[When laid out so consisely, it is hard to contst the points made. The defense, if Alucard can even call it that, is something that stings on the tip of his tongue and threatens to spill outward in a messy pile of emotions that barely track in his own mind. Alucard can imagine that it'd be even harder to follow to Lenore.

So in his quiet, he considers how to frame it. Frame any of it, without sharing more private parts of the past to someone he doesn't trust with that information. Gold eyes cast a look around to see how close anyone else may be, and then satisfied, he tries.]

Before I was pulled here, I was in a poor state and following my father's actions, back when he was Dracula. [Lenore can decide for herself what that means. He's not giving details.] It has taken about two years for me to be in a place where I can balance what expectations I was raised with from my mother, and the worst parts I've inherited from my father.

Yet here I find myself with the deep desire to personally impale every single one of those followers, leaving their corpses for the birds and ensuring their bones are never buried, in part for their actions but also because how dare they do this to me, personally? I'm only tempered by those around me.

[Which is where guilt begins. Alucard knows that, and before Lenore can remark, he simply offers:] I've had the problem of guilt over these thoughts before. It only gets resolved with time.