"Because you were born in an age of light," the old man said. "I was the one who opened that age. To me, both Chaos and light belong to the past. After living in the Age of Fire for so long, I never once longed for Chaos."
"You are the same. You are simply greedy and selfish, wanting to prolong an age like that. But now, it seems you have forgotten just how greedy and selfish you truly are."
"This place doesn't need fire to sustain it, so what exactly are you trying to say, old man?" the man asked.
"I like a bright world." The old man's face was calm, as though the man's reaction had been entirely within his expectations. He spoke slowly. "Look. In the end, the light you preserved was only that small amount. This is all that remains. How pitiful."
As he spoke, his gaze drifted casually to the side, where a room was letting out faint threads of light.
Following the old man's gaze, the man saw that the light inside the room was weak, wavering like a candle in the wind.
"You knew what I was waiting for. You could've just said that earlier," the man said irritably.
To him, this sort of dream was far too familiar. In fact, it happened to be his favorite kind of dream.
"Rest assured, Father-in-law. If I see the princesses later, I'll do my utmost to take good care of them," the man promised solemnly.
Every time he wanted a good dream and went to Trina for sleep, the process was more or less the same.
The only difference was probably the person who appeared at the beginning, like some street vendor shouting for business in front of a barbecue stall.
This time, it was an aged God-King seated upon a throne. Next time, it might be a lonely old skeleton spending his final years in a tomb, or a Witch who was far too old to be acting young, or a dwarf hiding in some dark corner and shutting himself away from the world.
In any case, not one of them was normal.
"You bastard, get back here!" his father-in-law roared behind him. The God-King's fury seemed ready to set the Lord of Cinder's backside alight. Nolan glanced back at the old king holding a spear of light, then vanished in a trail of sparks and lightning.
"Lord Nolan, you've angered His Majesty the God-King again."
Beyond the light and shadows was a small, old-fashioned room. A dignified, elegant woman stood there, her long pale-gold hair falling over a graceful figure wrapped in a black robe. Her face was beautiful, though a silver-trimmed blindfold covered part of it.
"I'm not afraid of him. If not for the fact that he's my father-in-law, I would've beaten him up long ago." The man pressed his lips together, unsure what else to say, and could only try to make himself look less weak.
The man stared fixedly at the woman before him, watching her laugh softly to herself as though no one else were there.
He slowly drew closer despite himself and reached out, gently stroking her soft cheek as if afraid he might hurt her.
At last, unable to hold back the feelings in his heart, he lowered his voice and murmured, "You seem different. No, I should say you're exactly the same as before again."
At his words, the woman's lips curved slightly. She tilted her head, and even through the blindfold, it was as if her hidden eyes could be seen. "Did I ever change? When?"
"In my dreams. Every movement was exactly the same, but somehow, I still knew it wasn't you. This damn intuition can be really annoying sometimes," the man said quietly.
"Oh, perhaps I should be happy." The woman smiled gently as she lifted both hands and cupped the man's face in her palms. "But... it must have been hard."
The man fell silent for a moment. Then, as though he had made up his mind, he slowly said, "...I'm sorry. I didn't choose the future you wanted."
The woman gently shook her head. "No. A world without fire isn't anything good. It can't compare at all to a world where you exist."
"Is that so?" Nolan said blankly.
The girl walked to the center of the empty hall, her steps light but steady.
Once there, she made a sharp, graceful turn. A brilliant smile bloomed across her face, like a beam of light illuminating the entire dim space.
"You wanted the world to have one more day of light. Yes, that world was truly far too dark, like a bottomless well. That feeling was exactly the same as death."
The woman spoke softly, her voice echoing through the empty hall with an indescribable sorrow.
"In the Age of No Fire, did you also... 'die'?"
"Everyone 'dies.' But when the only light disappeared, I didn't feel much need to stay anymore."
As her words fell, the distance between the man and the woman closed.
Half his face was buried in that gentle embrace as he looked up at her. The tears and smile flowing across that soft, beautiful face swallowed the Lord of Cinder whole.
This should have been a good dream, but the patting against his cheek woke Nolan up. He opened his eyes and saw hair as brilliant as gold.
For a moment, Nolan could not even tell whether he was in a dream or reality.
He instinctively reached out, wanting to touch that seemingly soft golden hair.
Just as his fingers were about to brush the strands, the woman before him seemed to notice and suddenly slapped the back of his hand.
That entirely different sensation brought Nolan back to himself in an instant. Only then did he realize that he was still inside an illusory dream.
"Am I really that unattractive?" the noble goddess in simple clothing looked at Nolan and said, "Isn't it a little much to be thinking about another woman while you're with me?"
Nolan looked up dazedly. He was lying in the Queen's bedchamber in the Royal Capital Leyndell, and the heavy weight pressing down on him was that golden-haired goddess.
The golden hair he had seen when he woke from the last dream belonged to this woman. Marika sat up with her arms crossed, wearing a thoroughly bored and disappointed expression.
A light breeze passed through the room, stirring the thin silk gauze into a flutter. The goddess's long golden hair drifted gently with the wind as well.
Marika propped her head in one hand and quietly watched Nolan, as if waiting for this hopelessly unromantic man to apologize.
"What did you do this time?" Nolan asked.
Marika looked at him for a while. Instead of answering, she asked another question. "Do you know what your fire is?"
"The collection of everything. Light and Darkness, time and space, all things, including souls..."
"Then now that you have become a Tarnished One, you should know how you returned to the Lands Between, shouldn't you?"
"Of course. You used the rules of the Golden Order..."
Nolan turned his head and glanced at Marika. This woman was deliberately leading him onto this topic. He did not need to continue. He already knew Marika had something else in mind.
Marika parted her red lips and leaned close to Nolan's ear, whispering like a bewitching breeze.
"Then, ancient Lord, do you want to bring back those girls in your heart, the ones you can see but cannot touch?"