Baal was staring intently into Elliot's eyes, as if she wanted to see straight through him.
This was the first time Elliot had ever seen Baal so serious. In his impression, she had always been gentle and composed.
"If I'm not Sasayuri, what would you do?"
Elliot had never imagined that someone could actually see through him.
He had inherited Sasayuri's memories, and his mannerisms and habits were nearly identical to his.
"I want to know your name," Baal said quietly, her gaze never leaving his.
"My name? Why?"
The very fact that Elliot asked that question meant Baal was right. He had no intention of keeping up the pretense any longer.
Once suspicion takes root, every action will be scrutinized with a piercing gaze, and even the smallest slip will be magnified.
"Even though you're not Sasayuri, I know this much—you're a gentle person."
"Your eyes... they're the gentlest I've ever seen. But also the most greedy."
"Greedy?" Elliot frowned.
"You want to protect everything. You want a world that's forever peaceful. Isn't that, in its own way, a form of greed?" Baal explained softly.
"You really... see through everything..." Elliot let out a sigh of admiration.
In that moment, his heart trembled. Something struck him suddenly, and his pupils widened as he looked at the box in his hands—and at the Gnosis floating above it.
"Lady Baal... you deliberately left this here, didn't you?" he asked.
"Mm." She nodded.
Elliot finally understood. His so-called disguise had long been transparent in Baal's eyes.
When he had saved Yashiori Island and Watatsumi Island, the nature he had revealed back then had already made her suspicious.
Later, when he returned to Narukami Island and proposed playing a game called Truth or Dare—something none of them had ever heard of—she hadn't thought much of it.
But the moment he asked to see her Gnosis, Baal understood his real intent.
So she had deliberately removed it from her person, placed it in her room, and created the illusion that she left it stored there. It was bait—set to see whether Elliot would bite.
Two weeks had passed with no movement. She had been ready to give up—until Elliot showed up here today. And that confirmed everything.
"I didn't expect... you'd be the one to trick me in the end." Elliot gave a bitter smile.
"You can take the Gnosis. But only if you tell me the reason."
Baal was not an unreasonable person. She only wanted the truth.
She wanted to know who Elliot was, what purpose he carried, what burden weighed on him, what drove him forward, and why. There were far too many questions in her heart.
"Well... since it's come to this, I might as well tell you."
Baal had already seen through him. Hiding it any longer was pointless. Besides, he urgently needed the Gnosis.
"My name is Elliot. I am a reincarnator. My mission this time is to slay Orobashi and participate in the Khaenri'ah War."
With one short sentence, he summarized his entire situation in this life.
"Elliot...? A reincarnator? Your mission is to kill Orobashi? There will be a war in Khaenri'ah?"
That brief statement was enough to leave the well-informed Baal utterly stunned. She froze in place.
"Yes."
"What is... a reincarnator?"
"Simply put—I don't belong to this world."
"???" Baal was completely taken aback.
"Then... did you know Orobashi would attack Yashiori Island?"
Baal was rational enough to quickly accept—even if reluctantly—that Elliot might truly be something beyond this world. So she pressed on with sharper questions.
"Yes."
"So you were destined to lose an arm?"
"No... If I hadn't taken Sasayuri's body, he would have died at Orobashi's hands."
That one sentence crashed into Baal's mind like a thunderclap.
To her, its weight was even heavier than the claim that Elliot wasn't of this world.
"If... if Sasayuri had died to Orobashi, what would have happened?" After a long pause, Baal asked again.
"The General would have unleashed a furious strike, splitting Yashiori Island into a canyon. At the same time, Orobashi's lingering resentment would form a vengeful spirit that corrupted minds and poisoned the land."
"Then why doesn't that happen if you kill him? Is it because of your mission?"
"No. It's because I fulfilled Orobashi's final wish."
At that, Baal suddenly understood why Elliot had gone to Watatsumi Island.
Orobashi was the main god of Watatsumi Island. If he were slain, then the Electro God would become the island's new deity.
But Watatsumi Island lay far from Narukami. They couldn't care for it, nor did they understand its plight.
The island was barren and poor in resources. When Elliot had first gone there, people were on the verge of starving, and they were even harassed by pirates.
Disasters of every kind—things one could never have known without seeing them firsthand.