Rating: B+
The previous three arcs have shown that Lawrence and Holo have a supreme talent for stumbling into the midst of complicated situations. Here they actually recognize that they are about to do so once again, and to Lawrence’s credit, he at least initially moves to avoid it. This time, though, Holo’s the one who can’t let it go, and she’s the one who apparently has some scheme in mind. But at least they have learned some lessons from past folly here and are fully talking things over in advance.
Last episode hinted vaguely at a messy conflict, but the mess isn’t exactly what might initially be expected. Yes, this is a village which worships a giant snake – possibly a creature like Holo or Dian – which may or may not have once lived near the village. And yes, a church exists in the village, and the villagers don’t respect the authority of the religion it represents. But they actually have no conflict with the building itself, nor, apparently, with those who run it. The deceased Father Franz deeply ingratiated himself to the village by arranging a very favorable trade agreement with the town of Enberch (a former snake worshiping village which converted generations ago). Elsa was effectively his ward and decided to follow in his footsteps, even though it’s not something a woman can normally do.
What’s not specified here is what kind of leverage Franz used to pull that deal off, which is a significant point since the trade agreement is, in Lawrence’s eye, too favorable to Tereo. It allows the farmers of Tereo to be idle in the off season, which is not normal at all, and doubtless rankles authorities in Enberch, who (presumably) couldn’t do anything about it while Father Franz was still alive. His passing gives them an angle to attempt to void the agreement and an excuse to attempt to strengthen Enberch’s authority over Tereo. The church in the village not having an official custodian would provide an angle for the Church to get involved, which would be bad for everyone in Tereo. I’m extending into supposition here, but Elsa being recognized as Franz’s official successor might help fend that off, so the townspeople aren’t necessarily against her at all; that would explain why Elsa was so tense when she met with Lawrence the previous day, if she was stressing over that. But that also means that someone is using recognizing Elsa as legitimate as a political maneuver, too.
The reason this all becomes potentially dangerous is because of Lawrence’s guess that the church is actually the abbey they seek. That means that Franz was the abbot, which means he was the one collecting pagan lore. Given that, why both the village chief and Elsa were evasive about the abbey is more understandable; that a storehouse of pagan lore would be sitting in the middle of their village is not a detail anyone would want publicized. The Church in Enberch getting wind of that could give Enberch the excuse to act (under the guise of dealing with pagans), and anyone connected to that pagan lore would certainly be in trouble.
It’s a messy situation, to be sure, but what I like about it is both the practicality of it all and the way the clues to the situation are sprinkled throughout the arc’s first two episodes: the unusually idle village folk, the unusually elaborate architecture on the church, the snake motifs everywhere. Even the little detail about how the miller was going to the church because the mill isn’t the most hospitable of places to spend the night in the winter or the way the brewer lady keeps her guests in check. The Lawrence/Holo dynamic is still neat, but the wealth of little details powers this episode just as much.
So what is Holo’s plan to get an in with Elsa? Speaking fully in speculation (it’s been a decade or more since I read the source novel, and I only really remember Elsa debuting here and how the arc ends), I suspect Holo might reveal her true nature to Elsa to convince her that she doesn’t have to worry about Lawrence and Holo having devious ulterior motives. But we’ll see for sure next episode.
USA Anime 