After hearing Nolan's explanation, Trina was stunned. She had indulged herself on a whim just once, and her precious Order was suddenly gone. Worse, it had run off on its own.
Of course, something this serious had to be reported to Miquella.
He was the core leader behind every plan, and everyone agreed he was the smartest person present. Trina could only hope he could come up with a solution.
"Are you all right?"
The goddess and her Lord had already dressed. She stretched out a small, fair hand and waved it lightly a few times in front of the motionless figure beside her, who stood there like a statue.
At that moment, the posture between the newly ascended Goddess and her Lord was rather odd. Nolan sat cross-legged on the ground, while Trina knelt on his lap.
The Goddess's petite, delicate body curled into Nolan's arms, looking both as if she were apologizing and as if she were seeking shelter.
Nolan placed a hand on Trina's head to give her some sense of security, while his eyes remained fixed on Miquella before him.
This Empyrean had changed as well. He seemed a little taller than he had been at the Haligtree.
It looked like abandoning their bodies really had freed them from the curse that kept them from growing. Still, perhaps because not much time had passed, he remained quite small.
But the most obvious change was in his demeanor.
In the game, after Miquella was gravely wounded by Ansbach, he abandoned Trina and love itself, becoming a loveless zealot obsessed only with ascending to godhood and creating a world of love.
This time, after separating from Trina, his presence had also changed subtly. He had become colder, yet his gentleness remained.
That hidden love and tenderness were like faint sparks in a cold night, flickering deep within Miquella's heart.
Compared with him, Trina seemed to have cast off her restraints. She had become freer and gentler, and the love within her had grown even stronger.
"I'm fine."
The blond-haired boy slowly shook his head. Not the slightest emotion appeared on his exquisitely beautiful face. He still wore his usual indifferent expression.
"You don't blame me?" Trina widened her eyes in disbelief. After something this serious, she had expected this other half of hers to fly into a rage.
"I expected this long ago. You were never reliable. If circumstances hadn't forced our hand and left us no choice, our positions should have been reversed."
"I never had any expectations of you in the first place, so how could I be disappointed?" Miquella sighed deeply.
The corner of Trina's eye twitched.
The way he said it made her sound completely useless. Without her, would Nolan have become one of theirs? That was going too far.
Miquella was helpless too. He was even beginning to doubt his own intelligence.
In recent years, of all the plans he had painstakingly devised, only a handful had gone smoothly.
Trina could not bear to watch Nolan die in front of her, so he sent Nolan to the battlefield in the Liurnia of the Lakes.
He had thought Nolan would almost certainly die there, but who would have expected Nolan to return to the Haligtree unharmed and even become a hero beloved by Ranni?
Still, that was not a major problem.
Although two unheard-of elder brothers had unexpectedly appeared, Mohg had happened to run into Nolan, so the first goal of his original plan had at least been barely accomplished.
But he had never expected the allied forces of the lords to fail in their attack on the Royal Capital, so he had not managed to seize Godwyn's body.
He had planned to use a hero's body as a temporary substitute. Finlay had even been ready to offer herself up. Then, at the critical moment, the soul could no longer be found.
With no other choice, they had come to the Land of Shadow to search for him.
Yet Nolan had returned to the Lands Between as a Tarnished One, while they were trapped here, forced to wait helplessly for him to come find them.
And now, something even more despairing had happened. The most important Order was gone, and they had lost their only path to becoming true gods.
Miquella's heart was filled with exhaustion and powerlessness, as if some unseen fate itself refused to let him succeed.
But he had clearly already cast aside his body and the Grace he possessed, and Trina had become a brand-new god. Fate should no longer have been able to manipulate them.
Miquella drew in a deep breath, forcing down the turbulent emotions within him, then slowly opened his mouth and said:
"Things have not reached the worst point yet. Thankfully, the Order still exists. We still have hope."
In truth, he was saying that more for himself than for anyone else. At this point, what better choice was there besides accepting what had happened?
Like the Lord of Cinder, he understood that not everything would go as planned. What mattered now was how to make up for it.
"Do not forget that the Goddess is also the Queen. Father has always been the Lord Consort, not the Lord himself. Since the Order still exists, all we need to do is realize it."
Miquella looked at Nolan and Trina, seemingly trying to give them a glimmer of hope, as well as a goal worth continuing toward.
It was a belated remedy, but there really was no better option. They could hardly kill Nolan to take the Order back.
Setting aside whether that would even work, they would certainly lose Nolan. That was a price he could never accept.
"Speaking of which, have you two tried using the same method to take it back?" Miquella seemed to think of something and asked while touching his chin.
Nolan and Trina exchanged a glance. The former looked perfectly composed, while the latter's pretty face flushed faintly, but both shook their heads.
"No."
"Then why not try again?"
...
A day later, Ranni slowly woke. She rubbed her sleepy eyes and instinctively raised a hand to wipe the drool from the corner of her mouth.
But unlike usual, the Lord's gaze was not following her like a shadow, nor did he turn back with concern to ask whether she was all right.
Instead, the surroundings were filled with a quiet, eerie atmosphere that made doubt rise in her heart.
The confused Lunar Princess sat quietly on his shoulder, her little eyes darting as her gaze quickly swept across everyone's faces.
When her gaze landed on Miquella and Trina, especially lingering on the latter for a moment, she looked back and forth between them several times.
Finally, she lowered her head slightly and asked Nolan, who stood nearby, in a low voice:
"What happened to them? They actually split apart? And judging from their expressions, they look worse than if they had been hit by a dung pot... Could it be..."
Did Nolan reject them for this princess?
There was a trace of delight in Ranni's voice, almost impossible to hide.
How could someone like that, neither man nor woman and with such a gloomy mind, ever compare to her?
"Nolan, you made the right choice!"
Nolan could not help feeling helpless. Her Highness the Princess was clearly overthinking things. But since Ranni had already noticed that something was off, Nolan had no intention of continuing to hide it.
With perfect tacit understanding, the two leaned close to each other and whispered into each other's ears. In just a few short exchanges, they explained the general situation.
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