Glenn drew a deep, long breath, four pairs of eyes staring at him intently waiting for him to pry open his lips.

"Maybe we can delay this conversation to another day?" Nelg proposed nervously. Diamanes clacked his tongue, refusing to make his reveal wait any longer.

'Better rip the band-aid now.'

Sahro leaned back in his chair while stabbing a piece of roasted meat into his plate, "Are we waiting for something, or...?" He demanded before stuffing his mouth. Liara's gaze kept on going from Glenn's left hand to his face, impatient to know the truth. Javier, as always, was simply sitting there with the emotional presence of a mollusk. Milena was the only one who didn't seem to understand what was going on or about to happen.

"...Aren't we here to talk about the INK-DEF mission? Why do I feel something important happened, and I wasn't included?" She inquired worriedly. Glenn moistened his lips one last time and cleared his throat

"Alright. First things first, we met with Veil, our...officer of some sort for the INK-DEF mission. To resume it, we're going to war beyond the Dark Wall, in the Ink Dunes."

Milena and Liara's jaws dropped to the floor as an eerie silence made itself comfortable in the dining hall. It didn't seem to bother Javier, but then, not much seemed to bother him, so this didn't come off as a surprise. Milena slowly stood up and pointed at Glenn with a trembling hand.

"...We...Are we going to fight the Celestial Gods? Do the Cleaner's Workshop need us dead?" She asked in horror. Liara glanced at Sahro, who slowly nodded with determination. Glenn threw a bottle of expensive wine in his Mini-fridge which he installed in the center of the table, and infused his Mana inside it. Despite the lack of Mana regeneration, he still hadn't come close to the bottom of his reserves. A Fourth-Circle Magi really had a lot of Mana...

"No, they don't want us dead. Our mission is to sabotage them. Gather intel. Steal artifacts. Anything that might push the tip of the balance in Munirp's favor. As I understand it, we don't need to worry much about high-ranked individuals, for they should already be occupied with our side's forces..." Glenn frowned and pointed the Pepsi bottle he picked back up from the mini-fridge in Milena's direction, "...But you already knew of the Celestial Gods? Were they already the talk of the Court back when you still were a noble?"

Milena bit down on her lip and nodded, "Yeah. Madmen who believe themselves to be true gods. They're probably all at least rank seven instead of actual divinities." She leaned back and crossed her arms under her imposing bosom, worried. Liara hurriedly stood up and went to Sahro's side, whispering something in his ear. Glenn felt a tinge of annoyance at the sight.

'I know Black Heirs traditions are stopping her from talking openly, but it still doesn't feel great to be there and see her talk to the other idiot...'

Diamanes suddenly scoffed, 'My, but is that jealousy?'

Glenn closed his eyes for an instant and didn't even bother replying. His words would probably be used against him anyway, so why bother?

"Now, you guys are still free to not participate in this mission. Of course, since you signed the magic seal, you can't disclose anything I've said anywhere, but yeah. Feel free to take some time to think about it, we're not leaving tomorrow after all," he paused and looked at his Black Heir friend, "...When are we supposed to leave?"

Sahro shrugged with uncertainty, "I just know that we have three months to sabotage the Celestial Gods as much as we can."

Glenn groaned and rubbed his forehead. Yeah, three months. He almost forgot about that deadline.

'I just realized, but three months is a bit of a short time to sabotage an entire civilization,' Diamanes commented with a bit of hesitation. Glenn almost chuckled. No shit.

"I...I need some time to think about it," Milena blurted out, overwhelmed. She stood up to try and leave the room, but Glenn grimaced.

"I'm not done. I still have something else to share."

Milena paled but Glenn quickly reassured her, "Unrelated to the war. It's about me, and..." He drew a deep breath and made his decision, "...it's about something that even Sahro doesn't know about."

Sahro's eyebrows rose and he leaned forward curiously.

"So this is really happening..." Nelg muttered in awe. Diamanes could only laugh wickedly, the chuckle reminding him that this might not be his wisest idea. But as Diamanes said, better now than never.

"So..." Glenn sent a silent prayer to Onnea and opened his left hand for everyone to see. The purple palm was empty. "...Please welcome Diamanes."

Milena blinked in confusion, "...Who? There's noth—"

"BOW TO ME, MORTALS!" Diamanes appeared in a grand, evil laugh, his mocking mouth cackling as haughtily as possible. Milena shot up from her seat while Liara unsheathed her dagger once again, ready to pounce. Sahro stopped her from attacking as he stared down at the grinning mouth, unamused and unimpressed. Javier...Javier was staring at the hand, but his expression was still as blank as ever. Dead and empty.

"HAHAHAHA, FINALLY I CAN SHOW MYSELF TO YOU PEASA—" Glenn clenched his left hand shut and made an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, he's not the brightest of the bunch. Give me a second to understand that this was not the moment for such jokes."

Milena gulped and pointed a trembling finger at Glenn's palm, "Y—You, something is living in your left hand!" She hollered with a mix of fear, curiosity, and awe. Glenn smiled wryly and shrugged.

"Anyway, Diamanes, please present yourself in a more...acceptable manner, please," Glenn pleaded as he reopened his left hand. Diamanes grinning mouth was still there, earning a gasp out of Milena and Liara.

"Oh, come on, it's my reveal, I had to do something they would never forget!" Diamanes defended himself while keeping up that annoying smile of his. Milena pressed her lips together, before leaning on the table with apprehension.

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"So...You're an actual living being?" She demanded, her eyes glued to the grinning mouth.

"Hell yeah, I'm alive! Well, I almost die every single day thanks to this idiot of Glenn, but besides that, grinning and kicking!" Diamanes happily exclaimed. Milena approached closer, her apprehension fading away as she understood that the entity wasn't a threat. Liara was still keeping up a sharp watch, but even she was starting to relax.

"...Anyway, this is Diamanes. I don't need to present you guys to him since he sees life through my eyes," Glenn sighed, a heavy weight off his chest. Sahro rubbed his chin, frowning deeply.

"How did you end up with that thing grafted to your arm, though?"

Glenn moistened his lips and bobbed his head from left to right.

"Uhm...During the Moon Rift a year ago, I accidentally entered the ruins of a cult that worshiped that same Moon Rift—"

Milena's eyes widened and she grabbed Glenn's by the collar, "YOU FOUND WHAT?"

She held onto him this way for a few seconds before apologizing and going back to her seat, her cheeks flushed red. Glenn shook his head, "...As I was saying, I entered those ruins, and one thing led to another, I made a deal with this piece of shit. I took him out of his crystal, and he helped me to find my way back home."

Sahro's eyebrows rose questioningly, "Home? Where is your home for you to need the help of a dubious, probably evil entity that has parasitized your entire left arm?" Milena and Liara straightened in their seats when they heard the question, similarly curious about Glenn's origins. After all, he was the one with the shadier past. A dark horse who rose to the very peak of the Fringe's pecking order in just a year. Someone with no affiliation with a population like the Black Heirs or the Pale Son, or connected to the nobles.

Someone who came out of nowhere.

"I..." Glenn gulped and closed his eyes, the words stuck in his throat. His heart raced even faster than when he fought all these atrocities or encountered the Book of Doloratrox.

"My home..." His gaze became resolute, "...isn't in this world, the Limbo."

Milena, Liara, Sahro, and even Javier, all blinked in confusion at his words. What the... What does it mean, that his home is not in this world?

"...Did you live on the moon before?" Milena tried with a doubtful, slightly joking tone, while the two Black Heirs chuckled. Glenn had expected this turn of events, though. He closed his eyes and Projected his Mana Heart out, the Milky Way. It brimmed with power and almost limitless Mana, shining with a million stars. The chuckles died out as everyone stared in awe at his Mana Heart.

"This...This is the Milky Way, the galaxy of the world I'm from. I...I was living on a world called Earth," Glenn explained with his heart wrenched.

Milena reached for the Projection in amazement, "It's...it's beautiful..." She muttered.

Glenn smiled sadly and leaned back in his chair, "Earth was...very different from here, the Limbo. We...We had no magic, to begin with. No monsters either," He added in the realization that it was one of the main differences.

"We only had one moon, which, well, was called the Moon. Technology was centuries beyond what is in the Bourgeoisie, but not too advanced either. We had planes—flying machines," Glenn added when he noticed the look of confusion the others were throwing at him.

"The entire planet had been explored. I could talk to someone on the other side of it with no issue, thanks to a massive virtual network."

Milena's threw him a wide-eyed stare, "But how? That's impossible? It would need hundreds of mages, and yet—"

Glenn nodded, "No magic. No magic, no Aura, Divinity, Mana, or all those things. No risk of ever being Corrupted either."

Sahro scratched the back of his neck in confusion, "But how did you die then?"

Glenn scoffed, "Old age, sickness, accidents. Most deaths happened naturally, with no way to counter them."

Milena raised her hand in a plastering way, awed, "Wait. This is...this is too much. Why are you telling us all that?"

The two Black Heirs leaned forward, also curious to learn the answer. Glenn pressed his lips together, before sighing.

"If I have to trust my back to every one of you in a fucking war, I'd rather have you all know who I am before I die in some unlucky way. So at least one person will remember me."

Milena leaned back, lost in thoughts. She suddenly stood up, having realized something.

"Uh—I have to get some air. Sorry." She dashed out of the Dining Hall, her eyes wide open in disbelief. Whatever she realized, it seemed very, very important. A short, awkward moment passed until Sahro brushed his hair back and leaned on the table, curious and confused, "So, uh, where's that "Earth" and "Milky Way" of yours?"

Glenn shrugged and almost laughed dejectedly, "I don't have a single clue. Onnea seems to think my world is gone, Exan believes there's no way back, I don't know. This all seems so improbable I simply can't believe it."

The Black Heir passed his tongue over his lips and gestured at the purple hand, "What about him?"

"No idea. I guessed that he fell from the Moon Rift and is a Fallen One, but...that's only that, a guess," Diamanes replied instantly as if he had expected the question. Sahro scrunched his nose and leaned back in his chair. Liara couldn't stop herself from staring at Glenn, her mouth opening and closing as if she wanted to say something. Sahro paused and his expression darkened in realization.

"Did...Did you have a family, back then?" He asked softly. Glenn clenched his fists, feeling as if a knife was being stabbed in his heart.

"Yeah...Yeah, I did. Just my sister, Lina. She's...She's probably okay, though. She's smart enough to deal with life by herself..."

Glenn gritted his teeth and clenched his hands so tightly that his knuckles turned white. The words gushed out uncontrollably, like water from a dam breaking. There was no stopping it now.

"I...I don't know why I arrived in this world. There was nothing special about me back then. No magic, no powers, nothing of that sort... I was just...Heh!" Glenn scoffed in nostalgia, "...I was just studying and partying while refusing to worry about the future. I guess that changed ever since I arrived here. I've been spending the majority of my time fighting, suffering, and killing stuff, even though...haha...even though I never killed before! Not even a wild beast, so...monsters? Humans?"

Glenn buried his face in his hands and sighed heavily, realizing he had become something he never expected to be. The words of the Bloodblade, the God of the Brotherhood of Iron and Blood echoed in his mind again. Perspective makes a monster. What if...What if he was only a monster? Being a hero was less than appealing, and he never even wanted to be one... So why did he have to continue to kill, slaughter, and exterminate living beings one after the other like a butcher? Why? "...I never signed up for all of this shit, damn it..." He sniffled, ashamed to look at his friends. Javier disappeared in the darkness, fading away without a word. Apparently, he had heard enough...

Sahro and Liara exchanged a glance, at a loss at what to say or do. After a while, Glenn felt a pat on his shoulder, courtesy of Sahro as he left the room. Glenn looked up with tired eyes, before being suddenly pulled into Liara's embrace, who gave him a warm, comforting hug. Glenn gave in without resistance and returned the hug silently. He couldn't tell how much time passed like this, but eventually let go of her and she left, leaving him alone in the dining hall to contemplate his existence. Strangely, telling someone all of his worries like that made him feel a world of good.

It felt like all his worries were gone, replaced by sadness and hope that his friends, since they were exactly that, not comrades or teammates, but friends, wouldn't abandon him.

Glenn rubbed the corner of his eyes, finding them to be wet.

"Oh...shit, did I cry? What a fucking loser..." He muttered with disappointment, before sighing heavily. As if linked by some mutual understanding, neither Diamanes nor Nelg spoke to him as he slowly stood up and left the dining hall as well. He went back to the entrance hall and climbed the majestic double staircase, heading for the northern upper part of the house. He entered the Observatory, which was bathing in the soft moonlight of the twin sisters hanging in the starry night sky.

Despite the constant emission of steam from the city, the sky was clear, with all of the stars visible. Glenn did not even bother stopping to look into one of the brass telescopes. Instead, he collapsed onto a sofa in the center of the room and watched the sky in silence. The darkness of space, filled with countless, shining stars soothed him, slowly but surely bringing him into one of the deepest, best sleep he ever had.

Today was finally over.