Rattus listened to what Tristram said from the other end of the line. Might it be that he was relatively calm in his voice, the content of what he replied revealed otherwise. Rattus was just having questions about Tristram's lack of surname and he kept it on his mind, not speaking out. But it seemed like those questions were explicitly and preemptively addressed by him.<br/><br/>As he listened more closely to his replies, it seemed as if Tristram was insistent that Mavis was, indeed, a war council commander. Rattus only questioned, however, if she was really good at being one, regardless of whenever she is one or not. He felt like the student misinterpreted anything he said, but he kept on listening. Furthermore, Tristram seemingly refused to consider any different option of secret meeting places other than his own dormitory. At that point, Tristram hands back the phone to Neo.<br/><br/>He was sure of one thing: Tristram was offended by something he said, perhaps it was his tone. He, throughout his life, was always told that he talked in a monotone. He also had trouble with trying to simplify his vocabulary, which made him sound like a pedant. Even Neo and Yukina did not deny that he had such a way of expressing himself verbally, even when it was not necessary. But today, since he was aware that they were probably being watched, he had to do so. This, combined with his unusually deadpan emotional expression, gave the him the impression that Tristram was off-put by his intial attitude.<br/><br/>Thus, Rattus had no choice but to somewhat blame himself. Even then, he was able to maintain his stoical composure, as he didn't have to force himself.<br/><br/>And when it was Neo's turn to be addressed, he heard the first sentence that came out of Tristram and Neo's reaction was an immense but unmanifested desire to cover his face with his one palm and giggle. He felt immense disappointment and embarrassment for the guy and the further Tristram talked, that desire grew stronger, but somewhat he was miffed that the student, in what he just heard so far, seemed to miss the point.<br/><br/>But what Tristram said in the last part seemed to quell down his incredulity and annoyance. He said that we did desire to know more of the members of the Order. Neo said to himself that, perhaps, Tristram was driven reckless by his immense desire to do something in service to people. But still, Neo still saw it fit to rectify some mistakes that, he thinks, could potentially get him into all sorts of trouble.<br/><br/>"So awrighty den," Neo began to speak. "Lemme tell ya' e'erythang dat needs to be unfucked in you in tha' way ya' wanna 'ear it, m'kay?"<br/><br/>He then switched his accent from his Mixed American to a English Received Pronunciation one in less than a second. "First of all, I don't exactly like the way you dismissed Rattus' and Yukina's past unpleasant experiences because of your own past unpleasant experiences. Because, if it was up to the three of us, we won't dare do that. The fact that you don't have a last name means you never had a proper legal identity for long and moreso decent parents. All of us, as far as we know of each other, have grew up with parents and siblings. In my case, my sole father was adoptive, but I saw nothing wrong with him. Even if we had the natural right to dismiss your experiences because of ours, we won't. Because having traumas aren't a badge of honor, you know?"<br/><br/>Neo spoke more. "But you might ask that if such, then why did I have to reveal their bad past histories to you, as if some sort of comparison who suffered more? That is not my intention. I did that because you said that the world is unfair, unjust and unkind because of your own life experiences, as if you have seen it all because you saw what happened to yourself. All of us will disagree with that grimly pessimistic notion, and we actually have seen what people can call as the the worse of human history. Yukina lost her little brother, father and beloved man to military conscription in the Second World War and her little sister and mother to the first atomic bombing at Hiroshima and survived it. Yet, she has this seemingly unnaturally optimistic outlook in life."<br/><br/>"Rattus, on the other hand, fought as a soldier serving the Kingdom of Prussia and later the German Empire since the Napoleonic Era." Neo was taking his time to talk as much as he can, despite not wanting to. "The only time he didn't fight was during his tenure in the concentration and death camps during Nazi Germany, as a leader of the Guard Battalions in those. Yes, I am saying he was in the SS, but when he realized that Hitler wasn't in anyway rhetorical about the notion of ethnic genocide, he grew disgusted of himself because he finally saw how deeply desperate he was. Yet, he just did it, not because he liked it, but because he gave up and thought evil reigned in the world, so what was the point of fighting anyway? And then the Russians came and proved his pessimistic defeatist outlook wrong. So, there he was, a wanted war criminal still on the run, who learned the hard way that the world isn't as bad as we think it is. And as you think it is."<br/><br/>"So yes, we aren't dismissing your claims that Mavis is mostly likely a member of the conspiracy. We've been told already earlier, don't worry about it. What we will not like, however, is how you think of the world. We trust you already." Neo said. "So I want you to trust us. You said that you are indeed an amateur. That was coming from you. And quite honestly, this is the first time we'll face something like this ourselves. But we, at least, know more about dealing with the basics of this. I mean, how do you think I was able to know you were following me?"<br/><br/>"Dere, ah said it now." Neo went back to his usual accent. "If ya' still don't git all-a dis shit, you dumb as shit, boyo."