[It was strange, how they'd cycled back to this weeks later and only now was Ardyn actually able to grasp why Junpei had been upset about the Crystal's prophecy. As much as he did love what he had been doing and it did genuinely make him happy to know he was saving others...hadn't it been exhausting, spending so much time away from Insomnia? Traveling almost constantly, no matter how welcomed he had been everywhere that traveling brought him?]
[...and despite even that, hadn't he always been alone in what he was truly doing? That was what Church had pointed out, that Ardyn had barely even understood something as ordinary as friendship because he had been the savior and king before all else.]
[And if this--whatever this was, whatever Ardyn Izunia was should have been the end result, was it that the savior hadn't been strong enough to deal with the problem or that he'd dealt with it entirely alone?]
I-
[But if he called it a mistake even for an instant then he cast aside the gratitude of all the lives he'd saved. If he dared regret what he'd done to himself in the name of protecting others, that was the same as wishing they'd never been saved at all.]
[Ardyn Izunia could clearly do that. But Ardyn Lucis Caelum, who faltered and ran his right hand through his hair, did not have the capacity to accept that.]
It's just...how things have to be, Junpei. It's too late to change now--it's likely been too late for centuries.
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[It was strange, how they'd cycled back to this weeks later and only now was Ardyn actually able to grasp why Junpei had been upset about the Crystal's prophecy. As much as he did love what he had been doing and it did genuinely make him happy to know he was saving others...hadn't it been exhausting, spending so much time away from Insomnia? Traveling almost constantly, no matter how welcomed he had been everywhere that traveling brought him?]
[...and despite even that, hadn't he always been alone in what he was truly doing? That was what Church had pointed out, that Ardyn had barely even understood something as ordinary as friendship because he had been the savior and king before all else.]
[And if this--whatever this was, whatever Ardyn Izunia was should have been the end result, was it that the savior hadn't been strong enough to deal with the problem or that he'd dealt with it entirely alone?]
I-
[But if he called it a mistake even for an instant then he cast aside the gratitude of all the lives he'd saved. If he dared regret what he'd done to himself in the name of protecting others, that was the same as wishing they'd never been saved at all.]
[Ardyn Izunia could clearly do that. But Ardyn Lucis Caelum, who faltered and ran his right hand through his hair, did not have the capacity to accept that.]
It's just...how things have to be, Junpei. It's too late to change now--it's likely been too late for centuries.