We’re finally onto the arc the previous adaption skipped last time! Woooo!!! This arc has been a tricky one to write up about because each episode has really been taking it’s sweet time (which is perfectly fine ). Heck even after watching this week’s episode (22), I had wondered if I needed to put it off another week. But at the very least this episode gave me something more meaty to chew on.
In order to find more concrete clues to find Holo’s hometown, they need to drop by the small village of Tereo to meet with Father Franz. On their way, they met Evan, a miller who is entrusted the thankless job of producing flour for the village. Because life as a miller quite frankly, sucks, as they are working day and night, and are constantly suspected for being a potential thief for ‘stealing flour’, he was excited to meet Lawrence. Meeting a travelling merchant is not only his only way to learn about the outside world, but hoping for the lucky opportunity to become a merchant’s apprentice. Once he does so, he’d be more empowered to finally leave his job and village.
However when they arrived to their destination, they learned that Father Franz had already passed, leaving his apprentice Elsa left to protect his collection and research. Unfortunately for them, she was pretty hostile and guarded around them. So to get their foot in the door, they had to lie to get in, and then after that, they made a confession of doing so. It was a shrewd trick, but no harm was done as they just needed to get an honest conversation going. After-all, Elsa cannot lie in the place of God. But they intended to be just as honest with Holo choosing to reveal herself as a wolf to make her intentions clear. She just wants to find direction to go home again. Although Elsa did faint, to her credit she took Holo’s existence better than most others would in her shoes. Initially they thought she’d tell her friend Evan (a miller) about it, but it appears she has decided it’d be best to keep it to herself.
Father Franz was a man who passionately researched about various Pagan Gods to reaffirm his belief of his own, and had a very open-mind. He was known to say there’s no such thing as someone being possessed by the devil, and has entrusted his wisdom, collection of research to Elsa, who despite being a woman, wishes to faithfully follow his footsteps. Thanks to that, they’ve finally been able to make a dent in their research for clues, as Lawrence had finally found a book about the Moon-Hunting Bear. Unfortunately it has to be put on hold for a bit as they are about to be interrupted by there’s much bigger problems that’s been building up well before their arrival.
Which leads to the other thing Elsa had inherited from Father Franz: The role as the middleman between the town of Enberch and Tereo. Without him around, the job of diplomatic relationship with the town of Enberch. The relationship between the towns weren’t always tense, but it changed when Enberch decided to convert to Christianity, while Tereo wanted to remain committed to their snake God, Lord Truyeo. They compromised by allowing them to build a church in their village, but then they started to enforce punitive taxes for them to turn a blind eye to Lord Truyeo. Then 30-40 Years ago, in order to stop things from escalating further, Father Franz came to the village and served as the negotiator. Struck a deal, and sort of settled things from there.
However since Father Franz has passed away, the situation has once again became volatile. Without their trusted negotiator, Enberch is looking to capitalized on getting a foothold on the village. Now it has escalated even further now that someone had reportedly died after consuming wheat that was produced in Tereo.
This is kind of what Lawrence was referring to when he initially asked Holo whether they could skip finding the Abbey. He knows something’s off about the town, his instincts are telling him it’s dangerous and they should leave as soon as possible. Nothing comes good out of tension between a village and a church, especially one where the village has the most benefits out of the deal Father Franz had managed to successfully negotiate.
And sure enough, things have escalated quickly. It looked pretty darn dire considering the villagers had come to them equipped with poles with what would serve as a weapon of a sort. If they weren’t going to hurt him or intended to kill him, they sure looked as though they were ready to at least intimidate him into working with them. The villagers only took a step back when Lawrence quickly name dropped his merchant’s association. By doing so, it serves as a warning that should anything happen to him, there’s people at the Kumerson branch who know where he’s at. So if anything were to happen to him, they would know where he was at last, and there would be consequences for their crimes.
However it appears they’ve come to Lawrence mainly because they need his assistance in investigating the wheat said to be the cause of death. Well luckily for them, Holo the Wise Wolf is here.
Apart from the political tension between Enberch and Tereo, we did see Holo and Lawrence briefly discuss about the uncertainly of what becomes of them after Holo finds her home again. Lawrence is a travelling merchant with no roots of his own, and he suspects even if there’s nothing left, Holo would be reluctant to leave her hometown again. It goes to show there’s still a lot that needs to sorted out. But it feels almost as though there’s not enough time to think about it when so many things just keep coming up, and they are on a time constraint of needing to get there before it begins to snow. Once it does, it will either make their passage slower and more difficult, or impossible to take the wagon through altogether.
And finally, speaking of what would become of them… Evan and Elsa are sort of in a similar position themselves. Since we haven’t seen enough of Evan, it’s hard to say whether he would actually be willing to leave the village without Elsa, but considering she’s stuck in the middle between Enberch and the locals, I don’t think he’d have the heart to leave her behind. But even if he did propose the opportunity to leave together, would she? Who to say…
Note: Since there’s only three episodes left, I’m either going to save the next two as a double-post (23 & 24), or just finish it off with a triple post (23 – 25). I’ll see how much of a write-up it gets to and decide accordingly.
