Vol. 3 Ch. 46

A little over a month later, Leon and Rosvisser traveled to the border between human and dragon territories to meet with Leon's master and Rebecca to exchange intelligence.

This time, Leon came prepared with paper, pens, and even a memory stone to record the conversation with his master. He was sure that this intelligence exchange would contain a large volume of important information.

After all, the situation had escalated with the Heartscale and Konstantin’s resurrection, which had caused significant trouble for the Empire. Leon’s retaliation was also substantial, enough to leave a lasting impression on the Empire.

Given the intensity of the clash, Leon had no doubt that the Empire would soon take even more drastic actions. If they made a move, there would inevitably be some signs or rumors.

Leon needed to figure out the Empire’s next plan or at least their general direction to prepare accordingly. Konstantin’s surprise attack on the Red Dragon Sanctuary had completely caught Leon off guard.

Had Leon and Rosvisser not been visiting Isha at the time, the Empire’s attack on the Red Dragon Sanctuary—whatever its goal—might have succeeded.

He needed to adjust his strategy slightly to avoid always being a step behind the Empire. Otherwise, it could lead to disaster sooner or later.

A few hours later, Leon and Rosvisser arrived at the mountain cave. Passing through the waterfall and walking deeper inside, they hadn’t taken many steps when a familiar voice echoed through the space.

“Well, well, Captain, still alive, I see. I thought you might have been sucked into some spatial rift again~.”

Rebecca, the twin-tailed girl, sat atop an old wooden table, one shapely leg lifted onto its edge, with a pistol strapped to the outside of her thigh.

Leon, however, didn’t respond to her greeting. Instead, he strode forward with large steps, grabbed Rebecca by the collar, and lifted her off the table like she was a small puppy.

“What the hell, Captain?! Talk this out with me!” Rebecca flailed a bit, but since her hands and feet were off the ground, she couldn’t muster any strength.

Leon stood there, one hand on his hip, the other still holding her, staring down at her without saying a word.

Rebecca looked at her captain.

Judging by his expression, she had done something to piss him off, and he wasn’t going to let her off easily. But that didn’t make sense! They only saw each other every three months, and everything had been fine last time. Why did it feel like he wanted to kill her this time?

She hadn’t done anything wrong, had she?@@novelbin@@

Rebecca swallowed nervously and glanced over at Tiger, hoping for some help.

“Master, Master! Your disciple is going to hit me! Aren’t you going to stop him?”

Tiger, busy polishing his greatsword, didn’t even lift his head. “Go ahead and hit her, just don’t break your hand. We’ll still need her to drive the carriage on the way back.”

“I’m only worth driving the carriage to you, Master?!”

Tiger paused for a moment, then nodded seriously, “Yes.”

“Arrrgh!!” Rebecca turned toward the silver-haired beauty behind Leon, seeking another ally.

“Sis! Sis, save me! Your husband is about to use violence against me! He’s giving me the same look he had when he was slaughtering dragons!”

Rosvisser smirked. “Darling, you’re not a dragon, so relax, he won’t slaughter you.”

Rebecca: ?

Fine, it seemed outside help was useless.

In the end, she had to rely on herself.

Rebecca looked at Leon with a determined, somewhat heroic expression and said, “Before you punish me, Captain, can I at least know why?”

“You told Rosvisser about my embarrassing past, didn’t you?”

Rebecca froze. “Sis, you backstabbed me!!”

Rosvisser blinked, just about to explain, but Leon cut in first.

“It’s got nothing to do with her. She didn’t say anything.”

He paused, then mumbled bitterly, “Although she did nag me about the graduation ball for an entire week…”

Rebecca blinked her large eyes. “What?”

“Nothing. Only you and Martin know about my school days, and since Martin hasn’t met Rosvisser, it must have been you. And considering how long you were alone with her last time… it’s pretty easy to connect the dots.”

“Captain, I swear I only wanted you and sis to understand each other better! Do you believe me?”

“I don’t.”

“You should! Captain, why don’t you believe me?!”

Seeing that he had scared her enough, Leon glanced sideways at Rosvisser, and since she wasn’t reacting, he leaned in and whispered into Rebecca’s ear, “What else did you tell her?”

Rebecca’s brain raced through her memories, trying to recall the conversation. Finally, she shook her head. “I only mentioned you can’t swim.”

Can’t swim.

Oh… that was harmless, as long as she didn’t say anything that Rosvisser could use to tease him.

“Anything else?”

“No, Captain, I swear.” She held up three fingers, her face sincere.

“I’ll believe you this once.”

With that, Leon set Rebecca down. Once her feet touched the ground, she immediately ran over to Rosvisser’s side, stomping her feet and looking up at her as if complaining.

Rosvisser just gave her a knowing smile, watching Rebecca with an almost motherly expression.

Leon shook his head with a chuckle and walked over to sit down next to Tiger.

Tiger had finished cleaning his sword and was sheathing it. “Kid, it seems you’ve really pissed off the Empire.”

Leon smiled wryly. “What now?”

He could guess what his master was referring to. It must have been the time when Konstantin attacked the Red Dragon Sanctuary, and Leon detonated the Heartscale fused into that zombie dragon.

Of course, Leon’s detonation magic wasn’t refined enough to selectively explode one scale over another. When activated, it was all or nothing.

“The Empire’s laboratory storing those Heartscales exploded a couple of months ago, right?” Tiger continued. “Rebecca and I heard the explosion and rushed over, only to find out that all the Heartscales inside were destroyed.”

“The Royal Sorcerers said the Heartscales were completely obliterated, not a single one survived.”

“At first, I thought maybe some rogue hero had taken it upon themselves to blow up the lab as a statement against the Empire’s corruption.”

“But later, I realized the Empire hadn’t issued any wanted notices. Meaning, they knew who did it, and that person wasn’t even in the Empire.”

Tiger glanced pointedly at Leon. “So, you’re the one who dared to stir trouble in the Empire, aren’t you?”

Leon scratched his head. “It wasn’t exactly voluntary…”

Tiger furrowed his brow. “How is it that everything you do after you turned twenty seems ‘involuntary’? Marriage, having kids, wanting a second child, and now even blowing up the Empire’s treasure—it’s all ‘involuntary.’”

“Hey!”

“You got married against your will, had kids against your will, were forced to have a second one… and now you’re telling me you were forced to blow up the Empire’s Heartscales?” Tiger counted on his fingers, highlighting Leon’s “glorious” and absurd twenty-four-year life.

Leon chuckled awkwardly before explaining what had happened with Konstantin’s resurrection and the Heartscale explosion.

After hearing the story, Tiger nodded thoughtfully. “Reckless but careful at the same time. That’s definitely your style.”

Leon’s face stiffened. “Reckless but careful? I’ve always been careful!”

“Does your wife know?”

“Of course my wife—wait, we’re talking about my combat style here, not… other things, right?”

Tiger waved his hand dismissively, before growing more serious. “Anyway, your little explosion caused quite a bit of damage. The Empire lost years’ worth of collected Heartscales. That’s a big loss for them.”

Leon caught an interesting detail in his master’s words. “Wait, ‘years’ worth of collected Heartscales’? Are you saying the Empire has been gathering them for a long time?”

Leon only learned about the Empire’s Heartscale collection after traveling twenty years into the future through a spatial rift. But his master seemed to know about it from much earlier.

“How do you know?”

Tiger paused, thinking for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah, I noticed about thirty years ago that the Empire had started taking things from dragons. I didn’t know at the time that it was Heartscales.”

“After… certain events, I had to leave the dragon slayer army. I haven’t kept up with the Empire’s movements since.”

Leon narrowed his eyes. “Certain events…?”

“That has nothing to do with what we’re talking about, Leon.”

The short answer was clearly a signal to drop the subject.

Leon understood and didn’t push further. He’d long realized that there were things his master hadn’t told him. But from Tiger’s reaction, it wasn’t that he didn’t intend to share; it just wasn’t the right time yet.

Leon didn’t know when that time would come, but until then, he chose to trust his master.

“What about now? What’s the Empire’s next plan after losing all the Heartscales?”

“After the explosion, we’ve seen large convoys of carriages moving in and out of the Empire.”

Tiger explained, “Rebecca and I got close enough to observe that these carriages are loaded with enchanted cages, and inside are dangerous creatures—high-risk monsters.”

“Monsters?”

“Yes. While the Empire has always hunted harmful beasts, they

’ve never done so at this scale or with this level of efficiency.”

“And they’ve been transporting them at night, avoiding public notice.”

“That’s suspicious, isn’t it?”

Leon nodded in agreement. “Definitely. The Empire usually flaunts its victories over monsters to boost public support. But if they’re quietly capturing dangerous creatures like this… maybe they still haven’t given up on Konstantin.”

Tiger’s brows furrowed. “You mean, even after losing the Heartscales, the Empire is still trying to create another hybrid monster like Konstantin?”

“Exactly. That’s more in line with their methods, isn’t it?”

The kid made a good point.

Most people wouldn’t keep ramming their heads into a wall after hitting it once.

But the Empire? They’d ram into it a second time just to see if it was made of concrete or brick.

Tiger couldn’t shake the feeling that if the Empire continued down this path, they might end up ensnaring themselves.

After all, they always had a tendency to pursue powers they couldn’t control.