Memory 23

[itsalluseless]

Memory: Solving the epitaph...kind of? [ep5] (Significant Neutral)
Game: Balancing the knights
Day: 221
Form: Brass feather. Spin the quill between your hands to receive the memory. 2/3 uses left.

The Ushiromiyas and Erika are gathered in the guesthouse. Erika is interested in the epitaph and easily reasons out that the one who solves it will become the next family head. Everyone is shocked to hear it with such certainty from an outsider. When Jessica butts in, trying to defend her father's position as the successor, Erika calmly retorts that the epitaph's existence means Kinzo probably doesn't want Krauss to become the head. Battler and Hideyoshi try to turn the atmosphere more cheerful again by turning the discussion back to the epitaph itself. It's decided everyone will have a go at solving it together. Meanwhile, in the meta world...

BERNKASTEL: ......See? Without even waiting for the crime on October 5th, there's a riddle you can solve.

BATTLER: ........................I've tried to solve it many times myself. But-

BERNKASTEL: .........But you didn't have a clue, so you gave up and stopped thinking. ...Right?

It pissed me off, but I didn't have a good counter for that.

After all, ......I don't get the epitaph at all. I don't even know what the beloved hometown means, much less the parts about the sweetfish river and the key...

Thinking that a few more hints would show up if I waited, ......I kept on waiting, ...and just stopped thinking......

BERNKASTEL: .........Have you figured out an answer on your own? .........Because I'm about to
. . . . .
solve it.

BATTLER: Wh, what......?

LAMBDADELTA: This is where Bern solved the riddle of the epitaph. ......I'd expect no less from the Witch of Miracles. 'If a riddle is solvable, she can solve it without fail regardless of the difficulty'. ......How many years did it take to solve this one?

BERNKASTEL: .........That's rude. I only fished through a few hundred Fragments.

LAMBDADELTA: Heheheheheheheheheheh....... You really are terrifying.

BATTLER: You aren't going to cheat by suddenly saying the answer in red or something like that, right...?

BERNKASTEL: .........Don't worry. Just like you, I follow the rules as a player. ......Well, shall we begin? .........It's cramped here. Why don't we talk over the sea?

LAMBDADELTA: OK. ...Don't get queasy, Battler.

BATTLER: What do you mean, sea...? ............?!

Right after I thought the world had turned pitch black, ......I was struck by a strange floating sensation. It must have felt like suddenly having the floor drop from under you, sending you into a bottomless pitfall...

When I looked, ......I saw that the two witches and I......had been thrown into a pitch black universe. In this space, every direction was covered in an endless darkness, and it felt like an endless expanse filled with countless glittering objects.

......Some people might have likened it to the depths of an ocean where countless glittering fragments drifted.

BATTLER: Uh, ......wh, whoa..................

BERNKASTEL: ............Didn't she tell you not to get queasy?

LAMBDADELTA: If you want the concept of gravity, just create it yourself, okay? ......Come on, calm down and look at us. ......Come on, don't we look like we're just fine? ......Believe that your feet are on the ground and that you're being controlled by gravity. ......If you do that, you'll find your equilibrium.

Y, yes, the two witches are standing normally, as though their feet are planted on a transparent piece of glass. I'm the only one floating about like someone in a rapidly plummeting elevator.

......When I saw that they were just fine, I started calming down, figuring that there was no need to be scared. Then, just as Lambdadelta said, I gritted my teeth and kept telling myself that there was a place to stand here...and that I had to calm down......

BATTLER: Wh, ...............whoa...

LAMBDADELTA: Very good, very good. ......What's your name?

BATTLER: Ushiromiya Battler. ......Who else do I look like?

LAMBDADELTA: OK. You mustn's lose your will, emotions, or form. After all, this is the ocean. If you lose your purpose, you'll fall into the depths of eternity and become a scrap of ocean seaweed. Be careful.

I don't get what Lambdadelta is saying, but I should calm down for the time being. It seems that I gain my equilibrium more the more I calm down.

Gradually, that weird floating feeling, like I was falling forever, began to disappear. ......It still felt strange, like trying to stand up straight at the bottom of a deep pool, but it was much better than before.

BERNKASTEL: .........Then let's begin. .........I'll grab a Fragment for solving the riddle of the epitaph......

Bernkastel opened both of her hands. Then, like a planetarium.........all of the Fragments throughout this empty space began to spin, leaving tails behind them...

The expression 'planetarium' might have been even more fitting... ......Multiple fragments were tied together by gold lines, and what looked like constellations zoomed by us rapidly, one after another. It felt almost as though we were dashing through space at an incredible speed...

Then, with tails of light drifting behind them, ......several brightly glowing Fragments swirled around Bernkastel.

It looked almost like she had created her own solar system with her as the sun. That solar system surrounding Bernkastel grew to a radius large enough to swallow us up.

And every once in a while, one of those satellite Fragments zoomed right past me.

When those Fragments passed right by me, ......it felt as though some kind of memory welled up inside me. So I sensed it. ......These Fragments are probably like a crystallization of memories.

LAMBDADELTA: They aren't memories. They're Fragments of worlds. ......Well, I guess they might feel like memories to you.

BERNKASTEL: .........Then let's begin.

She brings up a scene from the third game, of Eva trying to solve the epitaph with the help of her witch self. Several things are shown there: the 'beloved hometown' is definitely a real place other than Odawara, one that all the siblings seem to know of. The sweetfish river, however, is not a literal river. Understanding that makes the key easy to find, but it must be read in some alternate way so that it is six characters long. These six characters are the six sacrifices of the first twilight, to be removed from some longer list of characters.

On the game board, the Ushiromiyas have reached the same conclusion with Erika's help. They reason further that the twilights must be instructions for various ways of playing with the letters of the key. Battler leads the reasoning, coming up with ideas at a breakneck pace.

BATTLER: .............Hey, what the hell. ......The piece me is pretty damn smart. There's no room left for me to make theories.

BERNKASTEL: Oh, sorry about that. ......You weren't around at this point, so I just controlled your piece for you. .........Isn't it nice how smart I made you look...?

LAMBDADELTA: *giggle*giggle*giggle*...! It looks like you'd be wiser to let Bern be the player. ......Why not step down as the player and concentrate on being the piece instead?

I joined this game on October 5th, after the first few murders. That meanst the piece called 'me' was controlled by the player, Bernkastel.

So, I guess that means it's possible for Bernkastel's reasoning to be announced through 'my' mouth... ......The game I'm watching now is nothing more than a replay of a part that's already ended.

However, that's probably good enough for now. ......Since this Bernkastel-sama has gone out of her way to solve the epitaph for me. ...I'll watch closely for now.

.........And, ......I'll try to find out what it means. Lambdadelta let it slip herself just a second ago.

LAMBDADELTA (FLASHBACK): Of course. If I told you that, there'd be too many hints. .........If a riddle isn't
. . . . . . . . .
hard, there's just no point to it. ......Uh-oh, that's a hint to. *giggle*......

......This theory about Grandfather creating the epitaph in order to choose a successor isn't bad at all. Erika and Bernkastel's logic is extremely reasonable.

But that's only if we assume Grandfather was the one to create it.

He was probably alive at the time the epitaph was displayed, but of course, ......Grandfather is already dead by 1986.

And, in the games up until now, Beatrice threatened us repeatedly with letters, saying that the only way to survive was to solve the epitaph...and trying to force us to solve the riddle.

In other words, ......it was Beatrice's intention, ...her hope......that we would try solving the riddle of the epitaph. The epitaph is so confusing that, in most cases, the relatives never seriously tried solving it until the threatening letters started to arrive. That's why Beatrice fired the starting pistol which made us take a go at it.

..................

.........Why is Beatrice succeeding Grandfather's will after his death......?

Like the theory proposed in the first game, ......is Beatrice really Grandfather's confidant, who's following his orders even after his death and trying to select the successor with the riddle of the epitaph in Grandfather's stead...? If she did that, it would mean that Beatrice really was Kinzo's trusted underling...the family alchemist she called herself in that letter...

After Grandfather's death, Beatrice managed the ten tons of gold and took the title of alchemist.

......She was entrusted with the epitaph's riddle, and without ever embezzling the gold, she waited for a human fitting to be the successor to appear and solve it...... And if that human didn't appear within a set time limit, ......would that be 'game over'?

Certainly, Eva oba-san, who solved the riddle in the 3rd game, became the only survivor and, automatically, the final head of the Ushiromiya family, inheriting everything.

Up until now, no one has ever survived past October 5th except Eva oba-san, the one who solved the epitaph...... That was the only case where Beatrice let anyone survive......

.....................

Is Beatrice's loyalty to Grandfather......the thing that drove her.........? Was she so loyal that she faithfully carried out some terrible order...to kill everyone if the epitaph wasn't solved......?

............

......I must not stop thinking. ...Don't, ......stop thinking...... Don't just think of the riddle itself......think about why it's significant.

.....................

Why is Beatrice telling us to solve the epitaph......?
. . . . . . .
Why did she creat such a confusing epitaph for us......?

......If Beatrice makes us try and solve this epitaph that we have no real chance of solving, .........and by some lucky chance, a 'miracle' occurs and someone is able to solve it............what significance would that have to her.........?

I don't know......what this miracle would be worth to Beato.

In the guesthouse, almost everyone is feeling too tired to keep working on the epitaph, so they go upstairs to rest. Only Battler keeps trying to solve it. He has a brief discussion with Rosa about the meaning of the word 'capital' being used in the epitaph before running into Erika, who isn't in bed after all. He follows her into an archive room, where she searches for an atlas.

Later, the two can be found outside. They comment that they now understand what 'gouge' meant, but it's not actually shown, the narration simply states that they have unlocked some kind of mechanism. Battler is impressed with Erika's intellect in solving the riddle, saying that they'll have to split the gold between them once they find it. Erika isn't interested, though - she only cares about solving the riddle and proving that she was right.

ERIKA: ......I see. You really think such a device would fool me......The mistake 'you all' made was welcoming me onto the island in the first place. .........Simply by the existence of the epitaph in that place, this level of reasoning is possible for Furudo Erika. ......What do you think, everyone?

As she said this to the device she had exposed, she grinned at it. That smile had a bit of triumph on it, but it was more fully characterized by the small bit of unpleasant disdain it contained. After solving the riddle, she was probably reveling in the pleasure of having won against the one who had proposed it, as well as the way she could now scoff at this person......

ERIKA: .........If we find the gold now, the successor to the head won't be Krauss-san, but you.

BATTLER: Heh. ......Well, I wonder.

ERIKA: ......Isn't Krauss-san kind of arrogant? Maybe you could even call him a braggart. It'll be pretty pleasant to see him have both the gold and his position as successor to the head snatched away by his nephew in the course of a single night, won't it?

BATTLER: .....................

Erika was still crouched down as she spoke, her back to Battler as she toyed around with the device...

ERIKA: .........Jessica-san...was her name, right? The girl who spoke up against me.

BATTLER: Nn, ......yeah.

ERIKA: .........She really was acting big about her father being the successor to the head. ......When she wakes up tomorrow and learns that you've inherited all the gold and that her father is no longer the successor, I wonder what kind of expression she'll have on her face......?

BATTLER: ........It's not like I have any desire at all to keep all 20 billion for myself. ......Well, if I get even 10%, that'd be as much as I could handle. We can split the rest fairly amongst the family. I'm even less interested in being the successor to the head. I'd be glad to let Krauss oji-san deal with that.

ERIKA: .........Can you really settle things so easily in the end...? *giggle*giggle*giggle*. Instead of trying to predict that, ......I get the feeling it'll be much more fun to guess what kind of expression Jessica-san will have on her face tomorrow and what kind of sad excuses she'll try to make.

BATTLER: .........You...really have a bad personality.

ERIKA: Oh? .........Couldn't you reason that out from the time you learned that I liked solving riddles......? .........I'm an intellectual rapist who enjoys exposing things people try to hide, get it? ......Same thing goes for solving the riddle.

BATTLER: ......You probably wanted to expose the gold Grandfather had done everything he could to hide.

ERIKA: Yes, that's how it was at first, ............but my goal changed halfway through.

BATTLER: Halfway through? ......Changed to what?

ERIKA: Jessica-san. .........She butted in on my reasoning, contaminating a pure and noble time for me. .........That's why I changed my goal into solving the riddle so that I could get even with this girl called Jessica.

BATTLER: ............Hey...are you serious?

ERIKA: *giggle*. .........*giggle*giggle*giggle*giggle*. ...I'll make any opponent surrender, no matter who. That is my sole pleasure. ......Do you need any more reasoning? ..........Ushiromiya Jessica irritated me. That's why I wanted to put her in her place and decided to solve the epitaph. .........That is what guided me to the emotions I hold now. ...Can you reason it out?

Battler turns his back on her, disgusted and worried about what the consequences of solving the epitaph may be. Suddenly, he sees he sees his grandfather standing a little further off. Kinzo smiles as if to give his approval, points at something that shows where they must go next, and disappears into the darkness. Battler alerts Erika to what he's seen and the two start walking.

They pass through an underground tunnel into a beautiful VIP room where the ten tons of gold can indeed be found. Erika is calm, but Battler can't contain his excitement at the fantastic sight. In the metaworld, Lambdadelta confirms that the gold definitely exists. Battler notes that since Kinzo is already dead, his piece must have mistaken something else for him.

Again on the gameboard, piece-Battler is starting to regain his cool. He briefly considers keeping the discovery a secret, but knows that Erika will not let it keep hidden. She'll want everyone to know about her success, and that's when things are bound to get complicated.