It's funny how the end of a friend's life can leave someone vulnerable, isn't it? Someone who, despite all of your walls and precautions, wiggles their little illusionary tentacles into those cracks in your defenses. Now, despite what Belphegor may have thought, being a prince did not exclude him from being friends with the lowly masses. On the contrary, when such a prince as himself is only able to talk and be around people who were below him, it's only natural that feelings of … kinship, or something similar, would develop. Of course, nothing is really "normal" in the mafia realm, let alone the Varia, and so it came to be that Belphegor and the illusionist Mammon became something akin to friends. As friendly as one assassin can be to another, anyway. Despite that closeness, however, Belphegor was left in shock when the news was delivered to him that the baby had killed itself. The prince was, undoubtedly, more upset than he had ever known to be possible before. Guilt was something that he had never felt, so why was he feeling it now? Was it because he never saw the death coming when he should have? Well, what does a prince know about friends anyway? It wasn't his fault, after all … but why did it feel that way? Those thoughts ran around and around and around in his head … they were troubling, at the very least. He had no idea what to do – the prince was vulnerable. Vulnerable, but with that mask that anyone who didn't know him would say was normal.

That was when the replacement showed up.

The official story was that Belphegor and Squalo, the Varia's strategy captain, kidnapped the small boy and forced him to join the assassins' squad. What actually happened, as far as the two men were concerned, was that they were sent out to collect him following an agreement with the boss and some Vongola brat. That particular arrangement, however, was of the "utmost confidentiality" and so the kidnapping story was spread. Belphegor didn't really care one way or the other. He doubted, after looking at the boy's file, that he would be anything close to what their … previous illusionist was, and he was already hatching schemes in his head to scare the kid away. They didn't really need an illusionist anyway … it was too soon … they could find someone better … this kid wasn't worth their time at all. The prince was sure of these things … but he went with the loud commanding officer anyway.

They were met with a bored looking kid, young looking, with green hair and eyes to match. Belphegor already despised him. That expressionless face … and those markings under his eyes. Who did this scrawny brat think he was, anyway? As far as Bel was concerned, he was about on par with a piece of trash under his royal boot. He wouldn't last. He couldn't.