
Leon continued, "And those three Dragon Kings, Ravi and the others, I had never heard of them either. Are they also the type to keep a low profile within the dragon race?"
Leon's words made Rossweise's eyes light up as her thoughts clicked together, "Ravi and the others really don't appear much within the dragon race. Everyone assumed they were just focused on researching spatial magic. But now that you mention it... It really is easy to connect them to Constantine."
Leon spread his hands, "The logic of this speculation checks out, but we need some proof."
Rossweise knew what he meant, "You're talking about Constantine's trusted aide we mentioned before."
"Yeah. We've already been waiting for four months. The turmoil within the Crimson Flame Dragon clan should be settling down by now, right?"
He was getting impatient.
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