"Since you've grasped the essence, then..."
Douglas pointed at the enormous blueprint spread across the table.
"Is this what you've been working on lately? I asked you to make a few alterations to that cave. But this..."
Douglas looked at the elaborate, sinister decorative patterns on the blueprint, and the bed at its center that looked like an oversized coffin no matter how he viewed it.
"Valerius, are you sure this is meant to be a normal home? Not a mausoleum you're preparing for yourself?"
"This is a fusion of Gothic revival and Eastern Mechanisms, my lord! This is taste!"
Valerius immediately straightened his back. Talking about his own design, he reverted to his insufferably arrogant artist persona.
"That cave was practically a savage's den! Damp and unventilated. If someone's going to live there-even a werewolf-they should live in style."
He pointed at the blueprint and explained animatedly:
"Look at this ceiling. I intend to carve a thousand hanging bats out of black walnut wood and fit them together using the principles of the Luban Lock. In Eastern symbolism, this is called blessings descending from heaven! How auspicious!"
"And this bed uses a fully enclosed corpse-nurturing... no, health-nurturing pod design. Velvet-lined, soundproof, and lightproof.
Lying inside feels like returning to your mother's womb... or a warm grave. It provides an unparalleled sense of security."
"I've also designed eighty-one concealed compartment mechanisms inside the walls, all controlled by mortise-and-tenon structures.
Unless they're pressed in a specific sequence, not even a fly can get in-or out."
Douglas rubbed his brow, looking at the design on the blueprint that could drive any claustrophobic person insane.
"Fully enclosed? Are you trying to give whoever lives there an early taste of death? What if someone suffocates inside?"
"Art always requires sacrifice."
Valerius spread his hands