I just read a Robert Parker "Spenser" detective novel. The first person narrative kept making Spenser very noble. The trouble is - I don't see him telling someone how noble he is to create a first person narrative - unless he's lying about his nobility. I don't get that problem with Vlad, much. He's not telling us how good he is. I'm not sure what he gets from talking to the silver box - nor how honest he is with that box. But mostly I don't notice that he's talking about himself, it's more like I'm in his brain observing things as they happen. I'm not sure how that happens. Agatha Christie has a novel where the first person narrator was the guilty party, that was kind of fun.