I know the official translation isn’t out yet but I doubt that will give us any more information on the following topic so I thought to write a post about it now. Also credit to @midnight-in-town with whom I’ve discussed this yesterday and to @hitsugikuro who had similar thoughts about that topic (see here). 🙂
While looking at the new chapter I tried to figure out if Vincent still had the Phantomhive ring when our Ciel found him dead. Because we know that somehow that ring must have found its way into the twins’ possession before the twin was killed and Sebastian was summoned.
Since Vincent was the Earl until his death it’s safe to assume that he was wearing the ring before he was killed. When our Ciel found him dead we can see Vincent’s hands. The signet ring he wears on his right pinky finger is still there.
But the Phantomhive ring which he usually wears on his right index finger seems to be absent already, as @hitsugikuro has also pointed out here.
So that would mean that someone must have already taken the ring from Vincent’s finger before our Ciel found him. And there are actually only two possibilities I see how this can be.
1) Real Ciel took the ring.
We only see this chapter through our Ciel’s perspective and since real Ciel left the room first we don’t now where he went or what he has seen. It seems like he met Tanaka because Tanaka was mentioning him when our Ciel saw him. But could it be that real Ciel also found his dead parents and then took the ring from his father? I’m not sure why he would think of the ring in such a horrible situation but that ring has a lot of symbolic meaning to him…
So maybe in all the shock of seeing his dead parents real Ciel still took the ring, maybe without even really knowing what he was doing.
That could explain how the ring came into his possession. However, I’m not sure if it fits with the timeline. Our Ciel found his parents because he followed Sebastian the dog. But he not only found his parents but also the dead dog. So the dog must have been killed right before our Ciel found him. And that means that the attacker(s) who killed Vincent and Rachel was/were still nearby and killed the dog when Sebastian surprised them. So it’s quite likely that Vincent and Rachel were killed only moments before the dog and then our Ciel came into that room. And in that case there may not have been enough time for the real Ciel to find his parents first, take the ring and then escape again before the dog came but without the attackers finding him (unless real Ciel was captured, too, in that moment)…
So here’s the other possibility:
2) The attacker(s) took the ring.
Whoever killed Vincent surely had the opportunity to also take his ring after he was dead. Again, I’m not sure what the reason for this would be. It’s surely not because of the ring’s value. This attack clearly had other intentions than theft. And also, if the attackers took the ring how did it end up with the twins? I doubt the twins could fight with the attackers over it; they would have never won against people who killed the whole Phantomhive household.
So maybe this would mean that the attackers somehow let the twins have the ring intentionally? We don’t know when the twins got it back but they had it before real Ciel was being sacrificed in the cult. So either they always had it on them since their abduction or they got it back from someone. And that would make it seem as if the attackers wanted the twins to have the ring or as if the attackers came into contact with the cultists and gave them the ring for whatever reason (in which case the twins must have somehow taken it back from the cultists).
As I’ve mentioned in some other posts I have difficulties to see how the cult and the attackers are connected. Because the attack on the Phantomhives seemed well planned and professional but the cult with Kelvin’s associates and people who wanted to summon a demon for wealth and a long life kinda doesn’t fit with the intention of the attack on the manor. And I’m not sure if the attackers are the same people as the ones who abducted the twins (because why not kill them immediately but selling them to a cult who would probably kill them, anyway? I mean, they didn’t plan on everything that actually happened with one of the twins summoning a demon, did they?). We’re surely still missing some crucial information about what happened between the attack and the twins being abducted but if the attackers really took the ring but it still ended up in the twins’ possession it kinda makes it seem as if the attackers wanted that to happen. Maybe they even used the cult for their own purposes (whatever they are)…
Anyway, I think it’s safe to assume that the ring was taken from Vincent after he was killed. Either by the real Ciel or by the attacker, probably. But how and when exactly the ring really ended up with the twins (or in real Ciel’s stomach) remains to be seen for now.
midnight-in-town 