Memory 12

[itsalluseless]

Memory: HAPPY HALLOWEEN FOR MARIA -- the trolling begins [ep2] (Significant Negative)
Game: Candyland!
Day: 185
Form: Memories come in the form of lollipops of your team color. How many licks does it take to get to the center? 2/3 uses left.

The second day dawns, once again, on tragedy.The children have only just woken up and gone to the mansion only to find no one there. Battler vaguely remembers Rosa entering their bedroom while they were still asleep and taking something from Maria's handbag. According to Maria, it was a letter from Beatrice.

They find Doctor Nanjo, but almost immediately are interrupted by Kanon running in and asking him to come somewhere. Curious, the children follow them to the chapel...

ROSA: No, you mustn't go in!! You mustn't look!! Jessica-chan! No!!

JESSICA: Hi, .........i, ...nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

GEORGE: Mother, Father!! What, ......what happened!! Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!

BATTLER: ......What the hell is this.........there's a limit to how bad a hobby can be... Isn't taking someone's life enough.........What the hell is this!! Going to all the trouble after they died of sitting them on chairs, slicing their stomachs and pulling their entrails out!! You went to all the trouble of stuffing their stomachs full of sweets?!! Why, ......why the hell would you do something so gross?!! Damn it, damn it! Nice job, bastard, just great, just great!! Uwoooooooooohhh!!

Both Nanjo and Rosa try to tell them to go outside and stop looking at this horrific sight, but their pleas go unheard. Meanwhile, in the metaworld:

BATTLER: You piece of crap!! Again, another one of these murders!! And this time you made it all elaborate, killing them like it's a perfect joke!!

BEATRICE: *cackle*cackle*cackle*cackle*. I was hoping I'd hear words of gratitude rather than grief from you.

BATTLER: Gratitude?!! Did you say gratitude, you old bitch?! Damn it, if there's something wrong with your ears, I'll cut them both off so you can hear better!! Why should I have to say oh, thank you very much Beatrice-sama, about that insane way of killing, I'll beat you to death!!!

BEATRICE: In the last game, you were grieving that you couldn't see your parents' faces when they died, right? So I left them. Didn't touch them!!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Worship me, without a doubt,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
your father and the rest have been killed!!

R......eally, that's a great service, I'm so happy!! I swore that if I choked the life out of you, I'd plow your face, but I'll take that back, I'll drag out your guts!!!

BEATRICE: Don't give in to emotion and stop thinking. My game has already begun, right? *cackle*cackle*cackle*. I decided to leave the corpses clean this time. Do you know why? When you denied my existence in the last game, you thought in a certain way.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
'Their faces were crushed, so the identity
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
of the corpses coudln't be checked'
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
'Therefore, the possibility that fake
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
corpses had been prepared to create an alibi
. . . . . . . . . . .
cannot be eliminated'
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
'As long as that possibility can't be denied
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
a human culprit theory could apply!!

BATTLER: What did you saaaaaay......!!

BEATRICE: *cackle*cackle*cackle*kikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikiki!! So, Battler, is it alright to leave the examination of the corpses to Nanjo? Isn't it traditional in mystery novels for the doctor who performs such examinations to be an accomplice? Then don't leave the examination to Nanjo. Do it yourself. Make completely sure that without a doubt, the six corpses are those six people, that they aren't pretending to be dead, that they really, really are dead!! To make sure that your Father and Mother really have been killed by having their stomachs cut open and their entrails pulled out, you should stick your hand inside their stomachs and feel around inside!! Kuhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, ki-hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!

[switch back to the gameboard]

BATTLER: I won't cry!!! Damn it, damn it, ...I won't cry...!!

Battler suddenly yelled.

His tears were still dripping down, but as though scolding himself for being girly, he slapped his face hard several times with both hands. Even so, the tears still wouldn't stop. ......However, he felt a hot blaze on both his eyes.

BATTLER: That bastard who did this, I'll make him pay back his debt completely!! So this isn't the time to cry, think about what you're gonna do!! Aaaah, it's useless, it's all useless!! If you have enough spare time to cry, then think! This is no time to let yourself cry!!

Rather than genuine hatred, maybe it was more of an evasive hatred to blot out his sadness. ......However, it gave a little courage to George and Jessica, who had been crushed by sadness.

Gohda returns, having tried to contact the police. Turns out the phone lines have been cut! Jessica instantly blames it on the culprit, who she determines has to be the woman calling herself Beatrice. Full of rage and grief, she runs outside with Gohda and Kanon following her.

GEORGE: ......Could the guest that no one invited, Beatrice, be the culprit...?

BATTLER: I understand how Jessica feels. ...I also want to make myself believe that. It doesn't matter who, I want to have them be the culprit and bash them right in the face!! ......But before that, we have to understand things clearly. ...Who is this Beatrice? I haven't even seen her face!!

MARIA: ......Kihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihi. If you're looking for her face, it decorates the big portrait in the mansion. You still don't remember after looking at it for so long? Kihihihihi.

BATTLER: ...Come on, Maria. ...What's so funny in a situation like this?!

MARIA: Beatrice is a witch. And the ceremony to open the door to the Golden Land has finally begun. Those six people are sacrifices. ......Kihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihi! Come, let us begin the witch's banquet. Tonight is Halloween, now the witches will gather to celebrate. Ki-hihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihi!!

ROSA: Maria, don't I always tell you not to laugh with that creepy voice!

The crisp sound of Rosa slapping Maria's cheek echoed through the high-ceilinged chapel...

Battler becomes lost in thought for a moment, trying to understand what the hell is going on. It feels to him like the whole world has gone crazy since the typhoon started.

GEORGE: ......This is, .........Grandfather's envelope.

On a tray piled up with sweets that decorated the table, George-aniki found a western envelope which had the Ushiromiya family crest done on it in gold leaf. And it was unopened.

BATTLER: So, ......doesn't this mean it was sent to us? If it was something Dad and the rest read, it should be open.

GEORGE: ......It seems your reasoning is correct. ......Look here. Someone wrote 'to those who remain'.

ROSA: Is that...a letter the culprit left...?! Wh, what's inside...?

BATTLER: Aniki, let's open it...!

After nodding silently, George-aniki opened it. ......A folded letter came out.

GEORGE: .........I'll read it. .........Welcome to Rokkenjima, members of the Ushiromiya family. I am Beatrice, the alchemist for this family employed by Kinzo-sama himself...

That letter really was a joke. This Beatrice, who called herself the family alchemist, had announced that she was collecting the gold she had lent Grandfather, along with the interest. And that interest was everything that Grandfather had created.

Since this tragedy was right before our eyes as this paragraph was read aloud, it clearly wasn't referring just to the wealth that Grandfather had built up. ......It was literal. Everything that Grandfather had created... ...In other words, ...all of Grandfather's descendants were included in the interest!

BATTLER: You bastard!! What a screwed up contract! Lives as interest for gold, you say?! That's almost like a contract with the devil, isn't it?! Is that how you pretend to be a witch?! Ha, you make me laugh!!

GEORGE: ......Special clause. .........However, if someone is able to discover the hidden gold of this contract, Beatrice must abandon these rights for all time. .........Hmm............Kinzo-sama has already publicly displayed the location of the hidden gold within the epitaph under my portrait... ......In other words, it's something like this. If the motive for these murders was collection of the interest, the condition for stopping it, is to try and find the hidden gold she gave to Grandfather, ...that's what it's saying. And it also says that this secret is hidden in the epitaph from that portrait.

BATTLER: In other words, ......this is a letter of challenge from the witch? If anyone thinks they can solve the coded paragraph where the location of the hidden gold is written, then try to do it?! And if we can't, it's saying that the collection of the interest will continue as planned? I'll beat you to death, no problem!!!

GEORGE: ...B, Battler-kun! Look......, here!!!

The table had been full of sweets, ...so even though it had been right in the open, we had assumed it was a sweet. ......I mean, come on, you find stuff like this a lot, right?

......Come on, it might have been a box shaped like a golden ingot, filled with chocolate...!

BATTLER: Th, ......this is, not a box of candy... It's the real thing...! This is a real gold bar...!!

GEORGE: ...It's inscribed with the crest of the One-winged Eagle......I heard Mother talking about it earlier. ......This is a gold bar from Grandfather's Legend of the Gold...!!

A gold ingot weighing a full 10 kilograms, ...wait, three of them, were piled up in the very center of the table! It was where a cake would be placed if it was a birthday party. ...In other words, this was without a doubt the birthday cake of the party known as the family conference!

GEORGE: If these are really four nines quality ingots......nn, *gulp*, I, it's worth about 60 million yen!

BATTLER: Dumbaaaaaaaaaaasss!!! That's too cheap!!! Our parents have been killed, and all the gold you've piled up is only worth 60 million yen?! Don't take us for fools, damn iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!

What he learned:

+God damn it, this was even worse than last time DX
+Fuck you Beato why must you be such a troll
+apparently Maria and Rosa's relationship isn't as good as I thought... :(
+Are the murders about the revival thing or gathering interest? Or both?
+And what's with that special clause...?
+This really sucks X(