Vol. 6 Ch. 61

The next morning, when Leon woke up, Rosvisser was no longer beside him.

On the nightstand, there was breakfast and a note.

Rubbing his eyes, he sat up against the headboard and picked up the note.

It was written in Rosvisser’s neat and elegant handwriting:

"Sleep in and rest properly. I have a ton of work to handle. Spend the day with the kids, and meet me in the library tonight."

Leon scratched his messy hair and muttered,

"She must really be busy if we’re communicating through notes now."

After setting the note aside, he got out of bed, freshened up, ate his breakfast, and got dressed before heading to the backyard.

Leon wasn’t exactly a pro when it came to entertaining children.

"It’s not like having one more kid makes it any harder."

After all, Xiaoxue and the others were much older than the younger ones, so they didn’t need much supervision.

As long as the kids were getting along, that was enough.

About ten minutes later, Leon sat on the backyard lawn, the gentle breeze ruffling his hair as he relaxed comfortably.

Meanwhile, his daughters and Xiaoxue were playing a classic blindfolded ghost-catching game.

After one round, Aurora lost interest and stepped away.

"Morning, Dad."

The pink-haired girl strolled over, yawning as she greeted him.

"Morning, Aurora. How’s it going with Xiaoxue?"

Aurora stretched, let out a long breath, and settled beside Leon before responding,

"Pretty good. Big Sis and the others all like her. I like her too."

That was a rare statement from Aurora.

As a fun-loving troublemaker, her usual way of evaluating people was either "interesting" or "boring."

Other than her sisters, there weren’t many people at school who met her standards for fun.

But when it came to Xiaoxue, she had skipped over the whole "interesting or boring" assessment and simply said, "I like her."

Leon knew his third daughter well.

She wouldn’t casually say something like that just to be polite.

If she said she liked Xiaoxue, then she truly did.

That was reassuring.

"But…"

Leon raised an eyebrow. "But what?"

"But there’s one thing I find really weird."

"What is it?"

Aurora tilted her head, pink eyes glancing at Xiaoxue’s back as she spoke,

"She keeps staring at me for no reason."

Leon blinked. "Staring at you?"

"Yeah."

Pausing, Aurora added, "She even said yesterday that she felt like she had seen me somewhere before. Dad, is there any chance Xiaoxue and I actually met before?"

"You kids grew up in the Silver Dragon Sanctuary and went straight to the academy when you were old enough, while Xiaoxue spent her childhood before the war among the elves and later the dwarves, both far away from here. There’s no way you could’ve met."

Leon frowned slightly. "Maybe… you two just click?"

"Click?"

Aurora lifted her arms and ruffled her fluffy pink hair with both hands.

"My head is pretty round, but Dad, why is your head so pointy—ow!"

A flick to the forehead cut off her nonsense.

"Clicking means having a natural bond, not that your head is round."

After a pause, Leon added seriously, "And for the record, my head is not pointy."

Aurora giggled, rubbing her forehead where he had flicked her.

"I was just joking, Dad. Then I guess we just click."

"Mm."

"I’m gonna go play with the others again!"

"Alright, be careful. Don’t trip."

Aurora attempted a kip-up—

Failed.

Tried again—

Failed again.

Leon sighed, covering his face with one hand while using the other to gently support Aurora’s back, helping her complete the "high-difficulty" move.

"If you help me, it doesn’t count! I was this close to doing it myself, Dad!"

"Mm-hmm, sure, sure."

It was hard to imagine that this little one, who couldn’t even do a proper kip-up, was somehow a martial arts prodigy in a reversed timeline.

As the children continued playing, Leon stretched out on the grass, enjoying the cool morning breeze.

……

That night, as promised, Leon made his way to the Sanctuary’s library—Rosvisser was already waiting for him.

"So, Your Majesty, did you miss me today?"

Seated at the central table, Rosvisser had several thick ancient books spread before her. She didn’t even bother lifting her head as she replied,

"Of course. Every single moment."

Leon pulled out a chair and sat across from her. "Next time you’re saying sweet words, could you at least look at me while saying them, Your Majesty?"

Rosvisser let out a soft hmpf before finally raising her gaze to meet his.

"I missed you. Missed you the most, most, most in the world. Happy now?"

Leon narrowed his eyes with a playful grin before shifting his focus to the books in front of her.

"These are… history books?"

"Mm. Documents on the Primordial Gods."

Rosvisser picked up one of the books and sighed.

"As I feared, everything recorded about the Primordial Gods is far too abstract—there are no concrete descriptions whatsoever. Trying to find anything useful about Xiaoxue in here… is going to be difficult."

Leon’s eyes flicked to the notebook beside her, which had notes written down in neat handwriting.

"Is this what you and the scholars compiled earlier?"

Rosvisser nodded.

"Yes."

She pushed the notebook toward him and continued,

"Chronoz—the God of Time, who was born in the same era as Betiama—did create a key."

"But this 'key' isn't like what we’d typically think of as a tool for unlocking doors."

"It does open something, but as for what it actually looks like… none of the historical texts provide a description."

Leon flipped through the notes as he listened.

"And Xiaoxue… is that key? Or at least, a disguise of the key?"

"A disguise… I don’t think so."

Rosvisser leaned back, her silver eyes deep in thought.

"I think Xiaoxue is the true form of the key."

"If Chronoz created a 'key' that doesn’t conform to conventional understanding, then… isn’t it completely possible that the key is alive?"

Leon nodded slowly, considering her logic.

"That makes sense… but then why did Chronoz’s key end up among the Snow Elf Clan? Did Chronoz originally create it as a Snow Elf? Or does the key automatically mimic the race of wherever it was left behind?"

"The latter is more likely," Rosvisser answered.

"The last recorded mention of Chronoz was over ten thousand years ago, so it’s impossible that the original form of the key was Xiaoxue as we know her today."

She then glanced at him and added,

"Remember what we discussed earlier—about the Five Spirit Crown, the relic left behind by Zeus, the God of Elements?"

Leon nodded. "Yeah, I remember."

"The Five Spirit Crown has detailed records—various races fought over it multiple times throughout history."

Rosvisser leaned forward slightly.

"So… what if the Key of Chronoz was the same?"

"What if it was constantly fought over, passed from hand to hand across the lands of Meldor, until eventually, about a decade ago, it ended up among the Snow Elves and took on the form of Xiaoxue?"

"Hmm… that actually makes a lot of sense."

Leon exhaled slowly.

That would mean… Xiaoxue most likely wasn’t her biological parents’ child at all.

"Yes, that’s what I think as well," Rosvisser confirmed.

"And based on that, we can infer something else—every time the key mimics a new form, it completely erases its past memories and then manifests as a young child of the local race."

"It’s a defensive mechanism Chronoz created to protect the key. And compared to Zeus’ crown… this method is far more effective."

Leon smirked. "Yeah, no argument there."

"The Five Spirit Crown is still missing, and the key?"

Rosvisser crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow.

"The key is now part of the Silver Dragon Kindergarten."

Leon chuckled.

"Alright, so that’s everything you managed to gather from the historical texts?"

Rosvisser sighed, stretching her back slightly.

"Yes. But if our theory is correct, then Xiaoxue’s past memories have been wiped every time she changed forms. That means Aurora’s memory-retracing magic probably won’t work."

Leon eyed the stacks of thick, dusty tomes spread across the table.

After a moment of thought, he said,

"These are just old, rigid history books. It’s normal that they don’t give us much to go on."

At that, Rosvisser raised an eyebrow, smiling slyly.

"Books are always rigid, aren’t they? What, do you have a living history book or something?"

Leon grinned.

"I do, wife. In fact, we really do have one at home."