All the while, his guest is watched, every seemingly uncomfortable crease in his brow and thinning of his lips noted with interest.
Solemnity isn’t something this one can easily mask, as clearly as it’s written upon his face; even before the two had interacted, the air of woe about him was no secret. On account of that initial mistake of identity, the reason behind this apparent melancholy was once thought to be known (the von Ludowings’ tragedy of course remains quite detailed in his memory), but now, curiosity assumes the place of perceived knowledge. This is none of his professional concern, arguably, for the other is - fundamentally - nothing more than a lost stranger, merely one of many: yet there’s potential here.
The striking resemblance to a familiar face in itself had warranted the gentleman’s attention, and all the more so when he also considers the suspicion that this one lingers beyond death. Mention of a foul step-mother harks back to tales he’d tended to in the past, and now the recurring claim that a rodent whispers nonsense to him…
It wouldn’t do any harm to figuratively prod at him a bit, whatever the case.
He’d sincerely been hoping the young boy would have taken the initiative to share with him what the rat had allegedly said without needing to be explicitly prompted, though. Be it due to a simple lack of such initiative or due to a sort of reluctance he’s offered nothing of his own accord ─ somewhat disappointing, yes, but nothing a direct line of questioning can’t amend.
"Still, the question remains: what had it said then, and what does it say now?" The host blinks, adjusting his hold of the creature so as to allow it to nibble gently at a finger before continuing, "…I myself hear only squeaks, nothing more. Of course, perhaps you truly are lying to me, or perhaps these ‘words’ are but the product of your own imagination, unbeknownst to you. Yet it’s a peculiar tall tale to tell, likely not worth any punishment one would risk receiving if revealed as a liar, and even if it comes to light that you are in fact somehow deranged as to think a rat had talked to you…
"Well, it would be interesting to hear what seems to trouble you here, don’t you think?"
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