Natsuhi is desperate... but Krauss comes with Genji, and skillfully distracts Eva while his wife gets out of Grampa's study. Eva's pissed when she hears the auto-lock behind her, but the three conspirators manage to calm her down. Well, that was quite the Pseudo-Crisis. Sorry for abusing my Cliffhanger powers.
Grampa, Beato, Virgilia and Ronove discuss the recent news : after all, Beato promised to stop the ceremony if someone solved the epitaph (and it looks like Battler has no intention to worship her, either). On Beato's insistence, they agree to keep supporting Natsuhi's mascarade until the end of the weekend, since she's been so noble and all.
The scene cuts to everyone else (except for Jessica, George and Maria) having been led to the gold's hiding place. They're ecstatic, until Erika coughs and reminds them that Battler is the one that can claim full credit for finding it. Now, shall we start the real family conference ?
After Erika's little speech, things become really ugly. Everyone squabbles about how the gold should be divided, and whether Battler really has become the head's successor. Natsuhi won't have any of it, but it backfires in the other siblings demanding Grampa to play referee. After a while, they all notice that this damp, cold room isn't the best place for arguing, and head back for the mansion.
Erika's delighted by all this strife, of course. Battler is obviously disgusted by all this, but reasoned that announcing he doesn't want the headship would only make things worse. So he just shuts his mouth and hopes this will settle down somehow. He tries going along with Erika when she returns to the guesthouse, but his parents catch him and firmly nudge him towards the mansion for the family conference.
Back to outside the game board, Battler asks the comatose Beato whether she is happy now that he's solved the epitaph, as she was always asking for in her letters. Virgilia helpfully (?) informs us that Beato has nothing to gain from the riddle being solved. So why does she ask for that ? If solving the riddle is meaningless to Beato, and she agrees to stop the murders in exchange of it... then that means that the murders are meaningless too, right ? They're only a means to the end that is Beato's real objective... and if Beato really wanted to kill the whole family, the epitaph murders are very inefficient : why not put just poison in the food or murder everyone at the same time ?
Battler reasons that there could be three reasons for the epitaph murders to happen as they do if Beato gets no direct benefit from them :
- Obfuscating the real sequence of deaths, allowing for the real culprit to fake their own death and confuse everybody. But most of the deaths are confirmed in red for Battler, so this is useless and can't be the real reason.
- Coincidence. But Beato went out of her way to give advance notice of the murders, and they still always happen the "right" way, so that can't be it.
- Which only leaves out... Inspiring fear on the victims. And logically, Beato would always leave her primary target alone until the end, while first killing everyone they hold dear. Considering the jumbled murder orders in the various scenarios, that would make the primary target... Battler ? (I'm guessing he's already taking EP 5 into account in order to discard Maria.)
Virgilia helpfully pipes in to indicate that Battler isn't the culprit and didn't kill anyone in any of the games. Beato isn't doing this to inspire fear or take revenge. So, why ? Why is Beato throwing those epitaph murders at Battler ? What is she trying to get from him ? Virgilia adds that Beato doesn't get any pleasure from the murders, so it must be something else. Is it related to that plea in EP 4 for him to remember his "sin" from 6 years ago ?
Battler still can't discern her motives, but he vows not to stop thinking.
An interesting installment. Once the Pseudo-Crisis is averted, nothing of interest happens on the game board, but we are then treated to a very nice scene of Battler actually thinking about the big picture. Finally ! This is stuff everyone has been WMG-ing for a while, so it's cool for it to be acknowledge in-show as a crucial part of the plot, and used as a step towards the resolution. Also, Battler for once using his brain is a welcome novelty.
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