Summary
Six months have passed since Hero and Demon Queen came to Winter’s Pass
Village, and the harvest has been a success. They visit a convent for the next
stage of her plan, where the prioress turns out to be Lady Knight, one of
Hero’s former companions. She isn’t happy with him for bailing on them with no
word, but Queen defuses the situation by giving the cover story that he was
wounded fighting the Demon King, which is exactly what Knight heard after his
disappearance. His companions were offered rewards, but Knight refused hers.
Another comrade, whom she calls ‘the old pervert,’ took the money and now works
for an intelligence agency in the south, while Mage went off on her own and is
presumably still frying demons with her magic somewhere.
Demon Queen’s secret weapon is revealed to be potatoes, and she piques
Knight’s interest by offering her a bowl of mashed potatoes, which she enjoys. Queen
wants her to set up a convent in Winter’s Pass to help teach new agricultural
methods, with the intent to eventually build more across the region. Knight is
uneasy about Hero’s new partnership with Queen but agrees, deciding to oversee
the new convent personally.
After they leave, Hero asks Queen why she’s been holed up in her room
so much the last two months. She mentions the Alliance, an organization of
merchants whose reach extends across the human lands and whose combined wealth
is astronomical. She was developing a gimbal-mounted compass, which
she sent to a young merchant as a gift, hoping to win the Alliance’s support.
His colleagues are impressed, but suspicious of this ‘Crimson Scholar.’ The
young merchant plans to pay her a visit.
Hero tries to sneak away to look for Mage, but Queen figures out what
he’s doing. She’s jealous that he’s going after another “old flame” like Lady
Knight (which he denies) but sees it as an opportunity to have him take care of
some of the rowdier demon lords in her absence. She gives him a suit of demon
armor, a list of trustworthy lords, and a letter of introduction. She also
wants to do, you know, that ritual men and women who are close do before
parting, but all Hero does is kiss her on the forehead and promise to do the
rest when he returns.
Thoughts
So the secret weapon was potatoes, huh? Does that mean the land of the
demons is the New World or something? Whatever, I never would’ve guessed it,
but it makes perfect sense considering what she’s trying to do. I just hope she
remembers to introduce multiple varieties so they don’t run into any problems.
And wait, does everyone just
have descriptive titles; no names? That must get confusing when people change
occupations. Does Lady Knight have to spend time being referred to as ‘Prioress
of Lakeside Convent, formerly Lady Knight’ so that people who used to know her
can find her? How do you even give a name/title/whatever to a newborn with that
kind of custom? Am I thinking too much about something that’s being done
because of the nature of the story and not meant to be taken seriously? Since
it’s supposed to be set in Generic Fantasyland and is a satire of the typical
‘good vs. evil’ conflict in fantasy, the answer is yes.
Anyways, I’m starting to think I was worried about nothing last time
with whether this’ll turn into Demon Queen enlightening the stupid, backward
humans. There’s lots they can learn from her, but nobody is outright stupid so
far (well, Hero may not be the sharpest sword in the armory, but that’s not the
same thing). I appreciated that the church is portrayed as an institution heavily
involved in the scientific study and the dissemination of science and
knowledge, just like it was in the real Middle Ages rather than a dogmatic band
of control freaks mostly after excuses to set people on fire. There are
self-interested groups like the merchants, but they’re the kind of people you’d
expect to be since they’ve got a highly profitable grip on commerce that could
be upset if outside parties get their hands on Demon Queen’s inventions and
ideas. Really, the only thing that sparked my worry was Head Maid, and she
probably shouldn’t count since she isn’t even human.
Speaking of Head Maid, I’m not gonna like her much, am I? First she
shows contempt towards people over things they can’t help, or at least not overcome
without exactly the kind of compassion and charity they received, now she’s
encouraging Demon Queen’s body image issues, even though the latter is clearly
attractive. Yeah, that’s gonna get annoying. And now that there are not one but
two potential rival love interests about to come into the mix (one of whom
stands a chance of becoming the constant butt of flat chest jokes), it looks
like I’ve got different things to worry about. Not that that will necessarily
ruin the show, but the main focus is becoming interesting enough that the show
really doesn’t need to throw in anything else, especially not harem antics;
they’ve been done a million times already and there’s plenty of new ones every
year. Ah well, even if things do turn out like that, it’s still pretty minimal
anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment