Read Novel Full Vol 9. Chapter 19: Always Strive to Be Number One in Everything!
Vol 9. Chapter 19: Always Strive to Be Number One in Everything!
Kaiser, though a little stuck, still understood what “first kiss” meant.
“For a game challenge, offer up a first kiss... Wouldn’t that be a little weird?”
While Kaiser was spacing out, Isha let go of his shoulder and, taking the chance, gave him a light push.
“Already fantasizing about kissing, are you, brat? Isn’t that just a bit too impatient?”
Kaiser came back to himself and found Isha looking at him with a downright wicked smile.
“All right—teased again. Once more.”
He silently turned away, looked elsewhere, and tried to reduce his presence to the absolute minimum.
“Hey! Hey!”
“What do you mean?”
“This is called maintaining professional standards, okay!”
Isha smiled and stopped teasing him, turning instead to Rosvisser.
“Little Ros, use your magic gadget to ping brother-in-law to come over.”
Rosvisser held the communication Memory Stone in her hand, still a bit torn.
“But even if he comes, Sis—even if you and Kaiser pose as a couple—for that, uh, challenge, we still only have three couples.”
“It’s a game challenge. Didn’t brother-in-law say he’s over in Blazing Sun City with the fire-breather courting a girl? Then just call those two over as well.”
Rosvisser blinked. “Wow—two of the three couples would be fake. If we get caught, we’ll die of embarrassment.”
At Rosvisser’s quip, Isha was righteously confident.
“Strictly speaking, among our three couples, not a single one is a real couple.”
Rosvisser batted her eyes.
“Have Leon and I been stripped of our couple status... You two are husband and wife.”
Rosvisser smiled helplessly and didn’t keep playing word games with her sister.
She picked up the communication Memory Stone, fed magic into it, and Leon responded quickly.
“What is it, wife?”
“How are you and Constantine progressing?” Rosvisser asked.
From his end came the sounds of sparring with the fire-breather again.
“Not especially smoothly. The fire-breather whiffed this round. With a perfect opening last night, he didn’t go in—he chose the strat most likely to make someone jump off a roof.”
Rosvisser chuckled. She’d expected Constantine to be wooden; she hadn’t expected him to out-wood her original estimate.
At that, Leon perked right up.
“How was I wooden? We set an engagement the very first time we met.”
Rosvisser hummed a laugh.
“Fine, fine. So how do you plan to keep helping him?”
Leon thought for a bit and answered:
“I want him to feel out, step by step, where he stands in Orion’s heart. So... probably find things for the two of them to accomplish together—relationship quests. More interaction; maybe they’ll strike sparks.”
“...Pretty good.”
Rosvisser said:
“I happen to have a perfect opportunity right here. Want to bring the two of them to try it?”
“Your side? Sky City?”
“Mm.”
Rosvisser narrowed her eyes at the Couple Challenge flyer. It clearly listed the venue—a shop on this very pedestrian street, only in Sky City.
“Isn’t Orion busy helping the elders of Blazing Sun City investigate the Holy Mountain? She might not have time to come, right?”
“Ha—no wonder the formalities and procedures just wrapped yesterday.”
Leon said:
“Orion’s got a few days off. I’ll ask whether she’s free. If she is, I’ll bring them to Sky City.”
“Good. I’ll wait for you.”
“Mm—thanks, wife.”
Rosvisser put away the Memory Stone and briefly filled Isha in on Leon’s situation.
After hearing it, Isha wasn’t particularly anxious.
After all, if she roped in another couple to join the challenge, then regardless of win or lose, she could still ensure that the emerald bracelet ended up with their own people.
Even if it was “a lone army,” Isha was fully confident that with just herself and Kaiser, they could still take second place.
...
...
By afternoon, Leon, Constantine, and Orion arrived in Sky City.
The moment they touched down, Orion was stunned by the Dragons’ city floating in the air.
Not only by the scale of the architecture, but even more by how powerful the spatial magic had to be to keep a city this massive aloft for hundreds or thousands of years.
“You really came, Orion. Welcome.”
Rosvisser stepped forward to greet her.
“Thank you, Sister Ros. This close, this high... I’m actually a bit nervous...” Orion seemed a little constrained, though she was doing her best to keep her emotions in check.
Leon leaned to his wife’s ear and lowered his voice.
“Didn’t expect it, did you—that one day you’d be the one a younger girl calls ‘Sister’.”
Rosvisser shot him a very sharp side-eye and returned it just as sharply.
“Says the man who, since childhood, has had little nun ‘sisters’ calling you ‘Brother Leon’—must’ve made your day, huh?”
...
General Leon silently raised a hand, mimed zipping his lips, and decisively went on mute.
Ever since the recent crisis ended, Orion’s relationship with Leon’s side had indeed grown close.
So calling Rosvisser “Sister Ros” made perfect sense.
“Honestly, I thought you wouldn’t have time to come,” Rosvisser said.
Orion smiled too.
“It’s been insane lately, but all the preliminary work for succeeding the City Lord is done. Next we just wait for the formal investiture. Before that, I can have a little fun and unwind.”
Rosvisser nodded.
“Once you become City Lord, you’ll have very little time that’s truly your own.”
The Melkvey family knows this all too well. Not to mention whole-family outings—even this time, it’s just the two sisters, plus their respective husbands or pretend boyfriends, and it’s still rare to get out together even once.
For their husbands—or pretend boyfriends—to all get out and play together was rare.
So whenever they could gather a few people, everyone cherished it.
While they chatted, Constantine edged over to Leon and asked quietly:
“Why’d you bring us to Sky City—what exactly are we doing?”
“Duh—helping you court Orion, of course.”
“What can’t be done in Blazing Sun City?”
“What has to be done in Blazing Sun City?”
Leon patted Con’s shoulder and, with the tone of someone who’s been through it, said:
“Trust me, fire-breather—do one lap here and when you go back, you’ll be the first prince in Blazing Sun City’s history.”
Constantine curled his lip and answered:
“Leeching off a woman? I can’t do it.”
“...Are you throwing shade at me, friend?”
Constantine smiled without answering.
Clueless as he might be in romance, Old Con was pretty sharp in this one area.
Leon smiled as well, then led everyone deeper into Sky City.
They reached the pedestrian street; the Couple Challenge event was still underway.
Isha and Kaiser had been waiting there for some time, and had already waved Leon’s group over.
Seeing Isha and Kaiser standing that close, even Constantine cast them a look of indeterminate meaning.
“Truly worthy of the Red Dragon Queen,” he muttered under his breath to Leon.
“The Red Dragon Queen and the kid from the Void—those two?”
Leon leaned in too and, lowering his voice, replied:
“Looks like my sister’s still enjoying teasing the pure-hearted boy, but either way, those two are definitely ahead of you and Orion.”
At that, Old Con’s face sank at once.
“You’re saying my Red Flame Dragon Queen can’t measure up to the Red Dragon Queen?”
“—”
Leon had been about to deny it, but on second thought, that sudden, mysterious competitive streak in Old Con seemed right on time!
So he switched his tone and nodded.
“Exactly. So you’re content to let my sister outpace you? You know in our society, among the Dragon Kings of our generation, there aren’t many left single~”
“I won’t let people look down on me,” Constantine ground out.
“I’ll surpass the Red Dragon Queen. I’ll prove that no matter what it is, my Red Flame Dragon Clan is the strongest.”
Leon silently gave a thumbs-up.
“Atta Con! That’s the spirit!”
“Okay, listen up. Today we’re playing!”
Isha and Kaiser high-fived, pressed their palms together, and very seriously introduced:
“The Couple Grand Challenge!”
“The rules are simple. Three couples compete. Each fends for themselves, earning points through mini-games. The couple with the most points at the end wins an emerald bracelet.”
“Of course, just because everyone works together doesn’t mean we have to crown a high or low this round. My goal is the emerald bracelet, because I plan to give it to Valendna as a birthday present. I just asked the shop. The bracelet is not for sale—only obtainable through the challenge. So no matter which couple among us takes first place, I’ll name a suitable price to buy it from them.”
With a quick intro to the challenge rules and her own aim, the groups present naturally formed different thoughts.
Leon & Rosvisser: “We’ll show you fake couples what real husband-and-wife tacit understanding looks like!”
Orion: “What, what—Couple Challenge? Does that mean Constantine and I are a couple??”
Constantine: “We’re already a couple? Then didn’t Leon jumping last night go to waste!”
Isha: “Yes—and once the bracelet is gifted and already on Valentina’s wrist, having the ‘couple’ pretext also makes teasing the Void boy that much easier. Delightful!”
Kaiser: “Miss Isha is really beautiful. There’s this big-sister warmth.”
And so, the three “couples,” each with their own thoughts, headed together for the challenge venue.