Chapter 66: – A Familiar Uppercut

Leon slowly opened his eyes.
Blue sky, white clouds, grassland, forest, gentle breeze—
Hiss~
What a familiar scene, seemingly from some crazy old acquaintance.
He slowly sat up, looking around at his surroundings.
Not far away was what appeared to be a collapsed low mountain, though it seemed that due to the passage of time, the broken rocks were already covered in moss.
A bit further was a dense forest, with giant trees rising from the ground, clearly quite old.
He observed for a while longer, and after confirming there was no danger nearby, finally stood up slowly.
His body was very weak.
His magical power was completely depleted, and pain coursed through his entire body – this was the side effect of the Nine Hells Gate.
But at least he could still walk.
He dragged his exhausted body toward the forest.
Although this place was deserted, Leon vaguely recognized where he was, “The border of Silver Dragon territory…”
But there wasn’t a single dragon in sight.
Nor were there any signs of battle.
“So… did I successfully stop that spatial rift?”
Leon had no idea how long he had been unconscious, or if he had even been unconscious at all.
Because after he stepped into the spatial rift, he had no awareness of the outside world.
He only knew he had to continuously drain his magical power; only he could stop that rift.
Looking at things now, Leon had indeed… succeeded.
However, it seemed — he hadn’t succeeded completely.
Damn it, where did everyone go?!
Where’s my wife? Where’s my beautiful, gentle, and virtuous wife who acts tough but is actually a tsundere, which doesn’t stop me from loving her anyway?
Where are my kids? Where’s my overachieving eldest daughter, my mascot second daughter, my third daughter who dreams of becoming a scientist – where are my three adorable children?!
Why aren’t they here?!
Leon was full of questions as he entered the forest, walking toward where he remembered the Silver Dragon Temple to be.
“If the spatial rift was stopped, then Rosvitha and the others should be safe…”
“But why can’t I see any sign of them?”
“And if it wasn’t stopped, why is the Silver Dragon territory’s border still intact…”
He muttered to himself as he continued on his way.
While traveling, Leon also didn’t forget to observe his surroundings.
Judging from the density of the forest, these giant trees had grown wild in a completely natural environment for a very long time, without any signs of being trimmed.
Logically, as the first line of defense at the border, the giant trees here should have been trimmed regularly to prevent them from blocking visibility.
When he had come here on patrol with Rosvitha before, the Silver Dragon soldiers had done this job well.
But now, it was very obvious that no one had maintained this area for a long time.
Leon silently noted this suspicious point and continued walking toward the Silver Dragon Temple.
Based on the sun’s position, he roughly calculated that it was around eight or nine in the morning.
But when he had entered the rift, it should have been near dusk.
Even if more than ten hours had passed, the forest environment shouldn’t have changed this dramatically.
“Could I have gone the wrong way?”
Leon suddenly stopped.
The possibility of going the wrong way was very small.
But it wasn’t impossible.
He hesitated for a moment, but still decided to return to his original path first, then properly observe the surroundings to confirm his location.
Thinking this, Leon turned around.
But just as he took a step, his foot met empty air, and he fell straight into a shallow pit.
“Damn… which bastard dug a hole here…”
This sudden fall made his already exhausted body, which had opened the Fifth Gate, even worse.
Leon sat in the shallow pit, taking quite a while to crawl up.
And just as he was about to stand up, his peripheral vision caught sight of the shrubs beside the pit.
The shrubs were very dense, which was why Leon hadn’t noticed the shallow pit earlier and had stepped into empty air, falling down.
“The pit and the shrubs…”
Leon’s thoughts stirred, and he immediately parted the outer layer of grass in the shrubs, examining certain traces inside.
Sure enough, at the edge of the shrub opening, a particularly even gap caught his attention.
Looking back at the shallow pit, although most of it had been buried by soil and moss, careful observation still revealed traces similar to the even marks at the shrub opening.
“This is where that sentry who was silently taken out by spatial magic was…”
Which meant he hadn’t gone the wrong way.
This was indeed the forest that led to the Silver Dragon Temple.
“Since there are no signs of battle or invasion at the territory’s border, does that mean they’re safe?”
Thinking this, Leon pressed his hands against the edges of the shallow pit, exerted force, and jumped out with a flip.
After confirming this was indeed Silver Dragon territory, Leon quickened his pace toward the temple.
……
Leon arrived at the temple’s outskirts around sunset.
But he had an unsettling feeling.
From the border to the temple, such a long distance, and he hadn’t seen a single Silver Dragon.
Given Rosvitha’s cautious nature, she wouldn’t possibly not station any sentries or guards.
Leon had no time to think further. With the temple gates right before him, he dragged his extremely exhausted body forward.
However, when he reached the temple entrance, he was completely stunned by the sight before him.
The silver gates hung precariously on the stone walls, with weeds growing wildly at the entrance.
In the courtyard behind the gates, flower beds were collapsed and broken, and the ground tiles were covered in moss.
What shocked Leon most was the temple itself – the walls were covered in scorch marks, and the left side of the building complex had been completely destroyed.
It was clearly a scene of decay.
Leon’s pupils shook, and ignoring the pain in his body, he rushed hurriedly into the courtyard.
“Noia!”
“Muen!”
“Little Light!”
He called out his daughters’ names.
But only the sound of wind sweeping across the grass answered him.
“Rosvitha! Are you here?!”
Thud thud—
A few stones rolled down from the nearby ruins.
Still, no one appeared.
Fear exploded in Leon’s heart.
Had he failed to stop that spatial rift?
Had his wife and daughters already…
In his daze, a pink figure quickly flashed by from the side.
Leon’s peripheral vision keenly caught that afterimage.
“Who? Who’s there? Are you from the Silver Dragon Clan?”
He no longer cared about the other party’s identity and ran directly towards that direction.
“Hey, I saw you, stop hiding, quickly tell me, where did the Silver Dragon Clan go?”
Leon went around the wall but didn’t see anyone.
He frowned, the spark of hope that had just ignited in his heart was extinguished again.
“Did I see wrong…”
He muttered disappointedly, about to turn around when that pink figure appeared ghost-like before him.
Then, Leon only felt a pain in his chin.
After that, his vision went black, and he lost consciousness.
……
Who knows how long it was before Leon finally came to.
It was already nighttime, with a campfire burning beside him.
Looking further to the side, a girl sat on a rock.
She was young, appearing around twenty years old, with long pink hair and black-framed glasses perched on her nose, making her skin appear even more fair and smooth.
The girl’s profile was delicate, like a finely carved piece of art—and somewhat familiar.
She wore a worn white lab coat over a shirt paired with fitted pants.
The pants were also slightly damaged, with several tears revealing the skin of the girl’s thighs.
She held a skewer of grilled meat in her hand, which should be her dinner for today.
Leon slowly sat up, rubbing his still-aching chin.
Seeing him awake, pink pupils flashed with surprise, and her frozen beautiful face showed some emotion.
The man before her seemed to have stirred up a heavy memory.
However, Leon didn’t seem to notice her emotional change. He pursed his lips and asked tentatively, “You… knocked me out?”
The girl nodded blankly.
“Just one punch? And that knocked me out?”
General Leon doubted his physical resistance for the first time.
Even the Dragon King couldn’t knock him out with one punch, but this girl could.
The girl looked at her right hand, made a fist, and shared Leon’s confusion, “Yeah, I don’t know why either, but when I saw you, I couldn’t control the urge to give you an uppercut.”
Leon didn’t start fighting with her after waking up despite being knocked out.
Firstly, because he was currently extremely weak, and might be at a disadvantage in a real fight;
Secondly, if she were really an enemy, she wouldn’t be leisurely grilling skewers here.
So that uppercut must have been a misunderstanding.
Leon looked at the girl’s appearance.
Very familiar.
Too familiar.
Almost like she was carved from the same mold as that mother dragon.
“Haven’t I seen you somewhere before?” Leon moved closer to the campfire.
The girl blinked, smiled faintly, withdrew her gaze to look at the campfire, its light reflecting in her pink pupils like gorgeous gems.
“What a terrible pickup line, how did you ever manage to court mom?”
The information in this sentence nearly overloaded General Leon’s CPU.
He widened his eyes and stammered, “You- you are—”
“My name is Aurora, Aurora K. Melkvi.”
She handed the skewer in her hand to Leon, “Of course, if it’s you, you can call me by another name, Little Light.”