For the rest of the world, that’s roughly 160 km. Just trying to be helpful. Anyway, this is probably my least episode yet. Not only is it all over the place, it also introduces a billion characters in its short runtime. A woman by the name of Deborah Darkian summons Constance to a secretive but nevertheless investigative tea party. Odd, but okay. This is just some random woman, though. Okay, not exactly random; Deborah supposedly belongs to one of the four great houses. Nevertheless, she has no jurisdiction over anyone or anything for that matter, and Randolph even says as much. He advises her to ignore the “summons.” Constance still insists on attending, however, because, y’know, she’s trying to gather information on her ghostie girl’s death. But when the meeting finally goes down, there is no new information to be had. All we get is Deborah threatening Constance over… um, what, exactly? Pamela’s false accusations? I thought we settled that. And again, what exactly can Deborah and her followers do to Constance? Deborah mocks Scarlett’s death, so is she implying that she can also frame Constance with a similar crime?

Constance will have to infiltrate yet another location, and this time, we’re attending an invitations-only, masked ball. It will be a decadent, immoral party full of guests with secrets — secrets that our girl can leverage to pay off her family’s debts. But first, she will need Scarlett’s old mask, because this will encourage people to come up and talk to Constance. I just find the whole thing a bit silly, because Scarlett’s mask is so indistinct. There’s nothing about it that stands out. You’re telling me that there are still people who would recognize such a plain-looking mask, and connect to Scarlett, a woman who died years ago? Sure.

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?