"I won't regret anything. And neither will I rely on anyone."

shuofthewind:

That, right there, is the crux of the knotty problem that is Ciel Phantomhive.

He refuses to feel guilt, or regret. He refuses to experience those sorts of normal human emotions because in his line of work, he can’t afford it. He can’t afford to regret a decision, because that might end up with him failing to move forward in an investigation. As the only child in a sickening, merry-go-round world of corrupt men and women, he’s being forced to grow up so much faster than he should have. He cannot waste time on regret, because to waste time on regret would lessen him in the eyes of his peers. He can’t work if people see him only as a child.

The reliance issue is a bit more tricky. I think it’s because he feels he cannot trust anyone enough to rely on them. Whether it’s because they try to mother him (Madame Red) or they betray him eventually (pretty much everyone else), he’s had his ability to trust other people gradually ironed out of him. He literally can’t do it anymore, and if he tries, he thinks, again, he’ll be seen as a child still. As one of the Evil Phantomhives, as Queen Victoria’s not-so-metaphorical garbageman, he cannot ever be seen as anything other than an efficient and brutal master, and that’s destroying him slowly from the inside out.

That’s my perspective.