"----"
After hearing Artoria〔Alter〕's words, the scene fell into complete silence.
Everyone fell silent, as if they had lost the ability to speak.
Even Mash was unable to utter a single word for a moment. She stood there speechless, her eyes filled with complicated emotions.
She could never come back again.
How could Mash not understand what those words meant?
In fact, Mash had already faintly sensed something like this herself.
After all, ever since Luo Zhen returned, strange voices and sensations had constantly appeared within Mash's body. After entering this Singularity, emotions that even Mash could not suppress had surged up repeatedly, making her suspect long ago that she might be affected or even replaced by that inexplicable consciousness inside her, and thus lose her own will forever.
Now that Artoria〔Alter〕had exposed the matter directly, Mash could only lower her head and fall silent as well.
But after a while, Mash looked toward Luo Zhen again.
"Did you already know about this, Senpai?" Mash asked somewhat dejectedly. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Mash was not blaming Luo Zhen by asking this.
At the very least, Mash did not believe that Luo Zhen had chosen to hide it because he was afraid to tell her that she had suffered such a disaster because of him.
The truth was exactly that.
"If I told you, with your personality, you definitely wouldn't blame me. You'd only blame yourself, wouldn't you?"
Luo Zhen turned around and looked directly into Mash's eyes. He raised his hand and brushed aside her bangs.
"No one knows better than I do how gentle and kind you are. If I told you about this, you definitely wouldn't think that I was the cause of the problem with your body. Instead, you'd think you were useless. I've clearly grown