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["Is the truth Nahida mentioned referring to that request for aid at Tatarasuna?"] After hearing the full account of the three betrayals Scaramouche experienced, Lumine asked. ["If Scaramouche had been able to wait for Lady Guuji's rescue, maybe everything would have turned out differently."]
["In fact, Yae Miko's power was insufficient to break the deadlock at Tatarasuna. That disaster could only be resolved by Scaramouche himself."]
["That's true too… That was over four hundred years ago. Mikoshi Nagamasa was still alive, and it hadn't been long since the dark calamity had passed. Lady Guuji had probably only just become the shrine's head maiden, and her strength was still… If only Ei had locked herself away in the Plane of Euthymia a little later… No, Ei never should have locked herself in there in the first place!"] Paimon shook her head, feeling regret over this accident born of stacked coincidences.
["No, Paimon. The disaster at Tatarasuna was deliberately controlled. The Raiden Archon would never have had a chance to arrive in time."]
["Eh?"]
["The true enemy Scaramouche faced back then was Il Dottore, the Second of the Fatui Harbingers."]
["Il Dottore again?! That guy really is the worst person I've ever met! But what exactly was going on? How did Il Dottore end up in Tatarasuna?"]
They had been communicating through their consciousness for quite some time now, so Nahida did not answer immediately. Only after confirming that Scaramouche was still searching through Irminsul's information did she continue.
["In hindsight, the furnace problems at Tatarasuna clearly began after Escher arrived. In fact, from the moment Escher reached Tatarasuna, Niwa had already begun asking others to investigate this so-called Fontaine engineer. However, the distance between Inazuma and Fontaine was vast. It took Niwa quite some time to confirm that 'Escher' was a false name—and naturally so, because 'Escher' was Il Dottore in disguise."]
["Ah!"]
Paimon cried out inside everyone's shared consciousness, interrupting Nahida.
Victor Wang felt helpless and gently rubbed his temples to calm the stimulation.
Lumine also shook her head. She was not surprised by Il Dottore's disguise—she had already suspected as much earlier—but that sudden jolt… She pulled Paimon into her arms to restrain her, preventing further startled outbursts.
Nahida continued.
["At the time, Niwa did not know this, nor did he know what about Tatarasuna could possibly attract someone of such caliber. The technology Il Dottore brought was genuine, so while maintaining suspicion, Niwa continued cooperating with him until the great furnace completely spiraled out of control.
None of those sent out to seek aid ever returned—not due to a natural disaster, but to human malice. Il Dottore alone was capable of such a thing; the Fatui did not even need to intervene.
Then Scaramouche went out to seek help. Scaramouche himself was Il Dottore's true target. Since he had long predicted that Scaramouche would never find help capable of disrupting the plan, Il Dottore allowed him to leave.
After Scaramouche departed and failed to return for a long time, just like those before him, Niwa finally resolved to shoulder his responsibility. He did not 'flee in fear of punishment' as the outside world believed—rather, he intended to personally enter the furnace core at the risk of his life to shut it down.
But Il Dottore stood in Niwa's way… He tore off his disguise, confessed his crimes, revealed his origins, and then killed Niwa, taking Niwa's heart.
Negative emotions are fertile ground for malevolence. Those filled with hatred are more easily possessed by it. Il Dottore did this purely for experimentation—he wanted to see what would happen if a heart filled with resentment were placed into a god-crafted puppet without a heart, and then sent into a place thick with malevolence.
But Niwa did not let him have his way. At death's door, that upright man said this:
'If you are to give my heart to him, then tell him this: whether it was Lord Nagamasa, or Katsuragi, or myself, we all regarded him as one of us. Tell him he is not a puppet, but a human. He does not need to prove anything. Humans are not bound only by utility—only someone like you would think that way…'
Of course, Il Dottore did not heed Niwa's words. Just as I described earlier, he placed Niwa's heart into an opaque device, then, under Niwa's name, ordered Scaramouche to carry this special device into the furnace to shut it down.
After successfully stopping the furnace, Scaramouche asked what the device that had protected him was…
Il Dottore replied: 'Lord Niwa has already fled in fear of punishment. However, he left you a gift inside the device—something you have always desired. It was taken from an innocent retainer.'
When the device was opened, what lay inside was Niwa's withered heart. Scaramouche had never imagined that the object of his longing would reach him in such a cruel way…
If Niwa had forced a dangerous task and responsibility that belonged to himself onto a friend, Scaramouche might still have deceived himself with explanations like 'he trusted me,''he was too afraid,' or 'he had no other choice.'
If Niwa had fled because he feared punishment, that might still have fallen within the bounds of ordinary human understanding.
But a friend who had once said, 'You are not a puppet, you are a human—at most, you're just missing a heart,' had actually gifted him a heart taken by killing an innocent life?
Were all those past words lies?
Did he secretly regard me as a soulless puppet, while hypocritically pretending to be my friend?
And at parting, did he finally stop pretending, even going so far as to mock and defile my dream of obtaining a heart by gifting me such an ominous thing, taken through murder?
At that moment, Scaramouche tasted heartbreak to its fullest. Unaware of the truth, he smashed the heart onto the ground. He did not even dare to face his other friends in Tatarasuna… and left without hesitation."]
With the truth of Tatarasuna laid bare, no one spoke for a while. Silence settled over them all.
Lumine frowned deeply, her inner conflict written plainly across her face. ["Scaramouche was shaped by this for his entire life… It happened over four hundred years ago, and about a hundred years ago, he was still taking revenge on the Raiden Gokaden…"]
Putting herself in his place, Paimon could not stop shaking her head. ["This truth doesn't just move someone… If it were me, I think I'd completely fall apart…"]
Lumine added, ["But that still doesn't mean Scaramouches' revenge was right."]
["Yes. Only after understanding that can he choose a path towards the future."]
Even though she hoped Scaramouche would assist in protecting Irminsul, Nahida did not deny his wrongdoing. Just as she had said before, whether Scaramouche was qualified to continue cooperating would depend on his performance during this journey through Irminsul.
Even under absolute rationality, where right and wrong can be prioritized, one must first ensure that such a person will not repeat their mistakes in the future.
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