Victorique (pronounced as Victorica) de Blois (ヴィクトリカ・ド・ブロワ Vikutorika do Burowa) is a young girl who studies in Saint Marguerite Academy, although she usually stays in the library of the said school.
She is portrayed as a girl who lives her entire life as an enigma, which Kazuya Kujo began to uncover and solve as he develops his feelings for her.
Appearance
Victorique has the appearance of a small, almost doll-like, girl with long blonde hair and emerald eyes. However, she possesses a voice and articulation in speaking that makes her sound like a matured woman. Despite being a student in Saint Marguerite Academy, she usually wears a black Victorian dress which is full of lace and frills; she also possesses a wardrobe consisting of dresses of varying colors.
Another important part of Victorique's appearance is that she sometimes appears to be smoking a white ceramic pipe that she uses when thinking.
Personality
A stylistic depiction of Victorique's "reconstruction of the fragments of chaos".
Along with her sharp tongue, abusive bluntness and eccentric attitude, she possesses amazing detective skills, which she usually describes as "reconstructing the fragments of chaos using (her) wellspring of wisdom". This, however, does not interfere with the fact that she can also possess a personality of a typical girl of her age: childish, overly curious and fond of sweets. She also reveals her very low tolerance to pain, a result of her inability to step at the outside world.
Her experience in the dungeons of the Blois mansion, along with the absence of her mother Cordelia has caused her to develop a nihilistic attitude. In spite of possessing a brilliant mind, she did not have any knowledge when it comes to love and affection. This gradually changed when she is moved to the library tower of Saint Marguerite Academy, and this change is hastened by her interactions with Kazuya.
She initially treats Kazuya as an entertainer of sorts, usually being dependent on him to cure her boredom by either bringing her something interesting (which at times fails to meet its purpose) or telling her a mystery to solve. The latter eventually puts her and Kazuya into situations that improve their relationship with each other.
Victorique soon shows a more sincere side to showing her emotions to Kazuya.
Background
Victorique was born from a man who belongs to the aristocratic Blois family and a mistress. Because of her status as the illegitimate daughter of the Blois family and due to behavior different from other children, she was raised cut off from the world in the depths of the Blois mansion.
She was then sent off to school under strict orders to never leave the campus, with only direct orders from either the Duke of Sauville or any member of the Blois family as her only tickets to the outside world.
Victorique later finds out that her mother, Cordelia Gallo, is regarded as a criminal in her hometown, called "Village of the Gray Wolves" and goes on a personal quest to clear her mother's name. She succeeds in doing so, however, she is still yet to meet her mother, since her whereabouts are currently unknown.
Plot
Mysteries of the Queen Berry
Victorique is visited by Grevil, who brings along information regarding the murder of a woman named Roxanne. Grevil briefs Victorique regarding the clues discovered and the overall story of the case before the murder (with Kazuya acting as a bridge between them). Surprisingly, Victorique sorts out the culprit of the crime despite being unable to visit the scene of the crime.
She and Kazuya are later invited by Grevil, whose participation in the crime has rewarded him a yacht from the victim's family. Inside, they discover a clue yet to be discovered: an invitation letter addressed to Roxane. Victorique decides to go to the event which Roxane is supposed to attend, which is held in a ship called the "Queen Berry".
In the "Miniature Garden Box Evening", Victorique and Kazuya are put to sleep along with several other participants, and they soon discover that they are put in a death trap. With the help of the surviving visitors, they fend off each threat to their lives - including the other visitors - and Victorique pieces together the different clues that she finds inside the ship. She then exposes the real identity of the ship that they boarded; the Queen Berry is in fact a replica of a real ship of the same name that sunk ten years ago.
With the help of fellow participant Julie Guile, they escaped the ship before it sunk, and upon their arrival on the shores of Sauville, she reveals that Julie Guile is responsible for the deaths of the people inside the ship, who are actually involved with an experiment that used several children from many countries to predict the outcome of the First World War.
Blood-Stained Thread
Victorique and Kazuya meet for the first time after the latter becomes an unexpected witness - and suspect - in the murder of a certain government official.
After giving his testimony to Victorique, she concludes that Kazuya might be the only one possible to have done the crime. However, after Grevil brings a vital clue to Victorique, she changes her conclusion, telling Kazuya about the identity of the culprit, who turns out to have used wire to decapitate the victim. She then asks Grevil to search hospitals for a blond hair and an injured right hand, with the culprit's gender and hair color based on Kazuya's daydreaming.
With the case solved, she becomes Kazuya's first student friend in school.
Avril Bradley's Arrival
Unbeknownst to Victorique initially, Kazuya and the rest of the class had a new student joining them: a girl named Avril Bradley. While Kazuya gets himself a new friend, another case emerges — the case of the skeleton found inside the doors of the crypt located near the school complex. Victorique names the corpse as the professional thief named Kuiaran and his murderer as Millie Marl, a girl who fell in love with him, but is stricken with a terminal disease.
After the events related to Millie Marl, Avril suddenly becomes suspicious in the eyes of Victorique, who has already known that Avril is the now deceased Kuiaran's successor. In addition, she also urges Kazuya to help out the owner of the mysterious voice... who is in fact the real Avril Bradley. This was later confirmed by Avril herself when she was rescued.
Meanwhile, Victorique has to face Kuiaran the Second herself, but she decides to hide in a small compartment while Kazuya becomes the one who confronted Kuiaran. She only comes out at the right moment and drops a stack of books into Kuiaran, rendering her unconscious.
The Village of Victorica's Roots
Victorique hears news about a gathering of the descendants of a certain group of people called "Gray Wolves" from Kazuya and the two eventually travel by train to Horovitz, where they travel to the "Village of the Gray Wolves" by carriage together with three Fine Arts students (Alan, Raoul and Derek) and the nun who was linked to the disappearance of the Dresden Plate earlier.
Initially, they are welcomed with hostility by the villagers, until they were held back by the village elder, who recognizes Victorique as the daughter of a woman who has committed a terrible crime to the village. They are later given accomodations in the village elder's estate.
Throughout their stay, Victorique and Kazuya try to gather information regarding the former's mother, Cordelia Gallo, and soon, find themselves involved in the solving of the murders of two of three the fine arts students in the Summer Solstice Festival. They also find out that Harminia, a fellow chambermaid of the village elder, has killed the former village elder — and Cordelia is merely framed — and Victorique's revelation caused Harminia to unleash her fury to her and Kazuya, who almost lost his life in her outrage.
Victorique, in an unexpected show of strength, held on to the unconscious Kazuya until he is able to hoist himself off the cliff separating the Village of the Gray Wolves and the outside world. After surviving the escape from Harminia's wrath, they return to Saint Marguerite, although Grevil warns Victorique that her days outside the school might be numbered due to what happened.
Kazuya's Journey to Saubreme
Due to an unexpected case of colds, Victorique is forced to stay on bed while Kazuya travels by train to Saubreme, the capital of Sauville. Kazuya soon finds himself tangled in a case without Victorique beside him, and he manages to acquire help in the form of Grevil, the policemen of Saubreme and, later, Victorique herself, who uses the past week's newspapers and Kazuya's information to help solve the case.
When Kazuya returns to Saint Marguerite, Victorique receives a glass slipper as a gift, which she later uses to store her ceramic pipe.
Grevil's Love Revisited
With Jacqueline's return, the past linking Grevil and Victorique is uncovered.
In the past, Grevil has somewhat developed feelings for Jacqueline, whom he has met by chance when they were younger. Several years later, however, after Jacqueline is engaged to be married to Signore, she is involved in the murder of a veterinarian. Desperate to clear Jacqueline's name, Grevil turns to Victorique, and at the cost of the resolution of the case, Grevil is forced to wear his drill-like hairstyle.
Grevil has kept feelings of remorse for Victorique, whom he has seen as a heartless being, not knowing that things have changed inside Victorique ever since that incident.
The Story of the Undying Alchemist
Victorique stumbles upon a pop-up book that tells the story of an alchemist named Leviathan, and also finds out that Kazuya also knew about Leviathan, although in the form of a movie. Kazuya later discovers the body of a man bearing Oriental features after a few visits in the school's clock tower (the first accompanied by Avril Bradley).
It turns out that four other deaths have followed the most recent one, and all of them involved outsiders from the school. Things become more challenging when Grevil orders his investigation team to back out due to the nature of the case being too dangerous. Nonetheless, Victorique pushes on with the case.
With the help of clues gathered by Kazuya and Avril (who is starting to act with jealousy towards Victorique), Victorique finally seals the case by proving Leviathan's alchemy as a hoax and giving the face to the alchemist himself, who is in fact an African man who escaped death and wished to free his people from being Sauville's colony.
Trivia
- Due to ethical issues in portraying young-looking characters which practice smoking, Victorique is instead portrayed in the anime series as using her pipe as a mannerism.
- Some claim that she is younger than Kujo, about 13-14 years old, but managed to get into a higher grade due to her intelligence.
- Victorique's height is 157 cm (about 5' 2") and she weighs 40 kg (88.18 lb). This is quite small compared to other women/girls in her time period.