Nicholas Egg's New Identity

It seemed like the ball had really kept it in for a long time in this world. — Considering the kind of state he was in, pretending to be a rock ball previously, even Gawain, the fellow who'd been hanging in the sky for so many years could not help but admire it. Such willpower could not be found in the average Buddha-nature¹.

And after such an extended period of repressing himself and living as a fake rock, now that it could finally unbind its tongue, the ball rattled on with no end. It constantly exclaimed about the joy of conversing with humans and also lamented the dullness of people in this era and this world.

"Sigh, if it wasn't for the facts laid out here, who would dare believe that civilization had regressed to this extent? That bunch of soldiers standing guard actually have no knowledge of even concepts like the atmosphere or geomagnetic fields…"