Memory 05

[itsalluseless]

Memory: The portrait and the epitaph [ep1] (Trivial Neutral)
Game: The Masked Lady's doll game
Day: 166
Form: Memories come in the form of an agar eyeball with an iris in your team's color.

Led by Shannon, the four cousins arrive in the Head Family's mansion. It's a huge, Western-style building that's starting to show its age of almost half a century. In the entrance hall, they are greeted by Genji, the head servant. He greets Battler and notes how much he has grown to resemble Grandfather.

As they're crossing the hall, Battler notices something that wasn't there six years ago: a huge portrait. He asks about it, and finds out that Grandfather had it painted and hung there two years ago.

The portrait was appropriate for this western style mansion, and that woman wearing an elegant dress gave off a sense of refinement.

..........I couldn't have guessed her age, but judging by her obvious strength of will and the sharpness in her eyes, she radiated youth. It was a different feeling than the composed mood of middle-aged women that are often in famous pictures.

If this woman had normal black hair, I might have thought it was a portrait of my long-deceased Grandmother in her prime. However, the woman in the portrait had beautiful blonde hair and didn't look Japanese at all.

BATTLER: So. ......Who is she then, this woman?

To that naive question, Maria, as though trying to prove that she knew it herself, answered me with authority.

MARIA: Uu-! Maria knows. She's Beatrice!

The cousins remind Battler of the ghost story of Beatrice, the witch of the forest. Grandfather seems to really think she exists, and though no one would go against him directly, she obviously doesn't. Battler gives the painting one last look before they go on to have lunch.

Later, the cousins pass the portrait once again as they are leaving the mansion. In response to a question from Battler, Maria points out the epitaph on a plate hanging under it and says it points to where the gold is hidden. Battler recalls the legend: supposedly Grandfather has ten tons of gold hidden somewhere that he used as collateral for building the family’s wealth. Though Grandfather hasn’t said anything about the epitaph, it is rumored that whoever solves it will receive the gold as well as the Ushiromiya inheritance.

The cousins debate the existence of the gold for a while. The story is exciting, but hidden gold worth 20 billion Yen sounds too insane to be true.

GEORGE: Anyway, that’s Grandfather for you. Spreading exaggerated rumors about financing from some kind rich person by calling it 10 tons of gold received from a witch, probably figuratively. Even the number ’10 tons’ feels pretty symbolic.

BATTLER: You mean like his gratitude for the money he borrowed was worth 10 tons of gold, or something?

JESSICA: Hehehe, maybe some rich man’s leisured wife generously granted it to Grandfather. And maybe then he started calling this person a witch?

[...]

BATTLER: I get it, I get it. That means that this pretty girl doesn’t exist outside the picture. Guess that means I won’t be able to rub those elegant breasts~, ihihi! In the first place, isn’t a witch a little weird? Like you could find something like that anywhere on earth.

As I made fun of the witch, laughing, I was trying to separate myself from the kid I was six years ago who was afraid of the witch of the forest. At that time, Maria tugged on my sleeve. ...The strength with which she did was filled with a little unhappiness.

BATTLER: Hmm? What is it, Maria?

MARIA: Uu-! Uu-!! Beatrice e-xi-sts!

Maria stared up at me. She had on her usual sour look, but I could tell she was angry because of the color of her eyes.

MARIA: Witches exist! Witches exist! Uu-uu-uu-!!!

BATTLER: Well sure, they do exist...if you turn the TV on and watch anime or something.

MARIA: Exi-st!! Witches exi-st!! Uu-uu-uu-!!!

I started getting impatient, not knowing why Maria was jumping on me like this.

Then, Jessica tapped me on the shoulder and told me in a small voice.

JESSICA: Dumbass, you’re smashing a kid’s dream. Maria really believes that things like witches and Beatrice exist.

GEORGE: Come to think of it, Maria-chan, in social studies at your school, when you were asked to write what you wanted to be when you grew up, you wrote ’a witch’, didn’t you?

Maria nodded seriously. Tears started to run from the corners of her eyes.

.........I see. To a girl who wants to become a witch in the future, the existence of Beatrice was proof that witches do exist in this world, and was therefore an image that she yearned after and admired.

MARIA: Exi-st! Exi-st! Witches exi-st!! But Battler still doesn’t believe! Uu-uu-uu-!!!

GEORGE: It’s alright. They exist, witches. Onii-chan believes it.

George-aniki kneeled down and held Maria’s head. ...Watching this, Jessica poked my side.

...So that’s what it is. It’s like, on Christmas Eve, shouting that Santa Claus couldn’t exist in front of a child who believes in him. ...I’m not the kind of guy who likes to shatter kids’ dreams.

BATTLER: ......Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to make fun of your dreams. I apologize. Beatrice does exist. Even now she’s living in the forest, and comes every night to the mansion to peek in and see what everyone’s doing. ......So you shouldn’t go into the forest. At night, you mustn’t stare into the dark forest. You might be seen by the witch of the forest, Beatrice. .........After all, Grandmother said so.

Maria is satisfied with the apology, and they make up. Shannon arrives with cookies and they decide to go have a picnic down on the beach.

There, they try solving the epitaph with very little success. They also note all the talk of gouging and killing in the second part, with at least 11 people designated as sacrifices. Maria claims it’s a ritual to revive Beatrice.

BATTLER: But at the end, something pretty interesting is written. The lines about how, after reaching the goal, the four treasures shall be given by the witch. One shall be all the gold. The problem is the next one. It says the resurrection of the souls of all the dead, right? Doesn’t it seem like this refers to everyone that died in the earlier lines?

SHANNON: .........If you put it like that, the next one, the resurrection of the lost love part might be referring to the pair torn apart at the second twilight.

GEORGE: That’s right. And the fourth one refers to the ninth twilight. The fourth treasure is putting the witch, revived at the ninth twilight, to sleep.

JESSICA: If we interpret that favorably, it’ll be hectic with people dying and breaking up, but it will all be made well in the end. The awakened witch will once again sleep, and all that will be left is plenty of left-over gold.

BATTLER: The witch must be busy killing, reviving, breaking up, and reuniting people.

JESSICA: Not to mention waking up and sleeping. Hahahahaha.

BATTLER: Oh well, just when the tale of the hidden gold was getting interesting, as soon as the witch’s story is tied in, it quickly gets pretty shady.

JESSICA: Too true. Ahahahahahaha!

I laughed along with Jessica. After all, a witch is just ridiculous. ...Of course, once we started laughing like that, Maria, who believed in the witch, got angry.

Everyone sets to calm Maria down, assuring her that they do believe in the witch. Shannon starts talking about the ghost stories about Beatrice and how people who disrespect her face misfortune. Almost gleefully, Maria announces that Battler and Jessica will definitely be in trouble. Luckily she can help: she has cheap plastic scorpion charms that she gives them to protect against witches.

What he learned:
+Grandfather is nuts but also apparently a business genius?
+he's also obsessed with Beatrice which is probably why the servants respect her so much
+holy shit ten tons of gold
+And that epitaph...so does Beatrice kill my family to revive herself?
+But witches aren't real, are they?
+Are they or aren't they I can't even
+wow Maria calm down