At that moment.
Lynn lifted his head amid the silent, drifting snow. He gripped the hilt of his blade tightly, but his lips trembled, and for a moment, even his body seemed on the verge of collapsing.
It was as though you had fought with everything you had to hold on until the very end, only for fate to mercilessly bar your way just before the finish line.
How utterly absurd.
The figure watched him from afar, watched this young man who had forced himself to hold on until this final moment.
"Lynn, stop. I know this was never a burden you should have had to bear. But they chose you, so they manipulated and shaped your life. Don't you find all of this tragic? Your family, your friends-they arranged them all along the course of your life, simply to make you walk the path they wanted."
"Is this the outcome you wanted? To be forced and pushed into this abyss that was doomed to lead nowhere?"
But Painter interrupted him at that moment. She wiped away the azure colors covering her body, revealing her reddened eyes.
"And what about you?"
The figure turned his gaze toward her.
"He spent his entire life fighting back. Even when he reached the end of the road, he would choose to take his enemies down with him. But what about you? If you really are him, why did you choose to submit? You abandoned everything you stood for and became a pawn of that calamity. Is that your conviction? Is that your ideal?!"
A trace of tenderness settled at the corners of the figure's eyes, but his voice remained utterly calm.
"Nanako, the one I could never let go of. I honestly don't want to face you, because you always remind me of