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

Vol 9. Chapter 17: Are You Going to Be My Enemy?

Seeing the kid’s utterly wronged expression, even the usually quick-witted Isha felt a bit at a loss. Had he misunderstood something? He had definitely misunderstood something!

Just as Isha was about to offer a simple explanation, she heard Kaiser mutter under his breath:

“My sister is definitely going to scold me...”

All right, so he really had misunderstood Isha.

But Kaiser wasn’t exactly to blame. In his framework, falling in love necessarily ended in marriage. So if you didn’t marry, that meant a breakup. In other words, marriage was the end point of love.

Isha didn’t know exactly what he was thinking now, but she felt responsible for what she’d said—and she couldn’t allow this brat to keep misunderstanding her.

“Not every marriage exists as the end point of romance, Kaiser.”

Isha spoke softly.

“If you think love must end in marriage, and ‘no marriage’ means ‘breakup,’ then turn the thought around: if there’s no marriage, can’t two people just keep on being in love for a lifetime? That sounds pretty good too, doesn’t it?”

Kaiser’s thoughts stirred; he asked at once:

“If there’s no marriage, then neither party has a status, and there’s no loyalty to the relationship.”

Arms folded, Isha drew a slow breath in and let it out. She looked ahead, thought for a long moment, and finally answered:

“Status... If I truly had the good fortune to meet someone worth loving with everything I have, I would tell the whole world. I’d let everyone know I’m with the one I love. As for the loyalty you mentioned, that’s a choice. It varies by person, and it doesn’t change based on whether you are or aren’t married.”

Isha kept her meaning simple and clear. If the whole world knows I love you, that means we’ve given each other our status; and the latter half she’d already phrased as tactfully as possible.

”Cheating, falling for someone else—those acts of disloyalty to a relationship aren’t constrained by marriage. In other words, even if you do get married, the kind of person who would do such things will still do them.”

Isha had never believed that a non-objective, non-material label could create true barriers between people. She herself was like that.

Isha drew her gaze back to Kaiser, still smiling as she spoke softly:

“I’m not particularly enamored of marriage—that peace once all the dust has settled. By comparison, I prefer a passion and a quickening that stay the same from first to last. Do you understand me, Kaiser?”

Honestly, the kid’s ideas about marriage and love were stockpiled from a youth that the world had temporarily forgotten, left unupdated for over a decade. So when he ran {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} into Isha’s more forward-leaning views, he naturally struggled to process them.

Kaiser was honest; he shook his head.

“Not really...”

He did care about Isha’s opinion of him, but if he didn’t understand, he didn’t understand. He wouldn’t lie to trick her.

He’d thought that non-answer would disappoint Isha. But to his surprise, Isha actually smiled.

It wasn’t mockery, and it wasn’t like she’d heard a joke. It was a completely natural smile—the kind you show when a clumsy child does something cute and a little silly.

“All right, all right—talking about this really is a bit hard on you,” Isha said. “But I don’t talk about these things with just anyone.”

Kaiser’s gaze flickered. “Then why with me...”

“—Because.”

As she spoke, Isha slowly angled her body, lacing her hands behind her back.

Her deep-red pupils looked straight into Kaiser’s eyes. She leaned in just a little, holding his gaze at a very intimate, ambiguous distance.

Kaiser eased his torso back a fraction. The side of his face, only just cooled, grew hot again. It was a distance that made your face flush and your heart race. He could even feel the warmth of Isha’s breath.

“Because you’re a ‘big dummy who doesn’t know anything~.’”

As the words fell, the red-haired beauty drew back, opening space again—leaving only the fresh, pleasant trace of her perfume.

Isha tipped her chin toward the smoked ham set mid-table and went on:

“I love it when dummies ask ‘why.’”

“Why?”

Kaiser froze, realizing he had blundered right into Isha’s snare.

She’d said a second ago she loved it when dummies asked “why,” and he’d followed up with a “why” in an instant.

It was like being told it was a trap and still charging straight in.

Isha’s laugh came, but she only laughed; she didn’t answer.

Kaiser didn’t ask again. He simply watched her alluring profile in silence.

She smiled beautifully—not a loud, unrestrained laugh, and not a petty little titter—just an easy, gentle smile, like a big sister who understands.

“Ahem—”

A very deliberate light cough came from behind.

Isha and Kaiser turned at the same time.

Rosvisser stood with one hand on her waist and waved the other.

“Do you smell that?”

They blinked at her, bewildered, and shook their heads in unison.

“Smell what?” Isha asked.

“The sour stink that’s about to evaporate off your butts.”

Isha hummed a laugh and left it there.

But Kaiser asked, in a tone of extreme seriousness:

“Miss Rosvisser, is there a sour stink because the fireworks are expired?”

Rosvisser: “?”

...

Half an hour later, with Kaiser escorting them, the sisters returned to the inn to rest.

Kaiser, meanwhile, had to go back to Twilight Tower and write up today’s activity report for the Tower Lord.

In the inn room, Isha slipped off her outerwear and loosened her hair tie.

“I’m going to shower, Little Ros.”

“Okay.”

Rosvisser sat on the sofa, took out a communication Memory Stone, and fed a little magic into it. Soon, a simple line-drawing lion sigil flickered on the stone’s surface.

“You’ll never guess it—the strongest man in the Void is getting toyed with in matters of love by my sister,” Rosvisser said with a smile.

A hesitant chuckle came from the other end.

“What’s this, you’re a romance supervisor now?”

Lounging on the sofa, Rosvisser kneaded her slightly sore thighs and asked:

“What about your side? How are Constantine and Orion progressing?”

“Orion just finished today’s review. The elders of Sun Tower gave her a few days off. She’s on the rooftop terrace with the fire-breather discussing the southern clans’ future.”

Rosvisser blinked.

“Lone man and lone woman, late at night, on a rooftop, discussing the southern clans’ future? Is Constantine’s brain broken, or is Orion too dense?”

Leon smiled helplessly.

“If you ask me—both, probably.”

“I’ll stop here. I need to keep being the third wheel, and later I have to debrief Constantine.”

Rosvisser hummed a laugh.

“All right. Rest early.”

“Mm. You too, wife.”

...

Leon put away the Memory Stone and looked toward the silhouettes of Old Con and Orion in the distance.

From where he stood, he could hear their conversation clearly without intruding.

“I see... If the Blazing Sun line is short on hands, I can assign some warriors from the Void Abyss faction to help here.”

“Mm...”

“Is there anything else my Red Flame Dragon Clan can do?”

“No...”

“No need to stand on ceremony with me, Orion. We fought side by side. I can at least help this much.”

“...Truly—thank you, Mr. Constantine.”

Leon had nearly collapsed listening to the fire-breather’s lines.

Be fair: if things auto-advance to romance or even marriage, he’d absolutely be a good man and a good husband. But if the track starts from “pursuit,” he is the straightest straight man in Dragonkind.

What a waste of all those romance novels!

Fun fact:

If your lines are painfully dull or painfully straight-male, and the girl in front of you still keeps chatting with you, then without a doubt—she likes you.

And yet Constantine seemed oblivious to Orion’s meaning.

“Even Aurora could pull MVP in this match. Fire-breather, just auto-attack forward already!”

Leon was dying of anxiety inside.

As they talked on, Orion sighed, then said outright:

“Mr. Constantine, I think the relationship between us should change. It shouldn’t be limited to comrades or allies.”

Yes! The blonde girl went in!

Fire-breather, all you have to do now is nod!

There is nothing a single nod can’t accomplish!

Leon clenched his fist in secret and locked eyes on Old Con. He hadn’t even been this nervous when Rosvisser imprisoned him back then.

Constantine lowered his dragon eyes. His slightly trembling gaze met Orion’s.

“Change our relationship? You mean...?”

Orion stepped half a pace closer, lifted her eyes to his, her gaze full of expectation. Over on Leon’s side, the champagne was already popping for Old Con.

“Hefei, you have a mom!”

“Yes. What I mean is—” Orion said softly.

Con: “Are you going to be my enemy.”

Orion: “?”

Leon: “He threw himself in—don’t bail him out.”