Episode 20




 * A synopsis of Episode 20, titled Enter the Performers ("Enja nyuujou" (演者入場).

Synopsis

 * Upon learning about the documents that incriminate Marquis Paul, Major Connery mobilizes State Section I to go to all the media organizations and get back those documents. However, because Connery is more interested in where these documents came from, he is willing to let the Marquis die so that the suspects will be charged and he can get the information he wants from them.


 * Over at the party, Lionel gets Alice to dance with him, but she accidentally steps on his foot. Lionel doesn’t mind that, though he does notice that she’s troubled by something and wonders if it’s a tall man because of the way she keeps looking above him. This causes Alice to start talking about Oland, but she feels that he’s not truly that strong or big because he’s not someone who wants to fight with others.


 * At that time, Oland is in the forest and has come face to face with the men who attacked him. He tries to run away, but he gets hit in the back with a large hammer and falls to the ground. As he reaches for his gun, Oland wonders why he has to point it at the people he was trying to feed earlier. Fortunately for him, Oreldo arrives just in time to beat up the thugs, but Oland falls unconscious while this is going on.


 * In his dreams, Oland is standing naked in a sea of blood with many hands reaching up to drag him down. At first, he feels it’ll be okay because Alice will come and he’ll wake up, but he soon starts to panic when Alice doesn’t appear and the urge to kill does. Oland eventually does wake up and finds himself back at the food stand that they had set up.


 * From the documents taken off the two men, Martis can see that Marquis Paul has indeed been embezzling, but Oreldo still thinks that the civilian men’s plan will fail because 1st Section will confiscate the documents and pressure the media so that no one ever finds out. Of course, the men have the assault on the party planned too, which Oreldo soon learns about it from Oland. The men are ready to die for their cause, but Oreldo makes them realize that the 1st Section will probably torture them and everyone they know in order to find out who leaked the information. With time running out until the party gets attacked, Oreldo and Martis prepare to head out in the car. Oreldo doesn’t want Oland to come because he’s injured and because if Oland dies, the two men they’re holding would become murderers. Hearing this, Oland punches himself in the head so that he can truthfully claim the wound it self-inflicted.




 * Back at the party, Lionel is asking if he can escort Alice to her bedroom tonight so that the young lion can become king by driving away the other males. Instead of addressing the actual request, Alice comments on how there’s no calculations or sarcasm behind Lionel’s words and how he won’t be satisfied until he wins over the person he’s talking to. Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Marquis Hoost that everyone likes and many have recommended for an important political post. Alice suddenly gets that feeling on her neck and urges everyone to get away from the windows right before the civilian men attack. Hearing their leader call this an act of justice, Alice steps in to protect Marquis Paul and questions the use of the word justice. At that time, Oland is rushing to the party with Oreldo and Martis, and he wonders what he should have done instead of pointing his gun at those civilians. Oreldo makes him realize that they’ve all been through it, especially Alice when she first started war relief. By now, Alice has been shown the leaked documents incriminating Paul, and the leader of the men expresses his disgust with the nobles. When he reveals that his own son is already dead from a cold, Alice is at a loss for what to say other than an apology.


 * Alice’s sisters Solice and Elis then try to get her to escape with Lionel, but she refuses to go. She soon hears the shouts of some familiar voices, and her 3rd Section arrives by driving the car into the mansion. Oland ends up taking a bullet that was aimed for Paul in the shoulder, but he’s more enraptured by the sight of Alice in a dress. When she realizes what he’s looking at, she gets embarrassed and slaps him.


 * Marquis Paul is glad that the military is here, but Oreldo explains that they’re not here to save him. Rather, they have the documents and want to take Paul back to headquarters. However, Paul’s bodyguards point out that Section III doesn’t have the authority to arrest anyone. With the commoners getting riled up again and ready to become violent, Alice gets everyone to shut up and pay attention by throwing her glove at Paul’s face. Since Section III can’t arrest him, she challenges him to a duel as a noble.