We've already covered basic field alignment and explored how inheritance layers data atop one another. By now you might think we have uncovered every trap. But not so fast! This topic has a truly dark side that few discuss. One short word—virtual—completely rewrites a class "geometry," introducing alignment corrections we can't ignore. Let's find out what really happens under the hood when alignment meets virtuality. Introduction We continue our deep dive into memory mechanics. If you are just joining us, I recommend reviewing the foundations first. The first part covered the basics and the magic of simple data alignment, while the second part focused on how ordinary inheritance affects memory layout. So far, we've treated an object as a static, rigidly determined data structure. Every field address was known at compile time, and inheritance simply layered parent and child attributes.…