A month could feel both long and short.
Long enough for someone to shift their focus entirely onto other, quieter aspects of life;
short enough that they might not complete what they had only just started.
During this time, Noah spent noticeably more time with her sisters.
She no longer trained alone late into the night or buried herself in the library all day.
Instead, she played boisterous ghost-hunting games with Muen, her laughter echoing through the halls.
She pulled harmless, clever pranks with Aurora, their conspiratorial whispers a familiar sound.
She patiently accompanied Muse on the piano, listening to her experimental melodies.
She sat with Hefei, telling her softened, heroic tales of dragons from a time before war.
No one knew what would happen a month later, so while everything still felt serene and peaceful, everyone quietly, instinctively, did the things they truly wanted to do, storing away memories like treasures.
Leon understood what his eldest daughter was worried about and why she had so deliberately shifted her focus onto these small, precious joys.
But he didn't seek her out to talk about it. Such a conversation would only add unnecessary sorrow to the limited, peaceful days they had left. It was a burden she didn't need to name aloud.
For those like Leon, who already knew the crushing weight of the coming battle of fate, their hearts were pressed beneath a heavy boulder, making each breath a conscious effort. There was no need to add further emotional burdens to the children.
One morning, at breakfast, when Rossweise didn't appear at her usual time, Leon took his plate to the Silver Dragon Sanctuary's main hall but didn't find her there either.
A faint worry nudged at him. As he wandered the corridors, the maid Milan passed by. Leon called out, "Milan, hold on a moment."
Milan stopped and looked at him respectfully. "Your Highness, what can I do for you?"
"Have you seen Rossweise?"
"The Queen?" Milan thought for a moment, then shook her head. "I'm sorry, Your Highness. I haven't seen her this morning."
"Alright, carry on."
"Yes, Your Highness."
Leon returned to the dining room, carefully packed a selection of breakfast foods into a heated box, and wrapped it securely in a thermal bag.
As he worked, Noah, still eating her meal, noticed his actions.
"Couldn't find Mom?" she asked around a mouthful of toast.
"Hmm. I'll look around for her."
"Want me to help, Dad?"
Leon smiled, tousling her hair as he passed her chair.
"You wouldn't understand this particular game, sweetheart."
Noah blinked in confusion. "Understand what?"
"The kind and beautiful queen is feeling a little melancholic, so she's hidden herself away where no one can easily find her. But at such a moment, it's her husband's sacred duty to seek her out and bring her a warm breakfast. Sounds romantic, doesn't it?"
"...Dad..." Noah's expression twisted between secondhand embarrassment and utter disbelief.
The overly dramatic king and queen—how are these my parents?
"Fine," she sighed, "I'll go play with Muen and the others."
"Go ahead."
Noah hopped off her chair and scampered away, while Leon grabbed the meal box and left to continue his search for Rossweise.
The truth was, Leon didn't know why she'd suddenly disappeared either.
It wasn't her mood, he thought. Last night, she'd been perfectly fine, chatting with him about mundane things, snuggling close, even giving his tail a playful tug before they fell asleep.
Rossweise wasn't the type to vanish without a word because of a simple bad mood.
So, it must be something else.
Leon searched the garden, the lakeside pavilion, and the cherry blossom grove on the back mountain, but there was no sign of her silver hair or familiar presence. After an hour, he began to doubt himself.
"She wouldn't have just flown off into the sky, would she?"
Summoning his eagle companion, he took to the skies, scanning the sprawling sanctuary from above.
From below, a patrolling knight watched the prince flying in slow, methodical circles, scratching his head in confusion.
"What's His Highness up to now?"
Perched nearby on a tree branch, Shirley leaned against the trunk, her silver tail swaying idly. Hearing the knight's muttering, she looked up.
"Probably looking for the Queen."
"The Queen?"
"Yeah, I didn't see her this morning either. Looks like His Highness noticed she's missing," Shirley said with a knowing smile.
The knight chuckled. "After eight years of marriage, and she still pulls disappearing acts?"
Shirley tossed an orange peel at the knight's head. "You don't understand. It's called romance~."
"Yes, Captain. Romance!" the knight saluted with a grin before heading off on his patrol.
Despite the knight's words, the process of finding the queen wasn't as straightforwardly romantic as it sounded.
Leon sat cross-legged on his eagle's back, the warm breakfast box beside him, his brow furrowed in deep thought.
"It doesn't make sense. I've searched everywhere. Where could she be?"
Then it hit him. He clapped his hands together, a sudden clarity lighting up his face.
"There's one place I haven't checked. One place that makes sense."
He patted the eagle's neck. "Good work, my friend. Take me down, then get some rest."
The eagle screeched in acknowledgment, descending gracefully to the courtyard. Leon grabbed the box and leapt off, sprinting towards the sanctuary's rear quarters.
He passed through the main halls, the secluded garden, the cherry grove, the babbling stream, and even the queen's private warehouse before arriving at a most unexpected destination—the old, disused Silver Dragon dungeons.
Confirming with the guards that Rossweise had indeed been there, Leon quickly headed inside.
At the farthest end, in a dusty, dimly lit corner of the dungeon, he finally found her.
Rossweise stood bathed in a single beam of sunlight streaming through a high, small window, dust motes dancing around her like tiny spirits in the still air. She was gazing intently at an old, rusted rack with heavy chains dangling from it, their cold, iron surface stained faintly with patches of dark, old blood.
The soft glow illuminated her silver hair, giving her an ethereal, almost untouchable appearance, like an angel descended into a forgotten tomb.
At her feet sat a familiar, ornate wooden box, its lid open, the contents visible only to her.
"What are you doing here?" Leon asked softly, his voice echoing slightly in the stone chamber as he stepped closer.
Rossweise lowered her gaze from the rack, turning to him with a gentle, unreadable expression. "I wanted to remember the place where it all began."
Leon chuckled, the sound warm in the cold space. "The first time I saw you was in a textbook at the Dragon Slayer Academy. You looked... formidable."
She rolled her eyes, a faint smile touching her lips. "Idiot. You know what I mean."
Leon approached, looking around the grim room before gesturing with the meal box in his hand. "Breakfast in a dungeon? It hardly seems fitting for a queen."
"I'm not hungry. I'll eat later," she said, her voice quiet.
"Alright."
His eyes then drifted to the open box at her feet. "And why bring that here?"
Rossweise hesitated for a long moment before sighing. "It's been a long time since I've looked at it. I felt... compelled."
"And you wanted me to find you here?" he probed gently.
"Yes," she admitted, her amethyst eyes meeting his. "If you found me, I wouldn't sulk. But if you didn't..."
Leon laughed, a genuine, hearty sound that seemed to push back the dungeon's gloom. "If I didn't?"
"I'd be mad at you when I got back," she said, her tone a mix of jest and truth.
So, that's why wives mysteriously get upset! Leon thought with inward amusement.
But he didn't mind her occasional childish antics. On the contrary, he found them endearing, a reminder of the woman beneath the crown.
"Leon."
Her soft voice broke his thoughts. He looked up, meeting her gaze fully.
"Hmm?"
"Will we win?"
Leon immediately understood what she was referring to. The shadow of the coming battle, the one they had barely spoken of, loomed large in her mind, here in this place of their past.
As one of the few Dragon Kings wielding Primordial Power, Rossweise's participation in the final conflict was inevitable.
This would be her most challenging battle—not only because of the formidable foe they faced but because everything she cherished was at stake: Leon, their children, her family, the entire sanctuary, and even her own sense of self.
Despite her fears, she didn't hate this more vulnerable version of herself. It made her feel whole, more human, more alive.
"Will we win?" she asked again, though perhaps she was also asking the question of herself.
Leon reached down, his gaze falling on the contents of the box—the set of sleek, black dragon-scale armor inside, gleaming dully under the sliver of sunlight. The armor she had worn when they first met, when she was his captor and he her prisoner.
"We will win," he said firmly, his voice leaving no room for doubt, his eyes holding hers with absolute certainty.
"For sure."