LogFAQs > #957437964

We head to the top floor first, to speak to the landlord, Mr. Garrideb, the pun of which I don't understand (another Holmes reference?) We're greeted by a very overbearing maid, which impresses Susato - a real English maid! The living quarters are slightly in disarray, with a SUSPICIOUS SCREEN and some cracked china on a broken-down shelf. Lots of Garrideb's military trophies are on display; he displays some very false humility about them (rude to the general who issued me the uniform/medal not to hang it up proudly!) He seems to have something to hide (beyond his secret interest in Herlock Sholmes stories, which he denies despite the magazine being there), with his maid constantly pouring scalding tea onto his hands to prevent him from saying too much, though they provide each other with bulletproof alibis; he is barely able to walk, and she was tending to him at the time of the stabbing. Anyway, they certainly don't think much of the suspicious, strange foreigner who keeps extremely odd hours (and whose hours the maid seems oddly hyper-attuned to.)

With permission in hand to inspect Soseki's room, we head down into the bricked up windows. It's a horror scene, with a sad lone cat, extremely poor lighting, and stacks of books that threaten to bury anyone there. The most notable item here is the way Sholmes basically tracked Soseki down - a receipt for the used books Soseki bought the day of the attack. I like the pun in Yore Books and recognize the references in two of these titles - but not Meal for Gaboriau.

But then we scroll the screen over, and whaddya know, there's Sholmes chillin there! He explains that the windows being boarded up comes from old English law - a window tax - and that having at least one maid is a sign of being middle class (perhaps like home ownership in the current USA). He's forgotten much of the Speckled Band case - alludes to it as being a case with a snake - which is incredibly on-brand. The guy believes in forgetting what you don't need and specifically cites A Study in Scarlet, where he espouses this philosophy.

Sholmes does remember, however, that we wanted to be a lawyer, and he specifically points out that hey, just because he caught an escapee, doesn't mean he promised the escapee would be the perpetrator of the crime. Sholmes can only name two facts: that Soseki escaped the crime scene, and that there were two witnesses who will attest to this. And as an unrelated point, Sholmes adds that the Garridebs are almost certainly hiding something, whether or not it's related to the case.

Without any other leads, we return to the Garridebs' room. The maid tries hard to eject us, citing dinner. But hey, more Sholmes! And he's prepared to tell us that there was a BEAST in this room that COST A LOT OF MONEY. Hilariously, he thinks that the Garridebs were keeping a pet Indian lion that they reluctantly sold to the circus. The guy really does love his exotic beasts. We instead discover that the maid is John's wife Joan, and that the reason for the mess is actually that she went apeshit after discovering a love note - not addressed to her husband - in a used book. Having exposed this, we decide it's time to get back and wrap things up with Natsume.

On our way out, we encounter two NPCs having a dispute. One of them is dressed like a jester and quotes Shakespeare randomly. He then vanishes into the same house that Soseki lives in, heavily implying he might be related to the case, perhaps on Day 2, though god this Day 1 has been long.

In the end, it's been a tragic experience in London for Soseki. Having seemingly been burned by Chad McGilded, we're hesitant to trust anyone again. But fear not - Sholmes appears at the jail again. And this time, he has some wisdom for us, words that remind us of Kazuma - that while we might not know all the facts when we choose to trust someone, and while that trust can be betrayed... ultimately we have to just trust our own judgment. So believing in someone else is really believing in yourself. Well damn, those words feel like they have a lot more meaning now.

See y'all in court.

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* "I suppose you would have finished whoever it was off with a Susato Takedown, would you?" / "That is neither here nor there, Mr. Naruhodo!" / Brace yourself, Ryunosuke! You've angered her now!

* Susato is such a fangirl of the bobbies she's willing to get arrested with a stone to make it happen.

* Speaking of Susato, she actually seems to respond a lot to our inner monologue, huh.

* Ryunosuke's inner monologue mentions grinning like a Cheshire Cat, which seems kind of a weird cultural reference to make for a Japanese person.

* Sholmes remains the highlight of any investigative segment. "In the jungle of logic and reasoning... I am the king of beasts!"

* "The terrifying truth all too often lies beyond the realms of common sense!" / "But wouldn't it be an idea to consider what lies inside the realms of common sense as well?" Shortly afterward, Sholmes insists that exposed long enough to British people, even a lion would drink tea.

* The overall feeling in Garrideb's place, despite the humor in Garrideb's bluster/false humility, is actually of sadness. This is a proud military man with a wife he loves, who is now confined to a chair. He can't afford to de-brick his windows, and while Ryunosuke disses the broken candelabra, Susato quietly tells us, "They're memories, Mr. Naruhodo... memories."

* Not crazy about the amount of fat-shaming Joan, though I did have a laugh at some of the euphemisms they used to describe her "HORSEPOWER."

* We are literally entering court with three pieces of evidence, one of which is a map that contains no extra info and another of which is an armband that we had before the case began.

Trial later.
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness