Even talking with your beloved to distract yourself can't completely erase the pain of childbirth.
Watching the physicians around her bustling about, Rossweise couldn't help but be a little distracted.
Leon hastily stroked her cheek to keep her talking to him.
"Anything else? Whatever it is, I'll agree to it."
If it were the usual time, our upright, unyielding dragon-slaying hero wouldn't be the kind to let the mother dragon make demands so easily. Even a polite negotiation would take some tugging.
But the situation was special now: the pregnant woman outranked the heavens and earth, and during labor the pregnant woman outranked everyone even more. Leon had to do as his elder sister Isa said and agree to Rossweise's requests as much as possible.
Little did he know, poor Tom was once again being toyed with.
"Don't... don't rush me... hate you...", The queen's voice was weak, with a touch of coquettish anger and plaintiveness; her slightly furrowed brow made her look pitiable.
Leon immediately softened, "Okay, okay, I won't rush you. Take your time thinking, I'll listen the whole time."
Enduring the pain below, Rossweise closed her eyes, thought for a moment, and said, "I want you from now on... every day to treat me the way you treated me when I was pregnant."
"Uh... huh?"
"That is, if I say east, you don't go west. If I say one, you don't say two. Even if it's the middle of the night and I want an apple, you'll peel it and cut it into pieces and bring it on a plate..."
"Ah, this..."
"You hesitate, Leon. I hate you..."
"They say a woman is a princess for a day, an empress for ten months, and a servant for a lifetime."
"But I never was a princess for a day; I was only an empress for ten months and now I have to be your servant for life, boohoo... I hate you, I hate you."
Rossweise already had excellent acting skills, and with the pain of childbirth added, her tone and expression were truly heart-tugging.
"No, no, no," Leon shook his head like a rattle, holding his wife's hand and said sincerely, "I promise you, after you give birth, I'll treat you as well as I did when you were pregnant."
Although this "servant for life" line was a bit exaggerated, Leon thought she was just delirious from pain and talking nonsense.
He only needed to keep agreeing.
Anyway, once the baby was born, she'd probably... forget, right?
"Hmph... you'd better..."
"Mm-hm, I will, I definitely will."
"And... make me breakfast every day..."
"Well... isn't our usual? You do Monday, Wednesday, Friday; I do Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday; Sunday—"
They didn't have Sundays for breakfast, because they'd hand in assignments on Saturday until dawn and then sleep until noon on the next day.
"Idiot... I'm like this now, and you're still counting it out so clearly? Do you not love me anymore?"
"..."
He had the strange feeling of playing a stage-clear game.
Like you grind through mobs, gain experience, level up stats; the monsters on the way have lots of different skills and moves, and though many, you can barely handle them.
You finally reach the BOSS fight and find the boss uses all the mob skills, all buffed up.
And now, Rossweise was that end-level BOSS, the previous ten months were just Leon farming experience and levels.
"I love you, I love you, of course I love you," Leon cooed like soothing a child.
"Then you promise me, from now on you'll make breakfast."
"All right, all right, I'll make breakfast from now on. Happy, Your Majesty?"
Rossweise finally smiled in satisfaction.
Though the smile was still pale and weak, to be able to smile amid labor pain just showed how much this couple attracted each other, when they looked into each other's eyes, they'd naturally get lost in one another.
"I also want... I want you to wash my feet for me every day..."
"Okay."
"And clean my tail, too."
"Mhm."
"The first words you say when you wake up in the morning must be to me."
"Okay."
"And the last words before sleeping at night must be to me."
"Mm-hm, okay."
"When I cook with carrots, you're not allowed to dodge."
"Uh... uh? Tha-that's impossible!"
General Leon feared nothing and no one, except two things: carrots and eggplants.
Smell them and your head spins; eat them and you explode on the spot.
Back when he and Rossweise were enemies, that mother dragon tested him often with those two things.
"How... how is that not allowed? You dog of a man... you just said you'd agree to everything, and these are only a few requirements... and you're already backing out..."
"Hey, brother-in-law, Little Rose is really uncomfortable now, just promise her."
"... Fine, I promise you: when you make carrots, I won't sneak away."
"And when I make eggplant too."
Leon: [?_??]
"In winter, when I throw snowballs at you, you mustn't dodge."
"Every year you must celebrate my birthday, no whining about trouble."
"If I help you, you must say 'Thank you, Majesty'; if you help me, you must say 'Thank you, Majesty' too."
Leon raised an eyebrow, "Why do I have to say thank you when I help you?"
"Thank Majesty for giving you the opportunity to help."
"..."
Rossweise listed strange, odd requests; Leon kept agreeing with his mouth, but inside he was thinking:
'This... this isn't right, is it?'
Although he understood his current role was to divert Rossweise's attention during labor and ease her pain, and he was more than willing to do so, these requests from the mother dragon didn't sound like spur-of-the-moment ideas.
They felt like... premeditation.
Thinking this, Leon suddenly felt a chill at his back. He wanted to turn his head, because his intuition told him that if Rossweise really had premeditated this, then the scheming red dragon standing behind him must be the mastermind.
"Sister's husband."
But before Leon could turn, Isa's hand gently rested on his shoulder.
The red dragon queen leaned over, close to his ear, and lowered her voice, "Men must do as they say. You promised Little Rose all those things."
'Of course!'
'Of course!'
'When you two sisters get together, nothing good ever comes of it!'
General Leon closed his eyes in despair, did a short mental adjustment, and slowly opened them again.
"All right, I know, sis."
"Mhm, now you're Little Rose's good husband."
Isa was very satisfied with her brother-in-law; the little plot between her and her sister had succeeded.
But Rossweise, being Leon's wife for five or six years, knew this dog of a man better than Isa did. Seeing him agree so decisively with no flaring up or resistance...
Wasn't that a little too smooth?
Could it be that he actually—
"Uh! Sss..."
The pain of labor left Rossweise no time to think further.
"Your Majesty, deep breaths, follow my rhythm."
"Prince, the baby will be born soon. Please step aside and wait."
"Milan, hot water."
"Yes, head maid."
"Breathe, Your Majesty, breathe... yes, that's it."
"Look at me, Little Rose, hold my hand, it's okay, it'll be over soon."
"Your Majesty, use more strength, hold on."
"Blanket! Milan, quick, get blankets!"
"Blankets are coming, head maid!"
———
After some unknown amount of time, the quiet night was broken by the cry of a newborn.
The maids in the bedroom wept and embraced, celebrating the birth of a new Silver Dragon life.
At that moment, Leon and Rossweise also welcomed their fourth baby.
"Congratulations, Your Highness the Prince, mother and child are safe."
"Mother and child are safe... is it a girl?"
Head maid Anna nodded, "Yes, Your Highness, it's a very cute little princess."
Hearing that, Leon's eyes lit up and he quickly went to the bedside.
Rossweise lay exhausted on the bed, and beside her pillow lay the newborn baby.
Swaddled, she cried out loudly.
Just as with Little Light's birth, Leon's emotions were hard to put into simple words.
He half-squatted by the bed, held Rossweise's cold hand, and after glancing at the baby he turned his gaze back to his wife.
"You did well, Rossweise."
The queen gave a tired smile, half-opening her eyes, and in a weak voice said, "Look at the baby... so cute..."
"All right."
After confirming his wife was safe, Leon focused on the baby.
After crying for a while, the little dragon-girl stopped and lay quietly in the blanket, her bright eyes inspecting this strange, new world.
Only then did Leon notice the baby's eye color.
Pure, true red.
If Little Light's pink theme was the result of blending Rossweise's silver and big sister Isa's red; how to explain this pure crimson now?
'Sisterly genes triumphant?'
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