Vil and Rook (pt3)

Rook may have saved Neige’s life when he insisted upon drinking the poisoned apple juice that Vil gave to Neige.

It is unclear if Vil was going to stop Rook from drinking the juice himself (he is stopped by Kalim), and when he asks why Rook tried to do so despite knowing that it was not going to end well for him, Rook responds, “I wanted to believe in you. You, who strives harder and reaches for greater heights than any other. I didn’t want you to besmirch yourself by doing anything foolish. And if the apple juice WAS cursed, I wanted to taste it. I wanted to taste the fruit of a poison derived from an obsession with beauty bordering on madness.”

Rook describes Vil’s overblot form as both a “frightful, sorrowful sight” but also “so darkly dazzling. I can scarcely take my eyes off you, however clouded they may be.”

When Vil’s overblot and the VDC performances are over, Rook reveals that he didn’t vote for the NRC team.

Rook explains, “Neige’s group believed in themselves and each other when they danced and sang. When I saw them up there, they struck me as powerful…and as the fairest of all in that exact moment.”

Rook tells Vil, “Even if you wind up old, emaciated, grimy and stooped over…if you were to truly believe that you are the fairest of all despite that, even the Magic Mirror of legend wouldn’t contest your claim. The strength and pride to believe in yourself is what marks the true fairest one of all”.

It is then revealed that Rook is a secret fan of Neige LeBlanche and writes poems about every single photo that Neige publishes, submitting them to Neige under the pseudonym “R”.

(During Vil’s birthday we learn that Rook also writes poems about Vil, gifting Vil with a collection of one hundred that he wrote, extolling Vil’s beauty.)

Vil reacts with surprise that he has known Rook for two years without the slightest clue that he was a fan of Neige’s, assuring him that—despite the last-minute betrayal—he knows Rook is not the type to act on personal bias.

During Halloween it is revealed that Rook may have been a fan of Neige since the latter was 12 years old, when Rook saw him in a musical called “King’s Road”.

But, Rook explains, “it wasn’t Neige himself who moved me…other cast members were spectacular—especially the villains!”, but it is not confirmed if child-Vil was a villain in King’s Road, opposite Neige.