“i hate you.”

“What?”

“i HATE you.”

Meryl couldn’t take this anymore.

“i frickin’ hate you. why did you have to do this? what kind of deranged monster are you? to see death and suffering and ENJOY it? you KNEW the outcome all along. you knew, and yet you did NOTHING. you smiled, you smiled at our deaths!”

They lowered their voice to a haunted whisper:

“you smiled at that child’s DEATH.”

Mr. Rato did not react to Meryl’s words. His face did not delivered any sort of feeling towards the situation. His posture was kept intact - cold, brutal.

“I was merely but the narrator of your self-created ruin, Meryl. I did not create this Maze, nor the rules that make it. All the paths that took you to your fall were YOURS, only. It was YOUR choice to take the stairs down to hell, and yet I am the one to take the blame? Who is the deranged monster here?”

Meryl went silent.

“What I did, however, was to provide you the means to forge your own salvation, even though you did not deserve it. I did not do it for YOU, but for the boy. He holds the future of the world, you know it. But I wonder if you have told it what it really means. Probably not, don’t you? Will you have the guts, Meryl the Mole?”

From the bright passageway, Meryl heard someone calling:

“Meryl, won’t you come?”

Mr. Rato said lastly:

“We are at the verge of Fate, Meryl, and I think you know this very well. What you will do shall decide the future of this world. The chalk of kismet is once again in your hands, but this will not last longer. Soon it will be inherited by other one, that who is predestined to save us all - the Heir of Liminalia.

Be wise, Meryl, for you have learned the price of choices… Don’t you?”

Meryl entered the passage, giving Mr. Rato a last gaze:

“i will do it. i will save us all. that i promise, your sick freak.”

Mr. Rato smiled one last time. A genuine smile.

“Take care, Meryl the Mole, with the promises you make… the world is made out of promises, you know…”

Meryl did not understand what he was trying to say. They nodded, and turned their way into the exit. The fireplace closed itself, and Mr. Rato was once again, alone.

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