After teaching the brat a lesson, Nolan did indeed hold a banquet to entertain Florissax and Sethlinsax.
During the banquet, Nolan and Florissax reached an important decision. Seven days from now, they would travel together to Farum Azula.
After dinner ended, Nolan did not immediately go to rest. Instead, he had a conversation with Trina.
Trina briefed him on the recent situation in the Firelink Army's territories, including their political climate, military movements, and social conditions.
Limgrave and Caelid were both peaceful, but trouble had arisen in Liurnia of the Lakes. The cowardly Magic Academy had somehow allowed the current Caria to remain bogged down there for so long without taking the city.
Once their conversation was over, he refused her request to create a young Demigod and returned straight to his living quarters.
"I'll get a proper night's sleep today, rest for a few days, then go to Farum Azula and take down Maliketh. I can meet Placidusax while I'm there. Perfect."
Nolan lay on the bed, planned out what he had to do next, then closed his eyes and prepared to fall asleep step by step as intended.
The ethereal girl in the void glanced at him, then walked toward Nolan's wardrobe.
The wardrobe stood against the wall, and Melina's room lay on the other side of that same wall.
The palace rooms had been built this way because of the special connection between the two of them.
Then the sounds reached Nolan's ears. Footsteps, a door opening, then a door closing.
Even through the door, he could tell whose footsteps they were. Sneaky and furtive. Once that person entered the room, the sound became even more obvious.
Nolan slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was the bright moonlight outside the window, pure and round as a silver plate.
Moonlight spilled through the window and into the room, casting soft patterns of light and shadow.
A faint fragrance drifted through the air. It was an indoor incense specially blended by a Perfumer, its unique scent quiet and soothing, with a calming effect that helped one sleep.
A woman in a long white dress, yet looking not the least bit pure, stood by the door.
Her figure was hazy beneath the moonlight, and her gaze passed through the gauze curtains to the person on the bed.
"Lansseax, why are you still awake at this hour?" Nolan asked, a trace of confusion in his voice.
The snow-white dress, the silver-thread hair, the golden eyes. All of them were unmistakably Lansseax's traits. But why would Lansseax appear in his bedroom?
Thoughts flashed rapidly through Nolan's mind. He truly could not figure out why Lansseax had come over in the middle of the night, and he did not think in any strange direction at all.
Just as he had said before, this woman always ran away at the crucial moment.
Could it be that, because he had killed her younger brother, the elder sister had come for revenge? This female dragon had not shown anything unusual during the day, and now, at night, he was supposed to believe they were deeply attached siblings?
"Fortissax died by your hand. He was my own younger brother. As his elder sister, isn't it perfectly natural for me to come avenge him?"
Lansseax leaned against the wall, then walked toward Nolan, watching him with a smile that was not quite a smile. On her ice-carved, jade-like face, that smile was impossible to read.
"But you were the one who asked me to free him. Isn't it a little unfair to dump the blame on me now?" Nolan spread his hands helplessly. What madness had suddenly seized this woman?
Lansseax reached the bedside and sat down gently. Then she lifted a hand and tucked a few strands of hair that had fallen beside her cheek behind her ear.
"I did ask you to free him, but I never said you had to kill him."
"Did I misunderstand?" Nolan froze. Come to think of it, this female dragon really had never said that.
Now that he thought about it, "free him" was indeed easy to misinterpret. Death had been a way to release Fortissax from pain, but would directly clearing the death from his body have counted too?
But he had not sensed any killing intent from her either.
"You didn't misunderstand. But I regret it now. And since I'm the one who said those words, the final interpretation belongs to me, so I can also say you misunderstood."
Lansseax slowly lowered the hand that had tucked back her hair. It moved like a light butterfly, tracing a graceful arc through the air before gently coming to rest on the bed.
She braced both hands against the mattress and leaned forward slightly, instantly closing the distance between herself and Nolan. They were so close it seemed they could feel each other's breath against their skin.
"You're being unreasonable." Nolan did not know whether to laugh or cry at this madwoman. "Besides, he didn't want to live anymore. I couldn't exactly force him to stay alive, could I?"
"He was my brother. I can't control whether he wanted to die, but I am his sister. Shouldn't I avenge him?"
Lansseax narrowed her eyes, then abruptly changed the subject. "Was he in pain when he died?"
"Why do you want to know that?" Nolan asked, puzzled.
The smile on Lansseax's lips grew wider, revealing a row of white teeth. "To decide how I should take revenge on you in a little while, of course."
"After being eroded by death for so many years, judging from his condition at the time, it must have been painful. But Fortissax was smiling when he closed his eyes," Nolan said seriously.
The moment he finished speaking, Lansseax lunged forward and pinned him beneath her.
Lansseax was surprisingly strong. Nolan was pressed directly onto the bed, "unable to move."
"Lady Knight, can't we talk this through? Why resort to violence? How about this. After I ascend to godhood, I'll revive him too. What do you think?"
"Whether he would want that is another matter. Even if he can be revived, that is for the future. Right now, I want you to pay the price!"
If Fortissax had wanted that, he would not have begged for death.
Perhaps Godwyn, who had been buried with him, had not wanted Fortissax to die alongside him. But no one could know his thoughts, so his wishes no longer mattered.
Just like Nolan now. His wishes did not matter either. That female dragon had already pressed down on him.
At the same time, in the room next to Nolan's, Melina also opened her eyes.
Recently, she had been finding it hard to fall asleep. Every time she closed her eyes, she easily thought of that older brother wrapped in Deadroot, and then she could not help thinking of her mother.
What exactly were they, her children, to that mother? This question had been troubling her all along. She had thought about it for so many days, yet still could not understand.
After tossing and turning in bed for about half an hour, she still could not sleep, so she looked toward Nolan's living quarters.
Should she go talk to Nolan?
Melina wanted to chat with that man again. He always said strange things that made her feel that everything was all right, that the world, the past, and the future were not so frightening.
The young woman sat up, rose to her feet, and passed through that wall, arriving at the wardrobe from before.
Then, just as she was about to go out, she reached out and slowly opened the wardrobe door a crack.
Her heartbeat suddenly quickened. Nervously, she peered through the gap at the scene inside, a scene that made her face burn red.
Melina pressed herself against the wardrobe door and slowly sat down.
This was not the first time Melina had seen a scene like this.
With the sight before her, and the wardrobe full of clothes steeped in Nolan's scent, Melina felt her body warming up, a restless heat spreading through her from head to toe.
She knew this was not a place she should stay. She also knew that Nolan, with his extraordinary senses, was very likely to notice her.
Even so, her body seemed to slip out of her control, and she could not help letting out a soft hum.
"That bad man. Didn't he say he was going to sleep properly tonight?" Melina's face was as red as a ripe apple as she murmured softly, as though complaining that Nolan had gone back on his word.
Yet complaining was one thing. Melina skillfully removed part of her clothing.
Then, like an obedient kitten, she gently slipped into the wardrobe and buried herself among Nolan's clothes.
She curled up into a ball, feeling the softness of Nolan's clothing around her.
It was a very strange thing to do, but it always gave Melina a wonderful feeling, as if the person sleeping with Nolan were her.