Disclaimer: I don't own Gankutsuou.
Phantoms At the Opera
Baron Franz D'Epinay hated the empty, red velvet upholstered opera house seating. He had all but grown up in those chairs, he was quite used to them, but he hated them. As a member of the Parisian upper crust, it was an unwritten requirement that he show his face at the opera at least twice a month. Any less and the fair ladies may very well forget who he was, and the surest way to ruin an aristocrat in Paris is to never talk about him.
But when Franz sat down in his seat, he couldn't help but stare at the nearest empty seat in contempt. Of course, he had always sat in the same seat since he was small-- it was like seats at a lunch table, they were never assigned, but it made it convenient for the ladies, as that way they knew in which direction to turn their binoculars when each name came up in conversation. Boxes were reserved for those who thought themselves especially scandalous, because boxes were the easiest to see from both the floor and first tier seating, and would often be the next best place to look when the patrons became bored with the stage.
But tonight Franz didn't even care what show was being performed, and certain that he had seen it before anyway, still just watching that intolerably empty seat. The fact was that that very seat, the seat immediately to Franz left actually, had been empty all month while its occupant had been about town doing countless irresponsible things. Really, it wasn't the chair Franz despised (How could he? He had all but been raised in those chairs.), it was the fact that that chair was still empty. The chair that had, ever since they had been small, been the chair of Vicomte de Morcef.