Chapter 75: You don’t even want to call me daddy
Times had changed. In the past, there were maids who prepared three meals a day for the royal family.
But now, the queen was in stasis inside a crystal, the daughters were busy with research and honing their magic every day, and their father had been missing for twenty years, so the fact that they hadn’t starved was already impressive.
The seating arrangement at the dinner table was also worth noting.
Moon and Aurora, of course, sat close to their dad.
But Noa sat alone at the other end of the table, sipping her soup in small sips.
“Daddy, try this! I made it with the prime meat from a dangerous beast I caught myself!” Moon said proudly.
“Alright, let’s have a taste.”
Leon cut off a piece and put it in his mouth. The meat quality was good, but it seemed a bit overcooked, with some burnt spots that affected the taste.
“Is it good, Daddy?” Moon’s eyes were full of the words “seeking praise.”
“It’s delicious, of course!”
Leon ate the grilled meat in one bite. “How about I teach you some other ways to cook meat later, okay?”
“Uh… Daddy, I caught the ingredients, but the cooking was done by my sister,” Moon said.
Leon froze, then looked up at Noa, who seemed to have no intention of saying anything.
“Oh, I see…”
“Mm-hmm! Try this, Daddy. My sister’s cooking is amazing~”
This elder sister, who wasn’t very good at cooking, was lucky to have a sister who adored her and a dad who doted on her.
Noa continued to quietly eat her meal.
After the simple dinner, Moon and Aurora took on the task of washing the dishes.
Noa went outside by herself.
After hesitating for a moment, Leon followed her.
Leaving the underground space, Leon found that Noa was nowhere to be seen.
He looked around, but it was already late, and the tall trees around him, with their thick foliage, blocked much of the view.
After searching for a while, he still couldn’t find her.
Leon sighed softly, lowered his head, and was about to head back.
But just as he took his first step, Noa’s voice came from above.
“Do you have something to say to me?”
Leon stopped in his tracks and looked up.
Noa was sitting on a large stone at the entrance of the cave, dangling one leg, with her arms wrapped around her knees.
“Ah… I just wanted to talk to you,” Leon said. “Do you have time?”
“Yes.”
“Then can I… come up there?”
“Mm.”
Leon nodded, looked around for a moment, then found a slope that wasn’t too steep and slowly climbed up.
When he reached Noa’s side, he bent down and sat next to her.
Noa didn’t move away.
Of course, she didn’t lean closer either.
She remained in her previous posture, with her eyes half-lowered, gazing into the deep night.
Leon looked at her profile.
Exquisite, her brows bore a faint resemblance to her mother’s.
Neither father nor daughter spoke, and they sat in silence.
A gust of cold wind blew past, and Noa shrank back slightly. “If you don’t say something soon, I’m going back inside—it’s cold.”
“Ah… oh…”
“Don’t just ‘oh.’ Say something. Didn’t you want to talk to me? Talk.”
Leon scratched his head, suddenly unsure how to begin.
His daughters had grown up, and they now had their thoughts and perspectives, so Leon couldn’t talk to them the way he used to when they were kids.
After thinking it over, Leon decided to get straight to the point.
“Noa, are you… unhappy with me?”
Noa turned her head slowly, looking at him. “Why would you think that?”
“Because… because… you haven’t called me ‘Dad’ since yesterday…”
Noa raised an eyebrow, her tone indifferent. “That’s why?”
“Yes…”
Leon said, “When you were little, there was also a long period when you didn’t call me Dad, right? Back then, it was because you thought I didn’t love you. Is that why now too? Do you still think I don’t love you?”
He was getting anxious.
Normally, Leon wouldn’t be so agitated during conversations, but now, he was desperate to know what was going on in Noa’s heart.
Noa knew how her father usually behaved, but she wasn’t surprised by his current outburst.
She gave a soft snort through her nose and then, in a serious tone, lowered her head and said, “I’m just… afraid.”
Leon was slightly taken aback by this unexpected response.
“Afraid… of what?”
“We used to have a happy family, didn’t we?”
Noa spoke softly, “I once responded to your love for me with the same passion. Do you know, as Leon Casmoda’s daughter, I was always proud?”
“I knew my father was strong, the kind of strength that’s one-of-a-kind in this world.”
“I was proud to have a father like you.”
“And the same goes for Mom. Being your daughter was the luckiest thing that ever happened to me.”
“But… all of that was shattered by the disaster.”
“Everything I cared about, everything I cherished, everything that nurtured me and loved me… along with my once-fiery love, was buried twenty years ago.”
“I thought everything would be fixed when you came back.”
Noa buried her face in her arms, gripping her arms tightly,
“But that’s not how things turned out.”
“Instead, I’m even more afraid of the day everything will end.”
“If we fail, and you leave me, Moon, and Light again, what will we do? What will Mom do?”
“I do love you, I love you deeply, but I can’t love you as recklessly as I did when I was a child.”
She slowly lifted her head from her arms, her eyes filled with tears as she gazed at her father beside her.
At that moment, Noa’s face, lightly marked with scars, seemed to overlap with her childhood face in Leon’s eyes.
Her voice choked, but every word was clear,
“Because I’m afraid of losing you—twice.”
The strongest girl had the most fragile heart.
Noa always thought more deeply about things than Leon could.
Looking back at his daughter, Leon slowly reached out his hand and gently placed it on Noa’s shoulder.
Leon, making sure she had no intention of pulling away, slowly embraced Noa, letting her rest her head on his shoulder.
“I’m sorry, Noa. It’s my leaving that caused all of this, making you, your sisters, and your mother suffer so much.”
“I don’t want to stand here and make bold promises in front of you because the truth is, no one can predict what the outcome will be this time.”
“But, Noa, please believe me. For the sake of you, your sisters, and your mother… I can do anything.”
Noa, leaning on her father’s shoulder, wiped away her tears and softly said, “People who talk big… will get their tails rotten.” linked, glanced at his empty back, and said, “That might be tough for Dad, though… Even if I wanted my tail to rot, I don’t have one.”
Noa broke into a smile amidst her tears, sat up, sniffled twice, then clenched her fist and held it out toward Leon.
“Then, how about this.”
Seeing Noa’s slightly raised fist, Leon immediately understood.
When she was little, this was the gesture Leon used to make guarantees to her.
“Alright.”
Leon nodded and extended his hand.
The father and daughter’s fists gently bumped together, just like they did back then.
“But until you save the world, I still won’t call you Dad.”
Noa’s stubbornness surfaced again, and this trait was certainly something she inherited from both her headstrong parents.
“Ah… why?”
“What do you mean why? It’s a tradition in the Melkvi family to be stubborn. You got a problem with that?”
Leon chuckled, “No, none at all.”
Aside from being stubborn, the dragon women of the Melkvi family—both the old and the young—have always been quite adept at keeping General Leon under their thumb.
—
Footnotes:
烂尾巴 (lànLiterally means “to have a rotten tail,” a playful idiom used to tease someone who talks big or makes bold claims. It implies that boasting without backing it up will lead to some sort of humorous or embarrassing consequence, like their tail rotting. Here, it’s used in a familial and lighthearted context.
Adorable!
This was adorable.