#boila

This one was fun!

I never really thought about how tall the outer wall of Peshawar is but finally got a sense of scale here and it’s HUGE. Turan are reputedly not at their strongest when laying siege to castles but they’re giving it a good go regardless. Lots of nice details in the artwork here.

Kubard was in fine form this chapter! It’s a real treat seeing him get so much pagetime at the moment and his appearances always make me smile. I guess he boosts my morale the same way he does the soldiers?

Ilterish, just because.

Despite the Turanian army’s strengths meaning they’re best suited to open ground, Peshawar is actually under threat because of both the tenacity of the attacking Turanians and the sheer numbers they are willing to throw at it. They get full marks for effort. And it’s no surprise that they’re approaching the siege in this way when they need to prioritise a quick victory here.

I found it quite amusing how Khaluk usually keeps his cool in terms of observing and responding to the changing situations of the battlefield until the end of the chapter where he’s up on top of his siege tower witnessing the havoc wreaked on their army’s formation by Kubard and Daryun and he’s finally like ‘o shit’. I don’t think he had a contingency plan for that.

(To be fair to Khaluk, he doesn’t look like he’s going to panic, it’s just that in that moment he knows the tide of battle has irrevocably turned. )

The finial on the top of the Turanian standards reminds me of a horse-head fiddle.

Kishward is absolutely scathing on the battlefield, it’s as if he’s trying to use his words like a third sword. Harsh. I really loved Boila struggling with his comeback because he doesn’t know the Parsian word for ‘foe’ before just attacking him because it’s easier than completing his sentence. Thumbs up for the double border on the speech bubbles where they’re speaking in Turanian too, that’s a nice visual distinction.

Poor old Iterish isn’t having much luck with his Parsian opponents, is he? First Kubard ignored his challenge than ran away, then Daryun cut their match short when Ilterish’s horse was hit by an arrow and the fact that he’s being shown mercy just makes him angry. (Daryun’s special kind of humour probably didn’t help, either.)

Look how delighted Daryun is to see Kubard again, it’s so cute!

And of course he immediately tries to recruit him for Team Arslan. The fact that they can have such a casual conversation while sending their enemies flying in pieces without even giving the combat their full attention really shows how they’re top tier warriors. No wonder Khaluk is so horrified by what he’s seeing.

I don’t think there were any typos or blatant translation errors in this chapter? That’s a relief, because the quality of the simulpub seemed to have decreased recently.

A room of her own–the boila

Back porch area with the old boila (water heater)

The boila (water heater) was another issue. I swear that the thing had exploded at some point in the past. I know I wasn’t going to use it as it was. The owner assured me that it would be replaced. True to her word, two weeks later, she showed up with a new boila. She said that the plumber/electrician she had contacted didn’t have time to install…