Karen's Anime Blog

This episode starts on a nice domestic note, with Nelluru brewing coffee for Klen and Alicia. Sometimes, it kind of blows my mind that there are many people who don’t start their day with coffee– how could you live? Of course, coffee is an expensive trade good in Clevatess world, so Nelluru grabbed some when she was raiding Vroko’s pantry. Klen is pleased with the coffee, but disappointingly, does not declare that the human race is now okay in his book for making such a delicious beverage. While he’s drinking, Alicia comes back from scouting the town to report that the Kingdom of Hiden is very, very messed up right now. Having your entire ruling class killed in one night will do that.

Being the pureblooded Hidenean that he is, Luna knows a good thing when he sees it. Don’t worry kid, I wore my parents down and started having coffee at the age of 11, you can do it!

Alicia briefs Klen on the political situation, including Boelate’s invasion of Hiden and Esslin’s failed attempt at resistance. Interestingly, she says that Hiden doesn’t have any wizards because the king forbade the use of magic within his realm. That seems exactly like the kind of self-sabotaging bunk that I expect from royalty. Nelluru gives Alicia some coffee, which Alicia has never had because she was from a village that didn’t get much in the way of luxury ingredients. It’s probably not good that I’m more invested in the coffee situation than the invasion right now.

Even if your a walking corpse animated by dark ichor, that’s no reason not to enjoy a steamy brew of caffeinated bliss.

Alicia compliments Nelluru, which leads Klen to respond that even though she’s not very feminine, she still can’t “have a baby with Nelluru.” What? Where did that even come from? Flustered, Alicia explains that Nelluru is the first person she’s ever made happier with her sword, so she feels like she’s actually done something heroic. Aww.

Back on topic, Alicia points out that if Boelate succeeds in wiping out Hiden, there goes Klen’s grand plan of making Luna king; at this rate, if Luna is found, he’ll just be exploited for the Hiden royal bloodline’s ability to forge aranacite into weapons. Alicia believes that Drel must be leading the Boelate army, and then we get some more context to her father’s murder: Drel murdered the man, who had retired and was living a quiet life, because he wanted to prove that his magic was stronger than Alicia’s father’s great sword skills. What a stupid reason to kill someone. Before he died, Alicia’s father told her never to fight Drel because war is opposite of the path of the hero: “War makes the world of men smaller.” So now, even though Alicia clearly wants revenge, she’ll be disobeying her father’s last wish if she takes on Drel.

Alicia muses that she’s not a hero anymore, so perhaps her father’s warning no longer applies; surprisingly, Klen is philosophical on the subject. Who decides who gets to be a hero, anyway? What’s to stop Alicia from still calling herself a hero if she saves people, the way she saved Nelluru? I think Klen’s exposure to Alicia has given him a lot of respect for heroes that he didn’t have in episode one.

Klen reverts to his true form and runs off, presumably to deal with the Boelate army in some fashion. Whatever happened to keeping a low profile so no one knows he’s gone? I guess we’re past that. I’m actually a little concerned about him; sure, he’s wicked powerful, but that army was huge and they have wizards that can do magic Clevatess doesn’t understand. Our favorite dark beast may be in for a rude awakening.

We switch POV to the Boelate Army, where they are currently passing through another gate. The Esslin soldiers from last episode are still hoping to stop the invasion and plan on stopping Boelate when they cross a nearby river. A pink-haired Hidenean we saw in the first episode looks on, and I wonder: is that Luna’s father? All pure-blooded Hideans have pink hair, so the hair color alone isn’t a giveaway, but there’s some reason this guy is getting screen time.

Alicia, Nelluru and Luna enter the village of Shiron, where an escaped bandit from the Ravens’ camp is getting abused by some local men. Seems like the villagers have been hanging the escaped bandits, and I almost feel sorry for them, but they I remember what they did to Nelluru and I’m not all that sorry.

Some delightfully grim imagery for those who thought this show was too on the happy-go-lucky side so far.

Alicia, Nelluru and Luna enter an inn, and two brutes want to make an issue of the fact that Alicia is a mysterious woman with an eyepatch and a sword. Their Mom, Kari, who is about a quarter their size, puts them in their places and gives Alicia a chance to explain herself. When Alicia states that she and Nelluru are protecting Luna, Kari welcomes the trio to the inn. One of the men takes Nelluru’s luggage and staggers from the weight of it– what the hell did Nelluru lift from Vroko’s supplies? Solid bars of gold? After taking payment, Kari takes the trio to a plain but serviceable room where they can stay. Unfortunately, a creepy bug spies their whereabouts and Meynard is seeing through the bug’s eyes. Damn, it did not take him long to find them. Meynard sends his army of bugs into town, and boy it’s going to be hard for me to watch all these bugs swarming on screen; just the sight of them grosses me out.

I like Kari. I’m hoping against hope she survives what comes next.

A while later, as Luna naps, Alicia goes downstairs to bring up dinner. In the main room, the guys are talking about current events and blaming most everything on the heroes, who these men think are guilty of “dreaming too big.” Alicia notes the current opinion of her profession, but knows better than to say anything. As she’s going upstairs, something shatters a window. It’s a red ball that unfurls into a giant, uh….centipede? Mantis? I don’t know what kind of insect that’s supposed to be. It’s huge and quite gross though. Alicia reaches for her sword, and realizes she left it in the bedroom. Honestly, I don’t know if an ordinary sword would do her much good here; Clevatess should have left the Stream Splitter sword with her before he took off.

One guy tries to escape and gets eaten by the overwhelming army of giant bugs that have infested the town. That was less disgusting than it could have been, thank you show. Meynard introduces himself and claims he’s there to see if the Hiden baby inside is of royal blood or not. Upstairs, a different wizard is holding Nelluru in place by using the iron bedframe as a cage, while Luna cries. This mage is named Naie, and it seems like she has the ability to control metal.

Cute design, horrible wizard of the evil army. I guess you’re never too evil for girlish pigtails.

And that’s all for this week. Wow, things look bad. I don’t know how Alicia is going to be able to fight back in this situation, and even Clevatess may not be safe. I really hope Alicia somehow manages to kill Meynard sooner rather than later, his bugs suck and I hate the fact that he’s busting up Kari’s inn. The woman works hard to keep that place going! According to the preview, the Esslin guys are actually going to do something next time, so maybe they’ll hook up with our heroes somehow; I can hope.