Mr. Pantalone has no crazy plans today.

Amidst this turbulent cold wave sweeping across the entire world, the far-off, bitterly cold north remains unchanged in its deep winter, its pure white snow a constant companion.

Apart from the war machines that are constantly running at full capacity, nothing seems to have changed for this silvery snow country.

It's as if they have no connection to the wars and turmoil on this continent, as if they are completely detached from it.

Standing atop the Silver City amidst that snowy landscape, a figure in a silver executive coat stands beside him, gazing upon this pure white snow kingdom.

With almost all of the Fools' Enforcers now mobilized, at this moment, apart from a few remaining Enforcers, the vast majority of them have gone off to carry out their respective tasks.

Among the few executives who have not yet been deployed, Arecino, the "servant" of the tenth seat of the Fools' executives, is one of them.

As one of the Executors of the Fools, and a figure at the pinnacle of the Winter Kingdom, she was not unaware of the turmoil happening outside. As the one who controlled the "House of Hearths," she had a clear view of everything.

For Arecino, none of that mattered much. If she had to say, those things were less valuable to her than the information she had about Pantalone.

Since making that agreement with Pantalone several years ago, she has been fighting against Pantalone, but she is unable to stop it.

After all that, what exactly were Pantalone's ideas and his true purpose?

Only much later, when the final, foolish play of this entire stage began, did she, who had grasped everything, finally understand what Pantalone's true purpose was.

For her, things had reached a point where the battle with Pantalone was no longer simply about winning or losing, but something akin to an obsession.

Nothing was more important to her than knowing Pantalone's true thoughts and plans.

At this crucial moment, she did not choose to do what she was supposed to do as an executor of the Fools, but instead wanted to confirm something that had once puzzled her during her many years of struggle with Pantalone.

She could sense that everything Pantalone was doing was vaguely connected to what she had perceived, or more precisely, to all of Pantalone's plans.

In a sense, everything was in service of that purpose, which led her to focus all her attention on the secrets hidden behind the plan devised by Pantalone.

And through the various clues and intelligence he had gathered, and after countless analyses, he deduced the possibility that Pantalone might have been hiding a truth from everyone all along.

After realizing this, she discovered that her own memories, or rather everyone's memories, were flawed, and that some things and certain facts inexplicably created a sense of incongruity.

It's as if some invisible hand has woven a layer of lies into this world, altering everyone's memories.

Even if everything is altered, there are still some things that cannot be changed.

Just like a perfect lie, there are always some things that cannot be changed. The more she analyzed Pantalone's purpose and the actions of that crazy guy in her memory, the more she could perceive the false incongruity.

As a former friend of Pantalone, she knew this better than anyone else; no one understood the man better than she did.

Perhaps she harbored some resentment towards what Pantalone hoped to remember, but when it came to these matters, she never doubted Pantalone's correctness.

Even though she wanted to prove the breakdown of their relationship in the past, which made her desperately want to prove it.

Even though she couldn't deny that sometimes the man was indeed more right than she was, there were times when she was more right than he was.

Because when she wanted to prove herself more right than him, she already believed from the beginning that she wasn't as right as Pantalone.

Even she herself couldn't be sure of her own correctness, so how could she prove that she was more correct than Pantalone?

Moreover, if the truth of the matter matches her conjecture, then she has in fact lost the ability to question Pantalone's correctness from the very beginning.

Thinking of this, a strange and complex look appeared in Arecino's scarlet, cross-shaped eyes.

Gazing at the distant sky, she took in the view at the edge of that pure white world, as if she could see the distant battlefield through that sky.

It was as if she was recalling some distant memory, a time before she became an executor of the Fatui.

Back when they worked together before their complete falling out, they weren't like they are now.

She vaguely remembered that in those distant days, the man had told her about his goals and ideals—

To eliminate all tragedies in this world.

She had almost forgotten.

That man, who was clearly more realistic than anyone else, had such childish ideals in his past.

The reason is simply that he has witnessed and experienced such things, and therefore wants to prevent anyone in the world from experiencing them again.

Before she became an executive officer of the Fools and received the title of "Servant" Arecino, she was even attracted to that seemingly childish idea and became a companion who followed that person.

In a sense, it was perhaps because of that seemingly foolish ideal that she chose to establish the "Hearthwall House" to adopt those children.

But that man betrayed their past promise, or so she once thought.

But when she vaguely understood the goal that Pantalone had set for him, the answer that the man was pursuing, she realized that he had never given up from beginning to end.

The answer he had been searching for, which others saw as a naive fantasy.

Yes, that man never gave up on that ideal from the very beginning.

How could that man so easily give up the answer he was seeking? Arecino understood once she realized this.

Everything he pursued and all those seemingly crazy actions were for the answer he had never given up on.

The man named Pantalone was so greedy that he didn't want to let go of anything.

How could a man like that give up so easily?

From her memory of that man, he wasn't the kind of person who could make choices.

Any choice would be meaningless to that man; if he were presented with such a choice, he would simply choose to have it all.

He is a very deceitful person. He never hesitates to use anyone for his own benefit, not even his trusted friends.