Chapter 345 (1): “I can tell it’s fake news immediately. I’m not even going to fact-check.” - Sloth

Study, Lando Estate.

Recently, since Silvia no longer had to worry about her dragon blood curse, she had been putting everything into pushing for the Legendary rank. She thus spent less time working and instead stayed at home to refine her bloodline.

Saint George’s legacy provided the Lando family with an abundance of dragon blood. Silvia had access to enough resources, and she had not forgotten about her daughter. The mother and daughter had been training hard.

When Wayne arrived, they were taking a bath in the newly constructed underground base—a dragon blood bath. When they heard him coming in, they changed into their battle outfits before putting on simple warm clothes.

It had been days since Veronica last saw Trash Jr. She missed him, but she couldn’t say it because of her tsundere tendency. As usual, she was a step too late.

)`₃눈)

“Please stop, Master. You’re too strong now. I’m still a child, my bones too fragile to take this from you.” Wayne waved at Veronica for help, feeling smothered.

However, Veronica glared at the mother and son coldly, planning to punch the son once he was alone. She would use the distance and trajectory of his flight to calculate how much her strength had improved.

“Wayne, when did you come back? How’s your investigation this time? Did you get hurt? Look at you. You’ve lost weight.” Silvia stroked his face like a mother worrying over her son because his work took him far from home.

“Master, Veronica is ready to bite.” Seizing the opening when Silvia turned around, Wayne broke out of her hug. “The mission went smoothly. I arrived last night and came to find you as soon as I could.”

Silvia nodded in satisfaction. “What a good son you are.”

“Have you considered that he’s here for someone else and only visits you because you happen to be in the same place?” Veronica said sarcastically. She wanted to say that Wayne had come for his fiancée, so the third wheel should roll away on her own. However, she wasn’t thick-skinned enough to say that.

“Wayne, I don’t like this girl. Date someone else.”

“Bear with me a little longer, Master. She’s a good girl.”

“Me? Bearing with her?”

“You get used to it.”

“...”

Veronica glared at them. She remembered the line she had read from Wayne’s diary: the eastern bank of the River Thames could become the western bank in thirty years. Don’t bully the loser girl because she might not always be a loser. She found it an apt description in this situation.

“Master, I have something important to tell you. Has Auston gone to the Ministry of Magic today? Has he worked overtime last night and is still catching up on sleep?”

“No, he’s resting today and shoveling horse manure in the stable.”

“I didn’t know he had a hobby like that.”

“He doesn’t. Yesterday, he kept smiling strangely and gave me the creeps, like the Darkness Knight had appeared before me with conspiracies. I punished him by making him shovel manure.”

“Master, did he smile like this?” Wayne rubbed his face and imagined Auston flying away, breaking into a joyous expression after his plan came to fruition. His lips curled up on their own.

“You look just like him.” Silvia nodded, swatting Wayne on the head and reprimanding him, “Don’t succumb to bad influence, especially not from him. Do you understand?”

“Isn’t it natural for the son to resemble the father? How is that bad influence?” Veronica continued her sarcastic remark.

“Shut up. This isn’t your place to make comments,” Silvia said without turning to her.

Then I’ll go! Veronica stomped toward the door.

Wayne grabbed her and coaxed her with promises to add her name to his property deed and give her her own half of the family. Silvia covered her smile with a hand.

Veronica turned right, averting her gaze in her usual tsundere fashion. Wayne leaned in and whispered, “I’ve missed you, Veronica.”

That made her blush. Worried that Silvia would hear them, she stepped on Wayne and told him not to speak nonsense. Then she asked quietly, “Really? How much?”

“Very much.”

That’s more like it!

After appeasing Veronica, Wayne turned to Silvia. “Master, let’s go to you—no, to Auston’s study. I have photos to confront Auston with.”

“What photos?”

“Ah, what an unfortunate family we are!” Wayne sighed, lamenting that they could no longer face the public due to shame while covering Veronica’s face.

He insisted on presenting the photos only when Auston was present, but Silvia wasn’t a fan of riddles. She raised her fist at Veronica. “Hand them over now. You don’t want her to suffer in this family, do you?”

“...” x2

Old woman, are you done? Veronica hissed. Aren’t you getting too into the roleplay?

Wayne gave Silvia a pointed look. Please don’t go too far with the joke, Master. We don’t want you to roleplay yourself into confusion.

Because of Silvia’s threat, Wayne had no choice but to make a compromise. He reluctantly produced the photos, showing them to Silvia with a sigh. “These are evidence in court, Master. Do control yourself so that you won’t tear them to pieces.”

“You’re being all mysterious...”

Silvia took the photos and browsed through them, her face dark like she had been cursed by the Darkness Knight. The last one, especially, pushed her rage to the maximum.

“Bastard, I’ll kill you today!”

With a boom, a gust of wind rushed past Wayne and Veronica. When they turned around, Silvia was already gone.

“What’s going on? Did you do something evil again?” Veronica asked with her hands on her hips.

Wayne made a gesture of denial. “Of course not. I’m nothing more than a carrier of photos who does good deeds without introducing myself.”

“As if I’d believe you.”

Veronica could guess what the photos were. The situation was a familiar one since she had been through something similar. Only this time, the star of the photos was Trash Sr. rather than Trash Jr.

Aunt Silvia has lost her composure, muahaha!

Veronica was laughing when an arm suddenly wound around her waist, pulling her into Wayne’s embrace. With a blush, she pushed at his chest, her eyelashes fluttering when he bit her lips. Her nervousness was on full display.

They had been together for long enough that she was used to the intimacy, so her reaction stemmed from her tsundere personality. Every time she was apart from Wayne for a few days, the maxed-out progress bar would regress by ten to twenty percent.

That kept things fresh.

A loud bang thundered in the distance. Veronica pushed Wayne away like she had been caught doing something bad, miming spitting at the ground to show her disapproval. Wayne, on the other hand, gulped audibly.

Veronica’s face reddened further. She readied her fist to make Trash Jr. spiral into the sky as Trash Sr. had done. Judging by the noise just then, Trash Sr. had flown quite far this time. Launched into the sky by the vicious dragon’s punch, he had flown over the grove and hit the barrier around the Lando Estate.

Hopefully, he was fine!

“What photos did you show your mother?” Veronica asked. “Who is the woman? Why is she this angry?”

“The Queen.”

“Where did you get the photos?”

“I caught them.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Veronica once again found herself pulled into Wayne’s arms, hearing him murmur sweet nothings to her. She huffed, “You’ve gotten even better at this. Did you say the same thing to Senior?”

Don’t get hung up on whether it’s second-hand. It’s sweet, isn’t it?

Wayne shook his head and increased his output of sweet words, soon making Veronica’s heart flutter. He wondered if the time was right to make her team up with Kristen. Perhaps he could provoke her by saying that Vera and Kristen had kissed.

Well, maybe not. That would only get Vera, the third wheel, beaten up by the dragon-blooded pure love warrior.

After a moment, Veronica pushed Wayne away hard and brushed her blonde hair behind her ears. Making sure that her clothes were proper, she crossed her arms with a scowl.

Silvia returned with a refreshed look on her face, humming a lilting tune. It was obvious how much she enjoyed the de-stress.

Decompressing Auston.zip.

Silvia beckoned Wayne over right before Veronica. Once he got close, she grabbed him and said, “Where did you get the fake photos, brat?”

“Master, they’re legitimate. Did Auston fool you again with his silver tongue?”

“He was launched into the sky before he could say anything.”

“Um...”

“I asked you a question. Where did you get the fake photos?”

“I had friends put on makeup and stage the scenes.” Wayne raised his eyebrow. He had reason to suspect that a Dragonblood’s intelligence increases after their curse is lifted.

He was overthinking, though. That had nothing to do with the lifting of the dragon blood curse and everything to do with Silvia’s understanding of the kind of person Auston was. He would never cheat on her with the Queen.

She might buy it if it were Megan.

“If you knew they were fake, why did you get mad, Master?”

“Because I am mad!”

How reasonable. Pretend I didn’t say anything. Wayne rolled his eyes. He finally realized that those two were both wrong in the head in some way. One of them enjoyed inflicting domestic violence, while the other enjoyed receiving it.

Now he was certain that Auston had become the Darkness Knight and attracted the Goddess of Darkness’s attention because of his masochistic tendency. That was a talent in itself!

“What’s going on? Why did you frame your father as soon as you came home? How did he make you unhappy this time?”

“I was wronged, Master!” Wayne whined, his eyes quickly brimming with tears.

“Poor boy. Come, let Mom hug you. Tell me what he’s done to you, and I’ll punish him.”

Maybe not the hug. The rumors have been running rampant. We shouldn’t feed it further.

Wayne rejected Silvia’s open arms and held Veronica instead, sobbing, “Last night, as soon as I arrived in Londan, the Pope of the Church of Darkness attacked me and accused me of sleeping with his daughter, the Holy Maiden of the Church of Darkness.”

“!” x2

So, did you? x2

Veronica believed he did. While maintaining a poker face, she placed her hand on Wayne’s lower back and pinched him hard.

Wayne hissed. Though it didn’t hurt at all, he still broke into a cold sweat as if it did. “I told you I was wronged, Veronica. Why are you overreacting?”

“Ha.”

“Look, you’re obviously fooled, just like the Pope from last night. You both fell for Auston’s lies. Wake up. That’s exactly what Auston wanted!”

“Why is the Pope of the Church of Darkness in Londan, Wayne?” Silvia chimed in.

“Isn’t it obvious? The rumors must have reached the headquarters of the church because of the Darkness Knight.” Wayne accused Auston with certainty. “The Pope caught me off guard. I fought him for hundreds of rounds, reaching an impasse. He was surprised by my straightforward fighting prowess. I didn’t seem like someone who only sweet-talked women—”

“Skip that part and get to the conclusion.”

“To conclude, Auston leaked my whereabouts and led the Pope to ambush me. The Pope said so himself.” Wayne spoke until his voice was hoarse. He was a total victim here.

“And the Pope just believed you?”

“Of course not. The Holy Maiden of the Church of Darkness was there, too. After seeing that the Holy Maiden was still pure, the Pope realized that Auston had lied. That was why he told me the truth.”

Wayne sighed. “Master, Auston had sent me out of Londan with the excuse of training me, but while I was away, he worked with an outsider against me. He knew that the plan wasn’t going to work and was only trying to get on my nerves. So I retaliated in kind.”

“You’re father and son at the end of the day. What’s the point of continuing this petty fight?”

It’s all the point!

Wayne disagreed. The game was so addictive that he couldn’t stop.