Where was the ecchi in this show again? The last few episodes have been pretty tame, and I was hoping that we’d moved past the random boobage firmly into the realm of plot. Oh wait, you mean, I was wrong? Ah, I see. -_-;
Lux has recovered from the injuries he received at Ries Island, and the academy is getting ready to celebrate an upcoming country-wide event: the National 
Foundation Festival. It is a celebration marking the beginning of the new empire, and this year is the five year anniversary. Lisha wants to ask Lux to be her date, but Krulcifer just jumps right in and asks him to be her date instead. And then Celes wants in on the fun. And Philuffy. So Headmistress Reiri decides to take advantage of situation and suggest that Lux reward one of the three girls with a date.
A compromise is reached: Lux will have a date with each girl instead, split up throughout the day. Celes is first, then Krulcifer, then Philuffy. Lisha doesn’t officially have a date with Lux, because (by my understanding) she didn’t improve much at the training camp.
On the way to his first date, Lux talks with his sister Airi and she shares some information with him. I have no idea where she gets this information from, but she always just magically seems to know what is going on. We learn that the National Foundation Festival will be having an All-Dragon battle during the festivities this year, and Lux and the rest of the Chivalric Order will be their country’s representatives. No pressure or anything right? Airi also gives him a warning: the “Empire Assassin’s Dagger” has escaped from jail and is most likely heading for Lux.
With that, they meet up with Celes, and Lux gets changed into a tux to be more formally dressed like Celes. This will allow them to move through the crowds undetected, since no one will think anything of their appearance. They enjoy the different events and sights, and Celes accidently has some alcohol. When they talk by the fountain, she gets faint and falls over with Lux on top of her. Cue another accidental gropage scene, but even I found it amusing when Noct, Tillfarr and Sharis interrupt at right that moment to take Lux to his next date with Krulcifer.
For his next date, Lux is made to change into another uniform. His friends take him to a ball being held for the nobles and Drag-Riders at the Foundation Festival. Lux and Krulcifer dance, and then later as dusk is approaching, they kiss outside. Krucilfer asks for a pretend kiss, but when Lux leans in, she sneaks a real out one of him. Lux is totally overwhelmed, the poor guy.
The last date of the night is with Philuffy. She’s also dressed up very formally, something Lux has not seen before and he makes sure to compliment her. I laughed pretty hard at seeing that Philuffy’s older sister, Headmistress Reiri, ships the two of them apparently. Go Philuffy! Lux’s date with Philuffy is at a church, and true to her kind nature, Philuffy simply wants to let Lux rest for awhile as he has been pushing himself hard lately. He lies down on a pew with his head in her lap, and after some quiet words of gratitude from Philuffy, Lux passes out.
On the way back to his room, Lux comes across Lisha. She asks him to become her personal Knight. They will be graduating from the academy soon, and once she does she will have to return to her royal duties. She’s been told she should have a personal Knight to serve her, and because Lux also knows her secret about her tattoo, she wants to ask Lux to think it over. He has until the last day of the festival to make his decision.
The next day, Lux and Airi are up in the tower when the long-haired beauty from the previous episode’s preview shows up. The Empire Assassin’s Dagger, if you will. Her name is Yoruka Kirihime, and she was a Drag-Knight who served the former empire’s family – Lux’s family. She has come to the academy to serve Lux, and she makes it pretty clear that he can ask her to kill someone or have sex with him, and she will obey him. Yoruka asks him to command her, and he tells her to go away until the end of the festival – or so he thinks.
Later that evening she shows up in the bathhouse where he is relaxing, naked of course. She comes up behind him and starts massaging his back with her bare 
soapy breasts (no I am not kidding), and when he panics and freaks out his friends come running. Afterwards he and Yoruka walk around the school grounds and talk. Lux asks her why she has showed up to serve him, and in a nutshell Yoruka wants Lux to destroy the country and re-establish the Arcadia Empire. Not happening, of course. Hopefully.
Just then Celes, Philuffy, and Lisha arrive in their Divine Drag-Rides, and Yoruka reveals that she has one as well. Hers has a neat ability which lets her manipulate the Drag-Rides of other people once her Drag-Ride touches theirs. As we see, it’s really easy for such an ability to change the tides of battle quickly. Yoruka baits Lux with one last teaser: if he goes with her the next time she returns, she will tell him her “precious secret”, which is a plan concerning the fate of the country. Then she camouflages her Drag-Ride and vanishes.
My thoughts: The way Lux fingers his choker at the very end makes me a little concerned. I’ve noticed that he hasn’t really interacted with it at all so far, and I was beginning to wonder if it had any significance beyond Bahamut; now it looks like there might be one after all. Is he going to fall in with a hidden demonic nature and raze the country to the ground? Does he have a twisted plan of his own that he’s kept hidden? And do Yoruka’s dichromatic eyes mean anything?
The ending cinematic has changed again, adding Yoruka to the plethora of girls surrounding Lux at the end of the ending theme. I really like how this show pays attention to small details. ^_~v
Lastly, we get another preview. It reveals that Hayes, Saniya and Ragreed are working together, and going by Hayes’ words it sounds like Yoruka is working for them. This makes me think that the “plan concerning the fate of the country” Yoruka references is the plan of her employers. If Lux goes with her, she’ll tip him off (since he is supposedly her master) and perhaps he’ll have a chance to save the day. But I still don’t know how Fugil factors into everything!