After the extended amount of storytime, Lothair decided to end the session after noticing Meteia's trying to hold off her yawning.
The midnight whistled through the moon, telling the dweller of the dark to hunt and move, while urging the dweller of the light to sleep and comfort.
"Master…" Lying down on the ground with a drowsy gaze, Meteia turned around her head towards the glistening silver of the night. "I have only noticed this just now, but I've never seen you sleeping."
"The eldest must watch over the younglings when the night is still young."
"Must the young watch over the old when the night is old then?"
"I'll join you after you're truly asleep."
"You're lying, you won't even be sleeping."
"Who says that I will join you to sleep?"
"Uuuuuh!"
Lothair let out a faint giggle after glancing at Meteia's adorably frustrated face. He then pointed at the ground near him. In an excited response, Meteia crawled over and began to rest her head on Lothair's lap. Her eyes sparkled with enthusiasm, knowing that she would be exposed to some juicy confession from her esteemed master.
"Going to the topic where you asked me if I've ever made a mistake before, there are many instances where I made many terrible mistakes despite the precautions I took.
"Unlike normal demons, your Master has a little bit of problem with attachment."
"Oh! Oh! I know this!" Meteia raised her hand into the air, catching the flowing silver hair of her master. "You've told me a story of Master where a prolonged exposure with those lower than you could form an unexpected bond of relationship, a strong bond of attachment because of how there aren't any conflicts present in the development!
"In this case, you with your army of puppets that took over many demonic dominions! The part where you planned for a grand banquet for them after you're able to break through the Nether Country's wall is so touching! Is this going to be the continuation of that story?"
"Kind of." Lothair put on a kind yet melancholic smile. "Do you really like that part of my story that much?"
"Mmmm! Master sounds amazing and strong! You also look really proud and happy when you tell me that story!"
"I-I see."
"With that alone, I can really tell that Master is really looking after the puppets. Many demons might be against this, but I think that it's an endearing trait of the Master!"
"Hahahah. Well, you see." Lothair began to shift his gaze into the distance. "I haven't told you about how that odyssey ended, but one day, an Overlord took a visit right at the moment where I held a festive banquet for the army."
"Ooooh! Then what happened!?"
"That Overlord defeated me. As a result, almost all of my puppets were decimated. Leaving only four of us as the sole survivor."
"Oooh…" Thinking about the familiar faces that she hadn't even met, Meteia's lips began to sulk as tears started to dwell in her eye sockets. "Just right at the moment where you held that banquet…"
Seeing how his wound pained his little disciple to such an extent, Lothair couldn't help but slowly caressing her head to ease the ache.
"Your Master is blinded by his ego and ambition, that he was too hard headed to choose another path other than the one he decided by a mere whim. You see, your Master, he starts off really weak and fragile with little to no potential in others' eyes.
"But after he gained the slightest grip on power, his heart was set ablaze with overconfidence. Not only that it set his future downfall into motion, but it also led to the downfall of those who he forcefully brought with him into the path he chose.
"He thought that he would succeed with effort and willpower alone, but the world doesn't always work that way." Lothair wholeheartedly scoffed all of those bitter memories with a chuckle. "Mind you, I'm not as innocent and white as you I think.
"Unlike other demons, I don't see connection as a value of resources. Instead, I hold them much more dearly in my warm red heart, where I used them as a fuel to maintain all the crumbling pillars that kept my sadness at bay. In a sense, I consciously manipulated those aspects of connection to maintain my existence, by creating the constants included within my own life.
"Oh, also mind you, I might be highly sympathetic, but I rarely care for the other side of the spectrum unless it's affecting my state of mind.. You can even say that taking care of you as my apprentice, is still some kind of form of my calculated selfishness. Even now.
"I said all of these to you because I know that you won't even use this information to demerit me in any way, for the current passage of time and the future."
"So, in a sense, you're a complicated case of a freakish psychopath, Master," Meteia said with a straight face, "While I'm highly concerned, I think it's amazing, really. Despite being more emotionally sensitive than most demons, you know what you want and are acknowledging enough to plan and think on how to achieve a checkpoint and maintain them. It's very efficient!"
"You only think about efficiency, aren't you?"
"Aren't you too to a certain extent, Master?"
"Of course not, I'm still guilty of enjoying mundane and useless things more often than not."
"Do psychopaths even feel guilt?"
"Contrary to those beliefs, not all psychopaths are as stone cold.. Or in this case, for us demons. We just have a different level of calculative demeanor and emotional tolerance. Mine were highly leveled on the first than the latter. You, however, might be high on both."
"I don't know if I should feel offended or praised."
"Ahahaha. Well, not like you need to bear psychopathy to survive. While there were more psychopathic demons out there, those who didn't possess it could still strive for their goal just fine."
"Then, do you still feel guilty about those puppets? Is that why you aren't able to sleep?"
"Well, that one is for a whole different reason."
Nonchalantly, Lothair began to list off the events that he experienced when he was still in the slave camp for the Nether Country of the Headless Banquet.
The content of the story were so vile and atrocious, that it completely wiped out Meteia's urge to sleep. After the extended storytelling session, Meteia was temporarily unable to rest at all and would often exude listless tendencies when traveling. This uncomfortable behavior lasted for three days.