The firelight still flickered in the Darkness, as though the newborn sun might ignite that tiny Kindling at any moment.
Messmer stood where he was, his gaze fixed tightly on the mysterious man before him, his lips trembling slightly.
"That woman really was furious at first. Of course, that isn't your fault. You know how emotionally unstable she can be."
Nolan smiled as he spoke. "But don't worry. I've already calmed her down."
Messmer thought for a moment, as though seeing his mother's smiling face from earlier, and believed Nolan.
"You said my life was the sacrifice. Then what price did you pay in your deal with Mother? If my life is needed, I will..."
Before Messmer could finish, Nolan cut him off.
"Mother this, Mother that, and you talk about your own life like it's nothing. Who taught you that?"
"Honestly, how irresponsible can you be? At the very least, you should value yourself. If you don't, who else will?"
The barrage of questions left Messmer speechless. He actually wanted to ask, "Why do you care?" but before he could say it...
Nolan scratched his head in frustration.
"Forget it. There's no point arguing about this with a child. I don't need your life. I found someone even more deserving of death to take your place."
All the flames seemed to grow brighter. It was still that little room where he missed his mother, still before the statue of that goddess, but this time there was someone beside him.
After hesitating for a long time, Messmer finally gathered the courage to speak that title, one that felt utterly foreign to him.
"...Father?"
The air seemed to pause for an instant.
"If it's hard to say, you don't have to force yourself. Of course, calling me that isn't exactly wrong either..." Nolan coughed twice. The hint was already obvious enough.
They were in an illusory world, inside a beautiful dream. Trina and the others had been left outside, so there was nothing he could not say now.
"But I still need to make things clear. Biologically speaking, there is absolutely no connection between us."
Although he had spent a long time with Marika in dreams, and although it was certainly a coincidence that both he and Messmer had fire, Nolan knew perfectly well that he was innocent.
Leaving other factors aside, the age difference between them in this life alone was obvious. Messmer was far older than Radahn, while Nolan had not even reached a hundred years old in this life.
More importantly, from beginning to end, he had never sensed from Messmer that rumored special feeling supposedly born from shared blood.
His instincts had never been wrong.
"You and Mother have already..." Messmer had already understood the meaning behind his words.
The phrase that might have been deeply disrespectful to his mother reached his lips, but in the end, he could not bring himself to say it.
"We have long communed in spirit," Nolan answered calmly.
In truth, aside from purely spiritual communication, the two of them really had not done anything.
Messmer suddenly fell silent. But rather than silence, it was more like he had been rendered completely speechless.
For a child, learning to accept things calmly was always one of the hardest parts of life.
He stood quietly where he was, as if his entire body had frozen in place.
Only after a long while did he let out a soft breath. The sound was faint, but clear.
Messmer slowly turned and looked toward Nolan, who had been watching him all along.
His gaze became incredibly complicated, filled with confusion and conflict, yet even more with a decision he seemed to have made.
Before Messmer could say what he wanted to say, Nolan raised a hand first.
"You don't have to force yourself. I know this is hard to accept."
"That's not it!"
Messmer froze for a moment at Nolan's words, then shook his head hard and refuted him with unusual firmness.
"Mother's decision is my decision. If Mother chose you, then I have chosen you too... Father!"
Messmer called it out with conviction, but Nolan's own feelings were rather complicated. After several lives, this was his first time being someone's father.
He had to admit, the situation was quite different from what he had once imagined.
"Are you sure... you can accept this result?" Nolan asked again, unable to help himself, his face full of curiosity.
Messmer did not answer immediately. Instead, he quietly gazed at Nolan for quite some time.
His heart seemed to be going through a fierce struggle, with all kinds of thoughts rising and falling within him.
In the end, however, he gave a slight nod.
"I accept."
Those few simple words, coming from Messmer's mouth, carried the resolve of someone walking to his death.
Nolan silently marveled at how capable Marika was when it came to teaching her children. After thinking for a moment, he said,
"What you choose to think is your business, but outside, it's best not to let people know too much about this father-son relationship of ours."
"...I understand." A trace of hurt and disappointment appeared on Messmer's face, as though he had once again become a puppy abandoned by its owner.
"Don't misunderstand. I'm not rejecting you. When it comes to fire, I'm definitely better at it than you are. I have snakes now too, and they're the most evil kind."
"I'm sorry."
"Why are you apologizing to me?" Nolan deliberately lowered his voice and continued in a mysterious tone. "It's just that now isn't the right time to reveal my relationship with her."
He was only worried that if Trina and the others found out, it would lead to serious trouble. But the sensitive Messmer thought far more deeply than that.
After many years in the Land of Shadow, he had learned many hidden secrets, such as the mother of the Fingers buried underground in the east.
The Golden Order Dynasty had never been ruled by the Eternal Queen's word alone. Its internal power struggles were far more intense than people imagined. The Fingers, for example, held tremendous influence.
The Mother of Fingers, Metyr, was the daughter of the Greater Will. All the Two Fingers were her children, which meant they were the descendants of the Greater Will.
If one analyzed it purely by bloodline, then compared to Marika, this god, the Fingers were even more qualified to represent the Greater Will.
The Greater Will was the supreme god of the Golden Order Dynasty.
Fire was the Erdtree's great enemy, yet Mother had chosen a Lord of fire. There had to be deeper meaning behind it, so keeping it hidden was understandable.
Seen that way, this father was still thinking on Mother's behalf.
Out of absolute understanding and trust in Mother, Messmer filled in every gap in the logic on his own almost instantly, then nodded heavily.
"I understand. I won't disappoint Mother or Father."
How long had they even known each other? Why did it sound more natural every time he said it?
Standing nearby, Nolan could not help raising an eyebrow, but he did not think too much about it.
Marika's children were a strange lot, each with their own peculiarities, and there was every sort among them.
After spending so much time around them, he had long since gotten used to it. One could even say he had gone numb.
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