Mitsuki felt out of place for a few moments. The last thing he remembered was absorbing the Ash Curse from the kingdom, so all he could do was look at Ellegaard with a tired, bored expression.

"My organs, you say..." he said, his voice dull, very different from the nervousness he usually showed when talking to others.

He looked down—he was covered in clean blankets in a place whose walls looked like they were about to collapse. He raised his only hand beneath the sheets to check what had happened to his wounds, but Ellegaard intervened.

"Stop. One wrong move and I’ll disintegrate you, tick."

Mitsuki lowered his hand, confused. Then he returned his gaze to the ceiling and stayed completely still. Even if he didn’t know what had happened, he could already tell he was in serious trouble.

"I thought I was going to die; my entire torso was destroyed, along with my arm and my leg. You..."

"Yes, it was me. If it weren’t for Jeanne, I would’ve left you there to die slowly. But I decided to listen to her for once, so I restored your organs and stitched them together with synthetic skin I had stored."

"Oh... I see. I guess you couldn’t rebuild my arm."

"You’re asking too much for the monster that will destroy my world."

Mitsuki closed his eyes.

’I knew sooner or later someone would figure it out, but everything just happened too fast. I don’t even have time to process what’s happening to my mind; I feel different from who I used to be... That’s not good.’

"Now I want you to answer my questions truthfully, otherwise I’ll kill you without hesitation," Ellegaard said. The tip of her staff began to glow faintly with the color of arcane flames.

"Well, it’s not like I have a choice. I knew this day would come eventually."

Completely serious, Ellegaard began.

"First: the prophecy says you come from beyond the stars. What does that mean?"

Mitsuki paused to think.

"Beyond the stars, huh... I guess it’s because I come from another world... I think. But I don’t know if it’s another planet or something like that. To be honest, there are still many things about myself that I have no idea about. Some of your questions might go unanswered."

Ellegaard remained silent as she analyzed Mitsuki’s response. Three seconds later, she sighed and asked her next question.

"What is that world you come from like?"

"My world..."

A strange nostalgia filled Mitsuki’s broken heart. Memories of buildings, people, video games, his family, that woman with overwhelming strength he once called his manager—all of it flooded his mind as an answer.

He let out a heavy sigh.

"It’s a place where there’s no magic; where fantastical things like elves, dragons, gods, space travel, and beings with superpowers exist on the other side of a screen, in the pages of a book, or in the minds of the people who create those stories. I’d like to say life is better in my world than in this one, but maybe I’m just talking about something I never really understood."

Ellegaard seemed curious about those words, but she returned to her seriousness for the next question.

"How did you become the Herald of the Unnameable?"

"I don’t know," he replied flatly.

Ellegaard frowned and tightened her grip on the staff.

"How did you become the Herald of the Unnameable? Answer."

Looking at the elf, Mitsuki replied:

"I don’t know. One day I just appeared in this world with nothing and no one to help me. I didn’t have a mission, much less the power to survive. I just wandered blindly in a place I had never seen before, and that led me to die. After that, everything is blurry until I met you."

She was suspicious of Mitsuki’s statements, but with that frown that made her look furious, she prepared her next question.

"Did you lie to us all this time? I mean, did you lie when you said you were just a wanderer with no memories?"

Mitsuki looked back at the ceiling.

"Yes. I thought hiding the fact that I come from another world would save me trouble, but not because I was the Herald of the Unnameable—just because I was afraid you’d hurt me if you found out who I was. Though I should also say that back then, I still didn’t know I was the monster from the prophecy. I didn’t know until Galahad mentioned it that night..."

Ellegaard hesitated. What happened that night came back to her vividly.

"And I didn’t know anything about the prophecy until you showed it to me."

"That doesn’t make sense. You should’ve known you were the Herald."

Mitsuki shook his head.

"I found out I was the Herald of that entity that has never had a name the night you left me behind. When you humiliated me and told me the truth to my face—when you made me understand how pathetic and weak I was—the world gave me a choice."

Ellegaard stepped back. With dead eyes, like a completely different person from the one she had known, Mitsuki said:

"Stay a loser or become the Herald of the Unnameable—that’s what it told me. I chose what was most convenient for me at the time."

Weakly, Mitsuki got up from the bed, placed his feet on the floor, and, holding his abdomen so his organs wouldn’t spill out, stood in front of her and looked her straight in the eyes—something he had never done before.

"Now that you know, you can choose to kill me right now or listen to what I have to say."

She remained firm, though she had just realized how tall Mitsuki was compared to her.

"Do you think you scare me, tick? I trained you. Everything you know, you learned from me."

"And that’s something I’m truly grateful for. Without you, most of what I did in this kingdom wouldn’t have been possible. Without you, I wouldn’t have decided to become strong no matter what. That’s why I want you to listen to me."

"And what could someone like you possibly have to say? Do you think I’ll just swallow your lies? I’ve met many people, boy. I’m not naive enough to fall for a fraud’s nonsense."

Mitsuki lowered his gaze and let out a small laugh—for him, it was ironic to be called a fraud and a liar when people had always been able to read his emotions just by looking at him.

Suddenly, weakened, he staggered and dragged his shoulder against the wall as if trying to keep from falling, but his weakness got the better of him until his knees finally hit the ground.

Right there, with his soul, mind, and body shattered, he said:

"I’m a prophecy... That’s what everyone says I am, but is that all I am? Can’t I be more than that? Do I have to be bound to what people say about me without them even knowing me? Do you really want me to become that monster that came to destroy this world?"

Ellegaard slowly lowered her staff. Seeing this broken "monster" on his knees, all she could see was the idiot Mitsuki Kirishima—that stupid brat whose gaze was as disgusting as a tick; his presence was that of a tick.

But...

"I want to ask you one last question."