17. His Butler, Offering

His Butler, Offering (その執事、奉納, Sono Shitsuji, Hōnō) is the seventeenth episode of season one of the Kuroshitsuji anime.
==Summary==
In one of Undertaker's coffins, he found what he calls an "average corpse," who is revealed to be Grelle Sutcliff. Undertaker comments that Grelle has a weak mouth for someone who didn't drown. Grelle, upon hearing this, wakes up and begins to strangle Undertaker.
At Phantomhive Manor, Ash Landers has come to visit to deliver orders from the queen. A cult has taken over some abandoned convents and has obtained the Book of Doomsday. With the book, which has the record of humanity's virtues and evil doings, they intend to revolt against the government. Therefore, it becomes Ciel Phantomhive's job to disband or eliminate them. Furthermore, the convent is heavily guarded and has had a recent order of coffins delivered.
This directs Ciel to see Undertaker but finds Grelle in Undertaker's clothing instead. He finds Undertaker in a large urn filled with salt and then questions Grelle why she's there. Grelle was sent on William T. Spears' orders, but fell asleep without breathing in a flowerbed and ended up at Undertaker's funeral parlor in a coffin. The mission is to retrieve a stolen Grim Reaper's cinematic record, which records an individual person's entire life in a movie. Ciel then asks Undertaker for a favor, which he offers for free with a look at the still-angry Grelle.
Undertaker is then seen delivering a coffin, which holds Ciel, Grelle and Sebastian. Ciel, Grelle, and Sebastian hide behind some shrubs, planning on sneaking in. The doorman says he understands and welcomes both the coffin and the men inside. Undertaker leaves and Ciel comments about how easy it was to get in.
They are led to a large chapel, which has a stained glass window bearing the mark Ciel was branded with when enslaved. Children appear and call Grelle "unclean." This angers the Reaper and she strikes one of them on the head.  The children then run to cleanse themselves. Mathilda Simmons, reveals that once you're over a certain age, everyone there will call you unclean. She then asks if they're newcomers to the church, and Sebastian uses his charm to learn more about the church from her. While obtaining information from Mathilda, Sebastian notices an odd smell.
She then reveals that the Book of Doomsday will become dirty if it's filled with people who live for a long time. The priest has the single ability to purify "parts of the filth." Furthermore, the book can record not only the past, but the future, but only "chosen children of heaven's choir" can tell the future. Ciel asks if the heaven's choir sings, but she says that "the beautiful sound comes from the priest's bedroom."
As only young males are chosen for the choir, only Ciel can get closer to this priest, although Grelle tries to say she can as well, after stealing the clothes from a young boy. The boy says it's now time for purification, and Sebastian notes the smell of decaying apples.
Returning to the chapel, the priest promises to cleanse the unclean and a man and a young woman step forward and have their clothes removed, revealing the large mark identical to the stained glass window and Ciel's brand on their backs. The priest is handed a book, but Grelle says she can't tell if it's the stolen record as she was seated in the back row.
As he tells their sins, they begin to shake and cry and their bodies glow black. The middle stained glass window then shines brightly, plays their movies, then shatters. Afterward, when the chapel is empty, Grelle says it's not the cinematic record, which means the priest cannot see the past.
Some members of the church then call Ciel and say he's chosen for the Heaven's Choir. They try to bathe him, saying even his fingernails have to be cleansed, but he struggles and refuses to allow them to. Sebastian charms them into letting him do the cleansing instead.
While bathing, Ciel remembers that the puppet they saw had called him unclean before. Sebastian questions if he wants to climb out of hell, but Ciel states he's more interested in taking the men who enslaved him down with him.
Back in the chapel, the priest tells Ciel he'd like to read from the book to him, and the way he touches Ciel's face recalls memories from his past. The man begins to strangle Ciel, and he calls for Sebastian's aid. Breaking through the stained glass window, Sebastian uses a knife to kill the priest.
He then moves to attack someone else, a suspicious individual who attracted his attention earlier and identifies her as Angela Blanc. She captures Ciel and reveals to Grelle that she has the real, stolen cinematic record. She uses the power of the book to capture Sebastian in reels, and without her original death scythe, Grelle is too slow to release him. Angela takes off with Ciel, and Grelle and Sebastian take after them.
==Characters in Order of Appearance==
*Undertaker
*Grelle Sutcliff
*Ciel Phantomhive
*Sebastian Michaelis
*Ash Landers
*Tanaka
*Pluto
*Rachel Phantomhive
*Vincent Phantomhive
*Angela Blanc
==Gallery==
117 Victoria sponge cake.png
117 Undertaker drives to the church.png
117 The nuns and Ciel.png
117 Blushing nuns.png
==Navigation==
Category:Episodes
Category:Kuroshitsuji