"Let's go inside and have a look," Leon said.
"Yes, Captain."
The three of them stepped into the courtyard.
A few children noticed them.
"Hello, may I ask what you're here for?", A child who looked just a little older than the others asked politely.
But even "a little older" wasn't much. His big, innocent eyes carried a bit of shyness.
Rebecca stepped forward, half-squatted, and smiled at the child, "Little one, can you guess what we came here to do?"
"Hmm... Auntie, you're so young, you probably aren't here to handle adoption, right?"
Rebecca Σ( ° △ °|||): "A-Auntie..."
"Yes, what's wrong, Auntie?", The child lifted his innocent little face.
"Hahahahahahaha...", From behind came Leon's unrestrained laughter.
Rebecca slowly, mechanically turned her head.
There was that damned captain, one hand on his stomach, the other slapping Martin's shoulder as he laughed and said, "She used to hate most when people treated her as underage, and now her wish has come true, Rebecca Auntie."
Even Martin, who usually stood on Rebecca's side, was secretly holding back a laugh, "Cap-Captain... don't laugh anymore don't laugh anymore—pff—sh—she's going to shoot us in the head with her pistol later."
Rebecca couldn't be bothered with the two idiots. She turned back to the child.
"Little one, you need to know the difference between 'sister' and 'auntie.'"
The child tilted his head, "How do I tell?"
"Like me, a young and beautiful girl, full of energy and vitality from head to toe. Do you think I should be called Auntie? Or... Sis! Ter! ~"
Rebecca gritted her teeth on the word "sister." She refused to believe such a cute, clever child wouldn't get her meaning.
But the child thought for a moment, then answered seriously, "I know now, Auntie."
"..."
Rebecca accepted this reality, "So you really can't tell the difference between sister and auntie, huh..."
"Mm..."
"Aki, time for dinner, let me receive the guests."
"Okay, Sister Sharon~"
That one sweet "Sister Sharon" instantly sent the twin-tailed girl into boiling rage, "So you can tell! That means you definitely did it on purpose just now! You little brat!"
Sister Sharon came over, smiling apologetically, "Sorry, Miss Rebecca, maybe she got a little nervous seeing strangers."
As Leon's teammate and a core member of the Lionheart Society, after the fall of the Kant regime, Rebecca often appeared in the Empire's public eye.
So it wasn't surprising Sharon recognized her.
"Strangers? This cute face of mine was on the newspapers every day not long ago, how could I be a stranger?"
"Alright, don't take it seriously with a child," Leon said, stepping forward to greet Sharon.
"Hey, long time no see," Seeing that it was Leon, a spark of surprise lit up in Sharon's big eyes.
"Sorry, Leon-bro, it's a bit late and I didn't see clearly it was you."
"It's fine."
Sharon couldn't hide her excitement, stepping closer with hopeful eyes, "Leon-bro, did you come back to the Empire this time just to see us?"
Leon scratched his temple, "Actually... I had some other things to handle. But I really did plan to come here and visit you and Teacher Caroline before I came back."
Caroline was the nun teacher who had raised Leon since he was little.
It was also she who had picked up the abandoned Leon on that rainy night more than twenty years ago.
On the eve of the Empire's final battle, Caroline had recognized the disguised Leon, but never exposed him.
She was practically another mother to him, helping him build a very proper outlook and character during childhood.
"Oh, I see," Sharon nodded, "Then I'll go call Teacher Caroline."
"No need, let's go together."
"Mm, okay!"
Sharon led them toward the church.
The other teachers had all gone to eat with the children, leaving only Caroline still in the church, praying before the statue.
She had the habit of eating last. Whether in the days when the Empire oppressed them, or now that they were free, Caroline always wanted the children to eat more.
Hearing footsteps, Caroline turned her head.
Seeing Leon, she looked both happy and surprised.
"Leon? What brings you here?", Caroline stood at once and came forward.
"Oh, I came back to the Empire to deal with some things, and also to visit you all."
"I see... Then have you eaten yet? If not, eat with us later."
After a pause, Caroline teased, "I just hope you can still stomach the orphanage's food."
"Of course I can, how could I not. I've eaten it since I was little."
Caroline nodded, then looked at the two behind Leon and greeted them politely, "Hello, Miss Rebecca, Mr. Martin."
Martin gave a slight nod, "Hello, Teacher Caroline."
"Sit down, the children will take a while to finish."
"Alright."
The group sat and began to chat.
"After that battle in the Empire, I haven't seen you for some time. How's your leg?", Caroline still remembered last time Leon had ended the battle in a wheelchair.
So naturally, on reunion, this was what she cared about most.
Leon grinned and kicked his right leg, "It's fine now, teacher. It moves freely."
"That's good, that's good. So, during the time you weren't in the Empire, you were always with... with... Sharon, what was that beautiful lady's name again?"
"Rossweise."
"Oh right, Rossweise. You've been staying with Miss Rossweise?"
Leon scratched his hair, "Y-yeah..."
For some reason, hearing his wife's name followed by "Miss" felt strange.
Especially coming from Teacher Caroline's mouth. It carried a subtle sense of wrongness.
But then, she probably just didn't know what else to call that mother dragon, so "Miss" was the only word she could use.
"Leon-bro, you really... really married that Silver Dragon Queen?", Sharon still found it hard to believe that her childhood friend had actually married a dragon.
"Mm... after the Empire framed me back then, a lot of... complicated things happened. Round and round, and in the end, Rossweise and I... just ended up together."
Long story short, this was as far as he could go.
Any further, and it wouldn't really be suitable for children.
"Ah... that, that's really... amazing," Sharon could only use "amazing" to describe her Leon-bro.
Slay dragons before, lay with dragons now, was there even a word in the world to describe such an absurd life?
"Not just married, Sharon, your Leon-bro already has three kids!", Rebecca added fuel to the fire at the side.
As expected, Sharon was shocked, "Th-three kids? Were... were they adopted?"
The young nun still clung to a tiny shred of "my Leon-bro can't possibly be that insane."
But when Leon shook his head to deny adoption, it shattered the last bit of hope.
"H-humans and dragons... can actually have children...", Sharon deflated.
Back when she learned Leon was married, she had secretly taken a long time to accept it.
Now, knowing he not only married, but also had kids, three of them, she was completely crushed.
"Do you have photos?", Caroline asked.
"Oh, yes."
Leon pulled last night's photos from his inner pocket and handed them over.
Caroline took the photos, and Sharon leaned in curiously.
"Waa~ so cute! So dragon kids are this cute when they're little? I always thought they were all fierce and scary from birth."
Leon gave a bitter laugh, "Ahahaha~ really?"
Caroline looked at the three little ones in the photos, silent for a moment, then smiled gently.
"Such beautiful daughters, Leon. Their eyes really resemble yours when you were small."
"The captain as a kid?"
At the mention of Leon's childhood, Rebecca perked up, "What was the captain like as a kid?"
"Was he also like now, cocky, dumb, and a bit straight in the head?"
Caroline chuckled behind her hand, "Not really. Leon was actually very clever when he was little."
Rebecca nodded thoughtfully, then asked again, "So how did you pick him up back then?"
"That... it was a stormy night, thunder and lightning, terrifying, the biggest storm I've ever seen."
Caroline said, "That night, I had just gone to visit a child who'd been adopted. When I got back to the orphanage gate, braving the rain, I saw a little basket there."
"When I walked over, there was a baby boy inside, just born not long ago."
"But the strange thing was, in such a wild thunderstorm, he wasn't crying at all. He just lay there quietly, like he was waiting for someone."
"Abandoned babies weren't rare at the orphanage, so I carried him back."
"At that time, I was reading a novel, The Lion's Voice. The main character was a little abandoned lion cub, who never cried, as if destined from birth to be a king."
"So I gave this abandoned child the name..."
"Leon Casmodeous."
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