Phantomhive Manor Murders Arc

Phantomhive Manor Murder Case			Manga Chapters	38-50

The Phantomhive Manor Murder Case Arc is the fifth arc of the Kuroshitsuji manga. This occurs after the Noah's Ark Circus Arc.

Plot

The story begins with Arthur Wordsmith riding a two horse carriage, which he is not used to as he is a commoner. He had received a letter of invitation to a party at the Phantomhive Manor. It then moves onto Ciel talking to Soma over breakfast. It is notable that the newspaper he holds says something of diamond trading in South Africa, where a man died.

Meanwhile, Mey-Rin and Baldroy are complaining about the weather when they are interrupted by the Double Charles, who ask if Earl Phantomhive is in.

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Double Charles

After being randomly attacked, they attempt to fight back. However, they are interrupted again by Sebastian, who brings the two to meet the Earl while serving them tea.

After brief introductions on the Charles' parts, they show a letter to Ciel from the Queen that asks him to host a banquet and entertain a guest who is coming to visit England. Ciel politely objects, since he does not enjoy social events, but is told he has no choice, because of the matter from the "other day", i.e. regarding the matter with the Noah's Ark Circus. Afterwards, Charles Grey asks to stay and supervise at the time. Ciel tells Sebastian to prepare the invitations and contact Lau and the Undertaker while he's at it.

Now Arthur Wordsmith remarks after that incident, his life turned 180 degrees. Years later, he is finally writing about the horrible events that came to pass at the manor, and shows a picture of Sebastian in a gruesome way, blood spilled all over.

Ciel is on the phone with an unknown person, and it begins to rain. Soon after, the party begins.

The guests are Irene Diaz, an opera singer, with her boyfriend/theater producer Grimsby Keane, Carl Woodley, Patrick Phelps, Lau with Ran-Mao by his side, and Wordsmith.

In the lobby, guests are politely chatting as they wait for their benefactor. Wordsmith runs into Lau, and makes small talk. Lau presents Ciel as a scary person, conjuring images of weird, old, pirate-like men, without mentioning Ciel's age, as Ciel comes down the stairs. He politely greets all the guests, and thanks them for coming to his home. As Ciel mentions that the guest of honor isn't here yet, Mey-Rin comes, announcing the arrival of a guest. Georg von Siemens and Charles Grey enter, and they are all introduced, except for Mr. Wordsmith. Dejected, the author/dentist sits down when Sebastian comes up to him, and he admires him for a minute. Ciel Phantomhive takes the seat next to him, and they talk. Arthur is pleasantly surprised to find that the Earl, even though he is a noble, read his work. Ciel comments on how if you are famous, everyone will continuously praise you as opposed to when you are unknown and talented. Grimsby barges on their conversation, remarking about how true what the Earl said was, and asks if one day they could work together, to which Ciel responds, "Right...one day."

Across the room, a scream is heard as Irene asks Siemens to stop harassing her, which leads him to harass her further. She reacts by slapping him, and Siemens is about to throw a glass of alcohol at her. Ciel blocks the lady with his own body, and tells them that is enough. Grimsby becomes extremely angry, however, and throws a bottle at Siemens, but Sebastian flies through the air and makes a pyramid of glasses pouring wine.

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Sebastian pouring the wine

Everyone's moods are lifted. Irene attempts to thank Sebastian, which might show some interest on her part, but Sebastian is too busy with Ciel to bother with her. Grimsby becomes slightly jealous.

While drying him with a towel, Sebastian and Ciel make small talk in French. They make fun of the man, and when Wordsmith laughs at his joke, Ciel puts his finger to his lip, signaling "shush," revealing a slightly playful side.

Master Siemens has fallen asleep, and Ciel says it must be his bedtime too. He leaves with Sebastian, who carries Siemens on his back. Sebastian lightly jokes to Ciel how he's only a child when it's convenient, much to Ciel's annoyance. Later on, whilst the servants are cleaning up, Siemens rings for one of the servants to go to his room.

Mey-Rin and Sebastian go to Siemens's room, where they hear screams. Sebastian breaks open the door, and Siemens is dead, his head tilted and his arm dangling off the chair he was sitting in. Arthur bursts through the crowd, examines the

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"He's Dead"

body, and says: "He's dead!"

After they examine Siemen's corpse, they conclude that he died from blood loss because of the fatal wound on his chest. They begin to move the body to the cellar before its rots until the Yard shows up. Lau then comments on how they may be there for quite a while seeing as there is a storm outside. Woodley complains that he doesn't want to stay where a murder took place but Lau says that its fine since they were all supposed to stay a night. It is then realized that because of the storm, there is a good chance that the killer is one of them.

Lady Diaz then comments on that since the door to the room was locked, the killer broke in through the window. Charles says that if the killer came in through the window they would leave footprints because of the rain. Along with that fact that the room is on the second floor and the window was locked. It is then believed that the killer locked both the window and door from the hallway but this would be unlikely because all the keys to the mansion are in Sebastian's possession and only he knows where they are stored. Since the keys couldn't have been stolen and there is a possibility of locking the room from the inside, it is then concluded that this was a locked room murder.

They then begin discussing their alibis. Lau, Ran Mao, and Woodley were all together in the lounge with Sebastian serving them. Charles, Wordsmith, Grimsby, Irene, and Phelps were all in the billiards room while the servants were all cleaning together. The only one without an alibi is Ciel who is the only one, other than Sebastian, who knows where Siemen's room was and can navigate through the mansion. Lau then suggests possible reasons for Ciel to murder Siemen.

Since the killer is still in the mansion and they are unable to leave until the storm settles, they decide to put Ciel in confinement with Wordsmith. Charles retrieves the handcuffs he uses at work so neither Wordsmith or Ciel can run off in the night. Before leaving, Ciel tells Sebastian to make sure the coke in the hearths don't run out.

While Sebastian is checking the hearth, he seems to discover something. As he is about to say what he has discovered, someone appears behind him.

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Sebastian is then shown waking up Bard to give him instructions for the meals for the next three days. In this process he wakes up Finny and tells him to change the coke in the hearts. He then goes to Mey-Rin to give her an owl that has a letter for someone and to release it at the crack of dawn.

Ciel and Wordsmith are then shown. Wordsmith, having trouble sleeping, has trouble wrapping his head around the fact that Ciel is the same age as his little brother and comments that he looks cute when he is sleeping. Sebastian then comes up behind him with Ciel's pillow saying that this would be his security blanket. Sebastian then, as a joke, asks Ciel if he would like a lullaby much to Ciel's annoyance. Sebastian then returns to his work after Ciel fell asleep so fast.

Sebastian and Wordsmith have a small conversation about how although Ciel is an Earl, he is still a child and how hard it must be on him to be stuck in this kind of situation. Wordsmith then tells Sebastian that he doesn't believe that Ciel is the killer. As Sebastian is leaving, he says: "I'm leaving the young master in your hands."

Wordsmith begins thinking about who may be the killer if it isn't Ciel. He believes that the two most suspicious ones are the servants and the most suspicious out of them would be Mey-Rin and Sebastian because they had found the body first. He starts to think that Sebastian committed the murder because he and Mey-Rin want to run away together. He dismissed the thought and goes to sleep.

He then wakes up to Ciel saying that Sebastian is late waking him up. Tanaka then enters the room with Ciel asking where's Sebastian. Wordsmith and Ciel run to the room where Sebastian is lying on the floor dead. Ciel then begins to order to stop sleeping on the floor and get up, he even goes as far as slapping Sebastian.

Lau then says that it's impossible for the confined Earl to have killed Sebastian and that things have just got interesting.

Prince Soma and Agni are shown at the Town House. Soma is seen looking out a window and begins to worry about Ciel. Agni tries to uplift Soma's spirits by saying that Ciel has Sebastian with him so everything will be alright.

As they begin to examine Sebastian's body they notice he has been stabbed by the poker as well as a blow to the back of the head. Wordsmith proposes that there were multiple culprits. One would get his attention while the other hits him on the back of his head and then the one in front gave the final blow to the front. They decide to move Sebastian's body to the cellar as well. While everyone leaves for the dining hall, Ciel apologizes for losing it and hands over the head butler pin to Tanaka. He then scolds Ciel for being shaken by the death of a servant.

In the dining hall, they all begin eating but Irene says that shes not very hungry so Charles asks for the leftovers. However, when she was handing him her plate, he says he meant the one next to her. They realize that Phelps is missing and go to check on him. When they get to the Earl's bedroom, they find it locked but Charles cuts down the door. Phelps is found on

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The third murder

the ground dead.

The owl that Sebastian entrusted to Mey-Rin is then shown being taken down by something.

After they exam Phelps's body they find two small puncture wounds on his neck. Wordsmith says they could've been from stabbing him or an injection of poison. He then comments that two bite marks to the neck is similar to Carmilla the vampire, but of course, it would be ridiculous and unscientific to suggest it. He then notices that the clock at his beside was on the ground and broken. The clock says 2:38, suggesting that Phelps died around 2:38.

In the drawing room, they begin discussing the times of deaths and alibis for each. Siemen died around 1:10, Phelps died around 2:38, and it is unknown when Sebastian died. When the servants say that they last saw Sebastian at 2:50, this decide he was the last one who died. Since Sebastian is the only one who knew where the key to the Earl's room was it's most probable that he is the killer, but he was killed himself. They begin suggesting ideas for everyone's death. The more probable one being the killer would have something to gain from the deaths.

Woddley then states that Phelps was Lau's business rival. Ciel then asks Lau if does, in fact, carry a needle in his sleeves. Lau pulls it out saying yes he does but it's used in oriental medicine. They begin blaming him for Phelps's death saying that he could've been destroying evidence while he was going through Ciel's closet. He dismisses it saying it's impossible for him to commit a locked room murder from the walk-in-closet.

Wordsmith then makes a chart of all three deaths and everyone's alibis.

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The alibi list

He then says that even if they were working with Sebastian, it's impossible for a single person to commit all these murders. They begin fighting amongst each other until Woodley says he doesn't want to be killed and starts to leave. Ciel tells him to sit down, because he believes that Ciel has had all of this planned out from the beginning. As he begins to punch Ciel, Tanaka restrains him saying that if anyone meant any harm to the Earl, the servants will not hesitate to protect him.

Since Wordsmith is the only one with an alibi for each murder, Ciel entrusts him for making their decisions from now on. Ciel then says that they should thoroughly catch the killer.

As they continue their conversation, Wordsmith proposes the idea that whoever holds the key to the Earl's room and killed Sebastian is the criminal. Charles suggests to check Sebastian's body to make sure that he isn't carrying the key himself. Wordsmith then says that whenever they move they should move in a group and tells Irene, Grimsby and Woodley to stay in the drawing room. Lau and Ran Mao decide to stay as well while Charles says that he won't have anything to do so he'll tag along. When they lift the cloth to see the body, they find Sebastian's body all wet and decide to move him so it won't decay as fast. After examining the body, they find that he doesn't have the key on him so they decide to check his bedroom.

When they get to Sebastian's room, they begin searching places where one might keep valuables, since none of them have really been in his room. Ciel then searches Sebastian's closet finding all the cats he has hid from Ciel. After searching they find no keys within the room. They begin discussing how none of them know where Sebastian had come from, not even Ciel.

Charles then suggests to check everyone's luggage, since he has more authority, he can force them. After checking all the men's luggage, they wait for Mey-Rin and Ran Mao to finish checking the women's luggage. Mey-Rin found a small vial with a dark red liquid inside which she believes could

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The red liquid

be blood from Phelps.

They didn't find the key anywhere so Wordsmith proposes the idea that Sebastian could've thrown it out a window since it's so small it could get buried. Finny, shaken from Sebastian's death, decides to look for it outside along with Mey-Rin and Bard. After Bard convinces Mey-Rin and Finny that what they are doing is insane and that they should be protecting Ciel, Tanaka comes and informs them that they will soon run out of food supplies.

Back in the drawing room, Grimsby says that they should play a game of cards but Wordsmith doesn't want him to go alone because they still don't know who the killer is. Lau then proposes the idea that the unlikely thought of the killer being able to not leave footprints while being in the storm will become likely with the existence of a 13th person. Woodley dismisses the idea saying that there's no chance of that happening. Lau responds saying that if it's true then he could be lurking in the mansion waiting for a chance to pick them of one by one, and that he may not be that far off. While saying that there may be a 13th person who shouldn't exist, there is a loud noise behind the door in the kitchen where the servants are.

The servants are then shown running into the drawing room saying they caught a "suspicious looking guy."

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Jeremy Rathbone

Lau states that even he is surprised that the killer is revealed and then asks for his name. Ciel reveals the man to be Jeremy Rathbone, an adviser to the local church. As his alibi, Jeremy shows Sebastian's owl saying that Sebastian anticipated that he'd be killed and sent a letter to him. To prove that he really isn't the 13th person, he shows a ticket to a play the night of the murders.

After they filled Jeremy in on what has happened since the first murder, he asks to see the bodies, but he must see each body in a different room as the scent may give him a hint to the crime. If they were all together they scents would interfere with each other. After the bodies are moved in separate rooms, he says to show them to him in the order they were killed.

While examining Siemen's body, Jeremy says that he was drinking up until his death and that there was a faint smell of the sea on the body. After examining Phelp's body, who was killed in a different way than the other two, he asks to see the room in which he died in. He than concludes that there were multiple killers. To catch the killer, he says that they need to wait for nightfall and Ciel's cooperation. He quickly exams Sebastian's body and they all leave for the dining room however Charles races back to the room in which Sebastian's body lays and checks to see if he is still there.

While the servants are discussing dinner plans, Jeremy comes to help. He suggests using the soy beans to make hamburgers which will make about 30. As they begin to cook, Mey-Rin remembers that she found a vial filled with a dark red liquid in Irene's bags. She also says that she thought Irene was a vampire because she is twelve years older than Keane but dismissed the idea.

After dinner, Jeremy tells Ciel to take off his clothes so they could catch Phelps's killer. He also says that he can't move at all, and to not make any noises. Jeremy is then seen yelling at the figure in Ciel's bed, who is revealed to be Ran Mao, to step aside as Charles goes in for the kill. However, he is stopped short as Jeremy says that they are an important witness and they need them alive.

Jeremy then reveals to everyone that the killer is a snake.

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The killer

He then says that the snake was most likely trained to kill the Earl when it caught his scent, and if snakes were used, one wouldn't need a key or an alibi. The snake is a Black Mamba and they inhabit South Africa, they have a strong poison and are experienced at climbing trees. This makes it the perfect snake for murder.

Wordsmith then says that importing poisonous snakes is illegal and to be able to get it here means the person would have to have close connections with an African business. Woodley is the first suspect for the killer, but he says that he has an alibi for when Siemens was killed. However, Jeremy says that an alibi wouldn't help his case, because the corpse of Siemen's wasn't actually a corpse. Siemens drank a liquid similar to what Juliet drank in Romeo and Juliet to reach a state of apparent death.

Jeremy then reveals that Siemens drank the liquid and faked his death. However, he was stabbed to death. Wordsmith then proposes the idea that the killer was trying to lure the Earl into a trap. Wordsmith then says that when Sebastian was changing the coke, he found the evidence, and so his alibi wouldn't go up in smoke, Woodley killed Sebastian and returned to his room. After going through the ashes, Grimsby find glass shards. Jeremy then puts then together which looks like an ampule of medicine.

Ciel then reveals Woodley's motive. A top secret plan for a major company in the diamond industry and Ciel's company, The Funtom Company, that possesses the leading technology were to cooperate. However with the death of the president, it was put on hold and if it were to be put into motion, the Woodley Company would receive some damage. To prevent this, Woodley decided to kill Ciel. Charles then arrests Woodley.

Finny then asks what the dark red liquid in Irene's bag was. Jeremy explains that it's the extract taken from the Red Perilla, which has an anti aging effect.

After solving the case, everyone returns home. As Wordsmith is leaving, Jeremy comes up to him to thank him for solving the case. Jeremy then thanks Wordsmith, in French, for taking care of the Young Master. Wordsmith yells at the carriage driver to return to the mansion. He goes back to confirm the truth. Jeremy then reveals himself to be Sebastian.

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Sebastian revealed

Ciel then begins explaining to Wordsmith that Woodley wasn't the criminal in this crime. He then asks Wordsmith how he knew that Sebastian was alive. Wordsmith responds by explaining that both Sebastian and Jeremy were too perfect, they were so perfect that it became strange. He continues to explain what made him think that Sebastian had never really died, such as, he never said one word in Ciel's defense when he was accused. Sebastian explains to Wordsmith that everything was predicted beforehand, such as Siemens being a sacrifice and that he would die.

Ciel and Sebastian go on to explain what had happened between them during the events. They both had known from the beginning that Siemens's death was most likely faked and the evidence was hidden in the hearth. As Sebastian retells the events of the night he was killed, it is revealed that Charles was Sebastian's killer.

After killing Sebastian, Charles left to go the wine cellar, where Siemen's body was, with Sebastian following him. Sebastian then witnesses Charles killing Siemens saying he's an eye sore. Sebastian then prepared the meals, gave instructions to Finny, Bard, and Mey-Rin. He then wrote Ciel a note about the inspection of the heart and slipped it in the pillow he gave him.

As a corpse, Sebastian was able to move around freely with an alibi. He gathered the shards of the ampule and returned with the ticket and owl as his alibi for Pastor Jeremy. For when he had to exam his own body, he had taken Phelps's body and put it in his place. When he was inspecting the body, Ciel got Wordsmith and Charles leave the room saying that he can't see Sebastian's body anymore than he already has.

It's then revealed that everything that happened was Her Majesty, the Queen's wish. Ciel explains this was like his punishment for a little prank of his. Sebastian then says that this would clear the Queen's worries and make sure Ciel is kept out of harm's way.

By showing him is true form, Sebastian scares Wordsmith to make sure he never lets the truth of this night get out. Sebastian explains to Ciel that because he had an eccentric experience, he'll want to write about it.

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Ciel then tells Sebastian that he has yet to explain Phelps's murder. Sebastian reveals that there really was an uninvited guest. Sebastian reveals the guest to be Snake from the Noah's Arc Circus. Snake then says that he wants revenge on "Smile" because he caused the disappearance of the rest of the first tier members, those who treated him like family.

Ciel then offers Snake a job here at his mansion, saying that he's trying to find Joker and the other members and if Snake was with him, he'd be able to see them sooner.

Ciel then asks Sebastian how he will explain his "death" to the servants. Several people are then shown carrying Sebastian's coffin into a church.

Elizabeth, along with Agni, Soma, and the servants, are shown crying over Sebastian's death. As they begin to leave Sebastian's grave, the bell next to it begins to ring. Undertaker then says that if it's ringing, it means he's alive.

After digging him up, Tanaka returns the head butler's pin to Sebastian. They then begin going back to the mansion.

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