In the afternoon, Leon kept his promise and accompanied Roswitha to the Silver Dragon Clan to buy a new swimsuit.

Truthfully, he had been the prince of the Silver Dragon Clan for more than a year now, but he had never gone 'shopping' with Roswitha in the tribe before.

Usually, whenever they needed something for going out, they would simply go to Sky City. There, Leon wasn’t some princely figure, and Roswitha wasn’t the Silver Dragon Queen.

To most members of the Dragon Clan, they appeared as just an ordinary couple with two adorable daughters.

So, when outside, there was no need for them to pretend to be overly affectionate or intimate; there wasn’t really anyone familiar around anyway.

But at home, it was a different story.

When they went out together, they had to be extremely careful and make sure the people of the Silver Dragon Clan could feel the undeniable and profound love between Her Majesty the Queen and the Prince.

Simply put, they needed to scatter dog food around—whether it was genuine or counterfeit, it had to be scattered.

Fortunately, after maintaining this fabricated family for so long, the couple had already become quite adept at it.

On the quiet path leading from Silver Dragon Castle to the tribe, the two of them instinctively held hands with effortless coordination.

In truth, Roswitha quite liked holding hands with Leon—or more precisely, she enjoyed the feeling of his large palm touching her.

Rough, weathered, and etched with scars of various sizes, his hand was a warrior's hand. It was only when touched by hands like his that Roswitha felt an undeniable sense of being conquered.

Of course, most importantly, his hands were always warm.

They perfectly complemented her naturally cool constitution.

She remembered last winter, when she had just conceived Aurora. Despite being pampered with good food and care, her cold body never truly improved. Even under the blanket, her hands and feet would often remain icy.

So, during those moments, Leon became her on-call, ever-present source of warmth.

Come on, being hugged by a grumpy warm heater who kept complaining about how troublesome you were, yet willingly came over to warm you up anyway, was absolutely delightful!

And it was a heater with well-defined muscles.

Not only warm, but also amazing to touch.

As Roswitha reminisced, she couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle.

Leon turned to her with a puzzled expression.

"What’s wrong with you, smiling randomly while walking?"

Noticing his gaze, Roswitha quickly resumed her composure. She straightened her face and said indifferently, "What are you staring at me for?"

"You were smiling just now like a young girl on her first date." Leon always had an uncanny ability to point out exactly what he observed.

"Well, how would you know what a young girl on her first date looks like? Don’t tell me you’ve dated other girls apart from me?" Of course, Roswitha’s sharp skills at picking out key words were unrivaled.

"Sure I have, so what? You want to control who I’ve dated too?"

Before meeting Roswitha, General Leon had spent twenty years of his life single. Back then, he wasn’t merely someone who never dated—he was the type who thought even spending five seconds to reject a girl’s confession was a waste of his time. Aside from his master’s wife, he had never gone out alone with any woman.

But since this Silver Dragon Queen was once again picking a fight out of nowhere, Leon decided to humor her.

After all, it wasn’t him who would end up stewing in her jealousy.

Roswitha shot him a sidelong glance. She knew this infuriating man was lying, but she couldn’t be bothered to expose him, so she just huffed lightly.

"The great dragon-slaying hero has tons of admirers. Of course you’d casually pick one for a date—it’s only natural. I wouldn’t dare to interfere."

Leon twitched his nose and asked gravely, "Do you smell that?"

"What smell?"

"Jealousy."

Roswitha froze for a moment and raised her perfectly arched eyebrows before letting out a cold snort. "Are we back to accusing me of being jealous again? I’m not some jealous freak."

"Really? You’re not?"

"I’m not." She stressed the three words with absolute clarity.

"Well, alright then. If you say so."

Since even the Queen of Jealousy claimed not to be, Leon decided to simply comply.

Roswitha didn’t bother to keep arguing.

Experience had taught her that if she continued, she would inevitably fall into one of Leon’s logic traps.

It was like someone calling you a tsundere—whether or not you really are one, the moment that "label" is put on you, it sticks.

So rather than waste her breath bantering with the infuriating man, she saved it for other battles later in the evening.

When they arrived at the Silver Dragon Clan, they found that, although the range of goods wasn’t as extensive as in Sky City, they could still find everything they needed.

First on their list was, of course, swimsuits.

Noa and Muen didn’t need new ones; the main purpose of this trip was to get Roswitha a swimsuit that wouldn’t turn into a sheer black mesh when wet.

When they entered the shop, the female owner immediately recognized her queen and quickly called for the shop assistants to come forward.

They lined up in formation to give a welcome bow—

But before things could escalate, Roswitha stopped them in their tracks. "Everyone, just carry on with your work. The Prince and I will browse around casually. If we need anything, we’ll let you know."

She never liked overly crowded or noisy scenes, and every time she visited incognito, she tried to keep things as low-key as possible.

The shop assistants slightly bowed and returned to their tasks.

The couple headed straight for the ladies’ swimwear section.

To be fair, the Silver Dragon Clan’s fashion was pretty inclusive. Whether one preferred modest styles or more revealing cuts, there was something for everyone.

Roswitha picked up a black swimsuit on the sultry side and held up the thin straps in front of herself. Then she turned to Leon and asked, "How about this one?"

Leon squinted at the swimsuit, which had pitifully little fabric, and shook his head. "Doesn’t look good."

"Alright, what about this one?" Roswitha grabbed another swimsuit of the same style but in a different color.

The fabric was still scarce.

Leon cleared his throat and said again, "Doesn’t look good either."

Roswitha allowed a trace of amusement to flicker across her face before she grabbed yet another swimsuit.

This one was equally fiery and sexy—just imagining how she would look in it made Leon’s heart race. But as expected, his verdict remained—

"Doesn’t look good."

Roswitha put down the swimwear and tilted her head. "How does this still not look good? It highlights my figure perfectly."

Leon scratched his nose, grumbling, "It just doesn’t, alright?"

"Tch, humans really have outdated tastes."

"Excuse me, this has nothing to do with taste, alright?"

"Then what’s the issue?"

"Um… uh…"

As she watched Leon stammer and falter, Roswitha’s smile deepened.

Holding the slinky swimsuit in her hand, she leaned closer to him, her eyes sparkling mischievously with intent.

"Oooh... I get it. You’re afraid that if I wear a swimsuit like this, you’ll lose control and fall head over heels for me! Afraid of proposing romantically by the ocean, and oh-so-terrified that in a moment of passion, our Dragon Mark might get activated, hmm?"

Roswitha rose on tiptoes and teased sensually near his ear. “Don’t worry, hubby. All you need to do is say you want to see it, and I’ll buy it and wear it just for you.”

Leon immediately backed away a few steps. “I wouldn’t want to see it! You can wear whatever you like; I won’t interfere.”

“Well, if hubby doesn’t like me wearing swimsuits like these, I’ll pick one with a bit more fabric then.”

With that, Roswitha selected a one-piece swimsuit that revealed nothing but a little collarbone and upper back.

It completely concealed her breathtakingly gorgeous figure.

This wasn’t 'a bit more'—this was 'a ton more!'

But Leon didn’t feel the slightest disappointment. If the Silver Dragon Queen had really bought one of those scantly clad swimsuits, it would likely have led to yet another bout of uncontrollable passion.

And that required a ton of stamina; Leon wasn’t particularly eager to expend his energy turning in homework again.

After all, as a father to three kids now, maintaining self-control in daily life was essential.

Roswitha finalized her choice, handed her selection to the assistants for packaging, and Leon stepped outside to wait for her by the door.

Several minutes passed before Roswitha emerged.

"What took you so long?"

"Oh, nothing. I just browsed a little more. Let’s go buy some sunscreen next."

"Alright."

The afternoon passed quickly as the couple finished shopping for all the items they would need for their trip to the beach.

This vacation wasn’t just about fulfilling their earlier promise to their daughters; it was also meant to help ease the tension that had built up for Leon and Roswitha after the Empire incident.

But more importantly, it was about getting Noa to better trust her parents’ relationship.

Leon wanted her to understand that her mom and dad would never leave her behind.