Why do I get the feeling that this knowledge was meant to STAY forbidden?

Ah I love characters who have mental trauma

At this point, I'm confused as to what Valmont really wants and who he truly is. From the earlier pages, he's power hungry and manipulative and threatening, to now suddenly nice to Drayven and wanting to be friends with him.

I'm sure this might be explained more as the story progresses, but at this point, I really don't get what Valmont wants from Drayven.

Not much has changed, Val craves power and dominion over others. This is born from the severe rejection, humiliation and stripping of Val's precious research when he served under Alder as their Royal Mage. He wants to make Alphonse suffer by infiltrating his family, Alphonse's most treasured thing, and mentally destroying him. Deep down Valmont feels rejected, scorned and failed by society. He has nothing to lose and wants to play mind games, to be a master manipulator. The only way to fix society is to control it through brute force - then obviously when Val is control everything will be just.

Valmont in particular is just kind of obsessed with Drayven which is throwing off things. Val is saying and doing anything to impress Drayven because he needs him to trust him but sort of fails at social interactions. Drayven is almost a stand-in for Alphonse, but one where Valmont feels he can control the narrative because he's seen how much Drayven has already been kicked around by his father. This makes Valmont sympathetic to Drayven, but there's a mixture of attraction. Like a pretty pet he wants to win over. Now he knows about Drayven's illness and can uniquely help he's latching on very hard.

Drayven is set to be the heir to the most powerful military force in the realm, so garnering that power, and controlling it is still a huge factor. Alder has some advanced tech to hold onto their power, couple that with a steady supply of corpses then Valmont can further his knowledge along with take down any opposition.

(TBH during Reforged (where we added new pages and context to even out the story) Drayven and Valmont story's became intertwined. Valmont's presence in the story increased immensely. So, in order to sow the complex relationship we're aiming for we had to get these two interacting more. Granted it's not perfect, but we're still working on improving the story)

I hope that kind of explains things with more clarity. We appreciate the feedback and readership! :)

I see. So that's why it looks like Valmont is trying to be friends with him, but in reality wants to get his revenge on Alphonse. I have to admit, there are some Emperor Palpatine vibes to Val that I actually like now that I think about it.