[She doesn't look away. She does not raise her voice. She meets his gaze, her eyes as unyielding and frigid as a glacier wall. This is where they differ. This is where they will never, ever, see eye to eye.

Betraying no anger, no disappointment, no emotion whatsoever, Edelgard faces down the ghost of a man, for half an instant seeing his rage-twisted face all streaked with rain from that day six long months ago. It vanishes just as quickly, replaced by the youth, the ignorant child with no idea what horrors lurk beneath Fodlan.]

If a man is dying because of a festering organ, Dimitri, one must cut it out if that man is to survive. I have done so. I have ended the cycle started a thousand years ago.

[Her lip peels back a fraction, baring a pair of gleaming, white fangs that she doesn't even begin to care to hide.]

War is never pleasant, war is never good, but sometimes war is necessary. If you think for an instant it was a decision I made lightly, then you do not...and have not...ever truly listened to a word that I have said.

All I have done, I have done to ensure a future for humanity.

[Ironically, a humanity she no longer is allowed to share.]