Leon thought Losweiser was getting up to leave, so he looked up.
To his surprise, Losweiser actually crawled toward him little by little.
With her palms and knees on the ground, her tail casually resting behind her, she clearly knew Leon had seen her, yet she still pretended to be cautious as she quietly approached him.
Like a wary yet mischievous kitten.
Leon pressed his lips together and shrank back. "What are you doing?"
She crawled up in front of Leon, bracing one hand on his thigh while gently lifting his chin with the other.
Their noses were very close, as close as they had been when they had nearly kissed during their earlier lovemaking.
But now, the tenderness in Losweiser's dragon eyes was gone, replaced by a... very familiar teasing amusement.
Just as Leon had thought, once her low spirits had passed, she had returned to being that scheming Queen.
The Queen spoke softly.
"Leon, your body... really isn't what it used to be."
Losweiser led Leon to a narrow path on the back mountain of the Holy Temple. Their feet stepped over smooth stone stairs as they slowly headed deeper inside.
"Where are we going?" Leon asked from behind her.
"You'll know when we get there."
Leon stopped walking.
This forest, this atmosphere, this lone man and woman...
It brought back an unpleasant memory.
He stood there blankly, swallowed, and said, "I'm telling you, Dragon Queen, if you're planning to make me do that thing to you while looking at your Holy Temple again like last time, it won't have any effect at all. I don't have the slightest attachment to your territory."
Walking ahead, Losweiser let out a light laugh without looking back. "Don't worry. I'm not really such an unreasonable, barbaric woman. When it's time to relax, relax. When it's time to miss home—"
She stopped before a towering, imposing iron gate.
"Miss home."
Leon noticed the building before them as well.
There was no sign and no guard, only a grim, cold iron gate.
"What is this?" Leon asked.
"Ah, I never gave it a name. You can call it a warehouse, a storage room, or the Queen's treasury. It doesn't matter."
As she spoke, Losweiser raised her hand, and a trace of silver magical energy danced at her fingertips.
Then she injected the magical energy into the keyhole, and the iron gate slowly opened inward.
Losweiser stepped inside. "Come in."
Leon hesitated, but silently followed her in anyway.
After passing through the iron gate and descending several flights of stairs, several neat display racks appeared before Leon.
Leon was mildly amazed, his mouth falling open.
"Are these all things you collected?"
"Mm. Anything meaningful to me is stored here."
Leon excitedly ran to one of the display racks and carefully examined an exquisitely crafted bracelet.
As a Dragon Slayer who knew his stuff, Leon could tell at a glance how valuable and rare the bracelet was.
If it were sold in the Empire, it would fetch at least several hundred thousand gold coins.
"That was a bracelet my grandmother gave me at my coming-of-age ceremony," Losweiser explained.
Leon nodded and turned his attention to the other collectibles.
His focus was entirely captured by those precious treasures, and he failed to notice Losweiser quietly closing the iron gate to the treasury.
And locking it.
After wandering around for a while, Leon finally reined in his country-bumpkin excitement and asked,
"What exactly did you bring me here to—"
"Oh, found it. Here."
Before Leon could voice his question, Losweiser rose onto her toes and took a box down from the top of a display rack.
Leon stepped forward to help.
The two placed the box on the floor, and Losweiser gently blew away the dust gathered on top.
"What's inside?"
"I told you already. Something that can temporarily help you forget your worries."
With that, Losweiser turned the opening of the box toward Leon and opened it.
Curious, Leon looked inside.
But when he saw what was in the box, he was so shocked that he could not speak.
His eyes widened, his mouth slightly open, and his black pupils reflected the companion he had been separated from for two long years—
Black-Gold War Chariot.
It was armor forged by the Empire's finest craftsmen. It had once accompanied Leon through countless battles and blocked fatal attacks for him time and time again.
Leon slowly reached out and brushed his fingertips over the armor's surface.
The familiar texture bore no trace of age. Clearly, over the past two years, Losweiser had carefully maintained this suit of armor.
"Want to try it on?" Losweiser suggested.
"Huh?"
"What do you mean, huh? Try it on."
"Oh..."
Leon took the pieces of Black-Gold War Chariot out of the box and skillfully put them on one by one.
Once he was fully equipped, Losweiser clasped her hands together, narrowed her eyes in a smile, and said wistfully,
"Very handsome. Just as handsome as when you raised your sword to chop off my head back then."
"...The Dragon Race's understanding of complimentary and insulting words really is impossible to grasp."
Leon happily looked himself over in Black-Gold War Chariot.
His old partner was indeed as imposing as ever!
Only—
Leon suddenly noticed a tiny notch in the chestplate.
"How did this happen? Black-Gold War Chariot has self-repairing properties. It should have fully recovered in two years."
Losweiser shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe it got bumped or scratched by accident."
"Is that so..."
Leon rubbed the notch. Fortunately, it was not very large, and it would not be noticeable unless someone looked carefully.
He gave a silly smile like a child who had just received a new toy. "Thank you, Losweiser. I didn't expect you to have such a human side."
"Thank me?"
"Yeah, thank—"
Leon raised his head, but his smile froze instantly.
Because the aura radiating from the Dragon Queen before him had completely changed.
Gentle, elegant, dignified—at the moment Leon met her eyes, all of it vanished without a trace.
Pink hearts flickered in her silver dragon eyes, and beneath the fabric over her chest, the Dragon Mark seemed to glow faintly as well.
The Queen curled her lips into a slightly sickly smile and approached Leon step by step.
"Thanking me can't just be done with words, Dragon Slayer."
Leon immediately became wary.
He knew it. This Dragon Queen had been strangely gentle all day.
Now she was finally revealing her true nature!
But Leon would not be as meek and helpless as before, letting her do whatever she wanted.
"Dragon Queen, before you go crazy, let me remind you that Black-Gold War Chariot is enchanted. It can enhance all the wearer's abilities, so I might not be afraid of you now."
With the means to fight back in hand, Leon finally stood a little taller!
Yet Losweiser merely gave a disdainful smile and continued approaching him.
"For two years, I carefully maintained this armor. Do you really think I wouldn't have tampered with it at all?"
Leon was startled. "W-What—"
Losweiser raised her hand and elegantly snapped her fingers.
Snap—
Black-Gold War Chariot instantly became incomparably heavy, dragging Leon straight to the ground.
At the same time, something slowly began to emerge on the chestplate...
The pattern of a Dragon Mark!
Leon's chest burned.
The Dragon Mark's reaction was even more intense than usual.
Losweiser slowly crouched down and gently lifted Leon's chin with the tip of her tail.
"Two Dragon Marks, double the experience. Ah~ my dear Dragon Slayer, can you handle it?"
"Losweiser!"
Clang—
Losweiser flipped the immobilized Leon over onto his back, then spread her long legs and straddled his armor.
"You didn't think I held no grudge at all over what happened three days ago, did you? I spent this whole day pretending to be a good little girl for you, and I didn't expect you to actually fall for it."
The Queen smiled. "So? My acting was pretty good, wasn't it? Hmm?"
Leon's pupils trembled. "Everything you told me today... was fake? You never met your parents either, you'd let Muen Noa call you Mom, and... and holding hands..."
Being a "Dragon Knight" was not new to Leon, and he could barely endure it.
But he could not endure Losweiser deceiving him like this.
"No, those were all true. But that doesn't affect what I'm going to do to you now, Leon."
She pulled open her collar, releasing the Dragon Mark that had long been desperately thirsty.
"What did you say to me three days ago?"
"Oh, that I like conquering."
"Hehe—"
"Then I'll conquer you for you to see!"
"Are you ready, my dear husband~?"
Leon, your body... really isn't what it used to be.
Isn't what it used to be~
What it used to be~
Used to be~
Before you continue