That night, Faust finally emerged from his laboratory for dinner. Charles had bribed him earlier with the promise of making his favorite ham salad if he would join them for dinner. However, when Faust arrived at the dining room—

"…What are you still doing here?" Faust frowned at the sight of seeing Imladris sitting between Vlad and Charles. Given her stubborn refusal earlier, he assumed that she had already gone back home to the mansion. Back to her precious lover who foolishly wanted her dead instead of turned into a vampire. Back to her impending death.

Imladris pursed her lips, refusing to answer Faust. She even refused to meet his eyes, keeping her eyes fixed determinedly on her plate and focusing on eating her food.

The truth was that she couldn't answer Faust. She simply didn't have an answer to give to him. She herself didn't know what she was still doing here at the castle. She knew that there was no point anymore in staying here since she had refused Vlad's offer. Even more, she knew that the mansion's residents had probably gone insane with worry for her at this point, not having seen or heard from her since yesterday. In her mind's eye, she could easily imagine Comte using his connections with nobles, Theo contacting his police informants, Arthur searching for clues, and the other residents running all around town—all just to find her.

But she still somehow couldn't bring herself to leave and go back home.

What was still keeping her here? What?

Faust stood there at the doorway, staring at Imladris, as she continued to ignore him. After a while, Charles cleared his throat and said, "What are you waiting for, Docteur? Come and eat before the food gets cold."

Faust sat down at the table and immediately helped himself to the ham salad. However, though he was now eating his food, he kept staring at Imladris. He used his utensils, moved his food from his plate to his mouth, and chewed, all the while still keeping his gaze focused on their guest.

Imladris found the whole thing to be quite unnerving! And knowing how sadistic Faust could be, she idly wondered if he was doing this on purpose, intentionally making her feel uncomfortable as payback for arguing with him earlier and now ignoring him…

Vlad eventually broke the uncomfortable silence. "Thank you for joining for us dinner, Imladris," he smiled sweetly at her. "Would you also be spending the night here again?"

Imladris paused in mid-chew. She really should get back home and let the others know that she's alright. But—

"If you wouldn't mind me taking advantage of your hospitality a bit more, then… yes, I would like to stay here again tonight," she replied slowly.

"You're not taking advantage of anything. You're always welcome here," Vlad said serenely.

Charles nodded enthusiastically in agreement with his lord. "Yeah! I'm glad to have you with us even longer! We could—"

"Why?"

Charles' happy words were interrupted by that cold and blunt question. All eyes went on Faust.

Faust's own eyes were now hard. And glaring. Glaring at Imladris.

"Why are you staying here? Shouldn't you be going back to the mansion by now? What is the point of you still staying here? You have already rejected the idea of turning into a vampire, so why are you still here?"

Faust's rapid-fire questions were the same questions that Imladris had been asking herself. Imladris bit her lip, still unable to answer Faust.

"Docteur, you need to take it easy on her," Charles scolded him. "She's sick, so you—"

"The only reason why she's still sick is because of her own stubbornness. Her sickness is basically self-inflicted at this point."

"How is it 'self-inflicted'?!" Imladris protested indignantly, finally speaking to Faust. "I didn't give myself this disease!"

"No, but you're refusing to rid yourself of the disease!" Faust snapped back. "You don't actually have to be sick anymore, and the fact that you're still sick now is your own fault."

"Yeah, well, I—"

"It's not polite to argue at the dinner table, you two," Vlad interrupted them. Though his voice was quiet (in comparison to Faust and Imldaris' increasingly loud voices a moment ago) and though his eyes were gentle as he looked at Imladris, both she and Faust fell quiet, understanding the warning behind his words.

Faust then let out a huff of breath and abruptly stood up. "I'm going back to my laboratory. Charles, let me know once she has finally left."

Imladris flinched when the door closed behind Faust. He didn't exactly slam the door shut, but there was a noticeable "snap!" when the door had closed, with Faust somehow having turned the door closing as a way to "voice" his displeasure.

"Wow, Docteur must reallyyy be upset," Charles said, staring at Faust's plate, which was still more than half full. "He never leaves ham salad unfinished. It's his absolute favorite."

And now, Imladris felt even worse. She apparently prevented Faust from eating his favorite meal. Faust was usually displeased with most things, and ham salad seemed to be one of those rare things that provided him some sense of pleasure, and Imladris had just caused Faust to leave his ham salad.

Faust's eye twitched in annoyance. He had been trying to work on his other experiments. With "trying" being the operative word. Because it was quite difficult for him to focus on his work right now. For the past 37 minutes (yes, he had been watching the clock, timing the duration of this "torture"), a certain someone had been knocking nonstop on his laboratory door.

Faust needed only one guess to figure out who that "someone" was.

After another 2 minutes and 14 seconds, Faust was unable to take it anymore. He stalked toward the door and flung it open.

And there was Imladris, her eyes wide with surprise and her fist raised in mid-knock.

"You really are so stubborn when it comes to all the wrong things, you know?" Faust snapped. "You won't give up on knocking on my door, but you're just giving up on your own life?"

"That's not a fair comparison! Those are completely different things!"

Faust was uninterested in hearing her protests, though. He grabbed her arm and pulled her into his laboratory. Then, he took her hands in his, inspecting her knuckles and scowling when he saw how red they were from all the knocking.

"Look at how sore you've made your hands! You're lucky that you haven't totally rubbed the skin raw!" Faust grumbled even as he quickly gathered ointment and bandages from his supplies to treat her hands. "Do you have any idea what that old goat would do to me if you got seriously injured on my account?"

"Well, it's your own fault for not opening the door any sooner," Imladris huffed, though she winced a little at the sting of the ointment that Faust was now applying on her knuckles.

Faust didn't even look at her face, just finishing with wrapping bandages around her fingers. "How do you not know that a person refusing to open the door for you is a sign that they do not want to talk to you?"

"I know that," Imladris replied stoutly. "…I really need to speak to you, though."

"Why?!" Faust demanded, even throwing his hands into the air in exasperation. "Why do you want so badly to speak to me now, when you were refusing to answer me at dinner? Why are you event still here at the castle?"

"Well, I wanted to apologize for upsetting you. Upsetting you bad enough that you didn't even finish eating your favorite food. I'm sorry."

Faust frowned at her. "That is not true."

"Hey, I really do feel bad about arguing with you and upsetting you!" Imladris insisted. After all, Faust was a good person (in his own unique way) who had only been trying to help her, and she felt sorry for upsetting him, even if it was unintentional on her part.

"Yes, but what I meant was that's not the main reason why you're still here. We both know why you're really still here. Even if you don't want to admit to yourself."

Imladris fell silent.

She and Faust both knew the real reason why she was still here. Because even though she did not want to admit it to herself… even though she wanted to deny it… she just couldn't let go of Vlad's offer. The offer to save her life. Even though it would mean becoming a vampire.

She hung her head. Whether in defeat or shame or both, Faust was unsure. However, when she spoke again, it was in a very quiet voice.

"Does that make me a bad person?" she asked.

"No," Faust replied at once. "It's only natural to want to live."

Leonardo might see it as unnatural, but Faust saw that it was in the very nature—the very essence—of every living being to want to live. To fight for survival. Life on earth has been fighting to survive since the dawn of time. The fight for survival was ingrained in all living beings.

"And you should not be ashamed of wanting to live," Faust continued.

Imladris now looked up at Faust again, and he could see that her eyes were watery with unshed tears. "But the path that I need to take in order to live would hurt my beloved! That surely makes me a horrible person for even considering such an option… It means that I'm selfish, right? That I can't let go of Vlad's offer to save my life, even if it would hurt Leonardo?"

"Whether you live as a vampire or die as a human, Leonardo's going to be hurt either way. You're both going to be hurt either way," Faust argued. "If both options are going to cause hurt anyway, you might as well go with the option where you two will at least be together."

Imladris nibbled on her lower lip, absorbing Faust's words. Yes, Faust harsh and blunt, but he was truthful. He voiced the truth that Imladris was so hesitant to face.

"But it feels like I'm just going to throw Leonardo's beliefs to his face, doesn't it?" she still fretted.

Faust shook his head in disbelief and incredulity. He never understood those people who let beliefs, whether they be religious, cultural, and/or moral, stop them from living and surviving longer. Especially when the beliefs aren't even that person's own beliefs.

"Just answer me this truthfully, Imladris—if Leonardo wasn't against you becoming a vampire, would you still be unwilling to become vampire?"

Imladris hesitated. "Well, I—"

"The truth, Imladris. I want the truth."

Faust's pale green eyes were seemingly drawing out the words—the truth—from Imladris' mouth, reluctant though she may be to voice out these words.

"…I… I would… I would…want to become vampire…"

She felt horrible for saying it. She felt selfish for saying it. She felt like the biggest hypocrite on the planet for saying it. But it was the truth.

She didn't want to die from this disease. And even before she became sick, she was already dreading the day, decades later, when she would have to say goodbye to her boyfriend and her friends. And now that she was sick and wouldn't even be getting those decades with her loved ones that she had counted on, she felt cheated and somewhat resentful of the fragility of human life.

As Faust had been repeatedly saying to her, becoming a vampire would solve her problems. She wouldn't have to experience the pain and eventual death that her illness would soon bring. She would get near eternity with her loved ones. She would have the chance to fulfill her dreams and goals.

Imladris knew, in the deepest parts of her heart, that the logical and practical step would be to accept Vlad's offer. That's why no matter how hard she had been trying to argue with Faust, she couldn't actually bring herself to leave Vlad's castle and turn her back on the offer.

"There you go, then," Faust said, his eyes glinting in triumph. Triumph at finally getting Imladris to admit the truth that she had been lying to herself about. In Faust's eyes, there was no worse form of lying than lying to yourself—lying to yourself about what you truly desire. "You know what you want. Your way forward is clear."

Still, Imladris frowned. It really wasn't that simple. Leonardo's face kept flashing in her mind.

"Leonardo will never forgive me for this…" she continued to worry. After all, Leonardo was the main reason why she wanted to live longer. There would be no point to a longer life if he would get mad at her and she would lose him over this…

"He loves you. I doubt that there's anything that he can't forgive you for. Of course, he may initially be upset about it at the start, given his strong beliefs against immortality, but he will eventually accept it... After all, you'll have near eternity to gain his forgiveness and acceptance—I'm sure that you'll get him to cave eventually in the span of near eternity," Faust added the last part with a wry grin.

Imladris collapsed onto a chair and buried her face in her hands. She couldn't believe that she was now actually being swayed to turn into a vampire. Was she really going to go through with this?

Faust, however, just ignored her apparent internal debate with herself. He knew that they shouldn't be wasting time if they were going to save Imladris' life.

"So, shall I go and tell Lord Vlad that you're accepting his offer?" he prompted her.

Imladris groaned into her hands in internal turmoil. Leonardo would be so upset about this, but…

She wanted to be with him. She wanted more time with him. She wanted to be able to love him for much longer. She wanted to keep him accompanied instead of leaving him to spend eternity alone.

She wanted more time as well with the mansion's residents.

She wanted more out of life

She wanted to live.

Faust was right. The way forward for her was clear.

Imladris lifted her face from hands and met Faust's serious gaze.

"Yeah, okay... I'll… accept Vlad's offer…"