Shut Up, Malevolent Dragon! I Don’t Want to Have Any More Children With You

Vol 9. Chapter 6: Weeping Hall Grand Filial Piety [Limited-Time Return Edition]

Although the Weeping Hall Grand Filial Piety had become the standing post-battle “must-do” for Leon and Rosvisser every time they finished a war—and there was a whole pile of matters to settle and people to place after this one too. Winnie, who handled the aftermath and tallied donations, still did her best to satisfy the children first.

Get the “summoning ceremony” done before anything else.

Isha and Valendna returned to their respective clans to handle postwar business.

Orion and the others stayed with the Red Flame Dragon Clan to work with Constantine on what to do next about the Blazing Sun Clan.

From Kaiser’s vantage point, though, there wasn’t really anywhere for him to land.

Go back with Isha to the Red Dragons?

No. They’d interacted a little, but not enough for Kaiser to “move in.”

Head to the White Dragons?

Or stay here with the Red Flames to lend a hand?

That didn’t seem right either—he knew the people around Old Con even less. For an ultimate social-anxiety case, staying here would be no different from hell.

So after turning it over, Kaiser could only follow Leon and temporarily head to the Silver Dragons for a while.

Leon’s family, of course, welcomed Kaiser.

Safina and her brother have sacrificed so much for Samael; this much Leon could help with.

On the way back with Kaiser in tow, Leon asked:

“By the {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} way, Kaiser, what did your sister mean, telling you to stay in Samael and really experience life?”

Leon had no idea how the siblings had spent all those years in the Time Palace.

From the look of it, after seeing countless worlds through the Time-Web, Safina had learned how beautiful this world was.

So she’d seized this opportunity to let Kaiser remain outside.

She couldn’t leave the Time Palace, but Kaiser could.

As a sister, Safina might be a bit scatterbrained, but she cared about her little brother. She couldn’t let him keep her company in that desolate palace forever, wasting time and life.

Leon could more or less grasp that, but what exactly did “really experience life” mean?

Sitting cross-legged, Kaiser was quiet for a moment, then answered:

“Probably to try things I never had in the Void.”

“Like what?”

Noa walked over and joined her dad and their “security guard.”

“Like—” Kaiser stalled.

“I know, I know!”

Moon had somehow appeared behind Noa, hand shooting up in excitement.

“Like pan-seared steak! The Void definitely doesn’t have good pan-seared steak, right?”

Kaiser blinked, then nodded.

“Seems like it doesn’t.”

“Wow—then you’re in luck, Teacher Kaiser! You’re about to eat the most authentic pan-seared steak!”

Kaiser patted his hair suddenly.

“Are you all constantly fighting or on the road? How do you have time to arrange servants to make pan-seared steak?”

Moon shook her head, raised one finger, and declared in all seriousness:

“You eat this pan-seared steak in the kitchen or the dining room, with a fire, a photo, and a whole bunch of maid sisters!”

A thin sheen of sweat touched Kaiser’s brow; he leaned back a little, suspicious.

“Is steak really that weird?”

“Oh~~ and you eat while it’s being seared~~”

“Even weirder!”

Noa rapped her sister lightly on the head, then said:

“You two aren’t talking about the same thing at all. But...”

She looked at Kaiser.

“If it’s food you haven’t tried, the menu at our house is definitely richer than what you had back in the Void or while working at Saint Heath Academy. If you can stay with us a while, Teacher...”

Kaiser inclined his head with polite grace.

“Thank you, Miss Noa.”

Miss Noa.

Hearing that form of address, the crown princess clearly froze.

It was the first time anyone had called her “Miss.” In the past it was always “Your Highness Noa” or “Lady Noa.”

So... what did the change in address mean.

“Looks like my precious girl is a big girl now.”

Leon set a hand gently on Noa’s shoulder, pleased.

“First time anyone called you Miss Noa, right?”

Noa blinked at her dad.

“Does that mean I’ve grown up?”

Leon’s eyes crinkled.

“Strictly by age, you’re not an adult yet. But if people naturally choose ‘Miss,’ that means your bearing and manners really are growing more adult.”

He wasn’t snowing her.

From the bottom of his heart, he’d felt that in her exchange with Kaiser just now Noa had shown the etiquette and hospitality of a “head of household,” the eldest daughter playing host.

And Kaiser must have seen her steadier, more mature air—that’s why “Miss Noa” had come so naturally.

The crown princess drew her gaze back a fraction, lowered her eyes, and murmured to herself:

“So that’s... how it is...”

But just as Noa wondered when she had changed like this, she realized something. She jerked her head up, looked at Leon, and declared with righteous force:

“No, Dad, don’t think passing an ‘exam’ here will make me give up the summoning ceremony. That’s impossible.”

Leon: ...

General Leon was already considering how to plant the notion in Noa’s little head that “giving up the summoning ceremony” would be the true sign of growing up.

“Big Sis is right, Dad.”

The voice came from up ahead.

They looked toward it.

A tuft of pink hair drifted in the wind at the front of the dragon’s back, facing the distant Silver Dragon Sanctuary.

Aurora narrowed her eyes, conviction bright.

“We absolutely cannot give up this summoning ceremony.”

Leon scratched at his temple.

“Why the fixation this time? You never made a fuss about it before.”

Aurora slowly raised her head and pronounced each word:

“Because this time it’s a special edition—Teacher Safina prepared it specifically to make up for the regrets of me, Muse, and Xiaoxue.”

Leon drew a sharp breath.

“Let’s hope it’s within what humans can bear...”

...

...

Back at the Silver Dragon Sanctuary, the children, the moment they touched down, tore off toward the back courtyard.

Rosvisser shifted to human form, wearing the same worried look.

“What must come will come sooner or later, but I still can’t picture what a Safina-prepared summoning ceremony would even be.”

“She said it was to make up for Aurora, Muse, and Xiaoxue’s regrets.”

Leon squinted a smile at Kaiser.

“I don’t quite see it. Do those three have regrets on this front?”

Rosvisser shook her head. “I don’t get it either.”

“Kaiser?” Leon glanced at him.

The guy from the Void spread his hands. “We’ve been siblings nearly thirty years and I still don’t know what goes on in her head.”

After a beat, Kaiser asked, curious:

“So what exactly is this summoning ceremony? I’ve listened to you all talk about it the whole way. From the sound of it, the pan-seared steak Moon mentioned is one of the ‘segments’?”

Leon sighed, raised a hand, and set it solemnly on Kaiser’s shoulder. In the seasoned tone of one who’d been there, he counseled with grave earnestness,

“Promise me, Kaiser. If you marry a dragon someday, and you’re lucky enough to overcome the reproductive isolation between the Void and Samael, then remember—”

Seeing Leon’s serious air, Kaiser instinctively tuned out the abstract first half and listened intently.

“Remember what?”

“Never leave a black-and-white photo.”

With that, Leon took Rosvisser’s hand and strode toward the back courtyard.

Kaiser watched their backs—they looked more resolute than when heading to a battlefield.

Curiosity piqued, he followed quickly.

“So, big brother, I still want to compete with you—marry a wife, settle down, that department.”

Leon tossed out the sudden challenge.

Rosvisser cut him a sidelong glance. “Compete at what?”

“At maids—who do they miss more, you or me?”

The queen rolled her eyes. Compete at that?

“You didn’t beat me the first time, remember? That was my Silver Dragon maid corps—loyal to the bone. Once you open the door to competing, it’s compete and compare, scrapping whenever there’s room. Anything can become a tool for fighting over status at home!”

“Hard to say. It’s been years. In their eyes, I—the Silver Dragon prince—have only grown in rank and renown. You, Silver Dragon queen? No contest.”

Rosvisser snorted, arms folded.

“Mm... we’ll see.”

Chattering nonsense, the couple stepped into the back courtyard.

But when they saw how the “special edition” summoning ceremony was laid out, they both froze.

This was what Safina had prepared?

It was too simple.

A wooden table, a photo, a fire, offerings (steak). That was it.

And when Leon looked closely at the single black-and-white portrait on the table,

he instantly understood what “making up for Aurora and the other two’s regrets” meant!

A perfect recreation of the very first Weeping Hall Grand Filial Piety!!

“Hell... you can’t be serious?!”

“Which bastard set it up like this!!”

“Princesses, give thanks to heaven! His Highness has—oh, not ‘again,’ wait—re—cough, His Highness is resurrected!”

Meanwhile, Rosvisser was already at Leon’s side, laughing so hard she could barely stand. She gripped his shoulder, fighting not to crack up.

“Alright, husband, I concede. Everyone misses you. Mm, very good, very—pff—hahaha~”

General Leon clenched his fist in secret and swore that the day the world found peace, he would tear the Time Palace down.