[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/nAyf7qz.png[/img][/center]

[b]"What's the point of this pretense?"[/b]

It came out harsher than he expected, but Ferrucio simply didn't see the point of stepping around the issue, of delaying the conversation, when such a response alone was already enough to confirm things. There were others who had remembered the reversed future. With Rodin and Lucas both alluding to this, as well as the changes in behavior that he witnessed in Ophelia, the mongrel-son could even conclude that only those who made it to the final fight, perhaps even those who only witnessed the clash between the Demon Lord and the Patriarch, were gifted this...what?

Reward? To be burdened by what is to come, and to desperately chase after a way to undo things?

He looked towards Rodin, then to Lucas.

[b]"I've suffered such awkward encounters for too long before, Rodin, and I've no longer the stomach for it now."[/b] His eyes narrowed in contemplation. [b]"If you'd like to share a table at the cafeteria though, I wouldn't mind. Though from my perspective..."[/b] The Patriarch matched the Demon Lord while injured, and that was after 11 years of growing older, of exhausting himself in battle. [b]"...convincing the House to strike preemptively may make for a simpler solution than letting it all spiral out of control."[/b]

It really didn't matter to him who listened in. Let them draw their conclusions.

In his previous life, he was [i]simple[/i]. This time, he didn't mind being [i]mad[/i].