'Could you be—?!' Ebenholz quickens his pace as he exits the Medical Department, hoping to shake off the person behind him, but he's nevertheless followed all the way to his dormitory door. 'You have crossed the line.' 'What does it matter?! I felt something was different about you. I can see now—it really is you, Graf Urtica!' The man's forehead is rife with sweat, his voice dramatically lowered. 'I know you. You're just biding your time, waiting.' 'You have the wrong person.' 'Impossible! Look at these—Haguenau's inherited dice and wand, which went missing along with him twenty years ago! He and I grew up together! He told me himself that they were bestowed on his family by the Emperor!' 'Haguenau? ...I'm not familiar.' 'But I know what these are! Nobody else could have used them as weapons,' the man pants, 'and you have no idea what I went through afterward! Everyone said I was tainted by Haguenau's madness, shunned me, but Haguenau was never mad. And neither was I! I even caught Oripathy thanks to their backstabbing—I lost my land and family estate. I fell from being a well-to-do squire to this sorry state!' 'You have my sympathies—' 'No! That was nothing! They were crueler still, a hundred times over!' 'A hundred times? Just what did they do to you?' 'They dared to slip my only daughter some kind of drug, and she disobeyed me, you understand? She went and married a filthy commoner, even had a bastard child! Can you imagine such disgrace? One worse than death? Would you truly permit such a scandal if it were you?!' '......' 'I beg you, take me as a retainer! Take me back to that age, to when we controlled with fear, when we made the petty thieves who dared question you shudder in despair! To when we could drive such presumptuous thoughts from the commoners' minds!' 'Of course, I would gladly accept any treatment, be it favor or reprimand! I would fear you as though every day were my last! I would serve you, heed your every command! Should you call for my life to—' Ebenholz sighs the heaviest sigh, gathers the dice in the hollow of his palm, and presents them to the man. 'Very well, you will become my retainer here and now, with this secret ritual. Close your eyes and listen well.' The man's entire body trembles with excitement. 'Fick der Graf Urtica.' '?!' 'Fick all die Kaiser, fick all die Kurfürsten, die Herzöge, die Grafen, die Barone—as well as you, Herr Knappe, or should I say, Herr Ex-Knappe.' The man's expression gradually twists. 'Wake up. No more living your dreams of superiority.' 'You've lost your land, so do as the prideful commoner does and lift your head, puff out your chest, and live on.' 'That is the one and only word of advice I'll give you.'