'Why are you waiting for me?'
Brianna wondered in a daze.
'...Who are you?'
'In this world, no one belongs to me. No one is waiting for me.'
'My mother, my lover, my father—they're all gone.'
'All I have are enemies. But even that's just my own delusion—they only count as enemies if I take the initiative and go after them.'
'If I were to disappear right now, neither Chaisi nor Fu Tailan would ever think of me again.'
"You don't know, but in this world, I am the only one who has always been watching you, paying attention to you, waiting for you."
The Host's voice, both low and gentle, parted the vast, drifting darkness. It was like a hand that couldn't be batted away, stubbornly gripping Brianna's mind.
At times, she even felt that she wasn't the one crawling; she was being pulled forward, bit by bit, by the Host's voice.
"...Why?" she murmured. "What are you waiting for me to do?"
