Vol 8. Chapter 39: Speak My Name, and Startle You Out of Your Wits

Leon quickly caught up with the dragon-slayer army. After giving a few simple orders, the troops continued along their original route back toward the Empire.

After a short break, Leon began telling Rebecca and the others about his recent clash with Constantine.

Rosvisser was sitting in the nearby carriage, eavesdropping.

Tsk, tsk, this little brat was about to scold you again, Casmod. Even if she’s a captured enemy, you really shouldn’t be discussing military secrets right in front of her! But fortunately he was clever enough not to take Rosvisser’s current strength too seriously, so he didn’t bother worrying about her overhearing.

“Rescued?”

Rebecca was surprised after hearing him out.

Leon nodded.

“Yeah. They looked somewhat alike between the eyes and brows. I’m guessing maybe they were relatives or something. But when I saw Constantine meet that mysterious dragon, he looked extremely shocked too, and even mentioned something about... exile? I don’t get it.”

“We don’t have much intelligence on the Crimson Flame Clan. All we’ve known all this time is that their Dragon King is called Constantine, and that their physiological weak point is the knee. That’s why their jumping power is so poor.”

Martin explained on the side.

“There’s never been any mention of Constantine having family, relatives, or anything like that.”

Leon, drained from the heavy expenditure of magic, was already looking somewhat tired. He waved a hand, not wanting to keep talking about it.

“I’ll rest for a bit. We can talk about it again tonight when we make camp.”

“Alright, Captain, get some rest.”

Of course, during a march, so-called “rest” just meant finding somewhere to lean for a while, maybe sit down a bit. No one could truly fall asleep. And as commander of the dragon-slayer army, Leon had to stay vigilant.

He found a place to take a short break—right beside Rosvisser’s prison wagon.

Leaning against the barred cage of the anti-magic cell, Leon closed his eyes and exhaled deeply.

Only a wall separated him from Rosvisser. He had barely rested when a voice drifted out from inside the cell.

“You’re leaning so close. Aren’t you afraid I’ll suddenly strike from behind?”

“Go ahead and try.”

Leon didn’t open his eyes. He leaned there with complete composure, voice calm and steady.

“The moment you so much as twitch, I’ll kill you in the blink of an eye.”

“In a blink~ of~ an~ eye~ you’ll~ kill~ me~”

Clap!

Rosvisser clapped her hands together, eyes shining as she pressed them against her cheeks, voice filled with dreamy admiration.

“Wow~ so manly~ so full of heroic spirit~”

“......”

The young General Leon gradually realized that talking to this female dragon was a mistake.

Who knew if she was suddenly having one of her fits—or maybe she was just naturally this kind of mocking little monster.

Either way, he quietly resolved not to waste another word on her.

Clink, clink...

Before long, the faint sound of chains came from behind.

Those were the bindings shackling Rosvisser’s hands and feet, also imbued with heavy anti-magic effects.

The sound came closer, until it was just beside Leon.

Inside the cage, the Queen was half-kneeling, hands gripping the bars, pressing her face close between them.

Of course, no matter how delicate her melon-seed face was, it wasn’t going to slip through the bars.

So Rosvisser simply leaned there and started chatting across the barrier.

Her silver eyes glanced sideways at the dragon-slayer hero resting with his eyes closed. She called softly,

“Hey, your name’s Leon, right?”

Silence.

“Don’t you want to know my name?”

Silence.

“My name’s really pretty. You really don’t want to know it?”

Still silence.

“Fine... ignoring me? Then I’ll tell you. My name is...”

At that instant, a thousand mischievous ideas flashed through Rosvisser’s mind.

Finally, she spoke slowly, deliberately.

“My name is... Char~lotte~”

Shua!

Leon’s eyes flew open, staring at her in shock.

Their gazes met.

The Queen’s brows curved like a crescent moon as she smiled.

“What did you say your name was?”

“Oh, nothing~ nothing at all~”

Rosvisser drew back slowly, sitting against the far side of the anti-magic cage. But she kept smiling at him.

Now it was Leon’s turn to panic.

“You just said your name was Charlotte?”

“I didn’t.”

“You did!”

“I didn’t~ I didn’t~ And even if I did, weren’t you the one who said you had no interest in my name?”

Rosvisser had a strong urge to tease Leon in this time period.

Just like before, when she toyed with him as a child in other worlds.

But the Leon before her wasn’t exactly warm toward dragons, nor was he particularly patient.

“You keep spouting nonsense and I’ll—”

“Rosvisser.”

She spoke her name softly.

“Rosvisser Melkvey.”

The atmosphere rose instantly, elegant and stately, compared to the flippant tone just before.

Leon’s irritation quickly eased. His tightly furrowed brow relaxed. He repeated the name under his breath.

“Rosvisser... I feel like... I’ve heard that name before...”

The Queen gave a soft laugh.

“In your dreams, perhaps. Big hero, maybe you fell in love in a dream with a woman who just happened to share my name.”

Leon shook his head quickly, coming back to himself. He smacked the cage bars hard with his hand.

“Stop spouting nonsense. You deceitful female dragon—I won’t be beguiled by you.”

“But I’ve already been beguiled by you~”

“...When did I ever beguile you?”

Without realizing it, Leon was answering again.

“I am the commander of the Empire’s dragon-slayer army. I don’t need cheap tricks like beguilement.”

“Pah!”

“You really don’t? Husband-lord?”

“Do you forget how we once became soul-bound, how you conceived with twins in one shot?”

Rosvisser rolled her eyes hard.

“Hmph, not bothering with you.”

Since the big fish was already nibbling, Rosvisser didn’t need to keep dangling bait. She wasn’t about to always be the one taking the initiative.

Sure enough, Leon was still hung up on the name.

“But just now, you clearly said your name was Charlotte.”

That was his master’s wife’s name. While duplicate names sometimes happened, Leon had lived twenty years and had never seen another person with that name besides his master’s wife.

“Charlotte” just wasn’t the kind of name ordinary people would choose.

So when Rosvisser claimed it, of course he’d been startled.

“I made it up. I could just as easily say I’m called Noa. So what?”

(Watching nearby, the Overachiever Princess: Huh? Why am I getting dragged into this?)

“Utter nonsense... I really can’t waste breath with a bewitching female dragon like you.”

He faltered.

Rosvisser could tell—yes, he faltered.

When General Leon couldn’t gain the upper hand, he always looked for excuses to disengage.

But just when she thought he was about to cut the topic off, he asked again,

“By the way, do you dragons have a fixed form of address for Dragon Kings?”

Rosvisser blinked, not understanding why he suddenly asked this. But she still answered truthfully.

“Rather than a fixed form, it’s more of a custom.”

She nodded.

“For example, my royal title among the dragon clans is Silver Dragon King Melkvey. More distant tribes, or non-dragon races, usually address me that way. But allies or familiar friends will call me Silver Dragon Queen Rosvisser. It’s less formal, but still conveys my identity clearly. Why do you ask?”

Leon’s mouth worked like he wanted to say more, and finally he did.

“I just heard that despicable Constantine call himself A-Yan. If that’s your dragons’ style, then does that mean A-Yan is Constantine’s real name?”

Truthfully, Rosvisser wasn’t sure.

Before Leon and old Constantine became friends in the real world, the Silver Dragons had hardly any dealings with the Crimson Flame Clan. And Constantine was from the older generation of Dragon Kings, not Rosvisser’s peer, so she knew even less.

She shook her head honestly.

“I’m not familiar with the Crimson Flame Clan. Maybe their true names are something like Yan Constantine. But what I can confirm is that Constantine is definitely not his royal title—it’s his family name, not his full name.”

That much could be seen from Hefei’s name.

The little red dragon girl’s full name was Hefei Constantine.

So Constantine was indeed a surname, not a given name.

“I see... alright.”

Leon said, “Then does Constantine have any family? Or... do you recognize the dragon who rescued him just now?”

Rosvisser didn’t answer. She only looked at him calmly.

Silence.

After a long moment, Leon nodded.

“Oh right, you just said you weren’t familiar.”

At that, Leon didn’t press further. He turned back, leaning against the cage again to rest.

After a short while, Leon suddenly felt someone pat his shoulder.

He opened his eyes—and it was the female dragon behind bars again.

When had she gotten so familiar?

“What?”

For once, Leon didn’t snap, but endured with rare patience.

The Queen’s face was perfectly solemn as she said:

“Actually, my name is Aurora.”

Leon: “╭(°口°)╮... Will you knock it off already!!”

Spectator Aurora: “(ΩДΩ) Wah~ Even I got dragged into this!!”

“Eh~”