(no subject)

[puellaregem]

Doctor,

I've had a possible insight on the matter I had you look into last week. The undertaker can get you access on my word, but I need you to bring her to handle toxicology. There may still be traces, but I don't trust anyone else to know what to look for.

S. will bring the car round within the hour. As always, you understand that this requires the utmost discretion.

Regards,
🐾

[ A message that was, quite obviously, intended for a different recipient. ]

Comments

[puellaregem]

...I took the position when I was eight. I didn't learn of it until later, and I've kept it secret since.

[ Likely enough with the story she's trying to sell, even if it is completely false. ]

I didn't have any siblings. My parents wanted a spare, of course, but after me they never managed to have another child. There would have been no other option, regardless, and I have every intention of completing the contract before it would matter.

[lordphantomhive]

I find this irresponsible of your parents. There should always be a spare. If you'd stop being so prudent and elaborate on the issue you're facing, I could assist in solving your lineage problem. There is clearly no solution only because you stopped looking.

[ Ciel doesn't understand how Kiyoharu could possibly be unable to produce an heir. ]

Back to the more pressing matter at hand.

You said: "Her family came to Japan with mine. According to her, one of her ancestors owed the Earl Phantomhive an incredible debt, and swore to always protect the Earl's family to repay him for his kindness. She doesn't know the precise details, but that may have been your Mey-Rin."

I find it hard to believe Rin would remain so loyal in accordance with continuing to repay an ancestors' debt without knowing the precise details of such a debt. She's withholding information from you if this is truly everything she was able to provide. Did she even specify which Earl Phantomhive? You're only assuming this Earl to refer to me because I've noted to you that Mey-Rin is the first of her line to join my household. Check your staff ledgers and interrogate her further.

Regarding S. How did you summon him? You also stated he 'saved' you. Elaborate. Omit no detail. I am especially interested to hear what you mean when you note he had an opportunity to break your contract and didn't take it.

Your Aunt. How did she die?

[filtered to: lordphantomhive]

[puellaregem]

Given that you're more than a century behind me in time and medicine in my time doesn't have any sort of solution, I really don't see how you could help me. I assure you, I've looked at every possible option available, and it's completely impossible the way things are.

[ He's managed to get her wondering if it would be less infuriating to tell him the truth. Almost definitely not, but he's so damn obstinate. ]

Fine. I'll get what other information from her I can. S presumably remembers the people involved, but given your accusations I assume you wouldn't trust him to tell the whole truth.

[ ...Hopefully this "filter" function actually works the way it seems to suggest it should. ]

It was when my parents were killed. I found out just before her death that my aunt was involved in the plot against them, albeit only as a pawn herself. She let the assassins in in the dead of night. What servants woke in time to try and stop them were injured or killed. I woke up as I was getting dragged out of bed in shackles by men in masks. I don't know if they had drugged me to keep me from waking up sooner, but my father was already dead. He'd been shot in the head trying to shield me. My mother was bound and gagged on the floor, and one of the men had a gun to the back of her head. I remember screaming for them to let her go before he shot her, and then they grabbed me. One of them had a knife to my throat. One of them branded me with the same symbol that was on their guns. They must not have been intending to kill me then and there, but to sell me, experiment on me, something...

I was sobbing, begging for anyone to help me, and—when I was little, for as long as I remember, my father had told me that if he and my mother were killed, and if I was in such danger that there was nothing else I could do, I could call for "Sebastian" and he'd come for me. There was nothing else I could do, so I did. The man with the knife was telling me he'd slit my throat if I didn't stop crying, and then is voice was in my head, talking to me, promising me he would protect me no matter what, if only I asked him to. I told him to kill them all, and he did. After that, it was over in seconds. We agreed on the details of the contract afterward.

[ Even after just typing it instead of saying it, she still feels like she needs to take a breath. ]

The rest is all the same story. A few months ago I worked on a serial murder case involving an extremely deadly toxic gas. The details up to the end don't matter, but my aunt turned out to be behind it, colluding with members of the same organization as the assassins hailed from. In exchange for her part in the deaths of my parents, she was trying to use their resources to achieve immortality through medical means. The toxin was a byproduct of the experiments, and she planned to detonate a bomb armed with enough of it to kill everyone in a radius of several miles. She was going to kill me and frame me for the bombing to hide her own crimes.

...In short, in the altercation, she and I were both exposed to the gas. Knowing that, with only enough antidote to guarantee the life of one, she'd undoubtedly do anything to get it, Sebastian had planned for that and swapped out the sole dose of the antidote he was carrying with fake capsules laced with more of the toxin. Sure enough, even though I intended to spare her life, knowing that her information could lead me to the mastermind, she fell for the trap and died.

The bomb was on a timer, and if it went off, hundreds of people would have died. There was more of the antidote at my aunt's manor, but there was no time for Sebastian to both get me there safely and disarm the bomb before it exploded. I chose to try and disarm the bomb to save everyone, even though without the antidote I only had maybe ten minutes before the toxin would reach my brain and kill me. Sebastian told me that because I was choosing to throw away my life, it was in breach of contract and he no longer had any obligation or reason to save me, since all that meant would be that he'd get my soul earlier than expected.

Even left to fend for myself, I was able to shut down the bomb just in time. Sebastian finally showed up again right before I lost consciousness, seemingly to watch me die, and tell me how pathetic it was that I'd given up, but at that point I didn't care.

Only it turned out that while he'd left me there, he'd been able to get to my aunt's home and back far faster than he could have with me slowing him down. Even though I told him I'd chosen my path and accepted my fate, he managed to force me to swallow the antidote in time to save my life.

I can't pretend I truly know why, but if the contract is technically impossible to fulfill on his end, as you're theorizing, surely it would have been easier to simply devour my soul then.

[filtered to: puellaregem]

[lordphantomhive]

[ That's a lot to unpack. ]

It's foolish to assume these things. Your pride will be the fall of the Phantomhive line. But if you're committed to being stubborn, there isn't much I can do.

[ The truth would infuriate him even more, actually, knowing it would be possible to continue the bloodline, but that it stopped with Kiyoharu for mere inconvenience. ]

As I said: check your records, too, regarding Rin. She may be involved in this. Mey-Rin has a disgusting infatuation with Sebastian. It's possible it may develop into a blood loyalty such as Rin's. I have observed that women can act extremely irrationally around Sebastian.

[ ...there was only so much he could respond to before getting down to business. The similarities in their stories made him deeply uneasy in ways he can't quite place, and his own brand felt irrationally warm. ]

Do you have a photo of this brand?

[ He almost wishes she'll say no. ]

I do find it deeply strange that he seems to have predicted there would come a day they would both die and you would need to be protected. I suppose that is a reasonable assumption for the Watchdog, but it's irresponsible that his manor was so unprotected that he felt giving you the comfort of a family urban legend was necessary. It implies he knew with absolutely certainty that it was inevitable someone would wipe out the household, or at least that Sebastian's 'curse' was legitimate -- there is no other way that I can see a father trusting the survival of his son to such a tale.

Sebastian only appeared to me after a cult had performed an elaborate ritual, including a child sacrifice, to summon him. I'm unsure if he can simply appear at will, though perhaps only the sacrificial part of the cult's ritual was actually necessary, and your parents would have filled that role. I'll have to speak to him later.

What are the specific details of your contract?

My aunt tried to kill me as well, though she was too weak to follow through. Interesting. Though it was more at the manipulation of a Shinigami and less in the interest of achieving immortality. They do both seem to have medical backgrounds and interests, though. She was a doctor -- what of yours? Does the name Grelle mean anything to you? Specify what you mean by 'resources.'

[ He's almost curious if Kiyoharu's aunt was attempting to somehow acquire Sebastian. At least the plot for immortality felt new. Finding a detail that wasn't uncannily repetitive is oddly comforting. ]

[ ...there's a lot to unpack about this 'bomb' situation, but first... ]

Why did you not just order Sebastian to destroy the bomb?