The next morning, Leon slept until past nine.

Leon woke up once earlier when Roswitha ordered breakfast for him from the hotel front desk.

But ever since returning from the Empire a few days ago, he’d developed a habit of lingering in bed. He decided to sleep a little more before getting up to eat.

Roswitha had not forced him to wake up. She left the breakfast by his bedside and left quietly.

It seemed like Noa had called her away, saying she needed her mom to teach her how to swim.

Leon didn’t catch all the details; still groggy, he drifted back to sleep.

Around nine o’clock, Leon was abruptly awakened by a knock at the door.

He opened his eyes, shook his head to clear it, threw off the covers, got dressed, and got out of bed to answer the door.

Standing outside was Muen.

“What’s wrong, Mu—”

“Daddy, quick!” The little dragon girl was hopping anxiously on the spot, her tail swung wildly behind her, as if sharing her urgency.

Leon’s expression immediately turned serious. He squatted down, pulled her into a comforting hug, and asked, “Don’t worry, Muen. Take your time and tell me, what’s going on?”

“Mommy, Mommy, she—”

The moment Roswitha was mentioned, Leon’s frown deepened. He was supposed to be calming Muen down, but he hadn’t realized his own voice was growing more hurried.

“What happened to Mommy?”

“She fainted after she accidentally drowned while teaching Sister how to swim!”

Drowned... A dragon drowning?

There was no time to process this contradiction. Leon scooped Muen up in his arms and sprinted down the hall towards the stairs, heading straight for the first-floor lobby.

Meanwhile, at the beach, Roswitha was lying flat under a large beach umbrella, her eyes closed in apparent rest. Noa knelt obediently beside her.

Roswitha’s silver brows were long and elegant, her eyelids faintly trembling as the pupils beneath them darted back and forth.

She couldn’t help but open one eye to glance at her daughter.

“Noa, how much longer do I need to stay lying here?” Roswitha asked.

Noa hesitated, sneaking a look over her shoulder. Seeing no sign of Muen or her father yet, she turned back and mumbled, “Uh… just a little longer. My summer homework is missing one last piece—a lifeguard rescue essay. Everything has to happen properly and in order.”

A lifeguard rescue essay?

Truth be told, when Roswitha first heard about this assignment in the morning, she’d thought Noa had made it up.

Upon giving it more thought, though, there was no plausible reason for her well-behaved daughter to fabricate such a thing, so she didn’t ask further. Instead, she agreed to cooperate with her child’s little scenario.

In this practical exercise, she was playing the “damsel in distress,” needing to wait for the “professional lifeguard” to come to her rescue.

It wasn’t hard to guess who would be cast as the supposed lifeguard.

The only question was whether that scoundrel of a man had woken up yet. If he dared to ruin her precious daughter’s plans by sleeping late, she’d be having words with him!

After a while longer, hurried footsteps approached from behind Noa.

She turned around and saw her dad carrying Muen as they came charging up.

“Mommy, Mommy, close your eyes! The lifeguard is here! Just follow the instructions I taught you earlier and cooperate fully. No matter what happens, don't open your eyes until I give you the signal,” Noa said.

“No matter what happens, don’t open my eyes...” Roswitha silently mulled over this.

Asking a dragon to keep her eyes shut in front of a Dragon Slayer—was that too bold?

Oh well, it’s all for her daughter’s sake.

Besides, whatever else happened, Casmod wouldn’t dare try anything improper with her, the Dragon Queen.

With these reassurances, Roswitha closed her eyes slowly.

The footsteps stopped beside her.

“How did Mommy drown?” Leon asked while unzipping Roswitha’s outer jacket to ensure her breathing was unrestricted.

“I don’t know... She was teaching me, and then suddenly, she started yelling for help. I dragged her over here, but she wouldn't wake up,” Noa replied.

“Alright, I understand. Don’t worry; Mommy’s going to be okay.”

“Mhm...” Noa nodded, sneaking a glance at Muen.

The dragonling with the ahoge quietly gave her sister an “OK” gesture.

The Involuted King dragon girl nodded back subtly, indicating that the plan was proceeding smoothly.

Meanwhile, Leon checked Roswitha’s nasal and oral passages, ensuring there was no foreign obstruction. He then placed his overlapping hands gently on her abdomen and began pressing lightly to expel any water she might have swallowed.

This was a standard procedure taught at Dragon Slayer Academy for saving drowning victims.

Leon had thought he would never have to use it. After all, a professional Dragon Slayer drowning would be a ridiculous joke.

Yet now he found himself dealing with something even more absurd—

TMD, a winged dragon got herself drowned!

Mother dragon, you’ve embarrassed yourself!

Despite pressing several times, Leon couldn’t detect any water coming out of Roswitha’s mouth.

Scratching his head, he muttered, “This... this isn’t right. Shouldn’t a drowning victim have water in their stomach...?”

Baffled, he heard Noa speaking close to his ear in what seemed like a casual tone.

“Daddy, I heard that sometimes in situations like this, you need to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation or something…”

“Huh? M-Mouth-to-mouth? But isn’t that only necessary when the victim has stopped breathing entirely...?”

That’s how the Dragon Slayer Academy had taught it, as far as he could recall.

Noa’s eyes lit up mischievously as she pointed at her mom. “But Mommy’s not breathing at all! Look, Daddy, see for yourself!”

At this point, Roswitha, laying on the ground in her role as the weak and drowning maiden, held her breath to cooperate with her daughter’s plan.

Everyone could see it—Roswitha was only holding her breath for the sake of acting along.

Artificial respiration? Nonsense! How could the Dragon Queen possibly know about such trivial human techniques?

Leon reached out to feel for Roswitha’s breath.

Sure enough, there was none.

“Holy crap, Mother Dragon, don’t scare me!”

Someone panicked.

Someone leaned down.

Someone pried open the lips of the beautiful maiden.

Someone went in for the kiss!

“Muen is going to have a new sibling—mmph!”

Before Muen’s excited exclamation could draw attention, Noa quickly covered her mouth.

Fortunately, Leon was too focused on performing mouth-to-mouth to notice what Muen had just said.

The two little dragon girls stood obediently off to the side, watching as their dad repeatedly “kissed” their mom.

Noa, meanwhile, was already brainstorming potential names for their fourth sibling. Should she be named Breezer? Or maybe Mobius?

Meanwhile, Roswitha remained “unconscious,” her mind running wild.

Eyes closed, she could distinctly feel Leon’s urgency and worry. The fervent touch of his lips meeting hers and parting repeatedly felt… real.

She had thought this was just an act—a ploy to perform artificial respiration and tease this annoying man.

But it seemed as though he was genuinely worried about her safety?

Had Muen and Noa not mentioned that this was all a staged performance for a homework essay?

If he hadn’t been told, then the panic he showed would have been real too...

Hmph~ No matter how stubborn that mouth of his is usually, it felt delightfully soft during mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Muen poked Noa quietly and whispered in a low voice, “Sister, isn’t this enough yet? If they keep kissing, won’t we end up having too many new little siblings? One more is enough for Muen.”

Noa nodded seriously, cleared her throat, and signaled, “Mommy’s fingers just moved!”

Leon finally breathed a sigh of relief and pulled back.

Roswitha coughed softly twice before slowly opening her eyes.

Ehhh... What was the next step?

Oh! Right. Say the lines.

“I… What happened to me? What just happened? Who saved me?” she asked in the most monotone, detached voice possible.

“Daddy saved you!” Muen beamed as she clung to his arm proudly.

“Oh, oh, thank you, brave lifeguard!” Roswitha said.

Leon’s face flushed. The artificial respiration had left him slightly oxygen-deprived.

Though somewhat disoriented, he managed to glance between the unharmed-looking dragon queen and the two daughters wearing overly satisfied expressions.

Hiss~

Was I…

Just played for a fool?