Glen Smith's Diary (Page 66)

//Panel 1//
Edgar:
…since she passed away.
Louis:
Ah…oh, I see.
//Panel 2//
Edgar:
So what's your interesting story?
Louis:
Yeah, I have an aunt called Margrid and…
//Panel 4//
Louis:
Well… it's not that interesting. Sorry for stopping you. It was a joke… Sorry about your sister.
//Panel 5//
Allan:
Edgar!
//Panel 6//
Edgar:
See ya!
Louis:
…Hmmm.
//Panel 8//
Louis:
…No way, can it be…?

End "Glen Smith's Diary" June 1972


Now we come to a full cycle of life, and we see Edgar again. Good thing Louis decided not to say anything, because Edgar would have taken care of him if he found out what he knew.

Anyhow, I am really impressed with how Moto Hagio packed nearly 65 years of history surrounding four generations of a family into 24 pages of manga, and how complete it feels. I never felt like I was rushed. Moto Hagio is a master storyteller indeed.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 65)

//Panel 1//
Margrid:
Papa, would you like to join us for tea?
Pierre:
Oh, yeah!
//Panel 2//
Pierre:
Dianaaaaaa!
Wo-wo-wo!
Margrid:
You're always so noisy!
Louis:
Huh?
//Panel 3//
Louis:
Ha, it's funny! I know someone in my school who looks like this vampire in the story, with the same blue eyes and curly hair.
//Panel 4//
Pierre:
Of course!
//Panel 5//
Pierre:
It's about the immortals! He must be that very person!
Margrid:
Papa, acting goofy again!
//Panel 6//
Louis:
And he has the same name! Edgar.
//Panel 8//
Edgar:
…I did have a sister named Marybel, but it's been a while…

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 64)

//Panel 1//
Louis:
But that's not true, is it? It can't be true.
//Panel 2//
Margrid:
Perhaps—I really don't know. But…
when I heard the story from Grandma Elizabeth, I believed it. I was ten.
Louis:
Let me read it, can I?
//Panel 3//
Margrid's Narration:
It's been seventeen years since then. I—Margrid Hessen—live
Note:
Aug. 1959
//Panel 4//
Margrid's Narration:
In Bremen with my jolly Papa Pierre Hessen, just the two of us.
SFX:
CLING CLING
Margrid's Narration:
I make my living writing ordinary short stories.
//Panel 5//
Margrid's Narration:
My mama, Anna, and Grandma Elizabeth passed away a long time ago…
SFX:
PEEEE—
Margrid's Narration:
My brother Pierre never returned from the war…
//Panel 6//
Margrid's Narration:
My older sister Hella is married and lives nearby. And her only son Louis comes by occasionally when school is off.
//Panel 7//
Margrid's Narration:
And I hope…I get a chance to publish this old diary of Glen Smith someday.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 63)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth:
Glen Smith was…
Julie's Voice:
Oh, if we could only live in such a village of blooming roses for days on end… How wonderful…
//Panel 2//
Elizabeth:
You see, just to keep going is a very hard thing.
You only have to follow the passing days, but it is so hard at times…
//Panel 3//
Elizabeth:
that weak people—particularly weak people—dream dreams that never come true.
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Glen Smith searched for the village…
Glen Smith reread his old diary again and again…
Glen Smith chased happiness in the village of the immortals beyond the grasp of time…


This was a troubling scene for me. More than 3o years passed since Elizabeth first found the diary, and she has been returning to its pages just like her father. Her deceased daughter, Julie, was also fond of reading it. Are they all weak people who looked for an escape in an impossible dream?

I am not sure about Glen Smith, but Elizabeth weathered the harshness of life pretty well, rolling with the punches—the loss of her family ties in England, her husband, her daughter, and her grandson. But she never clung to her past, always moving forward.

In the beginning we saw that Edgar lost his sister Marybel. We will learn the exact circumstances in later episodes, but we will also learn that Edgar could never completely recover from just this one loss with all the special power he has.

So I am not sure what Elizabeth means in this scene—she has been nothing less than brave and strong. But this is her parting words with us readers, as the story moves on to the next generation.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 62)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth:
It was a long, long time ago…
//Panel 2//
Elizabeth:
Glen Smith stumbled upon the Village of the Poes, where immortals lived and roses bloomed.
//Panel 3//
Elizabeth:
It was a village in a valley far, far away from the flow of time in the human world, where you had no strife, no poverty, no despair…
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth:
The villagers lived on in an intimate love shared by the whole clan.
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth:
To join the Poes, you just accept a bite on your neck—
//Panel 6//
Margrid:
Oh dear! Those are vampires! I heard a scary story from my brother Pierre!
//Panel 7//
Margrid:
Was my great-grandfather a vampire? Did we have a vampire in the lineage of the Longbarts in Britain?
Elizabeth:
No, no, Glen Smith was…

Notice how the background is in black while Elizabeth tells the story of the Poes, with her body within the panels set at unusual angles, and fanciful, dream-like imagery as well as the rose motif.

She relates a very warm image of the Poe clan, doesn't she? Margrid's reaction, though, seems standard for anything connected with vampires. Her brother has obviously been teasing her about them.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 61)

//Panel 2//
Pierre:
Perhaps we should move to Celle. My older brother lives there.
Anna:
Celle!? Why on earth?
Elizabeth:
Anna, I agree that it would be better for your children.
//Panel 3//
Anna:
Aaaah, war, debt, medicine, school, bread for dinner! Worries! And now a move!
//Panel 4//
Margrid:
Waaa!
SFX:
THUD
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth:
Margrid!
//Panel 6//
Margrid:
Um, sorry, Grandma, I just wanted to get on top of the window sill.
Elizabeth:
What a tomboy! Causing trouble during the move!
//Panel 7//
Margrid:
Oh, an old book—I broke it.
//Panel 8//
Elizabeth:
Never mind… This is the diary of your great-grandfather.
//Panel 9//
Margrid:
Great-grandfather's? Why do we have such a thing?
Elizabeth:
…

A lot of stress and tension on this page, from war implications of the radio in Panel 1 to Anna's worries about the move, to Margrid's fall (I could totally push the envelope, and compare this to Adam and Eve's "fall" from blissful ignorance in the Garden of Eden)—well, it is true that now the next generation is about to come face-to-face with the Poe legend. What kind of impact on the family does it have, to carry the knowledge of this story? Note how in the last panel, Elizabeth hesitates in answering.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 60)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth's Narration:
People always want happiness over unhappiness, wealth over poverty, domination over subordination...and so
//Panel 2//
Elizabeth's Narration:
On the day Margrid turned seven, Germany invaded Poland.
//Panel 3//
Elizabeth:
Are you going off to war, Pierre?
Pierre:
I'm not going. I'm a teacher, Mother.
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth:
What do you teach at school?
Pierre:
Mathematics. Arithmetic, Axioms, Law and Geometry.
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth:
If I became a teacher, I would want to teach history.
//Panel 6//
Pierre (Jr):
If I don't go, who will protect Mama, Grandma and my little sisters!
//Panel 7//
Pierre (Jr):
I am the only boy in the Hessen family!
//Panel 8//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Why can't we hold onto our happiness?
Even for just a little while longer…
//Panel 9//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Time goes by, people live and die, singing a song of the flow of history
//Panel 10//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Even for just a little while longer…

Elizabeth already has a foreshadowing of the fate of her grandson, or at least a highly fateful view of the war ahead. It is notable that her own personal conflict (being an Englishwoman) is never brought up. But she would suffer loss no matter which side she were to take up, because she is a mother, a grandmother and a human being.

In Panel 3, the senior Pierre refers to Elizabeth as "Grandma" in the original text. I don't know about the German tradition, but this is typical in Japan. People refer to each other from the perspective of the youngest family members for some reason. So once kids are born the spouses will almost always call each other "Mother" and "Father." Then when they become grandparents, it's "Grandma" and "Grandpa," and their adult children will begin calling them that too. I don't know why this is, but I have to put up a fight to keep my husband from calling me "Mom"! When my daughter has children, I have to stop him from calling me "Grandma"!

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 59)

//Panel 1//
Anna:
Grandma!
Elizabeth's Narration:
The following year, eldest son Pierre was born to Anna and Pierre.
Elizabeth:
Oh, you got the same name as your Papa.
//Panel 2//
Elizabeth's Narration:
The year after, first daughter Elena was born.
Anna:
Grandma!
//Panel 3//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Then second daughter Berta entered the world.
Pierre (Jr):
Grandma.
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Then came the third daughter, Hella.
Anna:
Grandma!
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth's Narration:
…four years later, the fourth girl, Margrid, was born.
Pierre:
Why do we keep having girls!
Anna:
We are a matrilineal family.
Pierre:
Will it all fall on me to keep everyone fed?
//Panel 6//
Berta:
Ha ha ha ha
//Panel 7//
Anna:
Berta Berta
//Pane 8//
Note:
Jan. 30, 1933
//Panel 9//
Anna:
One less mouth to feed
//Panel 10//
Anna:
Good-for-nothing! You call yourself a teacher? We're deep in debt. You're incompetent!
Pierre:
Get out if you don't like it!
Elizabeth:
Now, now, children. Let's go to my place.


More names that don't sound German. Perhaps the Hessens come from Alsace-Lorraine? Is it because Elizabeth is an Englishwoman? On the other hand Berta (or Bertha) and Hella are German names. I knew a Helle (she was Danish), but in German the it is spelled Hella. It's tough to figure out names from Katakana.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 58)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Next fall, when she was seventeen, Anna got married to Pierre Hessen, a jolly young man…
And we moved from Berlin to the old Hanseatic city of Bremen.
Note:
Aug. 1922
//Panel 2//
Pierre's Song:
Oh dabadaba dandaaaba
//Panel 3//
Anna:
Listen to him, Mama, that habit of his! He is like that every morning! Can you believe he is actually a teacher, like that!
Elizabeth:
Tony played the cello. He has a nice voice.
//Panel 4//
Pierre's Voice:
Anna, Anna, give me a morning kiss!
Anna:
Hey, you snuck food, Pierre, jam is on your mustache!
Elizabeth:
Heh heh.
//Panel 5//
SFX:
SWING
//Panel 6//
Elizabeth's Narration:
When was it…that I opened the window like this…to let in the breeze…
//Panel 7//
Elizabeth's Narration:
As Germany gradually overcame poverty, it seemed that happiness also returned thanks to my daughters' marriages…
//Panel 8//
Elizabeth's Narration:
It's been 21 years since I crossed the sea… I will be called 'Grandma' when my grandchildren are born…

At last some lightheartedness and happiness returns to Elizabeth's family. Although Elizabeth doesn't have her own husband anymore, she is still an integral part of the family life of her daughters. And she is already looking forward to the next generation!

Just a few notes. First, the names of the characters. This story is taking place in Germany, but the names are not very German. I considered using Ludwig instead of Louis, or Peter instead of Pierre, but I decided to go with what the text says.

In Panel 7, Elizabeth's line could have been translated as "it seemed that happiness also returned to my daughters' marriages…" if I take the text literally, but this translation implies that her daughters' marriages have been less than happy. They just got married, and there is no specific reference to domestic disputes in their marriages at this point in the story, so I rejected this version.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 57)

//Panel 1//
SFX:
DO-O-ONG
//Panel 2//
Elizabeth's Narration:
In those dark days came a little happiness—the marriage of my eldest daughter, Julietta, blessed and full of love…
Note:
June 1921
//Panel 3//
Elizabeth's Narration:
But the young couple—
Julietta:
Mama, I love you.
Elizabeth:
Hurry, board the train. You'll miss it.
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth's Narration:
moved to a faraway town on the Rhine.
Julietta:
Mama! Mama, I love you!
//Panel 6//
Anna:
…Mama, I am with you, I will stay with you for the rest of my life. I won't go off like Papa or my big sisters did. I won't leave you alone.
//Panel 7//
Elizabeth:
No, you have to leave one day, Anna, someday, as a bride.
//Panel 8//
Elizabeth:
…just as Mama followed Papa.


Here is another example of cinematic effect: the toll of the church bells makes a cross-fade from a funeral toll to a wedding toll as we transition from the previous page to this page.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 56)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth:
What's wrong with your eyes, Julie?
Julie:
Eh? Nothing, my vision just got blurry. …It's eye strain.
//Panel 2//
Julie:
Mama, you were an aristocratic princess, weren't you?
Elizabeth:
Well, heh heh, a long time ago.
//Panel 3//
Julie:
I think what my grandfather wrote in this diary really happened.
//Panel 4//
Julie:
Oh, wouldn't it be wonderful if we could only live in such a village of blooming roses for days on end, the rest of our lives?
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth's Narration:
As if burdened with all the sorrows and hardships of the family…
//Panel 6//
Elizabeth's Narration:　
Without warning, in the winter of her seventeenth year, Julie…
SFX:
DINGDONG
Elizabeth's Narration:
…passed away.
Note:
Jan. 1921
//Panel 7//
SFX:
DONG DONG
Elizabeth:
She never complained.
//Panel 8//
Elizabeth:
Not a word—not even "I'm tired," or "It's so tough."
SFX:
DONG
//Panel 9//
Julie's Voice:
If we could only live in such a village of blooming roses for days on end…
//Panel 10//
Elizabeth:
Not a word…

So Elizabeth was once a member of the aristocracy, but that could have been another lifetime, and she barely acknowledges that this ever was her situation. It seems that while Glen Smith was trapped in the past, she is squarely living in the present—certainly the future holds little for her, either.

The word "苦しい" (kurushii) which we find in Panel 8 generally describes something painful and difficult, but it could mean many things in Japanese, from actual physical pain to a student struggling to pass his or her entrance exams, to a general degree of suffering which people experience due to war, famine, economic hardship and so forth. In this case it could have been a few possibilities, but I opted to interpret this as the overall difficulties that Elizabeth's family, not to mention the country as a whole, were going through post-Great War (obviously we know it as World War I, but of course people at that time didn't know yet that the next one was coming!).

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 55)

//Panel 1//
Anna:
No, Mama. No, Mama. Mama…
Elizabeth:
Anna, Anna, what are you saying? I am not going to do anything, Anna.
//Panel 2//
Anna:
I thought you were going to jump. Don't scare me, don't scare me.
//Panel 3//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Ah, crossing the sea as a bride, to the homeland of the man I love…
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth's Narration:
It must have been illness that caused me to feel down. It turned out my body was losing strength.
//Panel 5//
Julie:
Stay in bed if you don't feel well, Mama. Don't work.
I will leave the milk on the table in the kitchen.
//Panel 6//
Elizabeth's Narration:
The second oldest, Julie, would run home during a short lunch break from the beauty parlor
and take care of the household. It was she who looked the most like Tony.
//Panel 7//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Every now and then, I would ask Julie to read to me, in her soft voice, that old diary of Glen Smith…
…and I felt comforted somehow.

It is interesting to me that Elizabeth would find Glen Smith's diary to be comfort reading. To me it is a very strange, eerie tale, in particular one that had haunted her father for so many years (and has major impact on the next generation, and beyond, as you will eventually see). My husband surmised that she might find it comforting simply because the diary is a reminder of her childhood and old life in England.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 54)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Germany lost, and bore the blame.
Note:
Nov. 1918
//Panel 3//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Our daughters were old enough to work at the laundry and the beauty parlor, but
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Our lives were difficult. Everyone was poor.
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Everything was so tough. Things seemed to keep turning for the worse…
//Panel 6//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Shall we go back…to England?
//Panel 7//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Now that I have no husband, should I hang my head and beg my family for money, and cross the North Sea once again?
//Panel 8//
Elizabeth's Narration:
…I'm crossing the North Sea as a bride…
//Panel 9//
Anna:
Mama!

Elizabeth reminisces on her memory of crossing the North Sea against her relatives' wishes when she thought of returning to England. When Moto Hagio came to Tokyo against her parents' wishes, she faced a period of uncertainty where her stories got rejected one after another, as detailed in this interview. Just like Elizabeth, I wonder if Hagio might also have anguished about returning to her parents. We often face such moments of weakness in life.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 53)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth's Narration:
The "Glorious and Vigorous War," as the Kaiser referred to it, started in July of 1914.
Everyone thought: "Oh, this will end by Christmas."
//Panel 2//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Since up until now nations had been fighting endlessly for power around the world in the Boer region, Morocco, the Balkans—
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth's Narration:
…but
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth's Narration:
The war dragged on. Then
//Panel 6//
Elizabeth's Narration:
…people became poorer, famished, children cried. Old people were chilled to the bone. There were strikes…but the war continued.
//Panel 7//
Tony:
Compulsory recruitment. They're short of troops. I'm going to Kiel.
//Panel 9//
Elizabeth's Narration:
That was my gut feeling. That Tony wouldn't be coming home.
Tony:
Elizabeth Elizabeth Take care of the children…! …I'll be home soon!
Elizabeth's Narration:
He won't be coming home.
Tony:
I'll surely be back soon!
//Panel 10//
Elizabeth:
You promised, Tony, you promised so many things, so much happiness, and you are leaving those promises behind, Tony.

Now the family life of Elizabeth and Tony is about to run up against the hard and brutal forces of history. As I have some background knowledge on the lives of Germans during and after the wartime, I can see that Moto Hagio researched very carefully on this subject.

I searched but could not locate the exact quote for the "Glorious and Vigorous War", though I'm sure the Kaiser did make some similar reference to the Empire's guaranteed victory.

Elizabeth's thoughts in Panel 10 really were really difficult to translate. What it says literally is, "Tony the liar (or, a bit more polished, "You lied, Tony." This is repeated three times, so it's extremely important within a very critical scene. However, having discussions with my husband, I was pointed out adamantly that "うそつき” does not necessarily have that very negative meaning associated with it in English. It can indicate a more hapless situation, where fate and other forces outside of one's free will act to set a course which goes against a promised or hoped-for result. So Elizabeth is not actually calling Tony a liar or betrayer, but in her anguish is realizing that all the dreams that Tony had for their life together are, unfortunately, about to fall apart through no fault of their own.

Of course, , the word can literally mean "a lie" in the judgemental sense you see in English, but a more mundane use of "うそ" means something like "Really?" which high school girls use a lot. Some people with a limited command of Japanese often take this literally as "you're lying" and get offended.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 52)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth's Narration:
In a tiny apartment in Berlin, Europe's flower garden,
Julietta was born, then Julie, and then our youngest, Anna. —We were happy.
//Panel 2//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Very happy.
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth:
Tony, Tony
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth:
…Tony, we're going to war!
Tony:
Don't worry. It will end quickly. The German Empire will win.
//Panel 6//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Quickly…?

This was a nice illustration of Tony's and Elizabeth's happy married life. I really like the image of Tony playing the cello inside their tenement apartment while the kids scamper around.

As for the text, "Europe's flower garden" was a literal translation, but I couldn't find any hard proof that this or anything resembling it is or was an actual nickname for Berlin. So if anyone knows, please tell me, as well as the background for this moniker. Then again, perhaps it is only Elizabeth's personal impressions of Berlin, as a lovely place where flowers bloom all over the city.

In Panel 4, Elizabeth literally says, "You, you" (あなた、あなた). I can't speak for German couples, but this is what wives commonly call their husbands in Japan. Given names are rarely used among spouses.

The objects spilling from the basket in Panel 3…I have no idea what they are. Coconuts? That wouldn't make sense…Again, help me out if you have inside information!

In the next panel, Tony assures Elizabeth that the war will end soon. This is apparently how most people in the German Empire thought in real life. Unfortunately for all the various countries involved, that didn't turn out to be the case.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 51)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth's Aunt:
A musician…!! I'm against it.
Elizabeth!! Such a man with no social standing, or money…
and he is a Prussian!
…If you won't listen, I will cut all my ties with you.
He's deceiving you, poor thing.
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Under the cold, unspoken acknowledgment of my brothers, aunt, and relatives, I crossed the North Sea to his homeland—Germany.
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth's Narration:
At the bottom of a heavy trunk I placed the diary of my father, Glen Smith.
//Panel 6//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Farewell, England. My memories. My fairy tales.
I'm crossing the sea as a bride.
//Panel 7//
Elizabeth:
Tony…
//Panel 8//
Tony:
I will make you happy.
//Panel 9//
Tony:
I'll never let you go.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 50)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth's Narration:
He was eight years older than me, a kindly man who said he was from the "ends of the oceans"
We met at an outdoor concert.
Note: End of September 1900
//Panel 2//
Tony:
Then everyone said, "The stand probably grew legs and chased after a pretty girl."
//Panel 3//
Tony:
I don't like it. I can't live with that sort of music.
//Panel 4//
Tony:
I'm not tired. I'm just lonely, all by myself.
//Panel 5//
Tony:
Music…is good. Music is a good thing.
//Panel 7//
Tony:
Please marry me.

A pastoral outdoor concert setting, leafy trees, concertgoers strolling in the warm end-of-summer afternoon…What could be more pleasant a backdrop for a love (or at least attraction) at first sight? Note how Hagio draws Tony and Elizabeth at a slightly skewered angle in the first panel: not only is this visually striking, but in this way she can manage to fit in the entire length of Elizabeth's long skirt, the natural focal point of the panel, but and at the same time retain the tall, vertical panels below in which Tony is discoursing all his various opinions (with one reaction shot from Elizabeth, in Panel 6). Moto Hagio is a master in the elegant use of her panel space. Also, it's subtle, but Panels 2 through 7 are not shaped like perfect rectangles. This perhaps reinforces the casual, informal tone of Tony's and Elizabeth's conversation and afternoon together.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 49)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth's Narration:
A village of eternal life…a village of eternal life…
//Panel 3//
Elizabeth's Narration:
What on Earth…could this be? How strange. But…why?
Those pages, opened again and again—the yellowed pages of a diary from thirty-odd years ago
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth's Narration:
My father reading it again and again, for thirty years.
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth's Narration:
What was on his mind…
//Panel 6//
Elizabeth's Narration:
What was on his mind…

So...her dad apparently is, or was, obsessed with this "village of blooming roses." In truth, it is speculation that he returned to the diary over and over for thirty years—Elizabeth had never seen him actually reading it, after all. So is it really Glen Smith's active obsession, or his daughter's assumption that any diary kept for so long would be referred back to, over and over? We never find out more information that could have been given to us, like veiled references that he may have dropped to his family during all that time, for example. Elizabeth is completely surprised, and taken aback, by the diary's discovery. And the things written within were clearly incidents locked in his head, and in his diary.

Even assuming that Glen Smith had reread the diary many times over the years, would that have been an attempt to keep telling himself that this had really happened—or to reassure himself that it never happened? There is much that is tantalizing to consider, but barely hinted at here.

"What was on his mind…" was another tricky line. It literally means, "Thinking what…" However, "What was he thinking?" definitely has a strong negative meaning in English, so I had to consider a lot of different approaches, and this one seemed most apt.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 48)

//Panel 1//
Glen Smith's Diary Entry:
The 13th of July I've decided, after all, to record what has happened.
On the 7th I went hunting with my friends. I was caught in mist and separated from my party.
//Panel 2//
Glen Smith's Diary Entry:
I mistakenly shot a girl who had bounded out from a bush.
Elizabeth:
Shot…
//Panel 3//
Glen Smith's Diary Entry:
I was led into a village where roses bloomed in profusion…where…there lived immortals…
//Panel 4//
Glen Smith's Diary Entry:　
An old woman plucked roses
A baron and baroness drank rose broth　　
A young girl smiled
—On a stormy night…a young boy sucked blood from my neck
//Panel 5//
Glen Smith's Diary Entry:
The Village of the Poes…! A village of roses, inhabited by vampires…!
A village where an immortal clan lives on and on, forever…!
//Panel 6//
Glen Smith's Diary Entry:
On the third day I got back. No one had heard of such a village. I searched…but never found it.
Elizabeth's Narration:
What is this? A tale conjured up by my father, the romanticist?
//Panel 7//
Elizabeth's Narration:
A dream? What on Earth is this?
Glen Smith's Diary Entry:
No one will ever believe this story. I can only record it here.
//Panel 8//
Glen Smith's Diary Entry:
The 13th of July 1865 Glen Smith

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 47)

//Panel 1//
Servant:
Oh, my—a diary of the deceased…we don't know what secrets it holds, Miss—we should burn it.
//Panel 2//
Elizabeth:
That's no matter—it's a daughter's privilege. Or are you saying you can't unlock it?
Servant:
I can do it with a single wire. It's not rusted.
//Panel 3//
Elizabeth:
Thank you! I'll read it in private!
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth's Narration:
My father's diary…
and from 1865! When he was 20, before he married.
SFX:
RUSTLE
Elizabeth's Narration:
Well, now…he must have been a handsome youth.
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth's Narration:
As I expected, it began with a love poem.
The days of my father's youth…
His pining after beautiful young girls…
//Panel 6//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Lost love…and then
//Panel 8//
Elizabeth's Narration:
A village of blooming roses?
Glen Smith's Diary Entry:
The 4th of July I went by invitation to visit the Earl of Rutland at Sundown Castle.