Sir Awen and the others all fell silent.
Lynn shook his head, propped his chin on his hand, and said with a broad smile, "I don't know exactly what it was, but it gave me a vague feeling. If falling into Hell was a form of protection, could that mean the one protecting me is Hell itself?"
Everyone was shaken.
No one spoke.
Even the air around them seemed to grow faintly colder.
Lynn dusted off his hands and said softly:
"Of course, proving that theory wasn't my only reason. I really was rather impulsive at the time. After all, my friend was suffering right beside me, while I was perfectly fine. Staying rational under those circumstances was genuinely difficult, so I provoked it a little, within reason."
Everyone shuddered.
A little... within reason...?
You took the god of Fate's Authority and ordered Hell to carry out what you wrote, then even asked whether it dared...
Could that really be described as 'within reason'...?
Lynn stretched and looked up.
"And thinking back on it now, it really was terrifying. Being watched by something like that... even though it did nothing, I still felt as though I was truly falling apart. That's why I thought that even if it really does protect me, I can't possibly approach it. Just having it look at me nearly killed me."
Sir Awen's gaze was grave.
He recalled once again the diagnosis they had made when they first found Lynn, his entire body shattered.
It was as though every Authority within Lynn had stopped working. He had lost his ability to heal himself, his cells had lost their vitality, and even his consciousness had begun to disintegrate. Yet Hell had actually done nothing at all. A single glance had thrown every rule into turmoil.
Even