Isabella (before battle)

You guys might want to come take a look at this...

Look at the corpse of the Dead Rabbits boss we defeated earlier.

This... isn't Heathcliff from the other world. I don't think we've ever seen this person before.

Heavens, this is...!

I know her.

Miss Isabella, how... how could this...!

<Isabella?>

Isabella Edgar... Linton's younger sister. She came by this manor a few times along with Linton.

<They overwrote Linton's sister... with Heathcliff's Identity...?>

He wasn't even real... We lost him.

<... This technology they're using to summon Identities... it's definitely a lot like our own.>

…….

There have been a total of four separate instances of lightning strikes.

Meursault was the first to break the silence.

The most logical course of action, from the perspective of our company...

... would have been to wait until the Golden Bough becomes available to us. Just as Linton had suggested earlier.

What, hide in the barn and wait for the seventh strike of lightning like cowards?

What a helpful lot you are. Thank you kindly for your words of encouragement. You know what? We should've done that from the start... It was foolish of me to even -

... Allow me to finish, Heathcliff. I am beginning to feel the need to practice hastening my speech.

We have experienced consistent escalation of risk merely by moving about the manor. Moreover, it is growing increasingly difficult to ensure Heathcliff's safety.

Therefore, in conclusion...

Meursault paused for a moment.

... I judged that we may have to stop the lightning from striking.

Even if that decision leads to our failure to obtain the Golden Bough.

Everyone fell silent, deep in thought after hearing Meursault's judgment. It wasn't a decision based on cold, hard facts that we had come to expect from him.

Agreed...

It never appeared that the lightning strikes were a result of natural phenomena. It always struck at the most dramatic moments. Always on a certain trigger, killing the manor's power without fail.

Okay, let's think about this. Let's think about the circumstances...

... surrounding each strike of lightning.

First one was... yeah, at the funeral.

When they were reading Catherine's will...

No, we can get a bit more specific than that.

It was when Heath called out Catherine's name.

The second one...

... was when Linton said something hurtful to Heathcliff. All that verbal abuse...

The third was when Hindley drew his last breath. And...

Thus all is ruined...

Linton's exhausted voice broke through our musings.

He looks around at the destroyed laboratory, the corpses, and the husks of dead Peccatula. There was a hollow look in his eyes.

His face, already so sallow, had lost even more of its color. But he stood tall.

Linton's gaze lingers for a moment on his sister's mangled corpse before moving toward Catherine in the coffin.

Isabella... my dearest sister.

So this is how our reunion was to be. It feels like it was just yesterday that you left our home without a word...

You didn't even write to each other?

She did send me a few childish letters. That she'd met her fated partner... That she's found true love. But she couldn't possibly introduce me to this person, as I would surely refuse to give my blessings...

You...

Do you even understand what you've done?

I merely follow the path laid before me.

... The lightning has struck four times.

Yeah, we know. We know how to count, y'know...

Executive Manager... I can tell from the way that man is speaking...

... that he may know the conditions that trigger the lightning strikes.

Outis spoke plainly without even trying to lower her voice.

Lightning strikes...

Each strike of lightning is a blessing...

For it signifies that you have a place in her heart.

Linton looked straight toward Heathcliff, and I could finally see his face clearly for the first time.

He wore the expression of deep, bottomless pain...

It didn't change the fact that Linton was still extremely suspicious, and had quite a lot of things to answer for, but...

... it began to sink in that he was also a man who was grieving for someone he loved.

I lied to you, Heathcliff.

Our marriage... was never happy.

But I have spent my entire life struggling to earn a place in her heart.

Knocking and knocking so that she would let me in.

Yet there was nothing. She never once gave me an answer. Even now, she remains silent.

Linton.

Nothing... none of that justifies the atrocity that you have committed in building this abominable laboratory.

…….

I have given some thought as to how so many people could disappear without leaving a shred of evidence.

It cannot be said that gangs kidnapped them by force, for there were no signs of resistance.

There have also been cases of simultaneous disappearances. Sometimes, even entire families would disappear all at once.

You actually read... the whole article?

Then, it can be reasoned that they weren't taken against their will. It would be more believable to say that they followed their would-be kidnappers willingly.

…….

Which means... the kidnapper was someone well-known. Someone with a decent reputation.

What, did you offer them a job at the manor? Promise to treat them to a nice meal or something?

…….

An experiment to 'produce a human', or so it was called.

Yet I cannot imagine a single human being for whom these heinous experimentations, all this sacrifice, this suffering... would have been worth it for.

Master Linton, even if it was Miss Catherine who asked you to do this, this is too -

... What?

Oh...!

Catherine... she asked you to do all this? No, that's... impossible.

Linton receives the Sinner's deluge of resentful accusations with an unstirring expression.

Yes. I will not deny that everything was by Catherine's request. But it was by my will that every one of her requests were carried out to the letter.

I'm asking you why -

The 'why' never mattered to me. So I never asked her.

All I ever cared about was endlessly endeavouring to carry out her wishes, to do as I was told.

Yeah, still... why? With your family's wealth, you could've just lived out the rest of your days in complete luxury with money to spare. So why...

Should T Corp. be made aware of what has transpired here...

... you may be subject to a high degree of punishment, even if your family name were to mitigate it.

You ask me why? Is it not obvious?

Because I loved Catherine. Ever since the moment I laid my eyes upon her, to this very day. I have spent every single moment of my life pining for her.

You're just desperately begging for her affection, blinded by your own obsession...

Speak ill of me as you will. I care not.

Because my joy comes from what morsel of affection she spared me.

So... you have no idea how much I envied you, Heathcliff.

You envied... me? You?

Even in her youth, when I would come to spend time with Catherine at this manor...

She would always ask me the same question.

"I wonder where Heathcliff has gone to? I wish he was here."

Of course, you must have been hiding from her. For you could not bear the sight of us.

And believe it or not, it was not I who burned your letters.

In truth, I would have delivered them to her myself had I had my hands on your letters. Because that was how desperately Catherine was waiting for your news.

Once you left, Catherine... she shut herself off in her room, refused to eat, and withered away.

Gazing into a mirror, day and night... until one day, she calmly emerged from that very room and asked me for my hand.

A mirror...

... She mentioned the same thing in the diary. That she saw herself in the mirror.

Yet we kept no mirrors at the manor we lived.

The mirror she looked into was, according to her, a gift.

... A gift from who?

If you would like to know what she saw in that mirror, what it was that she saw that prompted her to ask to marry me...

... Why don't you ask the diary yourself?

Ask that old diary that remains in obstinate silence before me.