Santa Claus isn't real so maybe God isn't real too

It is the day of Weston College's annual cricket tournament! It is a day of sportsmanship - and evil, rule-bending gameplay if a Phantomhive is around.

Relevant chapters and episodes:

Chapters 74 to 81.

Episode 53, "His Butler, Gaining Admittance" (S4E5; eve of tournament)

Episode 52, "His Butler, Scheming" (S4E6)

Episode 53, "His Butler, Final Match" (S4E7)

Episode 54, "His Butler, Locking Up" (S4E8; boat parade and party)

Some facts and trivia:

Weston College's cricket tournament is based on Eton College's annual cricket tournament against Harrow School. (Source/Translation)

The Eton vs Harrow tournament does not take place on June 4th though. Yana chose "June 4" as the date for Weston's cricket tournament because Eton hosts a school festival every June 4th. Part of the festivities is a boating procession which served as the basis for Weston's victory boat parade.

Yana and her team met up with Naoki Alex Miyaji, the CEO of the Japan Cricket Association, to learn more about cricket and its rules as well as discuss strategies with him, i.a. the "Sword in the Stone" technique. (Downstairs with Kuroshitsuji, Volume VII (included in Volume 17)).

Miyaji gifted Yana a cricket ball; it is shown on the "table of contents" page of Volume 16. (Downstairs with Kuroshitsuji, Volume VII)

The cricket teams enter the grand dining hall for the eve of tournament celebration in the order of the previous year's tournament ranking.

Bluewer's "Hunter in the Dark" technique was based on The Story of Spedegue's Dropper by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. (Downstairs with Kuroshitsuji, Volume VII)

As our earl and Sebastian tuck into their dinners (I guess Sebastian eats and pretends it's appetizing to him), we return to Modri Vladis, in his hotel suite. He's not hooked up to the IV right now, and he's washing his face

Now we get the impression he's got at least four different voices/personalities in him. One asks if Sebastian is the right one to accuse of whatever happened before, one recognizes the demon's smell, one thinks it's funny to see the demon act like a human, and one is curious about the kid who's the demon's contractor.

With his face now washed, Modri puts his short cape back on and starts to pray at the cross that holds his IV fluids (whatever that is, which might not actually be blood).

He prays for mercy and the tools/ability to kill the demon, as a final act of service for the god he worships.

As I said in a spoiler post, he has cut himself numerous times, for whatever reason, and the needle from the IV looks like a modern "butterfly" needle.

This last panel is very deceptive...

...because in the original Japanese version, what he says here could be better translated as "I'm a deacon/servant, even if it kills me."

I'm quite sure he's not Polaris, despite the similarities. He's got tattoos, whereas Polaris apparently doesn't. He only understands that our earl is the demon's contractor; he doesn't recognize him as real Ciel's younger twin, and Polaris would know it immediately. And the scene with Polaris reporting events at Yorkshire to Undertaker and real Ciel hasn't even quite happened yet, as we go back a few days with the start of each assignment.

Another important thing to note is that the original Japanese version (in an earlier chapter) describes his IV as simply an IV, not specifically a blood transfusion.

I'm really curious which personality is "Modri Vladis" and which one would have been more recognizable to Sebastian. Do all of these personalities originate from this one person, or has his mind been tampered with to make him this way? Is he actually an experiment to see if different souls can co-exist in the same body?

🤔

Promotional illustration for an upcoming Kuroshitsuji Public School Arc x Toshimaen Niwa-no-Yu hot spring resort collab, scheduled to run from October 11th-November 10th, 2024!

We are so back with the borderline nonsensical official Kuro anime art, y'all.

⟡ lawrence bluewer - black butler

⟡ edgar redmond - black butler

⟡ herman greenhill - black butler

⟡ gregory violet - black butler