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Introduction
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Château de Sorcière — The Witch and The Youth is the twenty-nineth chapter of Jun Mochizuki's The Case Study of Vanitas.
This article contains plot and/or ending details for The Case Study of Vanitas.
Read at your own risk.
Summary[]
Jeanne is in total shock. Vanitas continues to hold both Dante and Johann at knifepoint. Jeanne, pale, speaks what she knows of the situation: the Beast of Gévaudan was a curse-bearing Vampire who killed countless amounts of people during the incidents of the eighteenth century. As a result, Ruthven and the Church both tried to dispose of it, and there wasn’t anything else to the story. At least, that’s what she knows. In her mind spin the images of the Beast of Gévaudan and the Chloé whom she knew from her memories. Vanitas sternly calls Dante’s name. Dante remains tight-lipped and pale. Vanitas stares then sighs and callously mourns their short business relationship. He tightens his hold on his knives and Dante flusters, telling him to wait. A growl catches Vanitas’s attention. Johann threatens that if meddles with his “family” Johann will kill him. Vanitas dares him to try, lest two Dham corpses will be lying in the snow at the end of the day. Both of them stare one another down, both of their pairs of eyes filled with endless murderous intent. Dante snaps to stop and listen to him. He scolds Johann too for acting so scary.
Dante stares at Vanitas. Vanitas stares back unwaveringly. Dante breathes out a deep sigh. He holds up his hands and relents on telling everything. Johann tries to caution him but Dante snaps that he’s already decided on talking, all the while Jeanne watches them with apprehension. Vanitas retracts his knifes and is satisfied. As the two Dhampirs bicker behind them, Vanitas asks if the “Silver Witch” Dante spoke of was the Chloé she knew. Jeanne flinched, then admitted it to be true. Vanitas then asks Jeanne to show them the way to where Noé had been taken as she probably knows. Jeanne protests that she had no intention of staying with their group any longer. Vanitas is exasperated and says despite their differing goals, Jeanne must be interested in Dante’s information as well. Jeanne goes still. She remembers her own words: Bourreaus are tools and simply need to do as they are told. Jeanne clutches at her chest and hesitates. Dante asks why Jeanne knows where Noé and the Witch would be, and Vanitas snaps at him to shut up and to explain everything on the way there. Dante is irritated and asks why Vanitas is so agitated. Vanitas denies this and asserts that they have no time to waste. Dante stares at him, then remembers Vanitas talking about Noé’s toughness, and grimaces in exasperation, wishing he would just be straightforward. Vanitas’s expression is annoyed and clearly hiding his worry.
Roughly eight hours earlier.
Noé is completely red in the face. He has his back against the headboard of the bed and is clutching a pillow like a shield. A shadow advances on him and he weakly tries to protest. His resistance does nothing. Noé, forced onto his back and panicking, frantically begs for the pillow back. Chloé, sitting on top of him and tossing the pillow away, matter-of-factly retorts that the pillow doesn’t belong to him. Noé says that’s not what he meant with his request. Chloé, face totally impassive, asks for another mouthful of his blood. Noé tries to assert once again that she can’t drink blood without consent, but Chloé only complains about how noisy he is. Noé tearily begs her to listen to him. His head is spinning; perhaps it’s because of the fact that she had already drunken his blood, but he feels weakened and can’t push her away despite their difference in size. Chloé advances further on him, undeterred, fangs going for his neck. Noé cowers and tries to brace himself for the bite—
Chloé is bodily lifted off of him. Noé’s teary eyes snap open. Chloé looks up at the young man who did so, who scolds her for forcibly taking blood from someone unwilling. Noé wonders who he is, then realizes he doesn’t care because he’s just been saved. Then, the young man clutches Chloé possessively to his chest and glares pure death at Noé, saying that he’s so jealous that Chloé had drunken Noé’s blood that he might just strangle Noé to death. Noé goes pale with fear. Chloé, referring to the man as “Jean-Jacques”, calls him adorable for being jealous and playfully taps his nose. Jean-Jacques in return asks Chloé whose blood tastes better, his own or Noé’s. Chloé laughs at such a silly question and answer Jean-Jacques’s, “obviously.” Noé is even more dazed. As the two of them continue to be wrapped up in one another, Noé clutches the sheets around his shoulders, pale with confusion. Noé feels a bite on his leg, and he looks down to see an angry Murr chomping on his shin. Jean-Jacques tells Noé that he found Murr wandering in the snow and decided to bring him along. He flings Noé’s clothes at him, tells him he’d dried and mended them, and orders Noé to come down once dressed. They instantly leave.
Noé is left alone in the room, holding his clothes, Murr gnawing furiously on his leg still. Noé breaks out into a cold sweat. He realizes the two of them saved him, mended his clothes to look brand new, brought Murr along, and placed him in a warm bed to rest in. His eyes shine as he admires what good people they are. He thinks of them, Chloé and Jean-Jacques, and realizes where he recognizes the former’s name from—Jeanne had shouted it out while she was fighting with the Beast of Gévaudan. He then wonders if Chloé, that small girl with pale hair, is in fact the Beast. Noé puts on his clothes and looks out the window of his room, gazing out into the snowfall from the tall, imposing castle that he sits in. He worries if Vanitas and the rest of their companions are okay. He purses his lips and decides to ask Chloé and Jean-Jacques about the situation for now. He and Murr leave the room and Noé marvels at all the great machinery filling the whole residence. He continues down the corridor of the Château d’Apchier.
Back with Vanitas’s group, all four of them continue down the way to where Noé and Chloé can be found. Jeanne takes the lead while the rest follow behind, and Dante tells his story as they go on. Dante asks what they know of the d’Apchier family, and Vanitas sarcastically replies: only the information held in the materials Dante gave him. Dante twitches. Vanitas recalls that they had all died out due to the Beast of Gévaudan incidents, and Jeanne looks back at him. Dante confirms this and elaborates on the details. Herman d’Apchier, the Marquis at the time, had been killed along with his son by the Beast while hunting. His wife killed herself afterwards as if to follow her husband and son. All their other relations also died soon after in varyingly suspicious ways. As a result, people would say the d’Apchiers had been wiped out by the “curse” of the Beast. Vanitas asks if there’s more to the story than meets the eye. Dante, pale, confirms he’s heard of much more than just that.
Noé reaches the end of the corridor and comes upon a room, one of the only ones lit up which he’s seen. From it he hears music playing and people talking. He peers in through the crack in the doors and sees Chloé speaking to someone and Jean-Jacques seating her at a table. Noé realizes there are other people present besides those two, and he makes to go in. He politely interrupts as he enters, but stops in his tracks. Noé is stunned by what he sees.
Chloé and Jean-Jacques are the only live people at the dining table. Everyone else are automatons with instruments for heads.
“Ah. Do come in, child.” Chloé beckons him forward.
Noé stands at the door, facing the eerie sight with an unnerved expression. The automatons creak and play their music, filling the air with a discordant melody played by a lifeless orchestra. Noé listens to the music with growing horror. Dante tells Vanitas, the Marquis d’Apchier and his family were doing their own research on the World Formula after the Church banned it. Noé observes that the automatons have mechanical fingers and appendages that press and pluck and play with the instruments placed on their heads. Chloé smiles at him from the head of the table and Jean-Jacques stands at her side impassively. Chloé speaks to the automaton at her left with the saxophone for a head, referring to it as “Herman,” and introduces Noé as the one she’d found outside during a blizzard and decided to bring home. Noé stares at her, completely unnerved, and asks how she knows his name. Chloé tells him that she had heard it from “her.” An ominously dark energy fills the air like black smoke from burning flames, an aura extremely familiar to Noé.
Dante explains that after their research, the d’Apchiers created a “World Formula Alteration Device” which eventually went on to create the Beast of Gévaudan. Vanitas absorbs this information.
Noé’s eyes turn red and his fangs start to come out, as Chloé beckons Noé to take a seat and dine together with all of them, including the being who is wrapping her arms lovingly around Chloé’s head.
Characters[]
(*) - Denotes that the character did not appear physically, but as a part of another character's memories.
Terms[]
Trivia[]
- Château de Sorcière is literally translated as "castle of the witch" from French.
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| v - e - t | The Case Study of Vanitas Chapters |
|---|---|
| Parisian Excursion Arc | 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 |
| Bal Masqué Arc | 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 |
| Hunters of the Dark Arc | 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 |
| The Beast of Gévaudan Arc | 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30 • 31 • 32 • 33 • 34 • 34.5 • 35 • 36 • 37 • 38 • 38.5 • 39 • 40 • 41 • 42 • 43 |
| Amusement Park Arc | 44 • 45 • 46 • 47 • 48 • 49 • 50 • 51 • 52 • 53 • 54 • 54.5 • 55 • 55.5 • 56 |
| Miel Incident Arc | 57 • 58 • 59 • 60 • 61 • 61.5 • 62 • 62.5 • 63 |
| Intermissions | 15.5 • 46.5 • 51.5 • 60.5 |
| Volumes | 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 |
| Omake | Romance is a✰LOVE MISSION |
| Other | Vanitashu no Karute • Author's Notes |