Victorique de Blois (ヴィクトリカ・ド・ブロワ Vikutorika do Burowa) is a 15 year-old girl who studies at Saint Marguerite Academy, although she usually stays in the library of the 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 is 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 a variety of 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 (a la Sherlock Holmes).
As a child, her appearance is no different except for the lack of emotion she shows on her face as seen when she spoke to Grevil de Blois especially on the topic of love and affection.
At the end of the anime,her hair turns silver as a symbol for a new beginning. Her hair turns silver due to Marie Antoinette Syndrome.
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, problem-solving, and calculating skills, which she usually describes as "reconstructing the fragments of chaos using (her) wellspring of wisdom". She also posses amazing learning capabilities, such as easily remebering and recalling a large amount of complex information quickly. She seems easily memorize whatever she reads (as shown how easily she showed Kujo the exact book he wanted, in the huge library, and the exact page, despite seemingly reading it once long before meeting Kuju), and later quickly recall whatever information she desires from her wellspring. She learned minutiae, languages, and complex information quickly without need for repetition. She can also read extremly quickly, and can easily read multiple books in multiple languages simutainiously. Kujo once saw her read a book in advance french while also reading a book in advance german while understanding both with no trouble.
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 which her brother would often use to hurt her. 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 (such as in episode 3 anime: When it was apparent that Kujo was in danger, she was evidently
worried about him, as she pleaded Kujo to stay with her, because she wanted to return home with him), to the point they soon became good friends.
Victorique soon shows a more sincere side to showing her emotions to Kazuya, even telling him to protect her.
Background
Victorique was the product of the forced childbirth of Cordelia Gallo, who was sought by Marquis Albert de Blois due to her Gray Wolf bloodline. In order to prepare her for the upcoming "second storm", she was raised cut off from the world in the dungeon of the Blois Mansion, where her intelligence is honed through constant exposure to reading material.
She was then sent off to Saint Marguerite Academy in the year 1922[1], with the teacher Cecile Lafitte acting as her attendant and guardian. Under strict orders, Victorique stayed inside a small house built just for her inside the campus, only being allowed into the outside world with direct orders from any member of the Blois family. At times, Victorique would stay at the botanical gardens of the library.
Plot
The Golden Fairy Saves the Dark Reaper
Kazuya goes to Victorique after Grevil declares that he is a suspect in the murder of a motorcyclist. Kazuya was actually a witness to the murder when he was just passing by.
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 orders 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.
Mysteries of the Queen Berry
Victorique is visited by Grevil, who brings along information regarding the murder of a woman named Roxane. 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 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, to a weekend vacation. Inside, they discover a hidden clue: 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 caught in a death trap. With the help of the surviving visitors, they fend off each threat to their lives- including the other visitors- as 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 were involved with an experiment that used several children from many countries to predict the outcome of the First World War.
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 becomes suspicious in the eyes of Victorique, who already knew that Avril is the successor of the infamous thief Kuiaran. In addition, she also urges Kazuya to help out the owner of the mysterious voice he heard in an abandoned storehouse in the school's premises, 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 Victorique'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 Sergius, 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, another chambermaid of the village elder, has killed the former village elder — and Cordelia was 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 Saubrème, 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
Jacqueline de Signore unexpectedly meets Victorique as 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's feelings of remorse for Victorique were reawakened, as he has seen Victorique 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 former 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.
Inside Beelzebub's Skull
Autumn soon arrives and Victorique receives orders from her father Albert de Blois about being taken to a convent in Lithuania, where she will stay for a longer period. The urgency of the order has left her unprepared, and the only thing she sent to Kazuya via Cecile is a letter with the word "Idiot" written on it before she travels to Lithuania by train.
In her stay in the mysterious "Beelzebub's Skull", she stays at the topmost room, where she eventually did not accept anything offered to her. This continued for several days until Kazuya stumbled upon where she was with the help of someone who looks exactly like her. With Kazuya accompanying him, she finally goes out and joins the festivities of the Phantasmagoria festival.
A series of sudden events soon put an abrupt end to the festival: Simon Hunt's bloody death, the emergence of Brian Roscoe and the flooding of the Beelzebub's Skull. Kazuya rescues her from being swallowed by the waves and they head off to the train ride back to Sauville.
Joining the Masquerade Ball
Unbeknownst to Kazuya, he will be dragged alongside Victorique in a "masquerade ball" consisting of four strangers who call themselves "The Orphan", "The Scarecrow", "The Knight", and "The Woodcutter". She will soon discover that the four strangers consist of spies from the Science Academy and the Ministry of the Occult that are on the hunt for a mysterious item called the "Memento Box", an item that went missing in the Beelzebub's Skull.
With Victorique's clever thinking, she manages to hold on to the Memento Box and avoid the bloodshed between the spies of opposing sides. In addition, she helps "The Woodcutter", whose younger sister is taken hostage by the Ministry; meanwhile, she takes a vital piece of the Memento Box to herself.
Sauville's Greatest Unsolved Mystery
Victorique receives another request from Marquis Albert de Blois, involving her in the solving of "Sauville's Greatest Unsolved Mystery". In spite of not being able to find Kazuya, she accepts the offer and is joined by Grevil to a trip to Saubrème.
Eventually, Victorique finds herself in a bind, with all the evidence provided by the Ministry insufficient for her to create a decent conclusion. Eventually, Victorique would be rescued by Brian Roscoe and Kazuya Kujo.
Kujo's presence and his own investigation was able to help Victorique in solving the case. They would discover the connections between the disappearance of Nicole Leroux and the rumors of a change in Queen Coco Rose's personality to the queen's murder.
Victorique concludes that the case involves two body doubles (Coco Rose's maid in the first murder, Nicole Leroux in the second) and the culprit is none other than King Rupert de Gilet, who perpetrated the crime of passion due to the discovery of a mulatto child born from the alchemist Leviathan and his wife.
Christmas and the Spark of Civil Unrest
Victorique has revealed that she was born on Christmas Day, and Kazuya prepares on a gift for her: a gold necklace with a coin-shaped pendant, a similar accessory as Cordelia's gift to Victorique years ago. Meanwhile, she decides to give the ring that she received from Cordelia on the trip in the Old Masquerade to Kazuya, a surprising decision from Victorique.
That night would later become their last day together as King Rupert decreed that all non-citizens of Sauville are to be repatriated to their respective countries. After a group of protesters who worship the "Monstre Charmant" cause panic in the capital, Kazuya would later land in the hands of the Ministry and he will be used as a hostage for Victorique to follow yet another of the Ministry's orders.
The Search for Kazuya Kujo
Victorique would stay for several months under the supervision of the Ministry of the Occult, and she would act as the Ministry's adviser for future actions. However, at the day of the inauguration of Marquis Albert de Blois as the first Prime Minister of Sauville, she was taken away by Brian Roscoe's twin while Cordelia Gallo confronts Albert de Blois under the disguise of her daughter.
The hateful of the Brian Roscoe twins soon attempt to murder Victorique, whom he was jealous of, and he ends up badly injured. Nonetheless, he still pushes on to take Victorique on a cruise ship, where she would travel to Japan.
She eventually reached Japan, and the long search for Kazuya's home begins. Her intelligence and Kazuya's letters were able to help her in pinpointing the Kujo residence's location, and Kazuya's sister Ruri becomes her companion in Victorique's stay in Japan.
Four years after, Kazuya would return to his hometown, and he becomes reunited with Victorique.
Trivia
- Victorique's height is mentioned to be 140cm (about 4'6) in the novel (and manga). However, she seems to be taller in the anime, estimated to be 152.4 cm (about 5' 0") and 155cm (5'1") with heels. She weighs 40 kg (88.18 lb). Both numbers are quite small compared to other women/girls in her time period.
- Victorique's birthday is December 25, 1910.
- In spite of the fashion trends in the 1920s, Victorique still wears outfits reminiscent of the decades of the 19th Century. It is assumed that the Blois family provided Victorique with hand-me-downs.
- Among Victorique's favorite food are French delicacies called macarons.
- 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.
- The proper romanization of Victorique's name has brought confusion amongst fans due to disparity between its pronunciation and spelling. The only accepted spellings for Victorique's name are Victorique and Victorica. The former has been written in the anime series, and has been referenced in the light novels as a boy's name; on the other hand, the latter is the released romanization of her name in the released drama CD for Gosick.
- Although, because this is supposed to be a French name, it should be only pronounced as Victorique and not Victorica.
- In the latter part of the series, a possible explanation for Victorique's sudden change of hair color is Marie Antoinette Syndrome, a sudden whitening of the hair caused by abrupt events that cause stress and depression. The phenomena was named after the observation that the hair of unhappy and ill-fated Queen Marie Antoinette of France turned stark white the night before her execution in the French Revolution. Another possible explanation (rumored) is that she bleached her hair on purpose to hide from the people searching for her.
- Like many other anime characters, Victorique entered Saimoe Contests .
- To see her result, visits here: http://saimoe.wikia.com/wiki/Victorique_de_Blois
- To vote for her, visit here when the match is on: http://www.internationalsaimoe.com/voting/
References
- ↑ GosickS Volume I, Prelude: "The Grim Reaper Discovers a Golden Flower".