Seiichiro is working hard on the project—a bit too hard, in my opinion. He’s also slowly uncovering a corruption conspiracy revolving around the church due to the funds, the sacred relic’s identity and that Yua isn’t supposed to be praying at the church due to it using her magic. This means that someone used the sacred relic to absorb some of Yua’s magic and she isn’t even aware of it. I can see why everyone got a bit worried. On the bright side, Seiichiro is longing for Aresh now! The fact that he hugged his letter and wondered about how he managed his life before meeting him is practically a huge progress. If Aresh knew about this, he’d be dancing with joy.

Still, it’s crazy how Julius is getting a redemption arc. He started off unbearable, but as the episodes progress, he’s not as bad as he appears. He just needs to learn to see Yua as a person. He does have a soft spot for his half-brother Norbert, though. I think that’s one of his redeeming qualities. The fact that he has a secret soft spot for good boy Nor and gave him a basket of his favorite childhood snacks definitely shows his love and affection for him. The whole bout with him disguising himself as a commoner was hilarious though.

There are a lot of silly moments in this episode like Siegvold doing his best to not call Seiichiro a disciple and Ist nerding out with Sigma over their idea of creating a magic reading tool. Sigma is definitely an intelligent boy and I can see why Seiichiro has his eye on him; though, I don’t think Aresh would want to adopt a child given how jealous he gets.

At least Aresh is back! I can’t believe they ended the episode like that, though. It’s gonna be a week before anime-only viewers would see how Aresh would react to Sei possibly being in danger. All I can say as someone who read the manga version is that it’s gonna get intense… Still, it was sweet to see Aresh searching for Seiichiro after greeting the prince, hoping that he could see him and check how he’s been doing for over a week.

Also, you don’t need to be an anime-only viewer to know that Cipriano is definitely suspicious given that he was rubbing the kids’ back, meaning that he definitely has something to do with that boy’s magic going out of control. He already gives off suspicious vibes given his delay of handing the accounting funds to Sei. Is it just me or did this episode fly by so fast? Let me know your thoughts on the episode!

It doesn’t take that long to figure out who did it as Seiichiro isn’t stupid when it comes to remembering people (though, he is stupid in other ways). His memory is good to the point that he can recognize people’s voices—he couldn’t see their faces as his glasses fell out from his face. I’m still wondering why Felix, Yua’s male bodyguard, still thinks Sei has feelings for her when he stated that he’s not interested in anyone younger than him. Their punishment does feel a bit too light, but I do hope that they have reflected because messing with Sei means messing with both Aresh and Kamil. Overall, this incident does show what happens when Aresh doesn’t do his duties properly and why the subordinates had to keep harking on Seiichiro to the point of violence. He was called out in both last episode and this one, so I’m sure he’ll do his job as the knight commander properly.

I wonder how Seiichiro feels knowing that he has two high ranking officials interested in him. I’m still unsure if Kamil likes him romantically, but he is very intrigued by him. Aresh, however, is down bad for him to the point that he even explained why he likes him to Orjef without giving away too much. To summarize, Aresh’s love language is to care for another person and that’s what he’s doing—he probably never even realized this the first time.

Anyways, I am always happy to see Bean Counter not shying away from the intimacy. Aresh and Sei are always intimate and I like to see it. They banged again and this time, Aresh applies a barrier by making Sei sit on his lap. I’m guessing that Aresh is going to make Sei like a younger man if it’s the last thing he’ll do.

There’s also a new character introduced, Makovska, but he doesn’t have a lot of screen time. He’s voiced by Yasuyuki Kase who voiced Kankuro from Naruto, Dohalim from Tales of Arise and Gotanda from Oshi no Ko. Harvey and Matthew are voiced by newbie voice actors Junpei Baba and Kazuki Miyagi. Felix is voiced by Daiki Hamano who voiced Kashima from Yarichin Bitch Club, Jean-Jacques from The Case Study of Vanitas and both Murasamemon and Cougarmon from Digimon Beatbreak.

But yeah, I really find Norbert cute and it was nice of him to bring his mother’s personal maids so that Seiichiro can look nice for the banquet. I’m surprised they were able to get rid of the dark circles in that short amount of time. Anyways, let me know your thoughts on this episode!

It seems that no one in this world does their jobs properly as Bishop Mateus and the person in charge of accounting are still away. This is a bit suspicious, so Sei is doing all he can to figure things out. I like that he’s gathering information about the history behind the church and what some of their customs are from the people around him. Norbert is very knowledgeable about the church as he gives Sei a lot of information like how the people are more familiarized with the Church rather than the royal palace. The church is also functioned by nobles and priests are essentially people from wealthy upbringing. Because of that, it does seem as if the church funds are manipulated by the rich. This is definitely the reason why Kamil sent Sei on this mission. There definitely is some sort of corruption going on behind the scenes if the important people are away on the day Sei arrived. The church is also a place where they take in orphaned kids with no place to go like Selio. Some of the kids don’t have favorable opinions of the higher-class and civil servants, hence why Sei is often treated with animosity by the church boys.

It was funny to see how crazy Siegvold can be when it comes to Abran. He’s like the religious version of Ist in terms of passion. Sei’s reactions to Siegvold believing that Abran is testing him was hilarious. I do feel bad because he doesn’t feel like a corrupt guy. He probably has no idea what’s going on behind the scenes of the place he works at and has no idea what Sei has been through as he’s not blessed with divine powers like Yua.

Speaking of Yua, it made me happy to see her talking about how she goes to the church to heal the injured and help out. Like I mentioned before, I never thought Yua was annoying. She’s going through her own character development and it’s so good to see.  I’m sure that as a teenager girl, the thought of being needed by others is definitely heartwarming. It’s also helping her learn responsibility. I do remember the mention of the Holy Maiden two generations before Yua and how she became a nun in the church after fulfilling her duties. In a way, I feel kind of bad that that Holy Maiden never really got to go back home. In a way, Yua is lucky that Sei’s trying to absolve the system so that she can be the last one for good.

Though, because of Yua spending time at the church, her relationship with Prince Julius is growing distant. That’s mainly his fault though. He doesn’t see Yua as a person and only as the Holy Maiden. It’s evident with how he believed Yua is from a noble family when she’s just a commoner. He is possessive of her, but doesn’t go out of his way to see the deeper aspects of her. He’s like a red flag version of Aresh in a way. While Aresh is also possessive of Sei, it’s also because he understands his loneliness and is trying to make it so that Sei doesn’t feel homesick and lonely. Julius’s smothering is bothering Yua. Also, poor Sei, he’s essentially roped as mediator by Makovska. Why do people think he’d be great at relationship advice when he himself is terrible at romance?

All of the romance stuff with Aresh is essentially at the end. It was funny to see Aresh asking what Sei was plotting when he was greeting him. Aresh, be glad Sei is making effort to reciprocate your feelings. Heck, he even knows how to flip Sei’s switch by asking him if he wants to see documents. My favorite moment between the two definitely was Aresh scolding Sei for not finishing his food—he’s the younger one. 

The best part about this episode was seeing Ist and hearing him blabber. According to a bonus content on the official Twitter page, his voice actor actually said all of those “pera, pera” continuously. I commend Torashima for that. Anyways, it was nice to see a lot of the side characters show up in this episode. Let me know your thoughts on this one!