With an angry shout, Her Highness the Princess, freshly awakened, stood on Nolan's shoulder.
Her exquisitely beautiful face was flushed red, and her voice had shifted slightly with irritation, yet even so, it still sounded as moving as heavenly music.
Faced with the aggressive princess, Sellen merely covered her lips lightly, a faint, almost imperceptible trace of scorn showing on her face.
Looking at her with a half-smile, she said softly,
"Oh my, Your Highness, you woke up so quickly? It's just that your timing seems a little unfortunate."
Ranni was one of her rivals, but after reading hundreds of research papers on relationships between men and women, she considered an opponent like this far too unthreatening. The only one truly worth her concern was Trina.
Sellen let out a crisp little laugh, then calmly answered the question Ranni had asked earlier.
"Can't you tell? We're freely pouring out and venting the feelings we've kept buried in our hearts for so long. Does Her Highness the Princess have some objection?"
The petite Ranni flushed bright red at once. Her deep blue cheeks looked as vivid and delicate as a ripe apple.
She stamped her foot in anger, her small chest rising and falling with agitation. She stammered for quite a while before finally managing to force out a few words.
"You... you...!"
She was furious, but Ranni couldn't get a full sentence out. In her current position, she really had no standing to point fingers.
Should she speak as the lord of the Dark Moon Knight? Nolan was no longer her knight. She had said that herself.
She really had given away the Dark Moon Greatsword, but... but how many people knew what she was actually thinking? A sword was a sword, and a ring was a ring. If nothing had been made explicit, then it didn't count.
That was the stubborn way she chose to think about it. After all, she had never told this man the story of the Dark Moon Greatsword. She could barely fool herself that way, though she had secretly been delighted when Nolan accepted the sword.
If those hidden feelings were exposed in public, then the image of Her Highness the Princess she had always maintained before others, noble, elegant, poised, and reserved, would probably shatter completely.
Ranni couldn't help feeling a little flustered.
But in the end, emotion won out and she completely lost her reason.
So, like an irritated little kitten, she planted her hands on her hips and shouted at Sellen,
"Hmph! This princess doesn't care about any of that! In any case, I absolutely cannot stand by and watch Nolan stray onto the wrong path!"
Ranni was clearly lashing out in embarrassment and anger, with a bit of a reckless what-does-it-matter-anymore attitude, though she seemed completely unaware of it herself.
"Stray onto the wrong path? Then what exactly is the right path? Don't tell me becoming Caria's Lord Consort is the right path."
Sellen folded her arms across her chest, her face full of teasing mockery, making no effort at all to hide her disdain for that claim.
"..."
Silence.
Her Highness the Princess fell silent without offering any rebuttal. At that moment, the silence was deafening, and the blush on the girl's face said more than anything else could.
Her Highness bit her lip and said nothing, but the redness spreading across her face was more persuasive than any words.
In the midst of that suffocating silence, someone suddenly broke the stillness.
Melina walked over to Nolan as if no one else were there, gently tugged at his sleeve, and muttered expressionlessly,
"Nolan, my head is starting to hurt again. It's time for a head pat."
This should have been the kind of moment where no words were needed, where hearts naturally understood each other.
Like a pair of lovers quietly listening to a wordless love song, and when the melody reached its peak, they would naturally fall into each other's arms.
And yet, at exactly that critical moment, someone barged in like they were carrying a giant speaker on their back and started blasting an intense rock song.
The mood was ruined, and the person responsible didn't even seem aware of it.
Are you trying to kill me?
Nolan widened his eyes and sighed inwardly, feeling utterly exhausted.
Pressing his lips together helplessly, he explained to everyone, "Melina gets headaches. The only thing that helps is patting her on the head."
"What a very peculiar treatment."
Sellen narrowed her long eyes slightly, the corners of her lips lifting into a meaningful smile. She very obviously did not believe him.
Meanwhile, Ranni, standing off to the side, didn't seem to think too much about whether Nolan's explanation was believable.
Her once lively, expressive eyes had gone blank, and she murmured softly, "Enough... just let everything be destroyed," as though she had already grown tired of the world.
Nolan gently extended both hands and tenderly cupped the tiny doll in his palms.
Of course, the world wasn't actually going to be destroyed, but he would probably have to spend quite a bit of time tonight soothing everyone's emotions.
...
Time passed quietly, and in the blink of an eye, the following night arrived.
Bright moonlight spilled across the ground. Stepping onto the luxurious carpet, Nolan entered the room and headed straight for the balcony.
A cool, pleasant night breeze blew over him, brushing lightly against his face and instantly driving away his lingering drowsiness.
He stood there quietly at that height, gazing into the distance at the peaceful little village.
The whole village lay wrapped in silence. Only the occasional bark of a dog broke the stillness. Nolan simply waited there in silence for the Tibia Mariner to arrive.
To be honest, Nolan had no definite answer as to whether the Cursemark of Death had some connection to the Tibia Mariners, but one thing was beyond question.
Whether it was the Cursemark of Death or Tibia Mariners, both were tied to death.
Lansseax was lying comfortably on the soft bed, letting out even little snores in deep, peaceful sleep.
Sellen, meanwhile, sat at the desk, planning out the research for her new topic, frowning at times and smiling at others.
As for Ranni and Melina, one sat obediently on Nolan's shoulder while the other stood quietly behind him.
The three of them silently looked out over the still village, and not one of them spoke.
Romantic comedy wasn't the mainstream in this world. When the goal was right in front of them, everything else had to wait. After all, just as Sellen thought, there was still plenty of time.
So Nolan focused again and turned his gaze toward the thin mist cloaking the night.
Ever since he discovered that the half-wheel wound of the centipede was comparable to a Great Rune, there was no way he could leave that thing here unattended.
Even if he wasn't sure whether the half-wheel wound of the centipede here was the same as Ranni's, he still had to confirm it.
Summonwater Village in the night was so quiet it felt unsettling.
As far as the eye could see, there wasn't a single boat on the water, nor a single bright lamp. The kind of nighttime scenery that belonged to a bustling city had nothing to do with this place.
That was also the main reason Summonwater Village could only remain as it was. In a village where going outside at night might get you killed, it was already fortunate it hadn't become a land of ghosts. How could anyone hope for further development?