prof | Let's Play Umineko Chiru, Episode 7 Scene 20: The Last Tale

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Genji oversees workers bringing something in to the main hall.

This comes from Kinzo's direct orders. Nobody can deny it, no matter how much they might want to.

Kinzo wishes to see the portrait as soon as possible.

The epitaph plate has arrived, as well. Kinzo must ensure that every word is correct.

Probably not. In your world, there's already a clear successor - you. But not in this world.

In other words, this epitaph was set up to choose grandfather's successor after all?

Most likely. Or, he might have wanted to believe in the chance of a miracle.

In short, this epitaph really does show a ceremony to revive the witch Beatrice, just as everyone thought?

That is a normal interpretation to make. A mysterious ritual, sacrificing 13 people to revive the witch. However, that is not the true ceremony. It lies in wait for someone to miraculously solve it. That is the true ceremony. However, fate does have its irony.

Genji already knew. Maybe Kinzo set this up in the first place because he guessed that Genji knew everything.

Was that fate a coincidence, or something planned? I do not know. However, with this epitaph, the witch Beatrice will revive in the truest sense.

Let's Play Umineko Chiru, Episode 7 Scene 19: The Last Tale - Journey to the Golden Land==

Beatrice looks upon her true, original form.

The words underneath it tell the way to the Golden Land, and what must be done to get there. A fitting tale for a witch.

There are rumors that Kinzo hid a mountain of gold on this island.

Is this epitaph a riddle that leads to its location?

Beatrice will definitely solve the epitaph. That is the road to her resurrection.

The other servants have heard of it, too, but it has a different meaning to them.

Kanon thinks that he's laughing at everyone, assuming none of them will be able to solve it. Opinions vary.

The siblings have their own interpretations. Nobody's reacting to the epitaph in quite the same way.

Everyone is trying, but nobody can solve it. The only one who would be able to solve it is someone blessed by a miracle.

This is Kinzo's final act of magic.

He would happily throw everything away to see her one more time.

It's rare for Genji to speak of what-ifs. This is a rare question.

Genji remembers what happened last time Beatrice was 'revived'.

Over the years, Kinzo has become aware of the weight of his sins.

All he wants is to let Beatrice know his regret.

At this point in time, I also thought it was a trial. A game for selecting the successor, which Ushiromiya Kinzo decided upon a whim.

And it wasn't?

This epitaph meant something for Ushiromiya Kinzo and Ronoue Genji that only the two of them could understand. So, this was not the workings of fate. It was inevitable. I was no more than a Cinderella, with the pumpkin carriage and glass slippers all prepared beforehand.

I get it. So, this was a farce that Kinzo and Genji set up.

Kinzo did understand, and Genji realized that this was a message.

I don't have a clue what you mean. What did grandfather understand? And what does Genji have to do with this epitaph?

The epitaph wasn't solved. Someone was made to solve it.

And then, Beatrice truly revived. If that revival had never happened...

Then, when 1986 came, the crime might have been completely different.

In the end, since the time of my birth, I have been trapped by the crossroads of fate... and have never been given the right to make any decisions of my own will.

MARIA talks to Beatrice about the world of the Ars Goetia. The old Beatrice finally gains her new name.

The same list produces the name Ronove, 27th of the great demons. He will give Beatrice great underlings.

By coincidence, it's one letter off from the name of his real-world double.

Thanks to Maria, Beatrice's many friends all of names at last. In exchange, Beatrice will take a look at Maria's grimoire.

As they swap ideas, the power of the Mariage Sorciere grows. The more is known about a magical being, the more it exists.

Maria has been using this method to give strength to the existence of Sakutaro. By interacting with her other toys, he is reinforced even further.

They're going to need some more minions.

What about the dark tools she found in Goldsmith's storehouse? They would make fine vessels.

It takes two people to create a universe.

But this universe still isn't complete.

Maria wasn't the person Beatrice wanted to make a universe with.

She gave up hope that Battler would return, but the roots of love remained intact.

If Beatrice regains her magic power, then her world will be completed.

Will Battler come back if that happens?

There's a way to get her power back. She just has to do that.

Kinzo's gold is a crystallization of the magic Beatrice gave him. If she could find that again...

Could Beatrice be granted a miracle strong enough to solve the epitaph?

On first glance, none of it makse sense. But it couldn't be easy, could it?

Genji confirms that, indeed, there can be no doubt that solving the riddle leads to the gold.

Kanon doesn't understand why Kinzo would write this, but it's magic. There is no power without risk.

Shannon won't try to solve the riddle. She doesn't have any need for ten tons of gold.

Genji is the person closest to Kinzo - thte one who would most understand his heart.

There was another place Kinzo lived in his youth.

Before the war, Japan controlled Taiwan. Kizno's family did indeed spend some time there in his youth.

Could that be the hometown that the epitaph speaks of?

Kanon still thinks this is a waste of time, but Shannon's not so sure.

There are many rivers near Taiwan, so that might be a dead end.

But what about the word 'Taiwan' itself?

Kinzo's massive archive reeks of dust, mold, and knowledge.

Her thinking is wrong, though. She doesn't need a book about Taiwan.

Here it is. World atlas, Asia volume.

The first step is figuring out where he actually lives, but even that might be a red herring. Skip ahead.

A sweetfish river running through the hometown. Apparently there are 129 rivers in Taiwan.

Sweetfish are freshwater fish. They could be living in any river.

The almanac goes on to say that the 'Freshwater River' was named because it leads to a harbor town named Danshui.

As you travel down the river, you will see a villager. In that village, look for the shore the two will tell you of.

I was just trying to be one of that group. I had lost all books that I could become enthusiastic about and was very bored. So, I took that book back with me to my own room, and looked through it every night.

There's a hint for the epitaph's riddle in an atlas?

In the third game, Eva solved the riddle after reading a book in the book archive. In the fifth game, Furudo Erika looked for an atlas in the book archive before solving the riddle herself.

Then there really is some secret in a map of Taiwan...

I believed that the sweetfish river part was a code for Danshui River. Every day, I researched the surrounding geography in detail. Of course, I also looked up several small streams that might have sweetfish in them. However, that didn't get my anywhere.

According to some information from a previous game, we aren't looking for an actual river, but it was something that flowed. That's how Eva interpreted it.

Not a river...?

Yes. In the end, Danshui River had nothing to do with it. However, now that I think about it, it must have been an oracle after all. The river itself was unrelated, but it was still a great hint.

Think of something that flows, but isn't a river. Try to think out of the box.

...Probably.

Something other than water that flows... Something... Methods of transportation? Like a road or highway?

Correct. It took me so long to realize that the sweetfish river did not refer to the water itself...

There's something other than a river with the name Danshui. Something that both people and things flow up and down.

You mean...

The Danshui Line goes from Taipei to Danshui Harbor.

What did the epitaph say you'd see if you went down the river?

A village.

In the end, it took me quite a long time to work out that this station was the one referred to. It has the character for village and the character for shore. It felt like a kids' riddle, playing with letters...

I was also stuck on that part. However, by then, I had a strong belief that this station was what the epitaph referred to.

If the station had an old name, then could some local spot also have an old name?

That's right. From the start, Kirigan Station was named after a place, and the name of that place is written differently.

It didn't take long to figure out once I saw it. The epitaph must have been referring to this place called Kirigan.

Then this is where the key to the Golden Land rests?

That would be the obvious answer. However, I couldn't have made the long trip to Taiwan to check, and the place known as Kirigan is quite large. If a tiny key was hidden somewhere there, I'd never find it. I was at a loss...

But you didn't give up.

I was certain that I had found the answer at least to the first five lines of te epitaph. In my eyes, it was truly an entertaining game... no, a mystery.

On the first twilight, offer the six chosen by the key as sacrifices...

We can tell by this line that the key refers to six things. That makes it possible to reason it out and see that this doesn't refer to a physical key.

Six things?

Yes. Six things. I was merely a thick-headed human. I decided to look through books for anything related to the number six. Six. Six, six, six. The location of the key called Kirigan was hidden by a word game. That meant the six things were surely related to some sort of word game. I kept searching for six.

Is there some way to split up the characters in Kirigan to get six?

A good idea. Still, no matter how much you stare at those three characters, you won't get an answer. The problem here is that 'Kirigan' is just the Japanese reading of the name.

Then how is it written there...?

So what does it mean to offer these six letters as sacrifices?

On the second twilight, we start hearing about 'those who remain'. You can reason it out and guess that the six letters are being removed from an even larger set of letters.

However, whta could the six letters be removed from? That puzzle worried me for a long time. It's like the start of an entirely new riddle. This time, I would have to solve it all by myself, without any assistance.

In a previous game, I'm pretty sure Rosa formed some sort of theory about the first twilight.

That theory focused on the 'capital' in the tenth twilight. The epitaph talks about the Golden Land several times, but that's the only time it mentions a capital.

Why is a capital mentioned only at the tenth twilight? It took me so long to find the answer.

Since our journey to the Golden Land ends on the tenth twilight, this is either the capital of the place called the Golden Land, or the Golden Land itself. Rosa guessed that it might be the latter.

But doesn't that one also mean Kyoto, the old capital of Japan?

That's what Rosa thought. Kyoto is the tenth twilight, and the joruney starts at the beloved hometown. So, the letters are 'sacrificed' from the first twilight, or the spot one tenth of the way to Kyoto. It was a good theory, but not quite right. That character has another meaning.

Here, I had home-field advantage, since I lived on Rokkenjima. There was a hint that made it easier to think of the number 'kei'. In fact, you might say that I actually found the answer before I knew what the question was.

If you keep making it so complicated, Lion's gonna get a headache. Let's get back to the point. If you reach ten quadrillion on the tenth twilight, how far have you gotten by the first twilight?

Well, that's just one tenth of ten quadrillion. So, one quadrillion.

Exactly. And that's where we remove the six letters chosen by the key.

Quadrillion. As Battler guessed in the fifth game, it has 11 letters. Or should I say as you guessed?

Heheh.

Strangely enough, both words begin with 'q'. I felt that this just had to be right.

In the next part of the epitaph, the word 'kill' appears five times, and then none are left alive.

Once you reach this spot, the riddle has been practically solved.

Or, put another way, this is as far as you can go with the epitaph alone. You might be able to figure out the answer with a little more word play, but you won't be able to activate the device.

That's right. Once you know this much, all that remains is to gouge and kill.

You had a good idea of where the place was, even before you got this far, right?

Yes. I suspected that the gold was hidden there even before the epitaph appeared. And, because of the mysterious phrase that appeared there, it's only natural that I thought the place concealed some secret...

What do you mean by 'the place'?

The place with a device that opens the door to the Golden Land. A quick-witted person should be able to figure out where 'the first twilight' is by now.

Huh? I thought the first twilight was 'quadrillion', not a place...

It's the place where 'quadrillion' is written. You should know it. Or did you blindly follow Kinzo's orders and never go near it?

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Let's Play Umineko Chiru, Episode 7 Scene 20: The Last Tale - Journey to the Golden Land