Vale stared at the ailing succubus.

But, no matter what, he wasn't going to play sycophant. He wasn't going to sugarcoat what he thought.

Salome… was the villain.

Sure, much was left out of the story, and Ximena committed her own fair share of atrocities — having committed mass genocide twice, even — but Salome was the one who sent her down that twisted path.

Salome started it…

Of course… this recount was Salome's side of the story…

A side of a story from a woman who hated herself and what she'd done.

Vale knew just how unreliable a narrator one could be when they were their own worst enemy.

"This Hope guy… did you love him?"

Salome wiped her trailing tear and looked off into the distance as she responded with a placid expression and tone:

"Less love, more admiration… he cared more about fighting the Scourge than copulating despite the many women that looked his way…"

Vale lounged back:

"Enough admiration to murder an entire family and doom your race to torture an answer out of a princess when you simply concluded she knew his potential whereabouts?"

Salome let out a sinister chortle:

"I told you once that succubi are masters of their mind as well as their body… I regret to say that was another hypocrisy I spewed. I am far from mastery of the mind… Else my Trait wouldn't still be 'Rudimentary,' would it?"

'So that's why…'

'Charlatan…'

Salome's sinister chortle revealed itself for the joke of a facade it was as another tear fell. Yet, somehow, she still spoke in a modest tone with no hint of sadness:

"I've known what I've needed to learn to reach the next level, but I don't think I'll ever get there."

Vale studied her sad look, then responded:

"That might be true… After all, if one is never honest with themselves, how will they even recognize their own lies? They'll think their lies to be truths…"

Salome looked to the side to avoid Vale's gaze.

"Well put."

Vale continued:

"You seem to be already aware of your own failure at self-recognition, yet you continuously choose to ignore it."

Salome weakly replied:

"That I do."

Vale stared at Salome's glistening cheek:

"I'm not the person to tell you that what you did to Ximena was wrong. Nor am I the one to tell Ximena what she did to you was wrong… Though I have my opinions."

Vale rubbed his chin and craned his neck in a moment of thought, before continuing:

"I'm barely 20… I don't know what it feels like to be a king or queen who's lost everything. Nor will I pretend to understand. But as a man… a person with my own fair share of regrets and loss. All I can say is the biggest mistake one can make in life is deflection…"

Vale stared into Salome's eyes, who continuously retreated from his gaze:

"Owning up to a mistake — owning up to the past… It's hard. It's hard to like yourself when what gave your self meaning has been lost…"

Salome closed her eyes and turned her head.

Vale continued:

"Don't deflect anymore… Don't deflect blame to yourself that shouldn't be there. And don't deflect undeserved blame onto others… Answer my question honestly now… Did you love Hope?"

Salome gritted her teeth before standing up and facing Vale with tears in her eyes.

"Yes! Yes, I did! Is that what you wanted to hear so badly?! I didn't tell you all this for your sympathy! But neither did I want to be interrogated this way! You wanted to know about me, and now you do!"

Vale gave Salome a warm smile.

"I know… and, yes, that is what I wanted to hear… Honesty."

Salome clenched her fist.

Vale, still sitting upon his throne, continued:

"But you seem very riled up for someone who's given up on meaning… I'm in no place to lecture someone 200 years older than me, but perhaps you need to hear this — not as a lie spawned by your mind in an attempt to cope, but from another: The past is the past, you can't change it. But the future can be…"

Vale's gaze narrowed, then he said with a forceful tone:

"You said it once before, but were you even listening to yourself? You spoke the exact words you needed to hear… but you didn't practice what you preach. I hate to say it… But I can see myself in your eyes, right now. My past pitiful self…"

Vale clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"I'm not talking about the pitiful self I was back on Terra, no. I'm talking about my pitiful self I was just two weeks ago. A pitiful self who knew the beauty of a desperate want, but did not attempt to realize what I wanted… I did not attempt to move beyond the past and into the moment, let alone the future. "

Salome wiped her tears away and then began to laugh.

"Look at you, Valentin the philosopher… 20 years old yet showing me just how much I wasn't taught… How lonely my life is…"

Salome continued to laugh as if this situation were hilarious:

"I'm a failure of a succubus. Before coming here, I'd only known pleasure by my own hand. You were the first man, person, I lay with…"

Then she started to cry again lightly:

"I was reminded once again, through my simple, meaningless interactions with you, Toy, and even Awilix… what it felt like to have something to protect. I came here to fight the Scourge to death or victory… but that didn't mean I was confronting my past in any way. You're right… I was running from it. I still am. I don't know if I'll ever be able to turn around and face what I've done with full intensity. But at least… at the very least…"

After choking on a few words, she managed to spit it out.

"I… I don't want to lose what I cherish anymore… Just like you said, I'm scared. And that's what I'm scared of the most… For that reason, and that reason alone, I'll continue running. I will not help you free her. That fiend… she's just waiting until I love again. And I'm all too scared I'll start loving you, Toy, and whoever else... If I ever fall into that mistake again, the last thing I want is her to witness."

Vale internally let out a sigh.

'Recognition is half the battle…'

Recognition she's a queen who knows she is wrong but refuses forgiveness, refuses mercy, refuses closure, and survives only by preserving the very hatred that destroyed everything she loved…

Salome then fell back into her chair, her eyes slightly red, her Charm having been fully torn away, temporarily removing the flickering pink effect.

Vale remarked.

"I didn't know your eyes were so pretty…"

Salome just giggled, then, after wiping her tears once more, turned to Vale.

"Your turn, Vale. Tell me all about your past. And I'll tell you everything you did wrong in life."

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