"Useless human!" Angler shouted, propping himself up on one elbow. "Now we will die even worse death than before!"
"Why? I don't enjoy torture," Shin said, turning towards him. "Just tell me all that I want to know. For a start—which demon lord you are working for?"
Angler didn't reply, but Shin noticed the way his eyes darted towards Tetsu. He turned to her, too—Tetsu caught his gaze and questioningly tilted her head to the side.
Shin realized something.
Although the way Tetsu looked likely was very different back before the Horned King captured her, her true name, written in tiny symbols on her skin and armor, didn't change. It will always identify her. Even if large parts of it were now eroded by her trauma, the rest was still recognizable—at least by someone who saw her enough in the past.
Three Pupils had recognized her, or at least her eroded Verses. This Angler was a much smaller fish in a pond, but this wasn't impossible.