[ He does take a moment, to consider that question, to let the weight of it settle in his mind. Hasn't he asked himself this a thousand times already? How does he do it, when so many who are stronger than him still sleep? How does he have any right to live out his life here when so many from Eos didn't have that choice? Who is he, without his role in the Crownsguard to guide him, with Noctis only so recently returned from stasis? Why is this his chance, and not someone else's?

They still keep him up at night, or any time he visits the Station, or reflects on the near-year they have been awake in this world. He isn't over the loss of Eos. Not by a long shot. He hasn't detached himself from it in order to lead a life here, in order to progress. It's quite the opposite, actually.

So he has something of an answer ready for Ardyn once he collects himself enough to give it. He can only say what he believes, and it won't be enough to change this man's mind. How can he, barely accepting of his own humanity, expect to change the mind of one so old, so set in his ways? He can't. But he can say what's in his heart, with the hope that...maybe Ardyn will at least remember it, that it might be a seedling for greater things. It's all he can hope for, really. ]

Y'know what I learned, when you were chasin' me around like a rat in a maze back in Niflheim? When I was at my absolute lowest because I finally knew what I really was?

[ He...learned a lot during that time, but one lesson remains clearer than all the others, at the forefront of his mind, even now, all these months later. ]

That I couldn't choose my past. I can't change where I came from, or who I used to be. But I can choose who I'm going to be now. I had that choice to make when I woke up here, too. And so did you.

[ Whether or not Ardyn wants to believe it, he had a choice. All of them did. ]