Shut Up, Evil Dragon, I Don't Want to Have Children with You Again

As he spoke, he took a bite and chewed.

Two seconds later—

"Waterwaterwaterwaterwaterwaterwater!!"

He scrambled to the sink and turned on the Water Dragon. Cool water streamed into his mouth, but it did nothing to neutralize the searing sensation from that freakishly spicy pepper.

Leon clutched his mouth, rolling back and forth on the floor from the heat.

It felt as though someone had stuffed a blazing-hot lump of charcoal into his mouth.

After battling his taste buds for several minutes, Leon finally eased up a little.

The spice had brought tears to his eyes, and his lips were numb—so numb he could barely feel that they existed.

"If this is what you dragons eat every day, you'll get hemorrhoids sooner or later!"

After grumbling indignantly, Leon climbed off the floor and returned to his desk.

After all that commotion, the exhaustion of the day had vanished without a trace.

Leon wiped his face, pulled himself together, and began preparing tomorrow's lesson materials.

For a moment, he felt as though he had returned to his days at Dragon Slaying Academy.

Every day after class, he would bury himself in books like this, free of all distractions.

Whether reviewing or previewing, he simply would not allow himself any idle time.

No wonder his roommates had called him a grind king.

When he studied deep into the night and became too sleepy to continue, Leon would chew a bite of the peppers Master had brought him.

Their wake-up effect was absolutely top-notch.

He had only just awakened from his coma not long ago. He should have been getting more rest.

But Noa would be taking her entrance examination next month. He had to make the most of his time to prepare lessons while also devising a thorough and efficient study plan.

So, with his body barely able to hold on, Leon could only force himself to stay alert by chewing peppers.

And dragon peppers...

They truly met his needs to a degree far beyond Leon's expectations.

Leon was so focused while studying that by the time he remembered to take a break, it was already past eleven at night.

He rubbed his heavy eyes as weariness surged over him, then grabbed a pepper by his hand and took a bite.

In an instant, that sharp, exhilarating burn shot straight to the crown of his head, and every trace of drowsiness vanished on the spot.

Leon tightly pinched his thigh, enduring the blazing numbness in his mouth.

Once he had recovered a little, Leon set aside the prepared lesson materials and plans, then took those herbology books from the drawer instead.

Actually, he...

He opened the table of contents and found the categories for "body nourishment" and "tonics."

It was rather embarrassing to admit.

Losweiser's words—"Your body really isn't what it used to be"—still felt like a dagger lodged in Leon's heart.

And every grind king happened to share the same traits—they were stubborn as mules and loved to drill into dead ends.

The reason he had asked the maid Anna for books on medicinal herbs that morning was to see whether there was anything that could replace the nutrient solution he was currently taking.

If he relied on nutrient solution alone, who knew when his body would recover to normal?

Leon could not let that Dragon Queen look down on him.

He would make Losweiser pay a painful price for saying, "Your body isn't what it used to be"!

With that thought, Leon's fighting spirit ignited. He opened the herbology book and began looking through information he might need.

"Crimson Sap Dragon Fruit... the flesh is delicious, while the pit can be used as medicine and helps regulate the blood and vital energy... Mm, useless."

"Nether Lotus Herb: applied externally, it can alleviate injuries to a certain degree; taken internally, it can regulate digestive function... Damn, your dragon herbs really pull double duty."

"Dragon Kidney Vitality has—what the hell kind of absurd name is Dragon Kidney Vitality? That name sounds shady as hell! Just hearing it, you can tell it's..."

Still grumbling, he narrowed his eyes slightly and let his gaze fall on the following description.

"Hiss... just as I thought. It perfectly matches my stereotype of that name."

But what Leon needed was not medicine like Dragon Kidney Vitality, whose effects were far too obvious and intense.

He still needed to focus on "body nourishment and tonics."

Yet after searching for ages, Leon still could not find the medicine he wanted in this book.

Just as he was about to see whether the other book had anything useful, the door lock suddenly clicked.

Hearing it, Leon quickly hid the herbology books, then placed the textbooks Noa would need tomorrow on the desk.

The visitor was none other than Losweiser.

"Oh, you're still awake."

As she spoke, she walked toward the inner room.

"Mm." Leon answered in a deliberately calm, muffled voice.

Losweiser slowly walked to the bed and sat down. She crossed her long legs, propping herself up with one hand while resting the other on her knee. Beneath her languid bearing lingered a faint weariness.

Leon pressed his lips together and sensed the dragon mark on his chest.

Good. There was no reaction.

The Dragon Queen probably had not come tonight to torture him.

Even so, Leon did not take the initiative to speak to her. Instead, he flipped through the tutoring plan he had prepared earlier, checking for anything that might still be lacking.

Losweiser's gaze slowly shifted from Leon to the few chili peppers on his desk.

She frowned and asked, "Why are you eating chili peppers?"

"To stay awake."

"Stay awake?"

"Mm. Noa's entrance test is next month. Normally, she should have started preparing a year in advance, but we don't have that much time. We can only burn the midnight oil and push harder." Leon adjusted the lesson plan without looking back.

After a pause, Leon added, "Also, I need to thank you."

Losweiser raised a brow. "Thank me?"

"Mm. Thank you for giving birth to such an intelligent daughter. That's why I'm confident I can get her through the test in a month."

The Queen gave a disdainful laugh. "Noa takes after me."

Leon froze. Only then was he willing to put down the plan. He turned around and asked with a serious expression, "How did you arrive at that conclusion?"

Losweiser blinked, apparently not expecting Leon to ask that. "Ah, I—"

"I entered the Imperial Dragon Slaying Academy at ten. At fifteen, I graduated first in both the written examination and practical combat. Every highest-tier scholarship over those five years went to me. When I graduated, the principal personally conferred honors upon me, and I was also the academy's first underage graduate in nearly a century. After graduation, I won every single ability competition in the Dragon Slayer Army."

Leon stared into Losweiser's eyes and asked, word by word, "And what about you, Your Majesty the Queen? What champion are you?"

"..."

Losweiser was left speechless by his retort.

She truly had not expected Leon to be such an academic prodigy.

She had always thought he was just a crude brute who knew nothing but fighting and killing.

Still, she would never praise Leon to his face. Faced with his questioning, Losweiser replied coolly, "So impressive."

"Of course."

"Then how did you end up becoming my prisoner?"

Leon: ...

His defenses shattered.

Three updates today. There'll be more at eight in the morning and eight in the evening. Thanks for the monthly ticket support—keep them coming~

The Queen smiled brightly, her eyes curving into two crescent moons.

Leon could not tell whether she was mocking him or simply found their exchange amusing.

He silently turned back around and continued revising the tutoring plan.

Rustle—

Fabric brushed against the bedsheets, followed by the sound of high heels drawing nearer.

A moment later, a faint fragrance drifted over from behind Leon.

It was Losweiser's natural scent—

Leon had smelled it many times before.

She reached out, picked up a chili pepper from the desk, and held it beneath her nose for a sniff. Her brows immediately furrowed.

The smell really was pungent. Even Losweiser, a dragon, found it overpowering, yet Leon treated it as a stimulant.

Wasn't he pushing himself a little too hard...?

Losweiser put down the chili pepper and reached toward Leon's chin.

Before Leon could react, she suddenly pinched his chin and forced him to turn and look at her.

Heat radiated from Losweiser's fingertips. Up close, his cheeks and lips were completely flushed red, and traces of tears still lingered at the corners of his eyes.

She gently brushed Leon's scorching lower lip with her thumb, not using much force.

"If you want to stay awake, you could ask Anna for coffee or something. How is this any different from self-harm?"

"I drank coffee for half a year when I was in school. The more I drank, the more resistant I became to it. It was useless. Chili peppers are more effective." Leon said.

"But these are dragon chili peppers. You're a human—can you even withstand—"

"Don't underestimate me."

Once his stubborn streak flared up, he was exactly like Losweiser—eight oxen couldn't drag him back.

Losweiser gave a derisive snort and withdrew her hand.

Leon pressed his numb lips together. Truth be told, he rather liked having Losweiser touch his face.

It wasn't that he had any strange fetish. It was simply that Losweiser's fingertips were cool, and when they touched his burning cheeks, it felt nice.

Not like the biting shock of ice, but a gentle sort of coolness.

What a pity... he couldn't exactly ask her to touch his face more...

Just thinking about it felt a little perverted.

"Get some rest early. Don't eat too many chilies. If you burn your mouth numb, you'll have to teach Noa using sign language."

With that, the Queen slowly left the bedroom in her high heels.

The lock clicked, and light from the corridor spilled in through the crack in the door as Losweiser left the room.

Leon let out a breath of relief. Once he was sure Losweiser had gone far away, he took out that medical book again and continued flipping through it.

At last, in a chapter of the final book, he found a medicine that seemed to meet his requirements.

It was just that the name of the medicine was rather...

"Dragon... Dragon's Might."

Leon sucked in a sharp breath. "How is this even more absurd than that Dragon Kidney Vitality from before...? It can't be some kind of aphrodisiac too, can it?"