God imagine how that phrase affects baby Emmet. Like, he has him memories but he’s a kid, kids process things differently. Maybe up until now he’s thought it strange that this older version of his big brother didn’t have an Emmet of his own but assumed (correctly) that he was pulled from him like he was. What if, that sentence about losing Emmet again, makes him rethink that. Let’s say there was a recent funeral in the Pearl Clan, the Icelamdsare dangerous after all, and suddenly emmets brain is wondering… ‘Why is it Ingo doesn’t have an Emmet??’ And he thinks and thinks and with the recent funeral he comes to the most obvious conclusion. Ingo’s Emmet is dead. That’s why he’s so protective of little Emmet, because he doesn’t want to lose his brother again.
What if he convinces himself of this, and thinks that Ingo must therefore be lying about having amnesia in order to hide this from him? He'd just slipped up when he mentioned losing him "again".
Emmet is having none of this. He isn't sure why, but the thought of Ingo lying to him--for months--makes him verrry upset. He immediately confronts him about it as soon as he's "sure" this is the case.
Ingo is completely blindsided and has no idea how to respond to Emmet demanding that he "Tell me the truth for once! You don't really have amnesia, do you?" He doesn't know how to explain to him that he isn't lying, that he really doesn't remember anything. How do you provide evidence that you don't remember something?
He's even more bewildered by the fact that his little brother thinks he's lying to him in the first place, until he brings up how he mentioned not being able to lose him again and demands to know who died in the Icelands just before he appeared in Hisui, and it clicks.
"Calaba's husband passed. He devoted his life to the Pearl Clan and everyone loved him. It was tragic, and the entire Clan mourned for a while, including me," Ingo explains. "We don't talk about it much because the subject upsets Calaba. They were together for over 50 years, you know."
Little Emmet takes the news like a punch in the gut. "Oh," is all he can think to say. Immediately, he feels stupid for jumping to such a wildly illogical conclusion and bad for accusing Ingo of lying. He apologizes profusely and Ingo tells him not to worry about it. He reiterates that he's never met any Emmet in Hisui other than him, and that if he did he'd be "the first to know."
