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.
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.
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.
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.
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.