The meal, which should have been a time of rest and nourishment, was yet another drill designed to reinforce the mother's obsessive belief that every single hybrid instinct. From running in the woods to eating food, must be suppressed in favor of perfect human refinement. Sid watched Evelise, seeing the deep, constant frustration of a young girl perpetually denied her true self.
Sid finally understood the full, chilling truth. The rigid, unforgiving tyranny he witnessed in Chapter I was not innate character; it was the survival instinct derived from this training. Evelise's cruel mask was the only defense she was ever taught to wear against a world that despised her animalistic side. The "perfection" was a prison, forged by her mother's own twisted obsession.
And for the first time, Sid felt a chill that went deeper than undead claws or cursed spirits—
