The Enkanomiya who likes getting beaten up is currently waiting for the Traveler in the library where they first met.
After the Traveler arrives, he wants to chat a couple sentences with Lumine, but Lumine prefers to let her fists do the talking.
After several exchanges, Lumine steps on Enkanomiya, fist raised, already planning to smash his face hard.
If Enkanomiya could 'bleed,' a few drops splashing on little Lumine's face right now would make the scene even more beautiful.
[ The being calling itself "Enkanomiya": "Hold on, hold on! If we keep fighting, I'm gonna die!" ]
[ Lumine still doesn't loosen her fist: "That's exactly why I'm here!" ]
Readers are amused too. Come on, big brother using Pyro, don't die here!
Enkanomiya, say the safeword quick!
Such a funny guy can't die this fast, right?
This Enkanomiya guy has never 'succeeded' at doing bad things, so readers don't feel any threat from him at all; they even think letting him go is no big deal—he doesn't seem capable of achieving anything major.
Who would've thought, Enkanomiya really says the 'safeword'—he mentions that woman!
[ Enkanomiya hurriedly says: "That woman, the one with the slit pupils—what's the name she calls herself?" ]
That woman? Calls herself what? Cloud Retainer.
Okay, fine—turns out Enkanomiya isn't talking about Cloud Retainer but Tsumi. Bummer; this was clearly Cloud Retainer's keyword.
But no matter what, this 'safeword' still works. Little Lumine stops and plans to hear what Enkanomiya has to say.
[ "You thought of it too, right? Bathysmal vishaps are very intelligent, and they're a fast-evolving race. As early as a thousand years ago, there was already such a legend." ]
[ "—Vishap-person." ]
Neuvillette: ?
Besides me, there are bathysmal vishaps that evolved into humans too?
Seeing the Traveler stop, Enkanomiya finally stands up, pats the dust off himself, and continues:
[ "Lizards in well-lit places have eyes that are a thin vertical slit. That's ironclad proof she betrayed you." ]
Enkanomiya starts emphasizing 'betrayal,' biting down hard on 'betrayal,' because he betrayed the Traveler before and knows the Traveler can't stand that.
Enkanomiya doesn't avoid telling the Traveler his cooperation plan with the bathysmal vishaps: release black mist, then have vishap elites sneak into Dainichi Mikoshi to release their kin.
This is bad news for Watatsumi Island people—without bloodbranch corals, how to solve the sacred soil-ization?
Luckily, Enkanomiya and the vishaps fell out, because the black mist Enkanomiya released is also an unimaginably terrifying poison for the vishaps.
You little shit, are you Cheng Yu or Jia Xu? That toxic?
This behavior—not to mention whether the vishaps see it as betrayal—even Enkanomiya himself admits it's betrayal, but he takes pride in it instead of shame.
[ Enkanomiya is quite proud: "After all, if vishaps can hop around lively under Abyss power, wouldn't that make the Abyss Order lose face?" ]
He's pretty smug, like: We're the Abyss, we're so awesome~!
Anyway, Enkanomiya urges the Traveler to leave quickly, go stop Tsumi, don't mind him—even tells the Traveler how to use the mechanism he left to dispel Dainichi Mikoshi's darkness.
So don't worry about me; I got nothing, still a fringe member of the Order—what's the point in bothering with me?
Enkanomiya hands a 'fragment' to the Traveler and turns to run.
As for his words, most readers don't believe them, because this guy never has many truthful words in his mouth.
No—should say he has lots of truths, but he only says half.
The legendary vishap-person—that's true, but the real vishap-person isn't Tsumi.
The cooperation with vishaps too—he said black mist can help vishaps sneak into Dainichi Mikoshi; didn't lie to the lizards, it really can—but he didn't say the black mist is poisonous.
Now he says he got nothing, is a fringe member—who believes that?
Did he really get nothing? He's already understood the Land of White Nights' situation, even grasped Dainichi Mikoshi's structure, built three towers—can count as outposts.
As for him being a fringe member? One second he was talking about avenging his subordinates, next second he speed-cuts saying he's fringe.
Not orbiting the Prince might be true, but calling him fringe? Not quite—he just loves knowledge more than power.
This Enkanomiya guy is like that—his words generally don't lie, but this kid always says half and leaves half, giving you information bias.
But Enkanomiya doesn't lie to you—when Lumine returns to Dainichi Mikoshi, she really can't find Tsumi.
Using the mechanism Enkanomiya left really can dispel Dainichi Mikoshi's darkness.
[ Paimon is a bit surprised: "This time that guy didn't lie to us." ]
[ Traveler sighs: "Strictly speaking, he hasn't lied to us much." ]
The Traveler enters inside Dainichi Mikoshi; the little vishaps here have already been rescued. The elderly vishaps didn't leave, still hiding in the water.
The Traveler doesn't make things hard for these vishaps and returns to the surface to look for Tsumi.
And Tsumi, at this moment, is standing in front of Dainichi Mikoshi, seemingly pondering something.
[ Tsumi: "I don't plan to explain much to you. Although I have the ability to communicate with you, I've already realized that exchanges with humans can only end in betrayal." ]
Tsumi looks up at Dainichi Mikoshi; she wants to destroy this tower.
She can feel the tower's response to her—as long as she wants, she can change light and dark, can destroy this tower.
As long as... she exerts a little force, she can destroy this tower that brings 'her kin' pain.
[ Tsumi: "But why... I can't bring myself to do it..." ]
Why? Little Lumine takes out the fragments given by Kokomi and Enkanomiya, which perfectly combine with the pendant Tsumi has worn close to her body since childhood, because:
[ "You belong to Watatsumi Island." ]
Tsumi falls silent; she naturally sees her difference from vishaps.
But in the end, she still shakes her head and says:
[ "'Humans belong to the place they were born, beasts belong to the place they eat their fill.'" ]
She was raised by vishaps from childhood, has hardly seen humans, learned human language from books—in her heart, she is 'vishap.'
She might belong to Watatsumi Island's people, born on Watatsumi Island, but the vishaps' home is where she ate her fill and grew up.
Tsumi leaves; she didn't destroy Dainichi Mikoshi.
The Traveler leaves too, reporting what happened here to Kokomi.
Kokomi directly denies the possibility that Tsumi is a vishap-person. Kokomi says: Stories of vishap-people, subterranean lizard-people... have always been settings that only appear in novels, right?
Neuvillette: ?
Kokomi explains to the Traveler the secret history of the Watatsumi Goushou Clan, and the news that the last Goushou went missing after being attacked by vishaps in childhood.
This also proves Tsumi's identity: she is the last Watatsumi Goushou.
At the end of the story, Lucian thoughtfully draws a 'timeline' of the Land of White Nights in comic form as an extra.