[Ardyn let Church pull him along without an argument, listening in steady, calm silence as he spoke. There was no condescending smile or arrogant smirk on his face; he was just tired, still and silent as someone who had been left behind by time itself.]

She was right. Not about everything, of course, but...she was right that I think it's easier. It's easier to push the rest of you away and try to make myself forget what I was. If I could only do that, everything could go back to how it's been for so long. I wouldn't even consider struggling to care about the rest of you, I wouldn't have this lingering fear that one morning I'll turn a corner and the corpse we stumble on will be yours.

It was so much easier being Chancellor Izunia; easier to just destroy everything around me because I could and they deserved it. But after everything back at home--Noctis especially--I can't even find that level of hatred anymore.

[Ardyn shook his head, taking a slow breath to steady himself.]

...I was never meant to remember existing as anything else. But now a small part of me would rather be dead than continue as this thing I became, and doubts I even can 'live' anymore. And the rest just wants it to stop.