Chapter 154: What Does Marriage Bring to Men?

In the evening, Leon took a shower, washing away the fatigue of the day. As he stepped out of the bathroom, his wife, Rosvitha, had already slipped into bed.

During the day, Mother Dragon got caught by her own maidservant in the practice ground and was then locked in the temple for the entire day. At that time, she threatened Leon that if he had the guts, he shouldn’t come to bed.

Ha, as if he was scared stiff. I didn’t report you, didn’t provoke your anger, why shouldn’t you let me into bed?

Leon dried his hair and walked around to the other side of the large bed, lifting the covers and lying down as usual. Rosvitha didn’t react much, obediently lying there, her arms out of the covers, hands on her abdomen, her beautiful eyes staring at the ceiling, as if lost in thought.

Leon glanced over and switched off the bedside lamp. “Goodnight,” he said.

“I’m not sleepy,” Rosvitha replied.

“Alright, then I’ll sleep first.”

“No sleeping allowed.”

Leon turned his head. “Why not?”

“The pregnant queen hasn’t slept; how can a prisoner like you sleep?” Rosvitha had a point.

Leon sighed helplessly. “Then what do you want, Your Majesty the pregnant queen?”

After some thought, Rosvitha said, “I want to hear a story. Tell me a story.”

Leon rolled his eyes. “How old are you?”

“Weren’t we just celebrating my birthday recently? Forgot already?” Rosvitha said, “Two hundred and eighteen.”

“You do realize you’re over two hundred years old? You’re not a child anymore, why do you still want to hear stories?”

“I don’t care, I just want to hear a story.”

“Don’t be silly, go to sleep.”

“I want to hear, I want to hear, I want to hear!”

Rosvitha acted like a child—no, like a little dragon? Well, it doesn’t matter—under the covers, randomly kicking her legs, giving off a sense of throwing a tantrum for not getting candy.

And whether it was intentional or not, she managed to kick Leon several times while she was at it. Leon had already retreated to the edge of the bed, but his butt couldn’t escape this ordeal.

God gave you long legs so you could wear bunny girl stockings for your husband to see, not so you could kick your husband’s butt in bed, you jerk.

Fed up with the disturbance, Leon finally spoke up, “Rosvitha.”

Rosvitha’s foot halted on Leon’s waist. “What’s up? Are you going to start telling the story now?”

“I’ll put up with you for six months,” Leon gritted his teeth.

Rosvitha squinted and smiled, “Then you can explode in six months. Now I’m pregnant, my emotions are unstable, you have to endure me. Don’t forget, that’s what you promised me initially.”

A moment’s slip leads to eternal regret.

Leon’s understanding of “unstable emotions” seemed quite different from Rosvitha’s understanding.

Back then when he promised her, he thought she would uncontrollably explode, curse the heavens, curse the earth, curse the air, and vent all the grievances accumulated over two hundred years on him during pregnancy.

Of course, Leon was mentally prepared for this, enduring it all for the sake of their second child. But he never imagined that things would turn out quite differently from what he expected.

Recently, Rosvitha had been making all sorts of strange requests to Leon, using the excuse of “I’m pregnant, my emotions are unstable.” These requests included but were not limited to:

“I want to see you propose to a carrot, with an eggplant as the witness.”

“Silver Dragon captive Leon, stand up! Five hundred sit-ups, go!”

“Let’s play rock-paper-scissors, and the loser has to wash the winner’s feet. Oh, and by the way, you can only choose rock.”

“I don’t want dinner.”

Five minutes later.

“I want a midnight snack.”

“…”

While Leon had heard of the saying “one pregnancy, three years of foolishness,” he didn’t know there was also an incubation period for this foolishness. What Silver Dragon Queen? She was turning into a Silver Dragon giant baby.

“Should I just give you all my trophies and stop bothering me, please?”

Sighing inwardly, Leon realized that compared to those strange requests, “listening to stories” wasn’t such a big deal after all.

“What kind of story do you want to hear?” Leon asked.

“Anything, I’ll listen to whatever you tell,” Rosvitha replied sweetly.

Well, isn’t that sweet. Leon felt cheered up by her sweetness, and a lot of his resentment instantly dissipated. After some thought, he quickly came up with a story to tell.

Truth be told, he had quite a few stories in his arsenal, after all, storytelling was a basic skill for a dad-to-be.

“How about I tell you a story called ‘The Little Dragon Crossing the River’?”

“Okay.”

“Once upon a time, there was a little dragon who wanted to cross a small river. But the water was flowing fast, and she was afraid of being swept away. So, she asked the passing elder dragon, who said the water was shallow and it would be easy to cross.”

“Then the little dragon asked a nearby squirrel, who said the water was deep and it was too dangerous. The little dragon hesitated, and she—”

Rosvitha suddenly interrupted, “Wait, I have a question.”

“What?”

“Why can the squirrel talk?”

“…”

“And why doesn’t this little dragon just use a bridge?”

“Well…”

“Why doesn’t the passing elder dragon just take her across? This story is really heartless, let’s switch to another one.”

Indeed, adults couldn’t understand children’s romance.

Leon pondered for a moment, then changed the story.

“The next story is called ‘The Thirsty Crow.'”

“Okay.”

“Once, a crow was extremely thirsty and happened upon a bottle of water. However, the bottle’s neck was too narrow, and there was too little water for the crow to reach. After much thought, the crow had a bright idea. It flew to the riverbank, picked up many stones, and dropped them into the bottle. This caused the water level to rise, and the crow was able to drink. This story teaches us—”

“Wait, I have another question.”

“Um… what?”

Leon’s explanation seemed feeble as Rosvitha turned her head, staring with her beautiful silver eyes, and asked earnestly, “If this crow could fly to the riverbank, why didn’t it just drink directly from the river instead of carrying stones back to fill the bottle?”

“Well… it might… have a cleanliness obsession?” Leon’s explanation fell somewhat flat.

“Why? Is the river water dirty? Because the little dragon dirtied it when she crossed?”

A path of dreamlike linkage, completely unforeseen.

Leon sighed. “Rosvitha, is it so hard to maintain a bit of childlike wonder?”

“Hmph, if you don’t want to tell me a story properly, then forget it. And don’t say I lack childlike wonder.”

It’s not that I’m not telling you properly, it’s clearly that you’re not listening properly!

Telling stories to Rosvitha, who came with the intention of tormenting him from the start, was truly a self-inflicted torture.

Just as he was pondering this, the bed shifted, and Rosvitha turned over, facing away from Leon.

Phew, Leon breathed a sigh of relief silently. It seemed that tonight’s ordeal was over.

The bedroom quieted down, only the ticking of the clock could be heard.

Leon shifted as well, adjusting to a more comfortable sleeping position, then slowly closed his eyes.

As drowsiness washed over him, Leon let out a yawn.

He had no idea how long it had been when he entered a half-asleep, half-awake state, even seeing his master’s donkey in his dreams—

But just then, the voice of the dragoness came from behind again.

“I want an apple.”

Leon muttered groggily, pretending not to hear.

Then, the next moment, a jade foot pressed against his waist, speaking with authority, “I want an apple.”

Her soft foot pressed firmly against his waist, her agile toes playfully wiggling back and forth, keeping Leon wide awake. He sighed heavily—tonight’s sigh count was more than the past week combined—as he slowly turned over, reaching out to pinch Rosvitha’s cheeks and gently turning her head towards the clock hanging on the wall.

“Tell me, Melkvi, what time is it now?”

“It’s three twenty in the morning,” Rosvitha’s mouth formed an “O” shape from being pinched, but she still answered obediently.

“So, at three twenty in the morning, what kind of apple are you eating?” Leon was exasperated.

Now he understood why Rosvitha said that line “if you have the guts, don’t come to bed” during the day.

It wasn’t a threat; it was advice.

And now, here he was, being tormented until three in the morning without sleep.

“If you don’t give me an apple, I’ll start causing a scene.” Now, that was a threat.

Helpless, Leon had no choice but to lift the covers and get out of bed. He fetched an apple and a fruit knife, returning to the bedside. Turning on the bedside lamp, he carefully began to peel the apple.

The peel came off in one long, thin strip without breaking halfway.

Rosvitha arched an eyebrow. “Impressive knife skills.”

“Thanks for the compliment, I used to do this for the donk—”

“Shut up,” Rosvitha shot him a glare, snatching the apple from his hand and taking a bite.

It was sweet, crisp, and delicious. She leaned against the headboard, holding the apple in her hands, eating it delicately and seriously.

Even though he couldn’t understand why eating an apple had to be taken so seriously, after all these days, Leon had learned one thing: don’t interfere with a pregnant woman’s affairs.

“I’m full now, you deal with the rest,” Rosvitha handed the half-eaten apple to Leon.

Leon glanced down and indeed, it was neatly halved.

Wow, so she ate it so seriously just to leave exactly half of it? What was the point—

Forget it, don’t interfere with a pregnant woman’s affairs.

Leon took the apple and took a bite. The flesh was sweet, whether it was the taste of the apple itself or Rosvitha’s lingering lip balm.

Actually, this wasn’t the first time recently that Leon had eaten something Rosvitha couldn’t finish. Pregnancy cravings came and went quickly. It seemed like a waste to throw away so many uneaten things, so the couple often shared.

With the apple in his mouth, Leon used his hands to tidy up the fruit peel and the fruit knife. Meanwhile, the pregnant lady had already happily nestled back into bed after eating her fill.

Leon glanced at her. This time, should the night’s antics finally come to an end?

Inadvertently, he caught sight of a drawer in the bedside table.

The drawer was half-open, revealing what seemed to be a form inside.

Leon took it out and realized it was a registration form for prenatal yoga classes.

His thoughts drifted back to two months ago when he and Rosvitha met her sister, Isabella, in Sky City while buying nutritional supplements. It was Isabella who helped Rosvitha register for the classes.

They were said to be suitable for pregnant women three months and beyond.

But Rosvitha had never mentioned this before. As Leon looked at the prenatal yoga registration form in his hand, a thought occurred to him.

“If she’s not sleeping at night, she must be bored during the day. Hmph, Mother Dragon, you’ve been tormenting me for so long, we should reciprocate the favor.”

With determination in his heart, Leon decided that it was time to return the favor and find a way to keep Rosvitha engaged during the day.