After confirming Vay’s intentions, the Black Earl continued: "Tell him, though it’s a secret of the Noah Clan, those destined to know will ultimately know."
"... Just like someone, if I don’t say it, he’d probably ask his mentor or my old friend and eventually find out."
No need to name names; everyone knew the "someone" referred to was Angel.
Angel indeed had such intentions... but! He hadn’t acted upon them yet. Isn’t it a bit excessive to blame him in advance? Hey!!
Angel was silently complaining, but outwardly remained calm, feigning complete ignorance about the Black Earl’s words, appearing unrelated.
The Black Earl agreed to let Vay explain, offering Vay some relief, since he didn’t want to hide things from his close friend.
However, even after a long pause, Vay hadn’t started speaking.
With eyes of curiosity on Vay, he awkwardly addressed the Black Earl: "Sir, I, I honestly didn’t quite understand what I heard earlier."
Silence from everyone: "..."
The Black Earl had planned for Vay to finish his account, letting himself start a wave of sarcastic comments afterward, but now he wasn’t in the mood.
With a cold snort, the Black Earl took over speaking from Vay, providing an explanation.
...
Through the Black Earl’s recounting, everyone learned what had transpired.
Vay averted his death from the Ancient Gaze at significant cost... by "sacrificing" his talent, the Death Sense.
Calling it "sacrifice" is merely for ease of understanding. Essentially, Vay exchanged his inherited Noah bloodline’s Death Sense as a price to withstand the attack from the Ancient Gaze.
After making this choice, Vay had actually already thought through the path forward.
Either accept being ordinary, or, like Sister Ella, allow the Black Earl’s avatar to possess him, becoming a puppet.
However, what Vay didn’t expect was that he didn’t even have the right to choose. The Ancient Gaze’s death ray was too terrifying; even though he sacrificed his talent, he barely managed to save one life.
When he stepped down in critical condition, and healing techniques had no effect on him, Vay’s choice became: either die, or allow the Black Earl to possess him.
Between the two, Vay chose to let the Black Earl possess him. Becoming a puppet, akin to a living dead, was still better than completely disappearing.
As for why Vay didn’t turn into a "puppet" in the end? This must be explained from a "conspiracy theory".
Many people have always been puzzled as to why the Black Earl would place an avatar near a Noah descendant. Initially, there were two speculations: one side believed the Black Earl wanted to protect the descendants, while the other thought he had ulterior motives.
Judging from the Black Earl’s actions, his avatar has protected the descendants many times. Therefore, Noah descendants lean towards the former.
When did the wind change?
When several Noah descendants died after venturing into ruins, resulting in the Black Earl’s avatar returning their corpses to the clan, rumors began to spread.
The Black Earl’s avatar indeed suggested the descendants explore various ruins adventurously, but the Black Earl was more inclined to hope the descendants would grow, not out of ill intentions...
Since then, many Noah descendants started to become cautious of the Black Earl’s avatar, and the trend of staying at home began to prevail among them.
Yet among the Noah descendants, there were indeed those who truly loved exploring the unknown. Although they were cautious of the Black Earl, this couldn’t stop them from dreaming about distant lands.
One such person was Vay’s older sister, Ella.
Once, Vay, influenced by his sister Ella, loved exploring unknown places too, which led to his interaction with Dox, becoming lifelong friends.
But one day, as Ella returned to the family, Vay saw her and realized Ella was vacant and speechless, as if a puppet, being controlled by the Black Earl...
Only then did Vay understand, the peers’ cautiousness towards the Black Earl was justified.
From then on, Vay suppressed his true desires and started staying home.
Decades passed in the blink of an eye, and they arrived at today.
During this time, Vay tentatively asked the Black Earl, and the Earl’s answer was as others speculated: possession.
Black Earl revealed the situation of sacrificing talent and then being possessed... Ella took this step.
Black Earl only stated the reason but didn’t provide a conclusion.
This caused Vay to misunderstand: once possessed, he would no longer be himself. His consciousness would die, becoming a puppet of living dead with only a body remaining.
This is why Vay tearfully shouted a series of "final words" just now.
Above is all content the Black Earl narrated.
It omits a lot of things, including why the inherited bloodline talent can be sacrificed, and why encouragement for sacrifice can be heard in the Earl’s tone?
Perhaps this involves the secret of the Noah Family, and Black Earl deliberately avoided these details. But this isn’t too critical, because whether or not to sacrifice talent, the final choice wasn’t made by the Black Earl, but by the Noah descendants.
Black Earl appears more like a witness, an observer.
"Why didn’t Vay end up dead? Nor become a living dead puppet?" Black Earl never explained these two questions, only saying everything was "rumor," which prompted Dox to ask once again.
Black Earl: "He was never going to die, my avatar’s possession would only restore past talent, not kill him, nor turn him into a living dead puppet."
At this time, Vay also explained: "The Earl is right, I misunderstood him before."
Dox: "Then your sister Ella..."
Vay weakly waved his hand: "Sister Ella isn’t actually dead."
Not dead? Then what was your earlier crying and shouting about?
Dox looked at Vay, who had a complete change in attitude, still somewhat incredulous. If he hadn’t known Vay well, confirming the person before him wasn’t someone else playing him, he would have suspected everything was a performance by the Black Earl.