Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou desu Episode 10

At last we’re starting my favourite arc! Sei is quite taken with the Klausner region since it’s a place like Heaven for her. It was cute how she was so excited about the herbs and getting the opportunity to be introduced to one of the best alchemists in the region, that she completely forgot about her Saint duties. Luckily for her, Albert had her covered! Since they have arrived, he is already diligently supporting Sei by lessening the load of responsibilities that would otherwise be pushed onto the Saint. By doing so, he is freeing her time to rest from the journey, and focus on what she really wants to do, which is learn as much as she can while she is in Klausner. Moments like this are why I can’t help but scream, “MARRIED!”

They also had another sweet moment that made me giggle like a fool. Believe me when say I am not always about corny lines, but the way Albert never misses an opportunity to tell Sei how beautiful she is just makes my heart swoon. And what made it even better was that Sei actually tried to tell him the same today (he was stunning in the moonlight!), but she was too shy and flustered to do it and ended up running away! It was so cute!

Gosh they haven’t even confessed to each other yet, and they are already acting so much like a couple!

Needless to say, while Sei hasn’t been in Klausner for too long, her trip to the region has already proven to be tremendously useful. While she is learning more about Alchemy from Corrina (Klausner’s best alchemist), she as also given the opportunity to read an invaluable tome that could only be found in Klausner. While it is described to have belonged to the Great Alchemist, in truth it is actually a diary that belonged to a Saint who grew up in Klausner. The diary recorded details of the plight of a horrific drought that lead to famine and disease, but most importantly, dropped major hints of how to trigger the Saint’s magic of which she described to be a “Blessing”.

This explains how Klausner has earned the name as the “Holy Land for Alchemists”. Since their fields have been blessed, that means their herbs are able to produce high quality potions than the places without it. However now that the blessing seemingly has expired, they are now experiencing major shortages and the potions’ quality are not up to par as they used to be. So as the Saint, Sei has two objectives she needs to do here: Bless the fields, and purge the monsters.

While Sei is learning about the Alchemy and the Saint’s powers, Albert and the knights has been scouting the area in advance as part of preparation for the expedition. Working alongside them are Klausner’s mercenaries, led by Leonhardt. Sei’s reaction when she first saw him made me laugh because she was genuinely impressed by how muscular his arms were. She was right on the money when she described him to be like a clumsy big dog, especially since they did a good job of making him look the part with the sullen puppy eyes. Not to mention, he is full of energy. It was so funny how he pulled her out of her seat to enthusiastically greet her. He doesn’t know that she is the Saint yet, so it was pretty funny how he wished he could recruit her after he learned she could heal too. Regardless, it won’t be long before he learns about it, haha!

I do think it was pretty smart and understandable why Sei was trying and keep a low profile while she is in Klausner. It does allow her to move around more freely and do the things she like. However she ended up making quite a show when she panicked after Leonhardt told her how the Capital’s Knights were attacked by a horde of nasty monsters while they were on their scouting mission. But honestly can you really blame her? It is one thing to see the Knights return with their wounds, but her first expedition opened her eyes to the horrors of the battle. On top of that, it was traumatic for her to see Albert almost getting killed right before her eyes. So naturally when she saw him all bloodied up on the floor, she completely lost her wits at that point.

Although I have to say, when she utilized the Saint’s magic, I couldn’t help but chuckle out of second-hand embarrassment for her when she cried out to him, because Albert’s wounds were not serious as they appeared to be. His dumbfounded reaction as pretty funny though, both of them were equally confused. Then, when they sat down to think about it, Albert was actually quite close to the truth when he suggested maybe it is triggered when she believes someone in danger.

But it was all thanks to this misunderstanding that Sei came to terms with how truly feels about Albert. Now that she knows she loves him, and because of that, he is the key to casting the Saint’s spell, she doesn’t know what to do with herself! Unfortunately for Yuri, this is a something Sei is determined to take to the grave! (He will probably figure it out in due time though, unless he proves to be too dense with it comes to love.)

Of all the episodes so far, I would say this was probably my favourite to date because it had pretty much everything it needed. No chunky time skips, humor, new information, the introduction of interesting characters and of course, some hearty moments between Sei and Albert. I also must confess, this was honestly better paced than I thought it would be. It might actually be because for once the third and fourth volume don’t have frequent time skips like the first two did. So now I am feeling a tad more optimistic that they might just be able to pull this off without rushing and cutting out too much from this arc. (But they better keep a certain scene next week, because I WANT TO SEE IT!!!)

Also, I think this was actually the first episode they did not do that outrageously overused fancy lips shot. Holy smokes, it was life-changing for me, I kid you not. It made the experience so much better. That little detail has been driving me absolutely insane for weeks now! Can I dare to hope they are finally abandoning it for good?

With this episode, they managed to get through the majority of the third volume, so this does leave them a bit more breathing room to focus on the juicy stuff in fourth volume in the final two episodes. (Shit, I can’t believe it’s almost over!) So now, all that I wish for, is to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEEEEEEE FLESH OUT THE UPCOMING EXPEDITION FIGHT AND MAKE IT AWESOME TO MAKE UP FOR THE LAZY SHOWING OF THE FIRST ONE. The least they could do is give us one epic battle. Let’s finish this arc on an high note!