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"A few people chatting idly inside their consciousness—how lively."
Scaramouche suddenly spoke, and Paimon, who had been talking about him behind his back, guiltily blurted out, "Y-You… why did you suddenly start talking?"
"What, do prisoners from Fontaine not even have the right to speak?"
"No… that's not what I meant. I mean, weren't you supposed to be searching for information? Did you find something?"
"I did find something—about the Dendro Dragon."
"Is it information Victor Wang needs? Then you can't forget our agreement—you have to share it!"
With a light chuckle, Scaramouche manipulated the tree's core to split off a stream of light that washed over Victor Wang and the others. Fragmented data transformed into vivid images within their minds, then into concrete scenes.
Victor Wang saw a group of Fungi forming some kind of agreement with Nahida. Then the scene shifted—those Fungi scattered across Sumeru. Some died, some transformed into Withering Zones, and one even ran all the way to the Chasm and turned into black mud.
Wait—the Chasm?
Seeing that scene, Victor Wang's heart skipped a beat. So even with all that caution, something still slipped through… No wonder a Sumeru Fungus ended up mixed in when we were purifying the Chasm. At the time, he had been focused solely on speed and hadn't thought much of it—he had dealt with it on reflex.
Paimon still didn't understand what those images represented and asked in confusion, "Aren't these all just Fungi? What about the Dendro Dragon you promised?"
"Open your eyes and look properly." Scaramouche sounded mentally exhausted. He sighed and explained impatiently, "The Dendro Dragon has hidden its location extremely well. But elemental lifeforms born from its power are roaming outside—through them, its location can be determined."
He tilted his head up, looking toward Nahida, who was not physically present. "And the Dendro Archon also took part in their affairs back then. Now that we have to search again… did you really forget?"
"..."
Nahida responded with silence. Even though she already knew about Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, there was no need to tell Scaramouche.
Silence could sometimes convey information… unreliable though it was. Scaramouche formed a few guesses, but they stemmed only from idle curiosity, so he did not pursue the matter further.
After sharing the information about the Dendro Dragon, before resuming his search, he reminded Lumine in advance, "We still need to continue searching for information about Descenders, but don't get your hopes up too high. Descenders come from beyond this world—there being no records of them in Irminsul is entirely normal."
After saying that, he returned his focus to Irminsul. Yet light on the tree began to gather on its own, forming a small sapling.
"Unidentified data…?"
"Share it, share it!"
"Stop yapping."
Urged on by Paimon, Scaramouche directly shared the data with everyone. Paimon's eyes went wide—the data was precisely the truth of Tatarasuna that Nahida had just explained.
Was this really something Scaramouche should have been allowed to see?
But it was already too late… Through concrete imagery, everyone once again accompanied Scaramouche as he witnessed Il Dottore's detestable face.
Paimon felt awkward and uneasy, unsure of how Scaramouche would react upon suddenly learning the truth—whether something dangerous might happen…
Lumine remained on high alert. Nahida continued observing silently. Victor Wang quietly moved a little closer—despite having a clear expectation of how Scaramouche would change, he still couldn't set his mind at ease.
Scaramouche moved. He withdrew the arm he had extended toward Irminsul, covering his face with his hand, accompanied by ragged breaths that sounded like sobbing.
Paimon cautiously asked, "H-Hey… what's wrong with you?"
"Escher… Dottore?" Haha… hahaha… "Dottore!!!"
What answered Paimon was first a questioning murmur, then laughter bordering on madness, and finally a furious roar.
Paimon was so frightened she didn't dare provoke Scaramouche any further. She cast a panicked look toward Lumine and Victor Wang, seeking reassurance.
"Don't be afraid," Victor Wang tried to say within their shared consciousness. He wasn't sure if the mental link was still effective, but Paimon gave a slight nod.
Lumine then asked within their consciousness, "How he responds to this truth—that's the trial Nahida set for Scaramouche, isn't it?"
Nahida replied, "Yes. In order to obtain the most genuine reaction possible, I allowed Scaramouche to see the truth as naturally as I could. Based on his personality and behavior, I have predicted most of the possible outcomes, but it seems—"
On the other side, Scaramouche muttered, "Very good… very good…"
"What kind of reaction is that?" Paimon asked.
"It's still too early to tell. We need to wait for further action—" To provoke a clearer response, Nahida changed her method of communication and directly spoke aloud to Scaramouche, applying pressure. "This is a fragment of memory I read from Il Dottore's consciousness when I verified whether he had eliminated all his 'segments.' To you, this should be an incomparably precious truth, shouldn't it?"
Yet Scaramouche replied, "This kind of thing… is meaningless."
Nahida continued pressing him bluntly. "Is it? But the truth is that Niwa did not betray you. Asking you to carry the device into the furnace core was not his demand, and that heart as well… You, of all people, should understand the meaning behind it."
Scaramouche fell silent.
Nahida switched back to consciousness-based communication and said to the others, "Next, give him some time to digest his emotions."
Lumine and Paimon raised no objections. Victor Wang hesitated for a moment before following them as they moved away from Scaramouche.
Afterward, Victor Wang still voiced his concern. "If we just let Scaramouche approach the tree's core alone, and he does something to Irminsul, we won't be able to stop it in time…"
"That's true!"
Prompted by that, Paimon reasonably speculated, "Scaramouche must hate Il Dottore to death now, right? Could he secretly erase Il Dottore while we're not looking… even though that kind of sounds like a good thing?"
Nahida shook her head. "Scaramouche likely does not know about the concept of altering Irminsul… and even if he did… altering Irminsul requires power. The greater the impact of the alteration, the greater the power required. The current Scaramouche probably isn't capable of erasing Il Dottore's existence. What he can do is very limited."
"That's really a shame…" Paimon voiced her regret, then suddenly had a flash of inspiration. "Then can we erase Il Dottore?"
"Paimon, do you remember what I said when we were about to face a Scaramouche on the verge of becoming an Archon?"
"We said a lot of things back then… which part do you mean?"
"…Fate." Nahida was somewhat helpless at Paimon's innocent foolishness. "In my eyes, an unpredictable fate is the ultimate knowledge. Erasing someone who was meant to exist is equivalent to erasing the fate they were meant to have."
"But Il Dottore is a super, super evil person!" Paimon protested. "Out of all the bad guys I've ever seen, he ranks first!"
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