Amadeus felt his eyes begin to droop as Lady Anna continued talking. It wasn't that he was bored with her story, more like it was oddly soothing to him. Something about Anna reminded him, not quite of Ijemaru, but of his late wife, Virginia Hisuka. He got the same feeling of intimidation, power, and soothing beauty from her that he'd always gotten from his previous puppet master. Something about that was most certainly helping to aid him into a state of comfort, but at the same time, he thought he felt... drowsier than he should.<br/><br/>"Well, you certainly seem like a very capable person," Amadeus managed, a slight lulling slur in his voice now. "So are you here to compete for the throne, or merely to observe?"<br/><br/>--------------------------<br/><br/>Ijemaru smiled. "Yes of course," he answered without hesitation. "Father wishes to be King, and I suppose then, in a way, the rest of use are indirectly competing to be princes as well."<br/><br/>At this point, Claudius could take it no longer. He burst from his room, fully ready to rant on about all the noise, but then he caught sight of the man interviewing Ijemaru and Miku. It took the eldest boy only a moment to recognize his old acquaintance.<br/><br/>Claudius' eyes narrowed and hardened at the recognition. When people turned up from his past, he could never be sure if it was going to be a good or bad thing. He'd always known alliances to shatter and form at the tip of a hat, and so his guard immediately shot up.<br/><br/>"You! What are you doing here?" Claudius asked, displaying, by far, the least hospitality of any of the Hisuka boys so far.