After a close encounter with Galan, one of the ten commandments. The sin's side had taken heavy loses and causalities, which were all caused by a single enemy... Something they could not fathom to be possible. The Boar's sin of Gluttony Merlin had suggested that each sin had to individually get stronger and that they had to find the last member immediately...however, for the time being they would recuperate at Camelot. The goat's sin of Lust, Gowther, and Slader, the captain of Dawn Roar, were both in one of the bedrooms attempting to find some clothes for Gowther to wear. Due to Slader's flamboyant personality and obvious interest in Gowther, he volunteered to help him pick an outfit he would like, however Gowther did not care all that much about his clothing... He was more preoccupied with the idea of Love.
"Slader... What is Love?" he asked in his usual monotone way. Slader kept his composure and remained from singing a catchy song he had heard recently in response to Gowther's question.
"It is an overpowering emotion, the freedom to express ones self to another person without fear or doubt. To be able to see beauty in the soul, instead of the body and to care for someone to a greater extent that yourself... That is Love." he replied loudly and flamboyantly, making a great deal out of Gowther's question, which only served to fuel others. Slader continued to button up Gowther's shirt as the latter kept asking him questions surrounding the subject in question.
"Emotions are naught but data, they can be altered... Just like memories, are they not?" he asked, he clearly saw love as an idea, a piece of information that could be rewired inside someone's brain and wiped, similar to a hard drive.
"You may forget your memories, but, you can never forget your emotions... Learning how to be happy, sad, angry... These are all apart of human nature. There is no way to reverse these emotions and love is the same, no matter who you are, now matter all the horrible things in your life, you will always find someone you love and care about." Slader stated, hoping Gowther would come to understand that love is more than just data.
"I see, in that case... Could these emotions be placed onto someone else should they have forgotten the original person they were designed for?" he asked, again implying that love had some relation with data. He was asking this question because of what he had erased from Diane's mind and he wondered if this could be a particular case of where this might have happened.
"It's possible... But, I've never seen it happen to anyone!" Slader said. He was trying to make it less obvious, but, he was beginning to lose faith in Gowther's innocence and was worried about his motive for asking such questions. After the incident back at Liones he was unsure of what to do.
"I have two more questions, the first...could love exists between two different races? And the second could I ever find love or be loved?" he asked, a slight inkling of humanity seemed to appear in his voice and soul. His mind began understanding the essence of love, but, not the complexity of those emotions. He was beginning to "feel" and he was not to sure of how he felt about it.
"Love is a mysterious force and it can certainty bring two people of different races together, even the most unlikely at times. For your second question that depends on you, would you be willing to accept someone's love? Would you be willing to love them back?" he replied and asked. Gowther was perplexed, he was considering his answer carefully as he was unsure of what to do in this scenario... It was not part of his programming.
"I... I would try and understand it, if that is what you mean. It is not in my programming to attempt such emotional feats, however, i can always attempt to break protocol. But... I do not understand anything about this emotion... Could you teach me?" he asked.
Slader lifted his mask up and smiled, looking up at Gowther, patting him on the head and giving him a confident nod. The two of them sat down and spoke about the concept of love and other emotions linked with it for hours, the conversation continued inside the Boar's Hat as they boarded Hawk's Mama in order to pursue Diane. After an exhausting dialogue of 7 hours, Slader needed some rest from this topic and fell asleep on the spot. His head lent against Gowther's shoulder, where the sin of Lust turned to gaze at the sleeping knight. He turned back around and picked up a book entitled "Poems, Pride and Purpose", which he stared at for a few minutes and opened the book. He had not read this one before and he did not even recall them owning it. Meliodas had actually forgotten to take that book from the attic back to his room for safe keeping and Gowther was now reading it, a novel full of life lessons, poetic symbolism and emotional explanation. He began understanding the concept of human emotions better through the means of the novel and Slader's preaching. He finished the book relatively quickly and watched as the full moon lit up the room, he stared outside and uttered three words before essentially deactivating for the night.
"Love... Is... Interesting!" he said a heartfelt smile appeared on his face before he rendered himself inactive for the night. His head lent upon Slader's and his right arm fell on his leg. The next morning would surprise Slader to his very core, although that story is for another time.
Next Chapter: Escanor x Merlin