Triumph Chariot of Stibium

"A one-and-a-half-year-old child... shouldn't be able to speak yet, right?"

"Duchess Bayard's" fingers lightly tapped against the amber wineglass as she said, somewhat surprised,

"More or less. One or two words are still possible, but a complete sentence is indeed beyond him."

Franz Pengbo Naqi nodded. "I was already killing people before I could speak. That was the first time I drank blood from a living person instead of drinking Blood Bottles.

"When I grew a little older, I realized... it seemed that everyone knew about it. It was as if everyone knew that... when I had only just learned to walk, I had personally killed my own elder sister. Hahaha..."

He laughed heartily, but there was no joy in his laughter.

He placed his wineglass back on the table.

Even though the wine in it was the finest in the world, he could not bring himself to drink it.

"Do you remember what people used to call me?"

Pengbo Naqi did not wait for "Duchess Bayard" to reply, answering his own question instead. "The 'Little Monster of the Pengbo Naqi Family.'"

"So you became a true monster?"

"Duchess Bayard" asked softly. "You killed your entire family?"

"Why not?"

Pengbo Naqi said frankly, "My elder brother killed my elder sister, and my elder sister killed my elder brother. My father killed my elder brother, and I killed my elder sister too. Since that was the education I received from childhood, and since that was what people expected of me, why couldn't I become such a person when I grew up?

"Besides, I didn't kill them completely..."

As he spoke, Pengbo Naqi reached out and stroked his chest and abdomen.

Aleister realized something. "You couldn't have..."

"Oh, it wasn't as simple as eating them."

Pengbo Naqi smiled. "At that time, all