The room fell silent, everyone focused on Lake.
Despite the emotional conclusion he had reached, his face remained expressionless.
Although he found the idea absurd, all the evidence seed to point to one conclusion; mana, which he had always thought to be lifeless, had sohow acted of its own will to keep his mother alive—just long enough for her to deliver him to Arthur.
’But why?’
This question gnawed at him.
Out of the infinite number of people scattered throughout the multiverse, why had it chosen his mother? And why had it stopped supporting her after she had given him to Arthur?
No matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t arrive at a reliable answer.
As for his feelings on the matter...
That was even less of a concern. He never t his mother, and as far as his mory was concerned, he had no connection to her other than blood.
He had no reason to feel any emotional attachnt or strain, assuming he was even capable of such a thing in the first place.
Despite what he thought, he found himself incapable of feeling anything toward this situation.
While the system had helped him improve his condition, Lake knew better than anyone that he was still far from being complete.
"Lake..."
lissa’s voice pulled him from his thoughts.
"I know this must be hard for you to believe... After hearing it from Arthur, I also struggled to accept it myself. But I eventually did."
"Why?" Lake asked, slightly confused. "What made you believe?"
lissa paused, then a gentle smile spread across her face.
"The first ti I laid eyes on you, you were so small." lissa spoke, an emotion close to motherly affection showing through her eyes.
"Even then, I could see how much you resembled Nora. And now, looking at you all grown up, it’s like seeing a younger version of her. Although," she added with a soft laugh, "a bit more masculine, of course."
Lake smiled slightly at her playful tone. He noticed her eyes were still rimd with red, but even so, she was trying to lighten the heavy atmosphere.
"Besides, Arthur and I took you for a DNA test almost imdiately. Even though so much ti had passed since she died, her data was still in the database, and after a quick test, we found a 99% match."
lissa explained, causing any lingering doubt in his mind to vanish.
Lake sighed, leaning back into his chair and staring at the ceiling, contemplating his next move.
In a way, he had learned what he had set out to discover, but now he had more questions than answers.
"Ahem," Kate cleared her throat, drawing everyone’s attention. She had been there throughout the conversation but had found herself lost in the shocking revelations.
Lake’s mother was the First King? She delivered Lake to her father on the day she was born and then died? But hadn’t she already died long before that?
The revelations left her with a headache, but she had one last thing to clarify.
"So, when you said before that Lake almost beca my brother..."
"Ah, we ant we wanted to raise him ourselves, but we didn’t want to go against Nora’s last wishes," lissa explained with a smile.
Kate felt relieved, but felt a sense of unease when she saw her mother’s smile.
"Well, since we’re on the topic, what do you say, Lake? Care to officially join the Blackheart family?"
Arthur erupted into a coughing fit at his wife’s casual suggestion.
Kate’s expression darkened while Lake simply watched, slightly dazed.
After a few monts, Lake finally snapped out of his daze.
"Thank you, I appreciate the offer," Lake paused, the corner of his lips slightly raised, "but I think it’s a little late for sothing like that. I’m already an independent adult, and I already have soone to call family."
lissa was slightly taken aback by Lake’s response. After a few seconds she recalled that Lake did seem to be living under the care of an older woman causing her to smile.
Giggling softly, she replied, "I suppose that’s alright too. I’m glad to know that you think that way."
At that mont, a soft knock ca from the hallway door.
"It seems the food is ready," Arthur said after glancing at the door.
"I suppose we should eat first before we continue?" lissa suggested with a smile.
"Yes."
"Yes."
Lake and Kate responded at the sa ti, causing both of them to pause and lissa to laugh even more.
"Would you look at these two, dear? Don’t you think they already sound close?" lissa asked her husband, who didn’t respond to her question, even after a long period of silence had passed.
As she looked over to see what was wrong, she saw that Arthur’s face had turned slightly dark.
He was staring at Lake who just so happened to make eye contact with him at that mont.
Shiver.
’What was that?’
It was only for a brief mont, but Lake went on high alert. He could’ve sworn he had just sensed an incredibly dangerous aura from Arthur.
However, even after searching high and low with his plethora of advanced senses, he couldn’t find any trace of it.
’Maybe I was mistaken?’
Lake thought to himself, deciding to keep his guard up for the rest of the al...
****
After the al, Kate led Lake to the private training facility in their ho while Arthur and lissa stayed in the dining hall.
"...What do you think, dear?" lissa asked while resting her chin in her palm.
"About what?" Arthur asked, not liking where this conversation was going.
"About Lake and Kate, obviously. Don’t you think they look cute together?"
Arthur shut his mouth, refusing to elaborate further.
"Hehe, Kate has always been so strict with herself, even when she was young. To see her act the way she did today... I never thought I’d get to witness that again," lissa said, recalling Kate’s flustered and distressed responses during the al.
It was especially amusing to see her ears perk up whenever the conversation shifted toward Lake’s love life.
As a mother, lissa couldn’t be happier to see her daughter finally show interest in soone. However...
"...You saw sothing, didn’t you?" Arthur slowly asked, but even after a long ti had passed, lissa didn’t say anything.
Arthur didn’t need to hear a response to understand what she ant, as he began to rhythmically tap his index finger on the dining table.
It was sothing he often did when he had a lot to think about.
His wife was a Low Rank Martial Grandmaster, and while not the strongest, possessed a unique awakened ability that allowed her to distinguish herself from others back when she was active.
Heavenly Mind—the ability to peer into the world around her and predict what was to co. It was a skill she developed after mana had mutated and evolved her brain’s ability to perceive and process information.
The ability was similar to foresight, though its downside was that it ntally drained her every ti she used it.
Arthur had noticed her using it during the al but chose not to ntion it. He wasn’t sure what she saw or predicted, but he’d drawn his own conclusions based on his observations.
"He was quite strong, wasn’t he?" Arthur spoke out loud, causing lissa to sigh.
She didn’t know what to say to her husband.
To say Lake was strong would indeed be correct, but it still felt like an understatent.
What lissa saw through her Heavenly Mind wasn’t sothing that could be easily described.
It was strange, sothing beyond her comprehension, yet it left an undeniable impact on her.
In the end, only one word ca to mind to describe what she saw from him.
’It was like I wasn’t even looking at a human, but...’
Perfection.
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