#kinayapp

I saw people asking why Elias didn't transport MC and Alan with the rest. Tbh, he actually explained that to everybody at the end when they were at Darkwick handing in their reports.

Did he lie? Absolutely, but it was still for the mission.

First, he explained to Ritsu that he had a bad feeling from the start. Seeing how Taiga seemed to be aiming for the Rogue route, he simply went along with it because he trusted Taiga to have a plan. As many people have theorized that both Elias and Taiga have memories of different timelines or a time loop, it would be natural for him to trust Taiga to have a plan.

Also, there could be a case where Elias knows about Taiga's stigma, or at least has some hints about it, which is why he decided to support Taiga a bit.

If you pay attention to Deadly in Love (1), you'll see that every time Taiga made comments about the anomaly host's game rules, Elias was quick to back him up, and so was Haku (we know Haku and Taiga are close in some way. They tend to send Haku with Taiga on inter-House off campus missions). So Elias likely knew Taiga had a plan right from the beginning.

He also mentioned that he had a hint that the anomaly host could only monitor them through the cameras when Taiga destroyed one during the card game trial.

Now, he explained that he transported everybody in order to prevent MC from picking the right Suitor because it would trigger the Suitor Ending and likely ruin the plan Taiga had.

He knew Alan was the Rogue. That's why he left him behind with MC to trigger the Rogue Ending.

"But why did he keep denying that he knew who the Rogue was?"

Well, I think it's simple.

The one who knew Alan was the Rogue was actually Sho. When he followed the director, who at the time was one of the anomaly's puppets, he was able to grab the script and see that Alan was supposed to be the Rogue.

"Why didn't Sho say anything about that?"

It could have been something that happened at the last minute, and he didn't get the chance to tell anyone. Or maybe he understood Alan well enough to know that Alan would never lie. So he believed Alan genuinely didn't know he was supposed to be the Rogue.

Next, how did Elias know?

I'd say Elias had some hints because he literally heard the staff panicking that the Rogue card was nowhere to be found and that they had messed up MC's and Alan's cards.

But if you remember the order in which everyone came to take their cards, the staff panicked when it was Ritsu's turn (Ritsu said Alan and Elias were the last 2 to receive their cards).

By the time Alan and Elias had taken their cards, and there were 4 people before them: Ritsu, Taiga, Sho and Haku.

So Elias had to do some inclusion-exclusion math to figure out who exactly the Rogue was. Since that ghoul likely didn't even know they were the Rogue, it became a bit of a hit-or-miss situation, so he had to observe more. He knew the staff had messed up the cards, but he didn't know exactly who had received the Rogue card.

Also, during the final trial about lying and all that, Taiga called out Elias for blatantly lying when Elias said he had no idea who the Rogue was. Taiga earned points, so that means Elias lied, right?

But Elias later tried to explain to MC that he didn't lie and that he didn't know who the Rogue was. I don't know why he had to lie to MC.

I understand why he lied to Taiga though. He likely knew and wanted Taiga to call Doubt on him so Cupid would shoot the arrow, knowing Sho would do something about it and end the trial right there. He also might have wanted Taiga to earn more points. Who knows?

BUT after rereading the episode so many times, I came to a different conclusion.

Elias used the last trial to confirm his suspicions about who the real Rogue was among the 5 ghouls. He likely had a hint that the person didn't even know they were the Rogue, and he also considered the possibility that there could be more than one Rogue. So he used the trial to strengthen his theory and narrow down who was most likely the Rogue. In the end, he concluded that it was Alan.

So, in a way, you could say Elias directly used the trial and indirectly used Taiga's ability, combined with the clues he had already gathered, to figure out who the real Rogue was.

I can also see why he said he wasn't sure because he genuinely wasn't. For example, he also mentioned the possibility that there could be more than one Rogue.

It could be possible. Sho only mentioned that he saw people's roles and saw Alan's role as the Rogue (he said he flipped through the script). He never specifically said Alan was the only Rogue. But whatever, we probably don't need to go that deep into the script anyway.

So Elias might have only been 60/40 convinced that Alan was the Rogue.

"Then why didn't he say anything? Why leave Alan behind?"

I don't know, but I'd say it's because he knew there were anomalies wandering around. So leaving Alan behind, whose stigma can rearrange those anomalies' organs, was probably the better idea. Alan could protect MC while buying time.

He also wanted the anomaly host to reveal Alan as the Rogue because he needed the ending to be triggered.

It could also be that he needed to explain the situation to everyone else before they moved back to the main hall, so he had to teleport with them while leaving Alan behind.

In conclusion, Alan and Taiga were both important to his plan, which is why he did what he did.

I trust Taiga and Elias trusts Taiga. Therefore, I trust Elias' actions and motivations. He has reasons for not telling certain things, just as much as Haku and Taiga do when they don't want to talk about certain things.

As I've mentioned several times before, Elias is very strategic and resourceful. He observes, analyzes and understands other people's strengths and weaknesses, and he knows how to utilize them.

I might not trust him completely because, at the end of the day, we don't know him that well. But I trust his judgment of others and the way he navigates situations and plans strategies to achieve success.

Looking back at the Dionysia mission, they hid a lot of things from MC. But did the plan go the way they intended? Yes.

So let's just say I trust him to make plans that help people survive.

I don't think he'd betray the others during a mission because, realistically, he'd probably die too if that happened.

Smart people don't let others die. Smart people use others.

Anyway...

What the hell is Elias' stigma?

As I've mentioned several times before, I think his stigma has something to do with manipulating space or something along those lines.

He cares a lot about structure and layout, and we can see that more clearly during the Dionysia episodes. His campus stories also always contain one or more elements related to that.

Also, if you all remember, in Deadly in Love (1), Elias asked Haku several times whether he could feel the energy of the place, whether it had changed, or whether anything felt odd.

Haku said the energy was scattered throughout the place instead of covering the whole area or gathering at one central point.

Later, in Deadly in Love (2), Haku confirmed that the castle itself wasn't an anomaly but more like a container holding numerous types of anomalies (kind of similar to the Dragon Triangle where they retrieved the anomaly ship with Frostheim).

So we also know the culprits are the same ones from the Dragon Triangle case, and they've been trying to feed these anomalies.

Why did Elias keep asking Haku about the energy of the place? I believe it was crucial to understanding or using his own stigma.

As Elias said, his stigma isn't really useful. But Elias knows how to utilize everything around him. Even with the most "useless" stigma, I think he'd still be able to accomplish something.

The fact that he needed to ask Haku might be because he could already see something strange about the castle's structure and layout, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly where to start. So asking Haku was a way to confirm whether those odd locations were hidden rooms or simply places where the anomalies were concentrated.

Second, there's the flower Elias had that turned out to be a Bug, an anomaly that can teleport you when you look into its eye.

He managed to capture one, although I'm not sure when he even grabbed it. I believe it happened when all the ghouls were transported back to their rooms and had to walk through the door to talk with MC one last time.

Now, why did it look like a flower? Was the anomaly host disguising it as one?

Later, we see the flower vase turn into a puddle of anomaly with a ton of eyes. So I firmly believe the Bug was disguised as the flower.

But how the hell was Elias able to capture one, and how was he able to reveal its true form?

I have no idea. The man hides so much that I honestly can't tell how he did it.

Let's just assume it wasn't that difficult to catch one since they don't really attack you directly. He could have wrapped a blanket around the Bug and voilà, captured it.

But what if the flower was actually Elias transforming the Bug into one?

Because if it's connected to his flower point, then it would eventually return to the vase once removed, right?

So how did he have one in his vest pocket?

I believe that's either one of his "magic tricks" as he called them, or it's related to his stigma, allowing him to change the appearance of objects.

No idea so far.

Also, if you look at the scene where the anomaly got out, everyone took out their artifact except Elias. From his chibi battle animations, his artifact seems to be the dagger.

So if his stigma really isn't that useful, then it's probably not effective in direct combat, which is likely why he didn't feel the need to pull it out. The others' artifacts were probably more useful in that situation.

But then again, it could also be that he simply didn't want to use his stigma, so bringing out his artifact didn't mean anything at that moment.

Or maybe he did pull it out, but MC was blocking his other hand, so I can't really confirm it.

Elias hid the information about the lab during the game because he claimed he didn't know whether the anomaly could hear them, even though he also knew the anomaly could only see them where there were cameras.

Which confused me a bit. Like, bro, you could've told us in the kitchen, right?

But then again, I think it would've been a bit of a hassle to gather everybody in the kitchen at the same time when everyone was busy doing their own job and snooping around.

And dare I say it, Ritsu and Sho were actually the sanest ones here because Ritsu literally asked why nobody was telling each other about their plans. It would've been way more effective if they had helped each other out. Haku just said he didn't want to blow their cover, that's all. But again, I can understand Haku's and Elias' way of working. They won't say things when they're uncertain themselves.

I'd say Elias, Haku and Taiga are the type who don't talk much when they're working or concentrating. They need space to do their own thing, so communication probably isn't their priority.