Read Novel Full Vol 9. Chapter 29: Authority
Vol 9. Chapter 29: Authority
The black ring shimmered in the sunlight with a luster all its own.
This was an extremely rare metal on Samael, with remarkable malleability and adaptability.
Most of the time, it was used to craft a unique, one-of-a-kind personal item for someone.
And because the total supply was so scarce, anything made from it was often priceless, unobtainable on the market, a rare masterpiece among ten thousand.
Leon pinched this ring from the future between his fingers, silently admiring it.
After returning from Hera’s place, Leon had noticed that Rosvisser had an exquisitely made jade thumb ring on her hand.
At a glance, it was a top-tier ornament—expensive enough to make the meaning obvious.
And he had guessed it was probably a gift from Hera to Rosvisser.
A mother-in-law giving her daughter-in-law jewelry was nothing strange.
It was just that this gift could not help making Leon think of the one he had long prepared as well...
An engagement ring.
So taking it out was not a spur-of-the-moment urge to admire it.
More than anything, he wanted to seriously think about his and Rosvisser’s future.
More precisely, that future wedding.
And while Leon was focused on his thoughts, he did not notice the door being opened.
Not until someone hopped playfully to his side and startled him back to himself.
“Dad!”
Leon jolted. He hurriedly hid the ring in his hand, then looked at his daughter as if nothing had happened.
“Noa... when did you come in? I didn’t hear anything.”
Noa leaned with her father against the balcony railing, rising on her toes to peek at what he was hiding behind his back.
“Dad, you’re acting all sneaky. What are you hiding?”
“Nothing.”
“I want to see.”
“There’s nothing worth seeing, Noa...”
“If you won’t show me, I’ll go tell Mom you’re secretly hiding private money.”
“...”
“In truth, I’ve been living off your mother for the past fifteen years...”
But in the end, the least cost-effective option was still the honest one.
He took the ring out.
Noa’s eyes lit up.
“Isn’t this... the shard from your black-gold war chariot?
I always kept it in that little wooden box of mine. Dad, when did you take it out?
And you even made it into a ring...”
Leon shook his head.
“This isn’t the one you kept. It’s...”
The past welled up in his mind, and Leon could not help smiling.
“It’s the one you left me before you left back then. Future you.”
Noa’s face cleared.
“Oh~ That does sound like something I’d do after time travel.”
Leon chuckled and shifted the ring’s shine from the ring to his eldest daughter.
She was fifteen this year. She had grown her hair long like her mother’s, and she gave off the distinct air of a girl her age.
Leon was deeply relieved that the little girl who once tried to shoulder everything had now learned to set burdens down appropriately, and focus on what she should be doing at her age.
For example, reporting her father for hiding private money...
“So, Dad, are you going to use this ring to propose to Mom?” Noa asked.
Leon did not hide it. He nodded.
“Yeah. I just haven’t figured out how to propose yet, or when.”
Noa scratched her forehead.
“I don’t really understand that kind of thing either.”
Leon raised an eyebrow and asked with a teasing smile:
“At your age, you really don’t?”
Noa froze. “What do you mean?”
“When I was about your age, quite a few girls were already writing love letters. Even though I didn’t really understand back then, but—what are you doing, Noa? Are you secretly writing this down in your little notebook too?”
Noa stuffed the little notebook she had produced from nowhere into her pocket.
“Ahem—so you won’t refuse later when I need your help. I have to collect more leverage on you right now.”
Other people’s daughters spent puberty rebelling.
Only the Melkvey daughters spent puberty wishing their father would be chopped into pieces by their mother.
Leon bared his teeth in a helpless grin, then continued:
“What I mean is—doesn’t anyone at school write you love letters or something?”
“Yes,” Noa said.
“But Moon took them all away, and then burned them.”
Leon stared and patted Noa’s shoulder.
“That’s...”
“Dad, didn’t you always tell me not to date early? So I won’t think about that before I’m two hundred.”
“You dragons get more mature the closer you are to one hundred, don’t you?”
Noa shrugged.
“Well, Mom met you when she was over two hundred.”
Even though she was growing up, it did not change the fact that Noa had always treated Leon and Rosvisser as her goals to learn from and surpass.
Even in love.
In a few years, when Noa or Moon and the others, who would have to marry someday, suddenly brought home some unfamiliar boy and announced that he was their boyfriend,
What would he, as the old father, do then...
Was it better to hit him with a Thousand Birds, or a Dragon Roar...
“So hard to decide.”
Leon put the ring away, sighed, and looked into the distance as he said slowly:
“At least now isn’t the time. With such powerful enemies stirring, I can’t even sleep soundly.”
Noa shot her father a look.
“You mean after you get married, you’ll directly enter retirement with Mom.”
Leon smiled.
“Yeah. Then your mother and I will find a place to retire in seclusion, bring Aju over, and then...”
Noa looked at him. “And then?”
“And then every year we’ll give you a new little sister.”
Noa could not hold it in, laughing so hard a sharp sound burst out of her throat.
Father and daughter stood side by side on the balcony, chatting idly.
And the topic slowly turned serious.
“Dad, actually, I came to talk to you today about the adult division.”
The adult division.
The final part of Saint Heath Academy’s standard curriculum.
Noa enrolled before she was even two years old. Now she had already studied for thirteen years, so it really was time for her to enter the adult division.
“Okay. Go on. What is it?” Leon asked.
“The academy’s adult division is a special stage. You can choose to graduate at that point, or choose to stay in the adult division and serve the academy.”
Leon’s gaze shifted.
“You definitely don’t want to just graduate, right?”
Noa smiled.
“Right. I want to stay and continue advanced study. Even if Dad and Mom are both strong among the strong, there are things you can only learn at school. The academy’s core curriculum isn’t only about fighting. More of it is about how to become a qualified dragon warrior, and that involves a lot of different aspects. And those aren’t things Dad and Mom can teach by just telling me. I can only temper them through constant struggle and experience.”
Leon understood his daughter’s thinking, so he agreed.
“Sure. Then do what the academy says.”
“Mm... but if I want to advance into the adult division, I still need a recommendation letter.”
Whether it’s the hatchling division or the youth division, to the academy, those children are students.
But the adult division is different.
Once they enter the adult division, the children become members of the academy.
They would go through all kinds of real combat, complete countless dangerous missions, serve the academy, and serve the entire dragon race.
Therefore, the academy had to ensure that students entering the adult division were one hundred percent loyal to the dragons.
So at this time, a recommendation letter from an authoritative figure within the dragons was required.
“Then have your mom write one. She’s authoritative enough.”
Noa scratched her head, troubled.
“Mom is definitely authoritative, but it’s just... but... but...”
“Mm...”
Leon watched his daughter hesitate, and he could roughly guess what she was thinking.
“You think having your mother—the dignified Dragon Queen—write the recommendation letter will feel like taking a shortcut, like relying on your parents’ status?”
Noa nodded quickly.
“Yeah. And Principal said the people in the adult division all have strong personalities.
I’m afraid that after I go in, they’ll talk about me behind my back, and I’ll feel uncomfortable.”
After entering puberty, Noa’s personality had become more obvious.
She cared a lot about how others evaluated her, but at the same time, she did not want to attract too much attention.
That was why she had come to Leon for help.
“Then, Dad, can you help me find someone suitable to write the recommendation letter?”
Leon thought for a moment, then his eyes lit up and he said with a smile:
“No problem. Dad will find you someone even more authoritative than your mom.”