I’m enjoying this show more than I thought I would. I’m also digging the world-building. High society isn’t all dainty women and gallant men. Rather, it’s seedy and grimy, full of sordid affairs and shadowy encounters. This is more of a mystery than your standard villainess anime. Scarlett has Constance running to and fro, gathering evidence and generally sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong. Problem is, it sounds like Scarlett’s former friend had already tried this. Perhaps due to being a shrewd woman, Lily Orlamunde dug too deep and learned too much. Whatever she uncovered eventually drove her to commit suicide. People usually take their own life to prevent themselves from even greater suffering. So assuming Lily wasn’t depressed, what sort of horrendous future was she trying to prevent?

We have clandestine meetings at parties, men plucking strange vials (drugs?) from women’s tattooed bosoms, orphans being taught a peculiar phrase in order to out evildoers, a scrap of paper containing a message that refers to the goddess of discord, and even a mysterious key with currently no known lock. But why would Lily leave such cryptic evidence behind? Clearly, she wanted the envelope to be found. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have hid it in the first place. She expected someone to eventually investigate the place where she committed suicide. But who was she expecting?

First, it has to be someone who knew Lily well enough to know she would hide anything at all. Clearly, she didn’t expect her husband to find it. Randolph suspects Constance of taking something, but not what. Second, Lily wanted the envelope to be found by someone who could even solve the mystery. Otherwise, what good would the message and key be? Sadly, we don’t know enough about Lily’s inner circle to speculate any further. Any guess we make would just be a stab in the dark. But we can entertain an outlandish possibility. For instance, Is there a small chance she knew Scarlett would somehow return as a ghost? That’s crazy, right? But I dunno, I wouldn’t put it past anime to pull this stunt.

I also have some questions about our two leads. Let’s start with Scarlett. I don’t really understand how the rules work with ghosts, because, y’know, ghosts aren’t real. They’re made up, so any rule related to them would also have to be made up. In the first episode, Constance had to invite Scarlett to the party, which reminds me of a rule related to vampires. But now that she’s attached to Constance, it seems like she can just go wherever now. If Constance enters a church, Scarlett can enter the church with her. If Constance attends a party, Scarlett can attend the party as well. But does she truly need Constance? For instance, why couldn’t Scarlett just float around the party, eavesdropping on suspicious conversations? Or does Scarlett literally need to be within 10, 20, or 30 meters of Constance?

As for Constance, how far does her compassion extend? She seems to live by a certain code of ethics. Since Scarlett helped her, she has to help Scarlett back. But she’s putting herself in real danger. Whoever framed Scarlett is likely responsible for Lily’s suicide. All of a sudden, some girl with no history of trouble suddenly undergoes a complete personality change and starts snooping around. Certainly, anyone clever enough to get away with framing Scarlett would also be clever enough to spot Constance behaving oddly. You thus have to assume that she’ll end up in their crosshairs. And once the threat of death becomes palpable, why would Constance keep helping Scarlett?

The most boring possible answer is that Constance is just a good bean, and like all anime good beans, she just can’t help herself from lending a hand. She just has to get involved. I do hope, however, that her character is a little more nuanced than that. Maybe she secretly craves excitement. It sounds like Constance has always been a good girl, but we saw what this led to. Had Scarlett not intervened in last week’s episode, Constance would’ve found herself disgraced and banished from high society. Scarlett could thus represent Constance’s shadow, her other self that she has long suppressed but now desires to unleash upon the world. But we shall see.

As an aside, this might not be your typical villainess show, but it still has villainess DNA in it. So there’s gotta be romance, right? And we all know how much anime loves to pair sweet, innocent girls with dark, brooding men. Randolph’s technically single…