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As he tried to come to grips with this earth-shattering revelation, the silent sound of Garovel’s voice managed to regain his attention.

‘What’s the matter with you?’ said the reaper, wrapped in the echo of privacy.

He didn’t know how to explain, especially considering they were still in the middle of a different conversation. ‘Egh... I’ll tell you later.’ And he tried to put it out of his mind--or at least into a background thought process.

But then he remembered that there was more to it than just the Candle being wrong. Naturally, when he’d first realized that details about Bloodeye already existed in his head, he’d made sure to double check that information against what was available on the internet. That, after all, was how he’d even come to conclusion that the knowledge had been from the Candle in the first place and not just some random, made-up bullshit that had come to him in a dream or something.

Of course, now that he was having more elaborate dreams involving historical figures, maybe his view of that latter part had also changed.

Ugh.

Why did this have to be so confusing, huh? Why couldn’t more things just be magical and flawless? Sorting through all that information was already an enormous task, and now he had to factor in an extra possibility of error, too?

Hmm. Now that he was thinking about it, though, he supposed it was also possible that the Candle was right and that Grigozo was simply lying here, instead. Hector didn’t see what reason the reaper would have for doing so, especially regarding such a seemingly minor subject; but hell, maybe there was more to it, somehow.

He decided to interject into the reapers’ conversation in order to double check. “Ah--pardon me, but uh, regarding Bloodeye’s age. You said he was one hundred and seventy-six, right?”

‘Yes,’ said Grigozo, sounding abruptly uncertain.

How to handle this question...? Ah. “I happened to read on the internet that Bloodeye was only one hundred and thirty-three. Is there some reason for the discrepancy here?”

There arrived a pause, and then the reaper gave a slight laugh. ‘Are you serious?’

What? Hector made no response. He merely kept his face flat and his eyes steady.

Grigozo’s mirth seemed to dissipate. ‘Er--apologies. I would’ve thought it obvious that you should not trust publicly available information like that when it comes to highly ranked members of Abolish. Or the Vanguard, for that matter. Misinformation abounds. By design, no doubt.’