Julian's "ghost" and Ilias

You head over to Ilias and the ghost, and hearing said ghost once more insist on pilfering Ilias's potatoes, you raise one eyebrow questioningly towards said ghost. "Oh, thank goddess, you can actually see the ghost too. Please tell it that it can't have my potatoes."

Shrugging, and half-wanting to see where this leads, you inform Julian's ghost that it can't take the potatoes, causing him to scowl towards you; "why would you take his side? He's on the side of the tyrant." You know what? That's a good point surprisingly — you ask Ilias why he expected you to side with him.

"Surely you can sympathize with following the order in order to get ahead. And on further note, he also could have simply ordered his own potatoes."

"No, the wait staff can't see the squire, for the squire is a ghost." Wait, he wasn't able to order his own food? How did he get food then? "The slayer of the squire shall have helped the squire acquire sustenance."

Ah. Then yeah, it seems pretty fair that he should get Ilias's potatoes. "That would be reasonable had he not already devoured his fruit. Besides, he ordered white wine. Fruit goes better with that."

"But the squire prefers the potatoes."

Ilias looks to you, eyes turned slightly upwards, as he looks pitiful, as if he's a lost dog. Holy hells, that's effective; you're gonna have to ignore Julian's request for potatoes now.

"So why are you siding with the queen anyways? Why not try to get rid of her?"

"Let's see, side with the immortal vampire queen and maybe make my lot in life a bit better, or side with the crazy adventurers who so far have a naught to a hundred record over a period of three decades and have her servants kill me before I would even get to the castle. The choice is pretty obvious."

Okay, you have a really hard time denying that point. "You couldn't work against her in more subtle ways?"

"Not that I ever would, but even were I to want to, it's simply too much work for too little reward."

"Does freedom mean so little to you?"

"Freedom is but a tool of our captors to get us to side with them over another. Should I have opportunity to improve the life of me and mine by taking the side of my current captor, why should I not do just that, when for all that I know, the captors to be could simply start slaughtering me and mine for being part of the regime.

"For whether it is better to wallow in existing filth or to jump out of one's pen, risking the mountain crashing upon you, is a cruel twist of Lachesis. Were I not to be a vampire, the choice should seem more obvious, but I, born as I am, shall have the choice seem obvious."

Huh, you can't say you actually have the ability to refute those points. Food for thought, you suppose.