Oh? This was getting really interesting.
The last thing the Witch had added was unmistakably phrased like something out of a children's fairy tale.
Yet neither she, telling the story, nor Fu Qian, listening to it, had taken it lightly.
"Other Shore?"
With an appreciative click of his tongue, Fu Qian went straight to the point.
"Other Shore. That's exactly how it was described."
The Witch sounded certain.
Two bona fide Higher Beings were seriously debating the wording of a story.
"It sounds like the corruption happened long ago, but we still managed to bring about a little change in this world."
With a soft sigh, Fu Qian marveled at the mysteries of fate. He understood the Witch's reaction now.
"You think it has something to do with the Other Shore we visited before?"
The Witch nodded slightly. She knew the knight shared her thoughts.
"Yes, and I think I have a vague idea of how that connection came about."
The Furnace, the Angel of Peace, the Other Shore... Fu Qian recalled a place with deep ties to him: the Holy Grail Cult's final calamity.
"Do you remember the question I asked you at the end? What would happen if the people in the Other Shore left?"
For a children's book, the term "Other Shore" felt a little out of place.
That was why Fu Qian had noticed the oddity immediately, and connected it to his own recent experience.
The Witch's help had naturally been the key to visiting the World Within the Painting this time.
When he lost his inspiration and could no longer lock onto the target, she had gone there in person to invite him.
Given how difficult it was to cross the divide, the Witch had made him use that bone chain to sacrifice what