Gosick Episode 13

Synopsis
Avril and Kazuya leave the cinema after a horror film entitled L'illusion de la Tour Sombre (French: The Illusion of the Dark Tower) has finished. Avril remarks Kazuya's reactions to the movie, while the latter points out that it is the former's strangling that frightened him. They soon talk about the movie, and there, Kazuya admits that he slept halfway into the end of the movie. However, Avril is more intrigued with the masked character in the film, which reminds her of a similar character in one of the books she has read.

The mood soon changes when a group of children playing as soldiers march past them while chanting a song. Kazuya is moved by the song and realizes that the summer vacation is going to end soon. He then wonders about Avril's return to Sauville being earlier than usual. Avril mutters to herself that she feels jealous of Kazuya spending the time together with Victorique, but tries to hide this from him.

Although she slips when Kazuya tells her that he needs to hurry.

A confused Kazuya is then pulled by Avril, who then takes him to somewhere she manages to remember at the last moment.

As a man hastily walks from the gates of Saint Marguerite Academy, Kazuya and Avril arrive. There, Avril points to Kazuya a clock tower eerily similar to the tower in the film. They head to the entrance leading inside the clock tower and there, Avril wonders if the tower is cursed in some way, which Kazuya hopes to be otherwise. Avril then tries to open the door using conventional means, which did not manage to yield any results.

Kazuya prepares to head back to the library, but Avril stops him. Avril then decides to use an unexpected method to open the door — kicking the door using her heeled shoes — and it worked, although it is a bit painful on the heel.

With the entrance now accessible, Avril then explores the inside of the building with Kazuya.

Kazuya initially voices out his doubts about going inside a building that they have no idea about, but Avril's real intentions of keeping Kazuya from returning to Victorique began to seep out of her mouth, although she manages to keep it to herself.

As they climb through the stairs leading to the higher parts of the clock tower, Kazuya feels a bit dizzy, while Avril continues on her thoughts about Victorique and Kazuya. Soon, however, she suddenly loses her balance, and fortunately, Kazuya is able to catch her. Kazuya thinks that it is already time to head back, but the blond girl is stubborn, wanting to explore what she thinks is a real-life replica of the movie's location... which also includes an alchemist's laboratory.

Avril busts through another door, and they discover that they are now at the same room where the girl discovers the masked stranger, with massive gears and a gigantic pendulum hang several meters from where they stand. Also, there are various apparatuses like glass bottles and tubes in a nearby table.

She realizes that it is the ghost story of Leviathan the Alchemist that she remembers in the film they just watched. According to Avril, Leviathan is a masked alchemist that lived 20 to 30 years ago. The apparatuses they saw are part of his workshop in the clock tower, and the Queen of Sauville has allowed him to directly intervene with political affairs. The King, however, is afraid of his powers and ordered him to be executed, but he is revealed to be unfazed even by a volley of arrows... supposedly immortal. Several years have passed, and he has been rumored to reappear in the clock tower.

Avril tries to scare Kazuya by screaming, but Kazuya reveals the hidden detective in him and thinks that the one who made the film might have lots of information regarding Leviathan.

Soon, Avril hears footsteps coming their way, and she and Kazuya is frightened by it, thinking that it is Leviathan coming to get them. However, it turns out that it is their teacher Cecile, who manages to lose her glasses again. It also turns out that students are forbidden to enter the school's clock tower, and Avril and Kazuya are surprised at how serious Cecile has warned them regarding sneaking into the clock tower.

Avril then discovers too late that Kazuya has left her and ran to the library, much to her disappointment. She is annoyed that Kazuya ditched their "date", and is even uninterested to interact with her earlier in the film.

Meanwhile, Victorique discovers that she will be bored longer than usual, with Kazuya late to his visits to her. To try to sate her boredom, she heads to the books below and searches for a interesting read; although without Kazuya to do it in her behalf, she almost fell from the ladder and has a book hitting her head.

Victorique curiously picks up the book that hit her head and opens it, revealing images that pop up like it was alive. She is uninterested by the pop-up book, but she becomes curious of the letter addressed to the reader by a certain Leviathan from 1899. Leviathan appears to be able to communicate to her, or Victorique appears to be easily affected by Leviathan's words. At the end of Leviathan's letter, Victorique is left disgruntled, especially since Leviathan appears to challenge her (the reader) into unravelling his mystery.

What's worse for her is that Kazuya has just appeared, and she instantly knew about Kazuya's rendezvous with Avril.

Kazuya later tells Victorique about his experiences with the story of Leviathan, and the clock tower he and Avril visited. Victorique then explains to Kazuya what alchemists are: they are people who have the ability to transform a certain material to another, like gold, immortality or artificial life. She adds that powerful alchemists possess a pomegranate-colored stone called the Philosopher's Stone.

Victorique thinks that alchemists and people who think about them are "fools of the first caliber".

Summer soon ends, and Kazuya returns to his school uniform.

At morning, Sophie asks Kazuya about an Oriental man and a red-haired man whom she thought was with him yesterday, but Kazuya clarifies that he is with a classmate the whole day. Sophie is disappointed that she was not able to look for someone who can introduce him to the man of her dreams.

Later, Kazuya takes a walk, thinking about the Oriental man Sophie talked about earlier. As he passes by the clock tower, he then sees a black-haired man walking towards the clock tower. He decides to follow the man, who entered the clock tower. Then, when he reaches the workshop at the topmost floor of the clock tower, he stumbles upon the man, sprawled across the floor and struggling to breathe, with his right index finger colored purple. The last words of the man were "the alchemist, Leviathan" before he breathes his last.

The clock tower is later investigated by the police, and Cecile is there to accompany Kazuya. Soon, a man with long elegant blond hair and wearing a white suit approaches him. Cecile is immediately lovestruck by the handsome man coming her way, while Kazuya feels like the man is someone new to him.

He soon reveals his identity by gathering his locks of hair and raising it to form a certain someone's signature hairstyle; it is Grevil all along, who was not able to fix his hair because of how early it was in the morning. Kazuya proceeds to notice how silky his hair is much to Grevil's embarrassment, and even as he and Kazuya head to the scene of the crime, Cecile can't help but notice the scent of flowers on his hair.

As Grevil examines the features of the victim's face, he explains that there has been two people from outside town who visited Sauville last night: an Oriental man with black hair and a man with red hair. Grevil finds out that the victim is the Oriental man, and the red-haired man is requested by the police to join them.

Kazuya then visits Victorique like always, but since he is late, she rewards him with a kick on the shin. Soon, Kazuya relays the additional information they acquire from the scene of the crime, and Victorique finally declares that she will accept Leviathan's challenge and stop his chain of murders.

Victorique then plans to head outside using the elevator, and she decides that Kazuya should use the stairs instead, as she finds the effort he exerts just to reach him as pleasing to her. Kazuya is annoyed by her remark and thinks of racing down the stairs to make a point, but the book that Victorique was reading has taken his attention.

Kazuya opens the pop-up book, and he discovers part of the story that Victorique have read as well.

Leviathan recollects upon his journeys of the year 1899 in the pop-up book. According to him, he manages to discover the item called the Philosopher's Stone in one of his journeys in Winter of that year. As an immortal, he gives up being a traveler two years ago, and became an alchemist, procuring gold and becoming famous throughout Sauville. He is even invited by Queen Coco Rose of Sauville, but he is instead welcomed by guards, swords and a certain Baron Musgrave, the messenger of the King of Sauville, Rupert de Gille.

It turns out that he is suspected to be a swindler, with one of his victims presumably the Queen of Sauville herself, and this has been explained to him by Baron Musgrave's son Ian, the only one who believed in his alchemy. However, the baron did not find any gold, and instead of setting him free, he demanded Leviathan to produce gold; Leviathan accepted the challenge and requested three days for him to create gold.

He manages to create gold, and Baron Musgrave is shocked.

Leviathan is later admitted to a royal audience, where he transforms a white rose into a blue rose in front of the king, the queen and many others. Baron Musgrave is still skeptical of his abilities, but Queen Coco Rose bows to Leviathan to show her amazement to the alchemist's power.

The alchemist's status soon rose as a royal adviser in politics, and he becomes the producer of the country's gold. He also offers eternal youth and beauty to the Queen. However, not everyone is faithful of his abilities.

Two years after his discovery of his abilities as an alchemist, Leviathan discovers that the sins he have committed have been too much for him. However, the sin he committed is much heavier than fooling the King and manipulating the Queen... the greatest sin he has committed has been killing the same person who has believed in him throughout his career as an alchemist: Ian Musgrave.

It turns out that the story inside the pop-up book is a request by Leviathan to anyone who is able to solve his mystery to save him from the sin that he has committed.

As Kazuya reads on, Victorique sets foot on the clock tower, only to find someone grabbing her arm...

Meanwhile, Grevil interviews the red-haired man who is the companion of the Oriental man killed that morning. The man still points out that he is only at the inn at the time of the crime. As for Grevil's question of the man's purpose for coming at the town, he tells the inspector that he is "monster hunting", and he is looking for "le monstre charmant" (French: "the beautiful monster")

Characters
(In order of appearance)
 * Kazuya Kujō
 * Avril Bradley
 * Victorique de Blois
 * Sophie
 * Cécile Lafitte
 * Grévil de Blois
 * Brian Roscoe

New Characters

 * Leviathan
 * Kai Wong
 * Baron Musgrave
 * Ian Musgrave
 * Queen Coco Rose of Sauville
 * King Rupert de Gilet of Sauville

New Locations

 * Saint Marguerite Academy Clock Tower

Cultural References

 * Victorique's explanation of what an alchemist is is a reference to the definition of an alchemist in Fullmetal Alchemist, which is also produced by BONES.

Quotes

 * (by Victorique) "Seeing you huffing and puffing in agony, your out-of-shape thighs straining as you plod up and down the stairs for me... is one of my great pleasures!"