The confirmation that there's more is like a gut punch. It hits harder than Seifer dismissing him as an enemy. As if Squall hadn't tried talking Seifer down at every possible avenue because the threat of having to kill him instead was a last resort he never get to.

"Because didn't deserve it." Any of it. To have been cast aside by Garden, to have been manipulated into being a knight, to have been butchered like cattle. Then again, nothing about their lives has been about merit. Squall feels sick from all the unknown horrors Seifer might have suffered because of the path he set them on.

He's vibrating with the urge to shake Seifer of his insouciance. As if anything about them was ever so neatly cut and dry. Rivals and enemies, like they had never occupied the spaces in between. Maybe they hadn't. Maybe it was all in Squall's head.

He turns it away from Seifer and gives him his space, reluctantly withdrawing to the table where he sets his cap down and pushes fingers through his hair. "Is there anyone left alive that was responsible?" It's not just the undercurrent of vengeance that has him asking. He wants to know so he can have them flagged if they ever try to access Esthar. If Seifer comes with him, he's never letting any of them in the same city as him.