The Painter's Curse || The House in Fata Morgana - Part 2

[@Shuukuriimudaisuki-sama]

Glad to see you are fully engaged with the game :) Take my word for it, it only gets better from here! On my first playthrough, I actually liked this chapter a bit less than the future ones, but it is by no means bad or anything... I've come to appreciate it a lot more, but it's only the tip of the iceberg (and I believe this chapter was the entire contents of the demo when the game was in development, and it shows that the team one-upped themselves many times as the game progresses). Enjoy!

[@Shuukuriimudaisuki-sama]

1:50:00 It's a difficult question, whether Mell or Nellie was "right" or "wrong" in the theatre scene... Leaving aside the marriage business and family politics for a moment, I would say Mell was justified in being angry with Nellie for her behavior towards the Girl. If you frame it from the perspective of a family member having issues with who you are romantically involved with, and that family member totally bypasses you in order to attack your significant other, I'd say that's valid reason to get pissed. Maybe not necessarily to the point of hitting your family member, but at least any grievances should be between them and you, not taking cheap shots at the love interest because of their station or whatever. Making a scene in public like that especially is not beneficial for anyone. We don't really know Mell's opinion of Arthur, but at least Mell didn't try and attack him at any point, regardless of how much of a scumbag he clearly is. (Also, Arthur is not a cousin, so you don't have to feel unnecessarily uncomfortable for that 😆) And on that note, considering the topic of the forced marriage... Yeah, that's definitely BS and I side with Nellie. At least from a modern standpoint, it's kind of unthinkable to disregard someone's feelings and force them into marriage, at least in many cultures. We do have to remember that, in this time period, people had shorter life expectancies and thus were usually getting married and having kids at a younger age, so it kind of comes with the territory? Especially in an aristocratic family, trying to make inroads with others of high society. It's sad but true that daughters of such families were often looked at only as a means of how they could serve the house by marrying them off to someone that could increase the family prestige, etc...and of course, this still happens today in some circles. But I digress. Nellie absolutely has every right to be furious at this development. Though I don't think taking it out on Mell was the right way to go about it, even if he knew ahead of time. In reality, both siblings still have some maturing to do, and clearly there is a need to communicate better. And we saw in Higurashi what happens when you don't~