Return.

Owen: “Hey. It feels like stuff is gonna start getting boring from here, so I’m hanging up now.”

Snow: “Hanging up? Whatever are you talking about?”

Heathcliff: “…Ah. There’s a phone over there.”

Heathcliff pointed towards a small desk that had been tucked away in the far corner of the room.

Akira: “Is there someone on the other end of the line…? Who?”

Owen: “What, you really can’t make a single guess?”

Owen: “Maybe I just wanted to get revenge on the guy who tampered with my body without getting my permission first — all by forcing him to listen to the sound of his old friend’s voice as it trembled with distress.”

Speaking to us as though we were merely toys he’d grown tired of playing with, Owen then walked right out of the room.

Shylock: “…It couldn’t be…”

His face quickly changing colour, Shylock rushed over to the desk and picked up the receiver.

Shylock: “Murr. Is that you?”

Intelligent-Sounding Man: “Hi there, Shylock.”

Intelligent-Sounding Man: “Even a magician who reveals the secrets behind his tricks needs to go about it a certain way, wouldn’t you agree? And now you know everything I still had yet to tell you.”

Shylock: “…Where are you right now?”

Intelligent-Sounding Man: “I can’t answer that question, I’m afraid. Let’s just say I’m in the middle of a game of tag.”

Intelligent-Sounding Man: “I’m currently on the hunt for the scoundrel who spread my reports on the process of creating Alter-Egos throughout town after stealing them from my lab, all while I was wasting away my days in that hospital bed after the grievous injury you left me with.”

Intelligent-Sounding Man: “Three years is the time limit, after all. Regardless of whether or not Kirsche Persche is currently sufficient enough as a solution, the idea of something I created circulating among the masses while still flawed is terribly frustrating to me.”

Shylock: “I see. …I’d tell you to be careful, but I doubt you’ll bother paying me any mind.”

Intelligent-Sounding Man: “I knew you’d understand. Just as I’d expect from you, ‘Shylock’.”

Shylock: “…”

The quiet, still room we all stood in was instead filled with the faint sound of a voice escaping from the receiver in Shylock’s hand.

Shylock’s eyes shimmered with a complicated mix of emotions.

Shylock: “…I have one more thing I’d like to ask you, if you’d be so kind as to listen.”

Shylock: “At his very best, the Murr Hart I’ve always known would have watched me suffer through the most dire of emergencies as an astrologer might observe the distant stars in the night sky.”

Shylock: “I know that’s the sort of man you are. So whyever did you create me?”

Intelligent-Sounding Man: “Because I was asked to, of course. That Heathcliff boy all but begged me to save you.”

Shylock: “…”

Intelligent-Sounding Man: “…Still, I suppose I should admit…”

Intelligent-Sounding Man: “You had always returned from the most dire of emergencies alive and well, up until that point. In the moment, however— I could do nothing but stand there as you slowly yet steadily turned dreadfully cold.”

Intelligent-Sounding Man: “Confronted with such a scene, I… Well, I admit I felt a tinge of regret thinking that the two of us may never exchange words again once you were gone.”

Shylock: “…”

Shylock: “And so you created me, but when it came time for us to exchange the words you couldn’t bear to lose…”

Shylock: “Were you disappointed that I was not the Shylock you’d hoped I would be?”

Intelligent-Sounding Man: “Yes, that’s right. I was disappointed.”

Intelligent-Sounding Man: “Disappointed in myself, that is.”

Shylock: “Yourself…?”

Intelligent-Sounding Man: “You’d developed a tendency to choose your words based on the expressions I wore.”

Intelligent-Sounding Man: “The Shylock I knew would never act like that, nor would he ever want to act in such a way.”

Intelligent-Sounding Man: “Thus, I felt disappointed. Because I had changed the very essence of you as a person.”

Shylock: “…I see…”

Falling silent, Shylock took a deep breath—

And then he smiled, lovelier than even the most beautiful of flowers.

Shylock: “I am Shylock’s Alter-Ego. And while I may not be the person you wanted me to be…”

Shylock: “I love the person that I’ve become, nevertheless.”

Shylock: “Because you don’t want me. Because I differ from who I once was…”

Shylock: “And because a Shylock who doesn’t love himself is no Shylock at all.”

Shylock: “…You love me for much the same reasons, don’t you, father?”

Intelligent-Sounding Man: “…Ahaha! My word, to think you’d ever call me father.”

Intelligent-Sounding Man: “Still, I won’t answer this question either. I wouldn’t be the man you love if I wasn’t the way I am, isn’t that right?”

At that, Shylock put the receiver down with a relieved expression on his face.

Akira: “…Is everything alright now, then?”

Shylock: “Most certainly. My apologies for making you all wait.”

Bowing to us slightly, Shylock then explained as much of the story as he could based on the facts Murr had revealed to him during their phone call.

The man in the black silk hat — the one who had created White for Snow — was probably the same person who had stolen Murr’s Alter-Ego documentation and spread it throughout town.

Murr was now in the process of chasing that man down in order to settle things once and for all.

Without Kirsche Persche, it was only a matter of time before the rest of the Alter-Egos in Vollmond hit their three year limit and began rampaging at night…

Ultimately destined to transform into Lunaset flower petals.

Shylock: “…Thus, I can only assume the true reason Murr came up with the idea for our Fellowship Ceremony was to prevent those he’d created from losing control and running amuck through town.”

Akira: “…So that’s what it was for…”

The intertwining mysteries were all solved, and things were finally starting to make sense.

…That didn’t mean there weren’t still problems we had to deal with, though.

Heathcliff: “…What do we do now that we all know the truth?”

Heathcliff: “Without Kirsche Persche, there’s still a chance every Alter-Ego in town might start going on rampages at some point… Right?”

Shylock: “Unfortunately, you’re correct.”

Shylock: “It is impossible to know how many Alter-Egos are currently living among us, nevermind when their three-year time limit will expire.”

Shylock: “It’s as if they’re being forced to carry time bombs within their bodies, all while unaware of their plight.”

Snow: “Even so, it should be possible for us to live in coexistence with them so long as we can find a way to prevent them from running amok.”

Snow: “Alas, if only it were possible to get them to drink Kirsche Persche on a regular basis…”

It was impossible for us to know how many Alter-Egos had been created up until now, nevermind where they might live.

Akira: (Is there really no way for us to get everyone to periodically drink Kirsche Persche…?)

Akira: “…Oh.”

Shylock: “Is something the matter, Akira?”

Akira: “I think I’ve had an idea… A way we can get all the Alter-Egos in town to drink Kirsche Persche.”

Snow & Heathcliff: “What?”

Shylock: “And what would you suggest we do…?”

Akira: “Well, why don’t we open a bar that explicitly serves Kirsche Persche on its menu?”

Akira: “Instead of us running around trying to find all the Alter-Egos in town, they’ll probably just come to us if we spread the word of this new bar around to everyone.”

Heathcliff: “I see… It certainly isn’t a bad idea.”

Snow: “Still, then the problem becomes who will be responsible for running said bar…”

Akira: “…Well, about that…”

Akira: “I was thinking maybe Shylock could do it— that is, unless it’d be too troublesome for him…?”

Shylock: “Me? Really?”

Shylock looked at me, surprised, but I was already convinced he could do it.

Akira: “Sorry for suggesting you without asking first. But honestly, it feels like you’re the perfect fit for a bar owner, Shylock.”

Akira: “Kirsche Persche isn’t the only thing you’d have to make for people — you could make them warm herbal teas and wines, too…”

Akira: “It just feels like you’re suited to serve drinks from behind a bar.”

Akira: “Plus…”

—

Akira: (And Shylock is there, smiling as I stumble inside…)

Akira: “…Even I might start spreading rumours if something like that happened to me. Of course I’d want to tell people about this miraculous drink that soothed both my mind and my body.”

—

Akira: “I guess I… Imagined Shylock as being the owner of his own bar, once.” 

Akira: “Obviously it was only something I’d made up in my head, but— I’m still convinced that it’s right for you. I just know a bar run by Shylock would be a wonderful place where everyone could feel at ease.”

Shylock: “Akira…”

Heathcliff: “Mister Shylock. If this truly is something that interests you, then of course we’ll do everything in our power to support its success.”

Heathcliff: “We’ll get you anything you could possibly need — and we’ll be sure to spread the word of its existence, of course.”

Snow: “We of Ventisca will do the same, of course. We shall tell everyone we can that it is the only place in the world where one can drink Kirsche Persche.”

Snow: “‘Twould be especially ideal if we were to recommend it to anyone with a history of severe memory loss or forgetfulness.”

The suggestions kept coming, one after another. I looked at Shylock with trepidation.

His red eyes seemed to burn with an unexpected heat, like wine that had been left to simmer.

Shylock: “…I would be more than willing to try. As the first Alter-Ego born to this earth, I owe it to my fellow creations to put in my best effort, at the very least.”

Shylock: “For the sake of creating a place where Alter-Egos and humans can live together in harmony… For the sake of staying true to who I am—”

Shylock: “I will create a special drink that everyone is able to enjoy.”