Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files {Rail Zeppelin} Grace note 04
Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files 04
ロード・エルメロイⅡ世の事件簿 -魔眼蒐集列車 Grace note- 04

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Gray quietly observes Waver remembering his friend and Servant from the 4th Holy Grail War. Reines contacts Waver about a new case involving the Spiritual Evocation department. Waver, Reines, her artificial maid, and Gray meet with Wills Pelham Codrington from said department. Wills’s necromancer father recently passed away. However, the family property, which contains his father’s mage Workshop, is having issues.

Waver takes the case, partly as a means to try to gain a slot in the forthcoming 5th Holy Grail War. They take the train to the countryside and the Codrington estate. The Leyline of the land causes Reines’s Mystic Eyes to painfully activate. She uses drops to control it. They enter the estate home. Inside, Department of Policies member Adashino uses magecraft to bind Wills due to the complaint against the estate. She charges him with murdering his father. Also there waiting is Waletta Codrington, sent by the main family.

Waver and Reines convince Adashino to free Wills for the time being. Waver warns Wills that if he’s convicted, Waletta will likely take over the Codrington Workshop. Wills reveals to Waver that there is a fairy in the room. The fairy’s appearance coincides with something bad happening. Meanwhile, Reines Mystic Eyes activate again. However, she, her maid, and Gray enter a secret passage in a fireplace.

Reines’s Mystic Eyes cause her pain, so the group begins to return. She accidentally sets off a trap. Undead, spirit guardians attack them. The Necromancer SISIGOU Kairi shows up and uses his Mystic Code to shoot the spirits. He escorts them out via another passage. They return to the house, where Adashino introduces Kairi. Wills explains that he’s a friend of the family. Reines is put to bed to recover while Adashino and Waletta gave a chat in the sauna.

Later, another lightning strike on the estate grounds apparently kills Waletta.

Thoughts/Review

Things are becoming more interesting in Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files 04 as this episode has not completed this case.

Mage Politics

While perhaps not the most interesting thing, I do confess to some level of interest in the mage politics depicted in Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files 04. As I watched the episode, I was reminded that politics has played a role in many of the Fate titles. The Holy Grail Wars are due to powerful, politically connected mage families doing their thing.

That aside, the Lord El-Melloi series has had political elements added to them from the start. Initially, I didn’t think this would be my cup of tea. But I find that I’m enjoying how these political moments really do help flesh out the mage world with the Fate/stay night universe. And thankfully, these political elements haven’t been boring.

5th Holy Grail War

One of the elements that I found most interesting in Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files 04 is that Waver wants to be in the 5th Holy Grail War (which of course was depicted in Fate/stay night). Early in the episode, Waver still has his regrets over the 4th Holy Grail War.

Later, Bram and Reines have a meeting in a bounded field, where Bram brings up Waver’s obsession with the Holy Grail War. Waver basically takes the case in this episode because he thinks there’s one final slot remaining for the 5th Holy Grail War. We already know he was not selected, so I will be interested to see how he reacts to that.

Also of interest is that there seems to be some disdain for the Holy Grail War. The Mage Association sends participants, but Bram found the whole thing beneath him. And this despite the fact that his sister Sola-Ui died in the 4th Holy Grail War. Likewise, her fiance Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald also died in that war.

I’m not sure what Reines’s game is though. She’s encouraging Waver’s obsession with the Holy Grail War so that he’d take the necromancer case. She seems to know there are no more slots in the 5th Holy Grail War, but lets him believe it just the same.

Cameos

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the number of cameos in this series. Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files 04 had a few cameos. We see Atrum Galliasta and Bazett Fraga McRemitz shown in photos. Atrum was Caster’s original Master in Fate/stay night. Brazett was Lancer’s original Master in that series.

The big cameo was for SISIGOU Kairi. He was Red Saber’s Master in Fate/Apocrypha. In a story about necromancers, I suppose it is fitting for Kairi to be here. After all, he is a major figure in the Clock Tower. And being a necromancer himself, him being friends with another necromancer is not surprising.

As a long time fan of the Fate franchise, I do appreciate these cameos and nods to other Fate titles. Still, I wonder if someone coming cold into the Lord El-Melloi II series would be confused by these cameos.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review of Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files 04 with some final thoughts.

• Just what is the deal with that fairy that Wills could see? Waver saw her as well, once Wills activated whatever magic dust helped reveal her to him. So she’s clearly real.
• What exactly is causing the deaths on the Codrington estate?
• I get the feeling Adashino is up to something. But we’ll see if I’m right there.
• I wish we knew more about Reines maid. She’s some sort of artificial construct, no doubt magical in origin.

In the end, Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files 04 was an interesting start to a new case of Waver’s. I look forward to seeing how this is resolved.