The Ironic Light Orchestra (color pages & prologue)

(of note: i do not profess to be a super translator or anything close; i'm just doing this for fun and profit in the form of knowledge.)


(Color Pages + Prologue: Death of the Body)



(What do you think about Huey Laforet?)


"Huey? He's a cute child, though he has a lot of pride. He's a bit too innocent, which worries me. ......Truthfully, I wish that we could move to a place that is also that gentle."
(Year 1700, his mother)

"I don't like that guy. I know it's not like me to say I dislike someone, but..."
(Year 1704, a fellow student of the private school)

"H-huey!? Huey is v-v-v-very, well, attractive, you know?"
(Year 1705, a female classmate)

"He's a person that only fakes smiling. It's my goal to make him smile for real in less than two weeks, 20 hours, 32 minutes, and 14 seconds, though."
(Year 1705, Elmer)

"Don't talk about that guy."
(Year 1934, Victor)

"Judging by his name, he's definitely a boxer!"
"A fly-weight boxer!"
(Year 1931, a passing couple in California)

"Well...he's a very intelligent boy, you know? He even studies of his own accord, without my help!"
(Year 1705, Renee)

"I don't really understand him."
(Year 2001, Czes)

"I daresay. A high-strung man of leisure."
(Year 1960, Nile)

"He's a strange sort of sly fellow."
(Year 1720, Denkuro Tougo)

"Thinking about it, I can't understand him that well, but he and Elmer have apparently been friends for a long time, so I don't think he's a bad person."
(Year 1711, Maiza)

"......! ......, ......"
(A lovable father.)
(Year 1935, Chane (and her written words))

"For better or worse, he's a genuine sort of person. He's emotionally simple-minded, therefore, somewhat brutal and intense. Though he would deny it."
(Year 1703, Professor Dalton)

"He's my friend. My best friend."
(Year 2002, Elmer)

________________________________________


(What do you think about Elmer C. Albatross?)


"He's impossible to understand! When it comes to anything from delicacy to ill will, he has absolutely none! But I don't hate him."
(Year 2002, Czes)

"He and Mister Huey are birds of a feather."
(Year 1720, Denkuro Tougo)

"This fellow has a rather frivolous spirit."
(Year 1711, Zanku)

"Because this idiot isn't keeping watch over Huey, it makes problems for me!"
(Year 1934, Victor)

"He was born for the purpose of saving the world, a child of calamity and light."
(Year 1700, a member of the religious group)

"I said I don't hate that idiot, and that's it."
(Year 2002, Sylvie)

"He's a really fun guy! And he can even make things like boring lectures interesting."
(Year 1705, a fellow student of the private school)

"An annoying person. That nosy personality of his will just cause problems. I'm looking forward to when he dies."
(Year 1705, Huey)

"He's a fine fellow, but a man nonetheless. Though it's outside the area of my interest."
(Year 1703, Count Boroñal)

"......He's a weird guy."
(Year 1705, a girl from the neighborhood)

"He is the strangest person I've seen until now. Also strangely, that boy truly wants the entire world to be happy. Maybe even "prays" for it to be so. However, he doesn't pray. He only takes action. That is the most frightening thing. The most ."
(Year 1711, Professor Dalton)

"Honestly, he's a bit frightening."
(Year 1711, Gretto Avaro)

"Oh boy, that kid...always teasing me! He's so cruel!"
(Year 1935, Renee)

"I daresay. A crazy person of leisure."
(Year 2001, Nile)

"He is... a close friend. Simply a close friend. No less than that, no more than that. Though it would be too embarrassing to tell him something like that."
(Year 2002, Huey)

________________________________________

(What do you think of Esperança C. Boroñal?)


"The Count? He's an amazing person."

"I think the star-shaped makeup he wears is cool, you know?"

"One wouldn't normally think that, huh?"

"But, his purposely uncool appearance is actually cool, don't you think?"

"He's childlike, isn't he. The Count."

"Though he's a womanizer."

"For us, we'd say he's very likable."

"Oh, but it's a little embarrassing to say."

"And yet, he won't offer us his hand, will he."

"But, he doesn't look down on us, or hate us, either."

"He's cute, isn't he." "Yeah, cute."

"I don't know if he'd say that I'm cute, though."

"Though he thinks of women as more important than anyone, he doesn't really understand girls' hearts."

"He's not very popular, you know?" "That's true~"

"That's really cute, you know~?" "Yeah~" (Rest is omitted)

(Year 1705, Boroñal Family's female servants, A~Z's idle talk)

________________________________________

(What do you think of the alchemy teachers?)


"Professor Dalton is very knowledgeable about the universe; he's a very respectable person. And Professor Renee has a very appealing body."
(Pupil A)

"Professor Dalton is a great teacher. Professor Renee isn't very good at understanding things, and is somewhat clumsy. Though I'm rather jealous of her body. I also, well, Huey....ah..."
(Pupil B)

"Professor Dalton is a scary man. It's like he can see through everything.....Professor Renee? Ah, I wish I could see through her clothes."
(Pupil C)

"Why weren't the pupils given my name as well? But, Miss Renee's body is rather excellent, I can't disagree."
(A teacher of the same school)
　
"Professor Dalton, Professor Renee, and the others aren't worth thinking about. As far as I'm concerned, they're only said to be "good teachers."
(Huey)

"Professor Dalton is like a dashing ship's captain; as for Professor Renee, I've given her the nickname of "Nerenerenerene."
(Elmer)

"Does that even......mean anything?"
(Huey)

"Ah, Huey had a perfect comeback to that, that’s great."
"Be quiet, you're always saying such stupid things....."
(Below left blank)

________________________________________

(What do you think of samurai?)


"Oh? About us?"

"Hmm......as samurai, you must listen to and easily understand what it means to be such a warrior. Being a warrior is, to put it simply, a way of life. Despite such traditions as cutting open one’s stomach, your willpower must remain during battle, in order to survive. This is called 'Bushido.'"

"Mr. Zanku......I believe some of that is rather confusing...... Besides, you should explain one part of that at a time."

"Again, Denkurou is saying such troublesome things.”

"Right then, Mr. Zanku, go take a short stroll around the ship."

"When it comes to something a warrior should want to know, they can hear it from us, but they should also experience Japan. When I say this should be done, I mean the entire land. We may talk about this land, which has a hold on my soul. For example, the kind of feelings it evokes...... I pray that you and your real nature may always be kept to yourself. That is our purpose for saying this. You, personally-- remember this, for Czes's sake."


(I do not understand what you are saying, Denkurou Tougo-san)


"Samurai...are not to be seen as minor. One serves by knowing and sympathizing with their master's true thoughts, and so they must hone the ability to judge one's character."


(......)


"It is fate that people will continue to battle with their own true nature; therefore..... I certainly hope that you will not forget this ......Mr. Fermet."

________________________________________


Light a lantern; a demon is coming.
Put on a disguise; a demon is coming.
To you, a masked person is coming.
To everyone, a masked person is coming.
So, sing the laughing children, this is a certain demon-- and also, a sinner.


(Prologue: Death of the Body)


The eyewitness spoke of a young girl.

The mysterious masked person was there.

They were there for this reason; it was something horribly dreadful, and also something horribly beautiful.

⇔


(Year 1705, Italian Peninsula)


The territory of Spain, under the governor of Naples’s jurisdiction, the city of Lotto Valentino.


The time is the start of the 18th century.

This means that Western Europe is undergoing great changes-- though it may be said that it is only a sort of preparatory phase.

Concerning the successor to this large area, Europe was dragged into the War of the Spanish Succession.

Such a large inheritance dispute, along with the curtain rising on a new century, caused the great powers of Europe to wish for quieter times.

It could be said that this time period was the point of the return of culture.

In regard to Spain’s throne, each of the royal families began to scatter their own sparks at this time; because of this, the culture of the arts became more and more diverse.


In the midst of this-- in a certain town, an incident occurred.


The first "scene of the crime" was found by someone who later told of it.

That scene was, at a glance, somehow artistic, or so it seemed, that person said.


The style known as "rococo" began to make its rise as a new cornerstone, causing people to refer to the return of the "baroque" style.

Cheerful and soft images could be seen, and the use of beautiful colors iridescently dyed pictures on canvases, characteristic of the rococo style; an excess of the beautifully vivid was called baroque art.

The rise of new art also foresaw an excessiveness for which decline could not be seen, things like spacious interiors; the baroque arts influenced various articles, the gaudiness of which could be easily seen.


However, that "work of art" was only a figure there.


Because that person had been there at that time, there was a strange shadow hanging over the situation, and the details of the situation had come together in an unfortunate way.

After a while, the eyewitness said it had all been arranged so that they were being talked about as an evil person behind their back.

Because, that which was called "a work of art" was actually—


Arms and legs outstretched, next to the chandelier, the figure of a bloodstained young girl.



(The next morning)


The Naples suburban port city, Lotto Valentino.

It is a small town with a population of 50,000 in which a tragedy occurred. This caused chaos among the citizens, though the signs of this could not be seen.

England launched the world's first daily newspaper three years prior, and so the incident which occurred could have been seen in the next issue.

That being the case, as it was seen in the paper, that grisly murder case could have been spoken about for many years to come.

However, no less than half of a page was taken up by the corruption of the area's security forces, as well as the resulting investigation.

So that young girl's death was, by comparison, a small thing.

The details of that incident were written in detail, and the newspaper was bought by many; moreover, the problems that arose from the incident could be plainly seen in the account that was in the article.


The heart of the victim had been stabbed first, so that they wouldn't struggle, and they died as their blood pooled on the floor-- their blood pooled as their eyes were looking up to the ceiling.


At the scene of the crime, there was a clue left behind, a mask.
It was like something one would wear at a masquerade ball, or perhaps a Venetian festival, a pure white mask that completely covered the face.

Now the expression of the corpse was lost; after all, the mask that was covering their face was an expressionless one-- the eyewitness said.

It was surely a work of art, it was said.

Furthermore, this incident's bizarre circumstances were a very recent matter--


The mask that hid the face, the riddle of that mysterious person.

Again and again at the scene of the crime, one could see that pure white mask hiding the figure of a person. People couldn't possibly know, suspended in the gaping darkness, that there could be a dead body covered by something like a mask.

Lotto Valentino's public order was invoked, to have the police find that masked person's whereabouts quickly—

In a sense, it was a conditional order.

Then that town, in this situation, began to refer to the local police as a vigilance corps; in addition to Spain's military police, who, from the public order, were there in that town on the outskirts of Naples, it was a strange order that differed from the usual.

To the nobles of feudal society, how these dealings and how the system had been set up over decades were unknown. This way, for the first time, the serial murder events were-- surely, something that damaged the dignity of the local police, and caused people to, for one, wonder about internal strife.


That strange murder.

That strange clue.

To the town police, it was a sign of war.

And, the riddle of the mysterious person.

There was much gossip, nevertheless-- in the newspapers, about the incident involving the top-positioned town police's corruption, and how they had to hand over the case.

The people had already begun to grow weary of the incident.

Despite the fear they experienced, talk of "apprehending the criminal," with the exception of gossip about it, was a subject that they were beginning to lose interest in.

Because—

By the time of the incident involving the young girl, "the masked man" had already killed 27 people.
Over the period of six months, the serial murders had been occurring, and so everyone's senses toward this had gone into a kind of stupor.

And so-- this did not become a big incident.

By all rights, if the reputation of these insane murders would have been carved into history, it would not have been strange; rather, this incident was one where that did not happen, as strange as it was-- that sign was not seen.

About this strange matter, much was made of it in Lotto Valentino's urban areas, but went no further than that, let alone overseas; it was, however a significant topic in Naples-- however, the downtown areas had only a halfhearted fear regarding the swirling madness that was the current situation.


However, that name, which was not in the newspapers, was only a fact that was disinterestedly remembered--
The fact is when it comes to rumors and the like, and frightening rumors, people's lives take root in them.

So that it erodes, slowly, slowly—

The death toll continued, even after that specific death.

Until one's own death permeates into that town.