Chapter 128

"Hmm, what's wrong? You regret it and want to go back?" Losweiser teased.

Leon scoffed. "Do I look as petty as you? Besides, you heard your daughter say that she listened to her Daddy and gave the gift to her Mom."

Leon leaned closer to Losweiser and proudly repeated, "You're listening to Daddy, aren't you?"

Losweiser raised her wet hand and flicked some water droplets onto Leon's face.

Leon instinctively shrank back, hastily wiping his face. "See, see, it's not an exaggeration to say you're petty."

Losweiser glanced at him. "Idiot, get to work."

"But speaking of gifts..."

Leon did the math. "Next Tuesday is your birthday, isn't it?"

During their last date, they met a fortune teller named Afu. The first round of readings was about their horoscopes, and it was during that time that Losweiser mentioned her birthday was October 25th.

Leon brought it up not because he cared much about Losweiser's birthday.

He just wanted to confirm, so that on her birthday, the entire Silver Dragon Sanctuary wouldn't be so busy while he, as the Queen's "husband," remained completely unaware, which would be detrimental to maintaining their sham family.

Losweiser's mind stirred slightly.

Next Tuesday is indeed her birth day.

But it's not a "birthday".

Dragon Race celebrate their birthdays in a way that is somewhat different from humans.

Because Dragon Race have such long lifespans, if they celebrate their birthdays every year, they would have to do it hundreds or even thousands of times in their lifetime, which would get incredibly boring.

Therefore, Dragon Race celebrate once a year before they reach adulthood;

After adulthood, it happens every ten years.

Incidentally, the age of adulthood for Dragon Race is not eighteen like for humans, but twenty.

By the age of twenty, the Dragon Race had acquired sufficient physical strength, logical thinking, and magical proficiency, and was fully prepared to begin a long life.

Losweiser did a quick calculation and realized that she would be 218 years old next Tuesday, and there were still two years until her next birthday.

She glanced at Leon, not intending to tell him about her once-in-a-decade birthday.

Because she wanted to... mess with his mindset.

"Yes, it's my birthday. What's up? Are you going to give me a present?" Losweiser asked.

"I'll send you away, a thousand miles away. Is that alright?"

"Tch, you dog of a man, don't even mention it if you're not going to give a gift." Losweiser curled her lip.

Leon shrugged, unconcerned.

After all, there's no reason for prisoners of war to give birthday gifts to the victors, is there?

"But since you're not giving a gift... you should at least show some other gesture, right?" Losweiser asked again.

Leon blinked. "What... sign?"

Losweiser pretended to think for a moment, then a brilliant idea struck her. "You could... organize my birthday celebration this year."

Leon paused, pointing to the tip of his nose. "Huh? Me?"

Losweiser nodded.

"With so many people in your Silver Dragon Sanctuary, and being the Queen yourself, you'd have a whole bunch of people lining up to celebrate your birthday. Do you really need me to organize anything for you?"

He resisted.

This shows that celebrating a birthday would be troublesome and uncomfortable for him.

As long as you're uncomfortable, then I'm comfortable.

The Silver Dragon Queen thought so.

"Why don't you use it?"

Losweiser put down the plate she was holding, put her hands on her hips, and turned to look at Leon.

"Last year on your birthday you were still in a coma, and the kids were too young to celebrate. They kept asking their Daddy to wake up, so the birthday wasn't fun at all. You're awake this year, aren't you going to make it up to us?"

"Hey you—"

Losweiser interrupted Leon's incantation, saying emphatically, "Besides, to put it nicely, isn't it normal for a model husband to celebrate his wife's birthday? You wouldn't want others to think we're not getting along, would you?"

"..." Leon was speechless, but after pondering Losweiser's words, he grasped a key word—"to put it nicely."

So he asked curiously, "What if we put it more bluntly?"

"To put it bluntly, what right do you, a prisoner, have to bargain with me? You do whatever I tell you to do."

Okay, that's right.

Leon said that the long string of words in front of her sounded pitiful and didn't sound like something Losweiser would say at all.

Until this last sentence, the familiar recipe, the familiar prisoners.

Looking at Leon's expression, Losweiser was very satisfied.

After a few quiet days, Jiuling finally got another chance to torment him.

Leon sighed and nodded. "Alright, I'll make it up to you."

If Losweiser hadn't mentioned her daughters, Leon might not have agreed so readily.

But since she's brought up this argument, Leon should at least consider his daughters' feelings, even if not for her sake.

Noa had just written in her essay about how sincere her Daddy 'Mom feelings were, and she believed they were a loving couple.

How could Leon let his daughter down?

Not disappointing his daughter is one thing, but whether he can obediently listen to Losweiser and properly celebrate her birthday is another matter entirely.

He looked at Losweiser and asked, "Then I'll give you a human-style birthday celebration. I'm very good at that."

Losweiser shrugged. "Fine, whatever. But if you don't satisfy me in the end... you'll have to give me something else, understand?"

Leon chuckled and raised his hand. "I guarantee you'll be satisfied."

Losweiser looked at the hand in front of her, and without much hesitation, extended her hand, placing it between Leon's thumb and forefinger, and they clasped hands.

This was considered an agreement. (Age)

Losweiser's birthday is next Tuesday. (Lin)

Leon has ample time to prepare.

The first step is to figure out what Losweiser likes.

Leon knew what she disliked—cilantro.

However, since it was her birthday, Leon didn't intend to play such a childish prank on her. ⑨

Making her angry is a minor matter; the most important thing is not to spoil her daughter's mood. (5)

Actually, Leon didn't know much about Losweiser's preferences. (Let's dig deeper...)

She doesn't usually express her preferences directly; she often adopts an attitude of "this is fine, but it doesn't matter if it's not this."

Having been her captive for so long, all Leon knew was that she liked oranges, and even her ice cream had to be orange-flavored.

That's all.

But you can't just prepare oranges for a birthday, or Losweiser will say:

Do you humans celebrate birthdays in such a stingy way?

There were no clues at the moment, and just then, someone knocked on the door.

Leon got up and went to open the door; it was Noa and Mu En.

"Daddy, it's time for class!" Mu En said.

Leon crouched down, took her little hand, and asked with a smile, "Aren't you going to rest on Saturday?"

Mu En shook her head and said seriously, "My sister didn't rest on Saturdays when she was learning magic either, and Mu En want to be like her."

Upon hearing this, Leon glanced at Noa beside him.

The eldest daughter nodded silently.

"Okay, then Daddy will take you to the library. Noa, do you want to come along?"

"Uh-huh."

"Let's go."

Leon carried Mu En and held Noa's hand as the three of them went to the library together.

After finding a few relevant books, Leon held Mu En on his lap and, as usual, began to teach her what he had learned that day.

Noa sat obediently opposite, engrossed in studying a more in-depth introduction to magic.

Logically speaking, those are supplementary reading materials used by older students. Can Noa understand them now...? Leon was slightly amazed.

Bringing his thoughts back, Leon opened the book in front of him.

"Mu En, today we'll learn about another way of using magic—magic circles."

Mu En stared intently with her beautiful big eyes.

"The magic in this world is ever-changing, and there are naturally many ways to use magic. Magic circles are one of them."

Leon explained in detail, "The purpose of a magic circle is to help the user achieve a certain spell casting goal more easily. For example, if a user's magical burst power is insufficient, he can accumulate a certain amount of Magic Power in the magic circle and release it in one go to achieve the desired effect."

"Of course, this is the most basic way of using it. The more proficient you are in magic, the more abilities the magic circle will have, and the greater the help it will provide to the user."

"Hmm... let's take an example. For instance, Mu En likes to eat pan-fried steak, right?"

Upon hearing this, Mu En was wide awake, nodding repeatedly, and the ahoge (cowlick) on his head stood up excitedly.

Even Noa, who was sitting opposite him, couldn't help but put down her book and look up at Leon when she heard the word "steak".

It wasn't that she was interested in steak; she just wanted to know how her Dad would connect steak with magic circles.

"To make a delicious steak, there are generally two steps: first, find a cow; second, process the cow, right?"

Mu En nodded.

"So, if we break down the 'processing' step, there are many troublesome procedures. Does Mu En want to skip these tedious procedures and just enjoy a delicious steak?"

"Yes, yes, yes!"

"So, we might as well design a magic circle that incorporates cutting magic and fire magic. That way, you just need to push a cow in, and when it comes out, it will have turned into a pot of steak."

Noa didn't know how to describe her Dad's analogy for a moment.

She couldn't call it nonsense, because the approach Leon mentioned was indeed feasible.

No one would waste Magic Power and time creating a magic circle specifically for producing steaks—it's fine for a bit of fun once in a while.

However, after thinking about it, Noa understood why Leon used such a strange metaphor.

When Leon was tutoring Noa before she entered school, Leon was serious and focused throughout, and used very efficient learning methods and techniques.

Because Leon knew that this teaching method was suitable for Noa, and in fact, Leon's approach was correct. He enabled Noa to reach the level that would allow her to pass the entrance test for the Saint Hiss Academy in just one month.

And what about Mu En?

She's a lively and active Dragon girl; she can't be serious.

Leon naturally didn't take her in that direction.

Instead, they adopted a method that Mu En was more familiar with and interested in: pan-frying steak.

Seeing how attentively her younger sister was listening, Noa knew that her Dad had used this trick a lot when teaching her.

Yes, she definitely has the best Daddy in the world, the one who knows how to take care of his daughter the most.

Noa smiled slightly, lowered her head, and continued reading her book.

"Oh, I understand, Daddy!"