“And I’m telling him like, how do you know what you want? Do you know yourself well enough? Do you know the thing you want well enough? Maybe something terrible will happen to you once you get it…but I couldn’t stop him. He turned into a monster.” The elsen rambled neurotically beside Batter. He didn’t seem to be exhibiting any signs of exhaustion despite having been talking about the same thing for minutes.
“And then…you murdered him. Right in front of me.” He came into an abrupt stop to lift his eyes to see if pointing this out had any effect on the Batter. It did not. He seemed disappointed before continuing again.
“Want is a dangerous thing. It’s not safe to want things. It makes you make stupid decisions. Risking to turn into a monster was a stupid decision.” His voice was quieter now, his gaze fixed on a single point on the floor. He swallowed once. His hands went up to cradle each oher over his chest.
“Why would he do that? If the risk is so big…does that mean the reward is even better?”
The Batter didn’t answer. [The Player] had still not arrived after three hours, but that was no incentive for him to break the rules by wandering around on his own or getting away from the elsen. He could only wait, so he was simply waiting.
“My heart is beating so fast thinking about it.”
“What if I managed to get what he couldn’t?”
“I…I want…”
Fire erupted right beside him. A Valzong.
[The Player] was still nowhere to be found. He shan’t break the rules.
“I…WANT…”
“What do you want?”
He shan’t break the rules, but his fingers were trembling for a swing. A meaningless conversation with the impure, while beneath him, needed to suffice as distraction.
“I WANT… I WANT TO WANT! “The Burnt shrieked, causing some poor coward to let out a scream of terror in some distant land. “TO WANT WITHOUT HURT!”
“That’s impossible.”
They repeated their words for 16 weeks.
