Summary
Elder Sister
Maid’s speech about freedom was great and all, but the Winter King and Lady
Knight’s endorsement of it means they’ve basically flipped the bird at the
Central Nations and the Church. War isn’t an immediate concern, but still something
they need to worry about. The serfs, however, are on the point of rebellion, so
the Winter King and his fellow southern monarchs the Bard Queen and the Iron
King decide they’ll have to free them. It shouldn’t be a problem because of the
increased food yields the potato provides.
Meanwhile, under Lady Knight the Lakeside Convent has broken away from
the Central Church and established the True Faith of the Light Spirit. When
immigration to the three kingdoms, now called the Southern Triad, proves low,
the Bard Queen suggests sending out musicians to spread the True Faith’s
teachings. Elder Sister disputes this, since most serfs are simple believers
unconnected to the schemes of the Church. It would be unfair to involve them in
a doctrinal dispute. Instead, she thinks the musicians should sing of what the
Triad has to offer: no serfdom, low taxes, and being rewarded for ability
rather than status. Impressed by her reasonable assessment, the monarchs agree
it’s the better idea.
Young Merchant, meanwhile, has schemes of his own to enact. By
stockpiling wheat and purchasing future harvests at set prices via contract, he
can create artificial inflation and scarcity, keeping the nobles of the Central
Nations worrying about their harvests. It’s all part of his plan to take down
the Council of Ten.
In Gate City, the Dragon Princess warns the governor about the Azure Demons.
They are one of the Great Races, the source of more Demon Kings than any other.
They want to conquer the human world, and she’s heard rumors they’re making
contact with humans in Gate City. She then visits Young Merchant and offers to
buy salt from him. It’s a valuable commodity in the Demon Realm, and scarcer
since the loss of Bright Light Island.
In the Central Nations, the impact of Young Merchant’s actions starts
to be felt as grain prices rise. Bard
Student tells Merchant Student, now the Winter Country’s Finance Minister,
about it in a letter. It’s clear to the latter that the Central Nations will
look to the Southern Triad, where prices haven’t risen, but the demand will be
so high it could gobble up all their available product. To avert a crisis, he
suggests they impose a tariff on wheat and potato exports. The Holy Capital and
the Church, meanwhile, plan to combat the rampant inflation by issuing a new
currency with a higher value.
After the tariff comes into effect, Young Merchant and the Dragon
Princess pay a visit to the Finance Minister. Young Merchant asks for an
exclusive tariff exemption on Alliance goods that pass through the Triad, a
land grant on Bright Light Island, permission to establish Alliance banks in the
Triad capitals, and to buy all their potato supply. Furthermore, he wants to
invest the Alliance’s stockpiled wheat in the Southern Triad. The Finance
Minister realizes he plans to use it as a pseudo-currency, and to open trade
with the demons. The Dragon Princess proves the latter by revealing herself as
a demon.
The Church sends the Southern Triad declarations of war and
excommunication. Hero asks the Winter King how long they can fight with no
casualties on either side. This isn’t naiveté, it’s necessary for what he has
in mind. The King says the snows will come and prevent further fighting within
four weeks, two if they’re lucky. He agrees to the task.
Serfs from the White Night Country are crossing the border into the
Iron Country, much to White Night King’s dismay. The Commander suggests they
take them back through force. With the Southern Triad distracted by the
numerically superior Central punitive force to the west, this is the perfect
chance to launch a raid on the Iron Country and conquer it. Warrior Student,
Queen’s third pupil and now an officer in the Iron Country army, leads a
successful defense against the White Night raiding force, the latter suffering
disproportionately higher casualties. Afterwards the wounded from both sides
are treated equally, and Warrior Student is promoted to General. A handful of
the raiders, including the Commander, have escaped and are currently hiding in
the city.
Word arrives that an army of Azure Demons is marching on Bright Light
Island. Since the Triad has no troops to spare, Hero decides to deal with the
situation himself. He gets unexpected help when Mage pops up and offers to stop
them for him. She uses a massive, years-in-the-making spell to teleport the
Azure Demons away, and then Hero does as she asked and destroys the magical
gate that allows people to enter the Demon Realm, but afterwards it’s revealed
the Demon Realm is actually underground, connected to the Human world.
Queen finally emerges from the tomb of the Demon Kings, clearly not
herself. The spirits of past Kings have taken control. Head Maid tries to carry
out Queen’s last order, but is no match for her mistress’s new combat prowess
and loses an arm. She manages to force Queen back into the tomb, in the hopes
she’ll repeat the process and return to normal, but has little hope of it. Hero
bursts in, and has no choice but to try and stop Queen himself.
Thoughts
So the Demon Realm is underground? Everyone thought it was a different
world/plane/whatever? That wasn’t ever brought up before. I was confused, since
I’d assumed it was just the continent at the South Pole. Not very Antarctic-y,
but y’know, magic. Then I remembered that the map we always see just has an
empty southern continent except for the magical gate everyone teleports to when
they go to the Demon Realm. The latter is
in a rather Antarctic-y wasteland, where they then teleport again to reach the demon lands proper. A
map of which is seen in the opening credits and once or twice in the show itself.
It’s still a bit random of a revelation, but actually not confusing at all.
On another note, Young Merchant’s proving to be rather unscrupulous,
huh? Not that it wasn’t always obvious he’s shrewd, profit-focused and not
above getting his hands dirty when dealing with real or perceived threats to
his own interests. But now it’s clear just how far he’s willing to go, and the
amount of people he’s willing to step on. He’s starting to feel like a bad guy,
which is a bit of a shame because I kinda liked him. Well, maybe it’s not that
so much as I just approved of his taste in women.
On the other hand, it’s not so simple as that. When Dragon Princess
offers him a business deal, he starts to think this is what Hero meant about
someone like him, who thinks in terms of loss-and-gain, being the one to find
something that is more than that. Basically, by opening trade with the demons –
going after something in the name of profit – he may become responsible for
increased contact, communication, and understanding between the two races. So
it’s hard to know where to stand on this – he’s screwing over thousands of
people in the name of his own interests, but at the same time he’s on track to
enabling what could be the most important step in ending the war between humans
and demons because of it.
It’s also nice to see things threaten to fall apart a little, rather
than everyone easily managing to put aside their differences and work together.
It’s not so much that they’re coming undone because Queen isn’t there, though
that’s part of it, since she’s the one with the best understanding of the
underpinnings of conflict. Rather, it’s a chance to establish how those under
her wing are able to take what she taught them and learn to apply it, and to
see her influence resonate beyond her immediate actions. There’s pushback from
the Central Nations, and especially the Church, but several of the Southern
Nations, at least, have taken her ideas to heart and started working together
to try and improve the lives of their people. So far it looks like Queen will
be assigned the credit for Elder Sister’s actions, which is a shame since they
were entirely the latter’s doing, but it’s nice to see that those in the know
still appreciate her value and are willing to listen to her ideas. Queen’s
students had so far been very peripheral, but now we got to see that they’ve
learned their lessons well, whether it’s the knowledge she taught them
(Merchant Student deducing Young Merchant’s economic schemes), her shrewdness
(Bard Student’s work as a spy; that he’s helping Young Merchant is
questionable, but at least he doesn’t seem entirely on his side), or her
compassion (Warrior Student’s treatment of the enemy wounded). And the fact of
the matter is the end goal is a huge one that can only be achieved by going
against the interests of some very powerful people and organizations. Having
everything resolve peacefully would be improbable and too convenient. It’s also
too big for any one person, even someone like Queen. In-story her reason for going
back to the Demon Realm was because she never completed the process for
becoming the Demon King, not to mention she doesn’t appear to be in line with
standard practice, making the spirits of the old Kings angry. Narratively,
however, it’s been a chance for those who’ve been influenced by her to show
what they can do, and it’s great that the story go in that direction.
Random observation, but I’m not sure why I called Head Maid Queen’s
governess the first time I mentioned her. I’d just sort of assumed, but there
wasn’t any evidence she was anything other than a long-time servant. It’s just
that I didn’t really think about that until now, with the flashback in episode
10, where it was clear Queen and Head Maid are roughly contemporary in age. Clearer I should say, since I never really
pinpointed Head Maid’s proximity to Queen in age before, but it’s obvious in
hindsight. Since its shown the flashback takes place when Hero’s a baby,
whereas Queen looks like she’s in her teens, I’d be a little weirded out at the
implied age gap, but since she’s not, despite her appearance, human, I’m just
going to go with the relative age
excuse.
But back to Head Maid. Episode 11 really underscored her loyalty to
Queen, especially that blink-and-you-miss-it flashback that implies she was
once in the same situation as the two younger maids. It’s not clear how much of
her current situation was her actively asking to serve Queen and how much the
latter’s compassion, but it’s probably a mix of both. Regardless, it sheds more
light on her actions towards the sisters. She may have been harsh, but she
understood them a lot better than was clear at first, and wasn’t being
contemptuous so much as trying to give them a lesson about what they need to do
to survive. I definitely misjudged her.
No comments:
Post a Comment