Gilbertus Albans uses the privacy of the Mentat School headmaster’s office as cover for his real activity: speaking with the hidden Erasmus memory core. While the school believes Gilbertus is practicing Mentat contemplation, Erasmus complains about being confined, dependent on Gilbertus, and unable to conduct experiments directly.

Gilbertus reminds Erasmus that the robot’s survival depends on secrecy and restraint. Gilbertus also reflects on his own need for caution: Erasmus’s life-extension treatment has kept Gilbertus unnaturally youthful, so Gilbertus maintains a false explanation that spice consumption preserves his appearance.

Erasmus reveals that he has tapped into the school’s systems and created optic-fiber spyeyes to observe students and faculty. Gilbertus warns that discovery could bring Butlerian destruction upon the school, but Erasmus treats the risk as another example of illogical yet fascinating human behavior.

Gilbertus shows Erasmus a Butlerian history titled The Tyranny of the Demon Robot Erasmus. Erasmus reads it through the room’s optic threads, criticizes its conclusions, and argues that humans distort history while machines depend on accurate data. Gilbertus privately knows that Erasmus did commit many of the atrocities attributed to him.

The conversation turns to the fall of the machine empire. Gilbertus argues that Erasmus was not merely involved but was the catalyst: Erasmus encouraged tests of slave loyalty, planted rebellion, and ignited mass revolt by killing Serena Butler’s infant son before a crowd. Erasmus hesitantly accepts that he may have caused the Synchronized Empire’s downfall.

Gilbertus uses that conclusion to justify keeping Erasmus locked away. Because Erasmus is the last remnant of the machine empire and remains dangerous, Gilbertus seals the memory core back into its hidden cabinet before leaving to teach students how to organize their minds like thinking machines.