Flashback to... some unspecified time before the fatal weekend... as Natsuhi enters Grampa\'s study and learns that he\'s just died over the night in his bed. Ah, an official confirmation of a past event nearly everyone had speculated as having happened. It\'s explicitly stated that Krauss, Dr Nanjo, Genji and Kumasawa were already in the room and knew about it.
It\'s pretty much what I had expected. Krauss has a bit of a breakdown, since Grampa\'s death means his siblings will look closely into how he\'s been dealing with the fortune behind their back. And it didn\'t go well : he\'s entered tons of perilous business ventures, and even been comprehensively swindled on several occasions (Seriously, a \"moon tourism\" joint venture ? How gullible is he ?). He\'s in a lot of debt, and has apparently mortgaged the mansion through not-really-legal means. (As the narration states, Grampa\'s business acumen didn\'t pass through the blood. After all, we know that the other siblings\' financial situation isn\'t great either.)
Natsuhi is obviously angry at him for hiding this from her, but also at herself for not noticing earlier and preventing her husband from screwing up so easily. Krauss claims that his latest real estate investments could allow him to clear up his debt if given some time, but I suspect he\'s fooling himself. And when he starts mentioning chasing after Grampa\'s mythical gold, I perfectly understand Natsuhi slapping him back to his senses.
Of course, they\'ve been having this conversation in their bedroom, far from the servants. For now, Krauss has asked Dr Nanjo and Genji not to report Grampa\'s death immediately (and everyone to keep their mouth closed), but they\'re clearly madly looking for an actual medium term plan.
Natsuhi goes back to Grampa\'s empty study (well, apart from Grampa\'s corpse), and starts having hallucinations of the old guy talking to her. To her credit, she\'s lucid enough to know it\'s all in her brain. Anyway, she asks for advice, and gets a pep talk along the lines of \"you have to be tough\". (We learn in passing that Kinzo was initially a puppet of his relatives, and it\'s only after the war that he became strong-spirited enough to embrace his position as the head. Presumably after meeting \"the witch Beatrice\", or so he claims.)
Along the way, Beatrice shows up, and Grampa helps making her to support Natsuhi in her quest to consolidate Krauss as the new head (though it\'s obvious that the subtext is that the \"real\" head is Natsuhi herself).
A bit later, Natsuhi gathers the four other people aware of the situation, and explains that the party line should be that Kinzo is still alive, though living as even more an hermit than before. His death should be announced later on, when Krauss\'s investments have paid off. Dr Nanjo is a bit wary of the future autopsy, but Krauss interjects that having Grampa disappear mysteriously on the island, and declaring him legally dead, should take care of the problem.
Okay, this is quite interesting. There\'s not much new information in this scene (Kyrie had guessed most of it back in EP 4), but it\'s nice to have a confirmation that corroborates everything else we know. It cements Krauss as a weak businessman, while bringing out interesting insights into Natsuhi. While she has a tighter grip on the situation than her husband, the Sanity Slippage is clearly showing. I can now totally buy her as someone fanatic enough to fulfill the epitaph in order to find the gold, if despair at this situation going on for too long gets the better of her.
On a completely unrelated note, we have another clear usage of Beatrice\'s magic in a \"positive\" way (i.e., the MARIA/ANGE way) : it brings Grampa back from the dead. But as with Maria, I fear this is heading south very quickly...
