#i thought there was hope for a moment there
(The end of the arc! And the beginning of a new development…;;)
Whiteley was naturally very angry at Sturridge, and asks him why the latter is even confessing to him. To ask for forgiveness? Why kill his brother, when he’s crippled and can’t even run away?
Sturridge explains that he had to kill Whiteley’s family in exchange for his own family’s lives who have been taken by unknown kidnappers. He knows that what he did was unforgivable, so he offers the knife to Whiteley and asks to do whatever Whiteley wants with him.
Whiteley is very conflicted. He very much wants to kill Sturridge for revenge, but doing that would be irreversible and not what his brother would’ve wanted him to do. However, without his brother, Whiteley doesn’t have a reason to live anymore…
He almost stabs Sturridge, but then shifts the direction of the knife to the floor at the last second because he doesn’t actually have the guts to do it.
…Or so he thought until he remembers his brother again and goes blind with rage, swiftly stabbing Sturridge in the neck.
And now that he did something he can’t undo, he believes everything is over for him now.
At the Moriarty residence, Fred approaches Albert with an envelope. The delivery man said the sender didn’t show his face and just paid him £1 to deliver the envelope to the head of this House. In the envelope is a handkerchief with the letter “W” embroidered on it and a note asking to meetup at a graveyard in Chiswisk.
Everyone at the Moriarty residence then heads over to the meeting place. Whiteley is there, telling Albert that he only wanted to meet up to give back the evidence. When asked for the reason, he explains what happened earlier. Whiteley knew that if he was arrested, then it would become impossible for equality to ever be realized.
He can’t just turn himself in, and he can’t live on pretending nothing happened either. So he plans to compensate for his crime with his life.
Upon hearing this, William says that if Whiteley is really set on doing so, then the latter should give his life to William instead, much to Whiteley’s shock.
The next day, people were camped outside the Houses of Parliament, waiting for Whiteley to arrive. They have heard that everyone in the Whiteley residence had been killed, even the guards from Scotland Yard. Moreover, the killer was still at large.
When Whiteley arrives, reports swarm over and ask him to comment over what happened. He proclaims that he will keep fighting to promote equality for this country even if his opponents have killed his family andguards. The masses are very empowered by this, and start calling Whiteley the “White Knight” of the country.
As Whiteley was waving at them, a man clothed in black suddenly swoops in, stabs Whiteley in the chest, and then flies up the building with the help of a wire.
It was William. He announces that he is the one who killed Whiteley’s family and guards, and introduces himself as the Lord of Crime. Then he dares everyone to catch him if they can.
The scene then flashes back to last night. William tells Whiteley that he wants the latter to be known as a white knight even in his death, because the country needs hope that equality can still be achieved.
If Whiteley tells them the truth, all the commoners hoping for the abolishment of the class system will fall into despair and the path to equality will be closed up.
To prevent that, the Moriartys will take credit over what happened instead, and let Whiteley die as a white knight of the country. William asks him to do this as his final atonement for what he’s done.
Whiteley of course protests and asks him why they would put themselves in the wrong like that, and William replies that it is because they are the Lord of Crime.
Back to the present, William flees and the police attempts to capture him.
Slowly dying on the ground, Whiteley thinks about how the Moriartys themselves chose to become the necessary evil for the country, and how he wishes that he could’ve seen for himself the world created by the Moriartys.
Whiteley gladly gives his life for the sake of the country’s future and believes that the Moriartys can change this country for the better. The chapter ends with Whiteley mentally telling the Moriartys that he’s leaving the country in their hands.
