Across the fire, Rebecca stared at the Captain, then leaned slightly, tilting toward Martin's ear, "If I'm not mistaken, that letter hasn't even been opened yet, right?"
"Mm."
"Then why does he look as happy as a guy about to be a dad?"
"...Maybe that's just how married men are."
On the side, Nacho, who was holding the map and planning tomorrow's search route, glanced at Rebecca and Martin, then at Leon.
He said nothing, lowered his head, and kept working.
Leon opened the envelope, shook the letter out, and slowly began to read.
Handwriting shows the person, Rossweise also had beautiful penmanship.
The firelight reflected against those delicate strokes, as if he were conversing with her directly.
The letter had no flowery phrases, no lengthy elaborations. Between the lines was only a wife's care and longing for her husband.
And when Leon saw the words "morning sickness," his eyes widened.
The "uncle smile" he had worn froze in place.
Rebecca noticed the captain's subtle change in expression.
Based on her experience, whenever the captain showed that kind of face, there were only two possibilities.
One: something extremely bad had happened.
Two: something extremely wonderful had happened.
"Hiss... could sis-in-law be upset that the captain's been away too long, and is planning to dump him?"
The more she thought about it, the more curious she became. Rebecca stood up, muttering as she circled the campfire, "No, I've got to sneak a peek."
At this moment, Leon was still stuck on the line "I started having morning sickness."
This is how it is for men married six years.
No matter how much noise goes on at home, it won't stir their hearts.
Except when the wife is pregnant.
Even General Leon couldn't remain calm when it came to his wife being pregnant.
No exaggeration. If they weren't in the wilderness right now, with Rebecca and the others around, Leon would definitely already be rolling on the ground clutching the envelope in excitement.
'Ah, a fourth child.'
'Ah, a baby.'
'Ah, one shot, one hit!'
'Ah—"
"Ah! Sis-in-law's going to have a baby again?"
"Wha—when did you sneak over here?"
'No wonder captain made that face just now.'
'Turns out he really is going to be a dad again.'
Leon jumped, but didn't rush to tuck the letter away.
After all, there wasn't anything shameful written on it, and if Rebecca saw, he could even show off a little affection.
Heh. Crazy loli stuck on the third floor, General Leon already chilling on the fifth.
"Captain, isn't your youngest daughter only three or four years old? Why the rush for a fourth kid already?"
Rebecca paused, then said in a tone like she'd seen through everything, "Oh~ I get it. You and sis-in-law really are going to have twelve kids, aren't you?"
Before Leon could even pop champagne for showing off, that one line, "twelve kids", made his kidneys ache.
"T-Twelve... what do you take your captain for, some kind of baby-making machine?"
Rebecca blinked her big pretty eyes, face serious, "Isn't that the case? Look, sis-in-law's a dragon, she can live for sooo many years. And you've transplanted her dragon scales, so you can live sooo many years too."
"And you've only been married six years, and already you've got three kids and one on the way."
"At this rate, in less than fifty years, your kids could form their own tribe!"
Leon's eye twitched.
He followed Rebecca's words with a little mental image.
Just imagine. If the whole house was full of his and Rossweise's kids, little tails wagging, some with silly hair tufts, some with cold little faces, or a whole gaggle of them watching from the side for fun.
Even just imagining it was terrifying, okay?
Leon shook his head, shooing away the messy thoughts. He carefully folded the letter, put it back in the envelope, then slipped it into the inner pocket of his coat, right against his heart.
"What, the captain's having another baby?", Martin had heard the commotion, and asked with delight.
Leon nodded, "Mm. My wife... she really is pregnant again."
"That's wonderful, congratulations, Captain."
Martin was genuinely happy for him, "Have you thought of a name for the new baby yet?"
Leon blinked, scratched at his temple, "Not yet."
"Eh, Captain, that's you being careless. Since you two are so good at having kids, you and sis-in-law should make a list of names in advance. Then just pick from the list each time. So convenient," Rebecca shot sharply.
Leon rolled his eyes at her, "Actually, to tell you the truth, I didn't settle on my third daughter's name until long after she was born. So... the fourth isn't urgent either. We'll decide after. It's not like the baby will have an opinion."
"Wow, Captain, you're a genius," Rebecca mocked.
Leon waved it off. He was in too good a mood tonight to bicker with her.
Instead, he turned to Nacho, "How far are we from where Shadow was last seen?"
Nacho was still looking at the map, "What, found out your wife's pregnant and now you're more anxious to get home?"
"...You're right."
Admit it?
Of course he would admit it.
Why wouldn't he?
The dragoness wasn't here anyway, no need to act tough.
Nacho smiled, put away the map.
"Congratulations. Another baby on the way. As for Shadow, at our current pace, it'll take about a month."
Leon did a quick calculation, silently thinking, "A month... If we finish things by then, I might make it back right when she needs me most."
Nacho stood, "Five hours until dawn. I'll notify the others. Tomorrow, we'll pick up the pace."
"Alright, thanks."
"No problem."
Nacho went to gather the men, while Rebecca and Martin started debating what the captain's third baby should be named.
Leon slowly stood too, looking into the distance.
That was the direction of the Silver Dragon Clan.
Beneath the night sky, their far-apart dragon marks glimmered in response, carrying their longing for each other.
———
The pursuit of Shadow and Adam continued.
On the way south, they gathered more intel.
That evening, Leon, Rebecca, Martin, and Nacho sat by the fire, summarizing their findings.
"We met quite a few relatively friendly tribes on the way, and their information was all basically the same."
Leon said, "Not long ago, a giant dragon wandered here, then continued flying south."
"And their descriptions of the dragon were nearly identical."
"Majestic build, wings blocking the sky, scales dark gray, dragon eyes scarlet, but his left eye seemed injured, always closed."
Nacho nodded, following Leon's words, "During the human-dragon war, the southern border saw the least conflict. Because there are so many tribes here, involving them would only cause bigger trouble. Neither humans nor dragons wanted to fight here, only occasional scuffles."
"In other words, the chance of locals seeing dragons is very low."
"Yet they all saw the same dragon at nearly the same time."
"Leon, didn't your wife describe the Warhammer Dragon King, Adam, when she told you about him?"
Leon shook his head, "Adam's seniority among dragonkind is high. He often doesn't appear for decades, even centuries. And my wife is still very young, only just over two hundred years old, so it's normal she hasn't seen him."
Rebecca blinked, repeating Leon's words, "Very young, 'only' two hundred something."
She emphasized "only", "Captain, after living with sis-in-law, your understanding of age seems to be drifting away from us humans."
"What do you mean 'you humans'? Am I not human? Am I?"
Rebecca, who had been sitting between Leon and Martin, instinctively scooted closer to Martin.
"Well, since you've got sis-in-law's parts in you, whether you're human or dragon is hard to say now, Captain—ow!"
Leon flicked her forehead.
"Back to business."
Leon pulled the topic back, "So, we can only assume that the dragon those southern tribes saw was Adam. And this assumption is basically ninety percent certain. Combined with the intel we squeezed from the Dragon Scale transplant holders, Shadow and Adam really are active in this region."
"Mm. But the question is, what are they doing here?"
"That's why we came all this way."
Leon looked at the fire before him. Its light reflected in his black eyes, the determination and resolve within shining bright.
"Find out what they're doing. Then wipe out this remnant group completely."
"If necessary, we can skip the first step altogether."
Beside him, silent Martin watched the captain.
He wasn't much with words, but he was observant.
Martin could see, the captain was restless.
Truth be told, this southern mission reminded Martin of the days long ago, following the captain across battlefields in the Dragon-Slaying Army.
Marching by day, resting by night. Food came from hunting wild danger beasts, sometimes treating themselves to roast rabbit or roast pheasant, a simple joy.
But back then, the captain had been calm and steady, never rushing toward a battlefield.
Now though, in chasing Shadow and Adam, there was a faint impatience.
Or rather, anxiety.
Martin knew it was for the sake of protecting his family and the people he cherished, and he understood.
The captain was no longer that dragon-slayer who only had to climb into his black-gold chariot and cut down enemies.
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