nothing to talk about." "Oh, but we do! So, so many things! And if you're dissatisfied, why, we can even talk about loathing. For no matter what we say, all this is but a tale played out atop a farcical stage. It's as the Kaiser said; eventually, everything will be lost. And that's a problem well worth worrying over...but right now, I actually have a different question I'd like to ask you." All of a sudden, Vlad steered the conversation in a whole new direction. It was impossible to tell if he even wanted Lewis to follow along or not. He snapped his heels together with great irreverence, then abruptly thrust one finger straight forward. And with the greatest of ease, he laid the man's secret bare. "You don't have a heart, do you?" Lewis went pale. For the first time, he seemed visibly shaken. Vlad spun his finger as though gouging an open wound. "That thing beating in your chest is no true organ. Am I wrong?" "No true organ? ...Father?" Alice tilted her head and looked up at Lewis with concern. Vlad's malicious smile remained steadfast on his face. Lewis squeezed his chest as though trying to hide it from Vlad's eyes, and Vlad went on with great amusement. "'Summoning from another world a soul that's accustomed to pain, placing it in an immortal body, making it form a contract with a demon, and giving it the heart of an individual who's ingested demon flesh and accumulated a massive amount of pain.' A wonderful idea and a perfect method to create someone capable of revolutionizing the world. But it does raise an interesting question, doesn't itâ€”whose heart did you use?" Vlad had a point. After all, you couldn't use just any old heart for something like that. Even just gathering the pain required a resolve of steel, and the whole process would be enough to kill most people. And what's more, the person also needed to be an exceptionally skilled mage. For example, one powerful enough to summon someone from another world. "Of course, your otherworldly summons were anything but precise. No, you just gambled on the possibility of dredging up a soul that resembled yours, and this here is the fruit of your reliance on fortune! In any case, though, what you offered your new princess was your very own heart. All you have in that chest of yours now is a magically cultivated replacement, no? But it won't last long. And yet here you are, spinning tall tales about becoming a 'proper shepherd.'" "...I was wondering what you were getting at, but that was no lie. Even after I'm gone, Alice and my comrades will stillâ€”" "Oh please, it's a lie of the highest order! Come now, be honest. There's no need for you to try to keep up appearances with me." Lewis was clearly flustered, and Vlad's malicious smile grew broader. It was an expression well worthy of the man who stood at the side of the fourteen demons' apex. He often came across as flippant, but he was still the man who had roused the fourteen demons and led them on their crusade. Exposing people's secret selves and hidden desires was his specialty. Vlad went on in a lilting tone. "...About this idealized utopia of yours. I see it a little differently than my dear daughter does. I mean, you talk a good game about proper shepherds, but is that really what you aim to become?" "...Father, what is the man talking about?" Alice was perplexed. However, Lewis offered her no answer. For once, he was the one whose composure was broken. Vlad's words were cutting him deeper than any knife could. With each verbal stab, he gouged deeper into Lewis's wound. "Once you sober up from your stupor of blood and pretext, all that awaits you are your own broken souls. Such is the nature of your act. But if you abandon even your lofty ideals, then...then it would reduce it to being nothing more than common slaughter. And if that happened, you wouldn't just be letting down your alliesâ€”no, you'd even be letting down your fallen brethren." If Elisabeth had been there, she would have no doubt agreed with him. Lewis's actions were all far too wasteful. Even when his goal was just to make a friend, his process had still involved leaving a trail of corpses in his wake. It was true: When an avenger played the role of judge, their verdict would always be the same. Yet not even that was enough to account for the callous way Lewis racked up his body count. It was almost like he was seeking revenge for revenge's sake. "That was why you needed a friend, wasn't it? You know, I had my eye on him, too. But for all his power and fortitude and tenacity, he was simply too righteous. It's rare, finding a person who believes in God so completely and yet doesn't blame him for a thing. He's different from you, that's for sure. Too different. Honestly, what did you even think you had in common? Did you seriously delude yourself into thinking that you and he were the same? That you and that saint wereâ€”" "Shut up, Vlad Le Fanu!" "You wanted someone righteous by your side, didn't you? Someone to make sure you didn't stray too far down an errant path. A linchpin, as it were. But then he ended up dying. Ha-ha." Vlad shrugged as he tossed in a quick laugh at the saint's death. Lewis offered him no reply. As Vlad faced him, his smile grew broader still, and he whispered in the most enticing of tones. "Admit it. All you want is a weapon capable of killing as many as possible." "Would you mind not saying any more? I have no interest in listening to any more of your drivel." Lewis tried to be evasive, knowing full well how dangerous it was to give even a scrap of information to that man. However, the look in Alice's innocent eyes was the only answer Vlad needed. He let out a chuckle. "Ah, forgive me. I suppose I was being a bad influence. Goodness, how fraught fatherhood is. You always have to be thinking about the future, always have to be feigning concern. I can sympathize, you know, being a father myself and all." Vlad's expression of sympathy was utterly shameless, but surprisingly, he held true to his word and went silent. Then, after falling back a few steps, he laid out his terms. "If you don't want to hear any more of what I have to say, then tell the girl to stand down. In turn, I won't use the Kaiser." Lewis raised an eyebrow, not sure what Vlad was getting at. Vlad shrugged, disappointed at how slow Lewis was on the uptake. Then he extended his right arm as though inviting him to dance. "You can fight, too, can't you?" And with that, Vlad's proposal was made. He turned around once more and took one step, then another. After the second, he whirled back around and spread his arms wide. Then, with the red glow at the wall's top to his back, he spoke with brazen dignity. "Come nowâ€”let's see whose paternal love is stronger!" No words of consent rose up to meet him. Instead, their battle began in silence. First off, Lewis gave Alice's shoulder a soft, wordless push to gently signal her to fall back. Vlad nodded in satisfaction. Splendid. Then, the next moment, Lewis vanished. With his arms still spread wide, Vlad cocked his head in confusion. An ax came barreling straight down at his cervical vertebrae. Without turning around, Vlad reached out and blocked the massive blade with his palm. It cleaved through his flesh, but halfway in, the ax came to an abrupt stop, as though it had been caught between someone's teeth. Lewis spoke, his voice far deeper than it had been up until then. "What trickery is this?" "Hmm? I just reinforced my bones with magic, that's all. The flesh I left as is, though. I wanted to see how your attack would feel. And power aside, that was quite interesting! I never would have expected it to come in such a form!" Lewis went silent again and forcibly wrenched his ax free. It left a deep horizontal wound on Vlad's hand. Blood violently gushed forth, staining the courtyard flowers a grisly red. A single pinkie toppled comically to the ground. Vlad took a lick of his own blood. His lips curled into a beguiling grin. "You carry yourself like a scholar, but I can see you're not afraid to get rough when it's your turn to fight! Of course, it's not so easy labeling one or the other as your 'true nature.' Dark magic can easily be influenced by how aggressive its wielder is, after all. A side effect, perhaps, of how instinctively it's learned." "When I joined the rebel organization, the first things I picked up were assassination techniques. Fitting work for a petty grunt, no?" "Ah, I see. Given how unhesitatingly you aimed for my vitals, I should have guessed youâ€” Whoa there!" This time, Vlad fell back a step. At some point, Lewis had closed in on him. Three crescent-shaped knives peeked out from within Lewis's black outfit, each one a different length. Lewis threw them in circles one after another. Vlad dodged two of them, then shattered the third with his finger. Darkness and azure petals scattered through the air. Left empty-handed, Lewis let out a displeased murmur. "So what, you took the first blow on purpose?" "I said as much, didn't I? Still, what a letdown. I mean, I never thought you'd be on the level I was in my prime, but I also didn't think you'd be this borâ€”" "Your head." A low murmur slipped from Lewis's lips. For a second, Vlad looked confused. Soon, though, a look of pure joy spread across his entire face. The one eye Lewis had visible beneath his mask practically dripped with loathing. Still as impassive as ever, he slowly raised a hand to point at Vlad's head. His voice was dry and hoarse. "You probably don't even realize it, but you're protecting your head. And the rate at which mana flows through you is unusual, too. That body of yours isn't humanâ€”so I take it that whatever houses your soul is stored in your head?" "Bravo! Bravissimo, using that keen eye of yours to make up for your lack of strength. How right you are! ...Wait, I probably shouldn't have told you that, hmm. Bad habit of mine." "Ah, I see now. You're an idiot." Vlad gave Lewis's biting remark a nonchalant shrug. As he did, a massive pair of blades made for the nape of his neck. The strange weapon had extended from Lewis's long sleeve as though in place of his arm. It was like a pair of garden shears, and Vlad's head was the unwanted plant they were trying to prune. However, Vlad dropped his torso forward as spontaneously as if he'd tripped. The two blades snapped together, just barely missing the top of his head. Vlad then swung his long leg up and leveled a kick at Lewis's jaw. Lewis tilted his body to avoid the blow, then suddenly twisted to the side and hurled his shears at seemingly nothing. Sure enough, though, Vlad appeared at their destination not a moment after they left Lewis's hand. The shears pierced Vlad clean through. However, his figure merely crumbled away. A torrent of azure petals and black darkness luxuriously exploded in all directions. When the air cleared, Vlad was standing there as though nothing had happened. And almost as an afterthought, his severed pinkie was back in its original spot as well. It had been like watching a magic trick. Lewis clicked his tongue in unreserved annoyance. "...Well, that's irritating. It's like your