Right, here’s a few thoughts and favourite panels etc from Chapter 114. I’d like to say I will come back and talk about it more when the scanlation team releases this chapter but there’s no guarantee that I will have the energy for it so I may as well talk about it now. SPOILERS for the most recent chapter, obviously.
Hilmes reveals his face to the gathered crowd!
(And I’m already having some feelings thanks to the little flashback panel to that young Hilmes and Osroes moment we were shown before. For a little piece of trivia, Arakawa included that flashback in Chapter 20, but in the novels it doesn’t actually come up until the point the manga is at now, where it’s inserted right before Hilmes wakes from his angsty nap on the throne, as if the memory is a dream of a simpler time, a happy moment, and a future without problems.
I like that Arakawa included it earlier, as it’s a good reminder of how young Hilmes was when his whole world got torn apart with his father’s death and the palace fire, so it helps to build sympathy for him, but I also like the poignant contrast between the memory and the reality he wakes to, sat on the throne he has always believed he is destined for.)
Arakawa did a great job of portraying the range of reactions among the citizens in the crowd. The younger ones don’t know who Hilmes is, some are dubious, but it seems clear that once he’s taken his mask off, they believe him. The older woman crying and praising Prince Hilmes for liberating Ecbatana... I wonder if she remembers him?
Lots of emotion visible on people’s faces, including a couple of Hilmes’s soldiers with tears in their eyes; it must be such an overwhelming moment to witness!
Meanwhile, Sam just looks... resolved, I guess? He’s chosen his path and all he can do is remain resolute and offer Hilmes whatever support and counsel that he can in order to guide him to become a good ruler. But you just know he’s already thinking of the problems they’re soon going to face, even as the citizens are cheering.
Sure enough, the fact that the gate is closed is met with some complaints and suspicion, though Sam does his best to offer an explanation that will satisfy, at least for now.
Essentially, Sam is acutely aware that Hilmes’s bloodline alone is not enough to keep the support of the populace. He’s taken the capital, but what now? Can he provide for the populace? How will they react when they find a Parsian army led by Andragoras outside the gates?
(The novel actually has the line: ‘Sam was not very optimistic about the future for himself and Hilmes’ and I just 😭😭😭 because it’s so clear he will stay by Hilmes’s side no matter what now, even if he thinks it likely that they will fail to hold the capital.)
tfw when you go to the treasury and find it totally empty...
...and you realise that Guiscard has stolen everything, including the crown you would have used for your coronation.
Hilmes now starts to have some realisations about the position he’s in, and unease and anger creep in.
(I like seeing more of his face! It’s a different look and it’s taken me a couple of reads of the chapter to get used to it, but it’s so nice to be able to see more of his expressions etc)
A Team Arslan scene follows, where Arslan learns of events regarding the situation in the capital, plus what Guiscard is doing. I’ll talk about this section more when the scanlation is out, I think, but it does tug at my heart a little that even now, Arslan wishes that he could mediate between Hilmes and Andragoras, but it’s impossible.
Hilmes wakes from a night of sleeping on the throne in a bloodstained throne room (oof... can’t be much like his childhood self’s dreams of the future) to find someone lurking in the shadows...
OHHH and my hackles are up
because the person who emerges claims to be Husrab...
...but we know that Husrab is already dead (run over by Andragoras’s cart for betraying Tahamenay)
And suspicious figures lurking in dark corners, well... you can draw your own conclusions about that, but this scene is also slightly different to the novel so without further spoilers, I’ll go into that a bit here. In the novel, Hilmes and Sam are discussing plans for strengthening the city’s defences etc when Husrab requests an audience with Hilmes. In the novels, Hilmes has never met Husrab before and so doesn’t know him. However, Sam has. In the manga, Husrab (the real Husrab...) has served in Hilmes’s household in Ecbatana. Is Hilmes going to notice that the man before him is not who he says he is? Is Sam going to arrive on the scene or not? I’m eagerly anticipating the outcome!
