spoiler
Just when Erec is ready to go after Kon again, he receives orders to stand down. That must have annoyed him to no end! Meanwhile, our friends are preparing to leave in the sky boat. Kon realizes that this may be their last time together and I think that is making him a little sad. He still doesn’t think Ecarlate should marry, but Marian is already teaching her the rituals for her wedding ceremony. Kon doesn’t think much of that either – not with Marian as a teacher!
The sky boat departs, but with an extra passenger. Variation is aboard, disguised as a member of the crew. Now, why is he doing this when Incognito is basically under house arrest? He’s taken upon himself to take matters into his own hands. This can’t be good!
Ecarlate is still in her mood and Marian, in trying to snap her out of it, only irritates her more. Variation spies Kon jumping on the bed in his room in his underwear and thinks he’s a little old to be doing such a thing. But then how does he know how much it hurts when Kon hits his head on the ceiling? Then he watches him doing a couple of other things, including mooning out the window. Variation may think he’s a moron, but he just missed a perfect opportunity to push Kon out of that open window and get rid of him once and for all. Wouldn’t that have made Erec happy?
When Kon pees out the window, Variation bursts into the room and yells for him to stop. Once Kon is dressed, Variation enters the room again, but in a further disguise. And it’s the ridiculous carrot-nosed one too! Kon voices his opinion of the upcoming marriage and Variation realizes that Kon is against it. But he also thinks Kon is naïve. At one point, Kon is suspicious of Variation – he feels like they have met before. “And not just once! Again and again!” As he tells Variation that he has definitely seen his nose before, Variation shoots him! I really didn’t think Variation had it in him! I wonder if there is really lethal ammo in that gun of his.
Variation continues his hunt for the princess, but Nabokov is already being informed that there is an intruder on board – and that he may be a member of Incognito! Nabokov knows he’s probably there to kill Ecarlate and not wanting to anger the Ulga Sorority, he decides to do nothing but observe. What a slime!
Variation next comes upon Sainglain playing with an imaginary kitten in his room. Of course Variation has no idea what Sainglain is doing but finally realizes he’s playing “air-cat”. Of course Variation thinks he’s nuts and just has to interrupt him. He enters the room once again in disguise. Sainglain is also concerned about the marriage although it isn’t his place to question it. However he feels that Ecarlate is like a daughter to him and wants her to be happy. Oh – and he also hopes that Nabokov is a cat lover! Now Sainglain sees Variation as someone familiar and also recognizes his fake nose. Variation shoots him as well.
Variation meets Marian and Pet in the hallway and asks her if she too is opposed to the marriage. Marian wants Ecarlate to be happy be happy as well. She starts carrying on about love and duty and Variation doesn’t understand her either, until she mentions his disguised nose. Of course then he has to shoot her too and when Pet tries to attack him, he gets shot as well.
Variation leaves the bodies in the hall and boldly enters Ecarlate’s room. She asks Variation if he’s come to kill her and he calls her “clever”. Once he removes his cheap disguise, Ecarlate recognizes him as a member of Incognito. He sits across from her with his gun carefully aimed, but he wants to “talk” before killing her. Ecarlate thinks Variation is taking a stupid risk, so he tells her that he’s already killed her friends, so no one will be saving her. He keeps calling her a brat and Ecarlate threatens to cut off his head. Of course Variation can’t take her seriously.
Kon has woken up! I didn’t think he was dead or the story would have been over. I guess the bullet was lethal after all, but it was stopped by all the dirty magazines Kon hid in his shirt. He suddenly realizes that Ecarlate may be in trouble and runs to her aid. He stops at Sainglain’s room to find him just waking up too. He was saved by a gold coin hidden in his chest pocket. Together they run and find Marian and Pet in the hallway. Marian was saved by the iron padding in her bra and Pet hid a sheriff’s badge under his hide. Wait – he’s a sheriff???
The group continues to Ecarlate’s room only to find the door locked. Sainglain breaks it down and they find Ecarlate face down on the bed. As they rush to her, calling her, they think she’s dead when she doesn’t respond. She finally wakes up and tells them to shut up – she was trying to sleep! The friends are relieved, but what happened? Where is Variation?
When questioned, Ecarlate isn’t sure how she survived either. She guesses it’s because Variation asked her why she agreed to the marriage. She told him that it was worth it to sacrifice her life to save others and prevent war. If she is killed there are others to replace her and the marriage will proceed. But there is still no guarantee that this marriage will prevent war. Variation agrees and asks her why she would marry despite all of that. She tells him that a “human sacrifice is needed” and Variation thinks she’s pretty insightful for a kid. However, Ecarlate tells him that is her “diplomatic” answer, so Variation now wants to know her personal reasons. She tells him that it’s hard to list her reasons and that sometimes she’d like to run away. Variation feels that she is wise beyond her years and Ecarlate tells him that she is actually a little relieved that she is to die.
Variation smiles and lowers his gun. He says he quits and being a sadist, he doesn’t want to make her happy. He opens the window and tells her that he will “lend” her a life but may take it back someday. He jumps out the window and as he clings to the side of the sky boat, he isn’t all that surprised that Ecarlate’s friends survived as well. As they continue their talk, Ecarlate sees Variation outside her window, equipped with a parachute. Kon keeps bugging her about what happened as Variation safely makes his landing.
The sky boat arrives at Jugglaburk and Kon thinks his journey is over. He asks what will happen next. He’s told that the wedding won’t take place for another month as Ecarlate performs her eighteen pre-wedding rituals and Kon seems a little happy that they will all be together a little while longer. Of course that also means that there’s also plenty of opportunities for Incognito to come after them again!
