Score: A

Just another great episode this week. It was nice to focus a bit more on Lieselotte and Fiene for a bit. The main heroine and the villainess from the original storyline really have become a nice pair of friends. Obviously Liese is still an incredible tsundere, but things have progressed enough that this isn’t a big deal. Fiene may not have the voices of the gods in her ears, but she does get that Liese is a nice person at her core. In some ways it is just good to have them build up their friendship naturally. Some interference from Kobayashi and Endo is necessary for the story to work. But if nothing is allowed to naturally mature then the friendships and bonds could feel artificial. And yeah, I get the irony of saying that when this is supposed to be a game-world.

Baldur is a man that causes great reactions from others

Good for Fiene to get the chance to enjoy a wonderful break from school and to have someone to confide in. Fiene is a powerhouse that can absolutely handle herself. But that doesn’t mean it is easy for her to handle processing what happened in the previous episode. It is doubly a win that Liese knows what kind of person Baldur is and can provide information about what is going on with him. It was a nice bit of extra intel that Bal is not kidding about anything here. I was surprised that he’s already taken steps to try and turn down the engagements to one of Liese’s sisters. Along with that he’s seemingly ready to discard his status, knighthood, and everything else. He calmly judged Fiene to be a wonderful girl and that he’ll never meet one more charming. Therefore…he’s taking steps without letting the consequences slow him down.

Of course, that doesn’t make things easy for Fiene. But it’s good for her to take in that he really is that serious. He’s also a bit of an idiot, but there’s earnestness there. If nothing else though, it was nice for Fiene to get to express her mixed up feelings to someone that understands. It didn’t resolve everything, but it at least gave Fiene something to think about. She will have to face Bal eventually though and at that point decide how to handle that straightforwardness. Of course, Lieselotte is too much a tsundere to be completely open with Fiene. It took monumental effort and interpretation from others just to invite her friend to spend the summer with her. But it’s good for both to have that kind of bond and support.

Lieselotte is a good friend and blunt cousin

It was kind of fun watching Lieselotte continually offer such overwhelming support. She was all over critiquing Fiene’s vague life goals. Of course, I think Fiene is stupidly powerful enough to be a perfectly successful adventurer. But Liese really had a perfectly good career path already thought up for Fiene. I can’t even argue with how rock solid it is. If nothing changes Fiene could easily walk down that road of being this super bodyguard to noble ladies. She is a lady herself, so she’d fit in a lot more subtly than having some bulky armed guard following around. And if she does master etiquette then she’d be even better at that job. No doubt that part of the point of pushing Fiene to master noble etiquette was that Lieselotte had been thinking hard about Fiene’s future.

I suppose it is worth keeping in mind though that Lieselotte really has a rough reputation at school still. The main cast and those close to her understand her feelings. But it doesn’t look as good to everyone watching from a distance. That isn’t a big issue right now since the interpretation of Sieg and Fiene are the most important here. But it could potentially lead to issues down the road. The wrong kind of push could send Lieselotte down a path no one wants to see her walk down.

I’m glad they are keeping an eye on things

One thing I’m glad to see here is that Kobayashi and Endo are apparently keeping a wider view on things. It seems as if they did witness the incident with Baldur and Fiene. They probably have no idea about her vision during that moment, but they know at least what generally went down. And that tied into how they weren’t very active in this episode. There’s not much point in them offering commentary if there is no one in that world to hear them XD. As an audience I’d still like to hear it, but I suppose it does let the story move faster to exclude them when their input doesn’t add to anything. It also really hammers home how reliant they are on Sieg. If he’s not there then all their planning and intentions mean nothing. They are helpless observers in that case.

The mysterious mother

There was way too much focus on Fiene’s family and heritage for the story to have nothing more to say there. It seems possible that Fiene’s mother was a nobility (or royalty). Now maybe the whole “Princess for a day” thing meant nothing. It could have just been trying to treat her daughter with kindness knowing their lives would be difficult. But maybe she was trying to prepare her in some way for the kind of life she should have had and might have in the future. There are too many questions about what happened to her mother and why people are trying to kill them. That’s way too much for just offending some nobility at some point. If Fiene was a potential heir to the throne of that Kingdom, then it would certainly create motives to erase her…

And the episode almost feels set up for Fiene’s mother to be the person launching the attack. Now I don’t think it’s her will to be doing that. We do have a mystical and evil witch on the loose. If Lieselotte is proving a difficult pawn to take advantage of thanks to all this interference, then maybe the witch focused on someone else. And of course, if things get messy then that would create even more conflict. Good job easing tensions if Fiene’s mother (possessed or not) injured or killed a member of Lieselotte’s family. Things could get wild.

“Critical hit!”

There’s almost no need to talk about how utterly cute Lieselotte is. Kobayashi and Sieg especially hammer that home almost every episode. But it was still the case here. It was great how she was working so intensely to get that present ready for Sieg. That she kept tossing slightly imperfect ribbons and starting over while aiming for the most perfect one she could make. That cuteness continued when it came to her rushed attempt to be ready for Sieg and his somewhat surprise visit. Of course, she was caught between being overjoyed and frazzled that she might not have the ideal reception ready for him in time. Thank goodness for the “godly” support though. It would have sucked to have Sieg go out of his way to visit only to have her tsun a bit too hard. Sieg has some smooth moves when he’s motivated though…

Let’s see how this plays out

This show continues to impress every week. It might honestly be the dark horse of the season. Really don’t see many talking about it, but it keeps building things up in an enjoyable way. It seems likely that things will mostly work out by the end of the season. But the journey to getting there has been a lot of fun so far. Whether the focus is more on the characters outside the game or inside the game, the results are still excellent. It was kind of refreshing to step away from Endo and Kobayashi for a bit just so the show doesn’t become a constant repetition. All the main cast are valid to focus on and this week was for those inside the game. It should be interesting to see how things unfold from here considering how the episode ended.