Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou desu – Episode 3

It was great to see this episode was much livelier and expressive than the last two, especially with Sei’s reactions. Her internal quips were so entertaining! This is what we were missing! It also helped that they have picked up the pace without cutting too much out while making some smart adjustments as well. I was excited coming into this week because I knew about the date, and it did not disappoint. I was grinning from ear to ear and giggling from start to finish. Yes, this is the kind of fluff content that heals the heart. So good! I can’t tell you have happy this makes me. Tuesdays just can’t come soon enough!

It starts off with Albert walking in while Sei was chilling her feet in a bucket of water, but the thing is in this world– it’s not modest for ladies to show their feet, so naturally Albert was flustered seeing her like that. Then way Sei was trying to play it off cool because it’s not a big deal to her while he was the one who felt apologetic and was embarrassed was just adorable to watch. But it was nice to see he didn’t let that dissuade him from why he came to see her,  which was ask if she wanted to go to town with him. Of course unbeknownst to her at the time, was actually a date! Sei didn’t realize that until the day after, when Johan wanted to know all the juicy details and told her it was definitely a date, because Albert wouldn’t invite someone he wasn’t romantically interested in out and give them an expensive gift. (I love the way he teases them haha!)

Honestly I loved it, just because the date was simple and sweet. It wasn’t anything showy, just doing the ordinary things, like walking together hand in hand, enjoying the markets, having a nice lunch together and then wrapping up the day with going to a shop where he got her the gift. She even fell asleep on his shoulder on the way back, haha! It was just fun and fluffy to see.

But thanks to that, we did get to see a bit more about Albert, such him showcasing his ice magic when she mentioned it would be nice if her drink were cooler. In this world, get a man who can use ice magic! He also talked about how he and Johan would sneak into town when they were younger, which is why despite being an aristocrat, he knows where everything is at and where to get the best food, haha! It was cute of him to ask her to keep that a secret. (Though I will say, I do find it rather amusing how the food in town tastes better than what is cooked up in the palace, but hey, at least this world’s food isn’t completely in vain, but I digress!) I also thought it was cute how he gave her the gift and asked her to open it in her room before subtly running for it. He had bought her the hair ornament she was looking at that the shop, so perhaps he knew that she might have tried to refuse due to knowing how expensive it was considering she has shown to be conscious of costs and such. And sure enough, it was substantially more expensive than the already pricey standard version she had seen in the shop.

So it comes as no surprise that there was more to the gift than meets the eye. For starters, Elizabeth shared with her how it is a common custom for a man to give a gift that matches their eye color to the woman they fancy. And then later, she learned from Jude that the hairclip also has an enchantment on it, which makes it even more expensive. Understandably her brain combusted when she thought of what the price could’ve been for that after knowing it’s original (I know I would too), but it’s also because she was also pretty flustered to hear someone like Albert is romantically interested in her.

Considering how valuable the gift was, Sei wanted to give him something in return, so she had her first enchantment made into a necklace so he could wear it while he goes out on his field missions. It was so cute how she was so flustered about giving it to him, she had tried to hide it in her basket of sweets she had baked and planned to run away but he noticed it before she could! Haha!

Apart from the date in town, Sei was also introduced to Appraisal Magic. After learning about her hair ornament having an enchantment, Sei was quite curious about it so Johan offered to take her over to the Assembly to give it a shot. Hilariously she was a bit overly ambitious with the piece they had given her to work with, as she was trying to create damage mitigation for all affinity types. It wasn’t the kind of material that could be imbued like that, so she ended up breaking it! After being caught red-handed by Erhart, and forced to admit her intention she was given a more appropriate one. After seeing it was successful, he proceeded to put her to the test to see how far she could go. As a reward, she got to keep her first enchantment piece, which she later used for Albert’s gift.

However as result of this, we got to see what happens when the word of her involvement starts to make circulations. In this case, despite Erhart’s instructions to keep her enchantments confidential, somehow it got leaked and the world reached the Knights of the First Order, and now they put in an unreasonable last minute order for them to do, so he had to seek her out for assistance. There will certainly be hell to pay if he were to find the one responsible for it. But it is encouraging to see how he won’t ask Sei to do things without giving something equivalent of value to compensate for her time and effort. That’s why she got to keep her first enchantment piece, and was later introduced to someone who was able to make it into a necklace so it could be purposely used.

This also allowed us to see how protective Johan is of Sei, and it is heartwarming to see. He won’t tolerate people being unkind to her, as he shown he was for a moment worried Albert screwed up somehow by being cruel to her. And he certainly has no intention of letting people take advantage of her powers either, as he is constantly making sure she doesn’t get screwed over and is compensated properly for her services. So it’s great to see Sei being surrounded by those who are watching her back.

Finally, one of the last things I wanted to touch on was the quiet moments.  As it did last week, there were another couple of moments where I felt it was too quiet. When I thought about it some more, I realized it was because some of these scenes just don’t have any background music going on at all. I find that to be a curious decision considering this show has already shown to have some really beautiful tracks. It would be nice to see them adjust and add more in the future episodes since I do feel a subtle music track can add more to those scene where there is just not enough dialogue to fill it in. It can also help enhance the mood, such as the date the quieter moments like the scene Sei and Albert were having lunch together.

But I must say, I thought the pace for this episode was pretty darn good for what they managed to squeeze in. From the date in town, appraisal and then the post-credits scene – they really did manage to squeeze a lot in. I was also fairly happy with some of the adjustments they made, as they still managed to preserve the significance while cutting out what would have resulted more quieter/idle chatter moments. In particular in the post-credit scene when Sei went to give Albert a gift in return, I liked the way they did it because the way he quickly found it in the basket added some cute humor in that short period of time they had. And of course the kiss on the hand was a great way to end the episode, heheheheheheheheheheh~

However on the more serious note, what this episode certainly did was show how despite the attempt to keep people quiet, the word of Sei’s talent is making circulations around the palace. Doing things like seamlessly producing enchantments (while chugging away potions) and her 50% bonus effect is bound to draw unwanted attention to herself, who wishes to pursue a quiet life.

That’s all for this week, see you next time!

PS: Some appreciation for Jude too because he’s such a cutie.