Our celestial excursion on horseback on Linda came to an end when we finally arrived at the port city of Graysir.
There was a large shi p in the harbor, and there was a noticeable lively action around it.
“Looks like the Beast King has already arrived at port,” I said.
- Yeah.
The air was simply saturated with the sense of his presence. One could understand this without even seeing him personally. Continuing further into Graysir, we saw the Beast King talking to his subordinates in the harbor.
Suddenly we noticed someone approaching us.
- Hey! So you and Fran-chan, you stupid daughter!
“We haven't seen you for a long time, Father. Or should I say "Your foolishness."
- Ha ha ha ha! That Mea got stronger while I was gone?
- Haha. I am growing by leaps and bounds.
Between the King of Beasts and Mea, there was no particular atmosphere of father and daughter, but they seem to get along. Since His Majesty was heartily happy about Mea's successes, his rude words did not particularly affect her.
- Hmm ...
After a short conversation with Mea, the King turned his attention to Fran. He slowly examined her from head to toe, as if assessing.
Nobody expected his next action. Taking the spear from his back, he made a downward blow at lightning speed.
At the moment when I thought that the spear would cut Fran's head in two, she barely had time to dodge the blow. In fact, we can say that she was in the balance of death. From the pressure of the air, her bangs flew up, and her clothes fluttered like in the wind.
But Fran didn't end there. Dodging the blow, Fran grabbed me and counterattacked. The king barely had time to place the spear so as to block her slashing blow.
There was a loud sound of metal hitting metal.
My blade stopped a few millimeters from the Beast King's neck.
They were perfectly honed attacks, I even felt their desire to fight to the last. Although neither Fran nor the King used the arts of sword or spear, there was something in their movements, gaze, and maneuvers that made them feel serious. Probably, if such an attack were directed at Mea, then she would definitely lose her balance. So strongly in this attack a certain bloodlust was felt.
A powerful blow from one weapon to another responded with a shrill sound.
In the next moment, both opponents bounced off each other, and at the same time removed the weapon in place.
- This time I dodged, then.
- And you too.
Neither Fran nor the King showed any anger or confusion. Now it became clear that this exchange of blows was nothing more than a test.
Yes, an ordinary person would not have survived this, these were first-class blows. It would be impossible to defend against such attacks without possessing the weapon art of the "Lord" (King) level. That is, they made sure that both are at the same level of weapon proficiency.
- What are you doing ?!
Mea, not understanding the situation, looked at the two of them with a shocked expression on her face. Yes, Mea, apparently, did not understand the essence of this exchange of blows. Even for her, with the sacred art of the sword, good intuition, and powerful skills, from the outside it must have seemed as if her father and Fran wanted to kill each other. This, in general, serves as a confirmation that Mea has not yet reached such heights of skill.
- Ha ha ha ha! What are you, we just said hello! Right?
- Yeah.
- Say hello? Just? But ... What would you have done if she hadn't had time?
- Yes, everything is all right! As a last resort, I would just stop.
- M?
- Hey, hey, I'm completely serious.
- Since he owns the royal art of the spear, then you can be completely calm.
- So this is how it is…
It looks like he was planning on stopping the spear at the last moment if Fran hadn't had time to dodge. Maybe he would have stopped, but he certainly would have inflicted serious injury.
“In any case, does it mean you really acquired the Art of the Lord of the Sword? Moreover ... Transformation into the Lord of the sword.
- How do you know?
- Haha. Maybe you, young lady, are good at hiding your presence, but you are completely incapable of hiding your strength.
- Hide your power?
- Yes. Along with the ability to sense the presence of someone, there is also the power to read the level of power. In your case, I was convinced of this very accurately.
- Yeah.
- For example, when I first met you, face to face, you seemed to me very defenseless. After all, a warrior like you, even trusting me, would weaken your defense? Of course not. And it's easy to answer why. Even in this state, you would like to feel at least partially safe. Before I gave in to you. You should already know what I'm really capable of. And all this, together with how you keep your distance, means only one thing. That you still received the power with which you can avoid my spear. That is, nothing more than the Art of the Lord of the Sword. And for sure I was convinced of this after the greeting. So she became the Master of the Sword?
Wow, he sees right through us. As expected of the Beast King.
- Well, whether you are the Master of the Sword or not, you probably haven’t met a person of a similar level yet ... You do not understand what an important role information plays in battle?
- Yeah. I see.
- So what is the conversation between two owners of professions of the royal rank ...
Mea, looking at her father and Fran, was now in awe. She apparently could not even fully understand the meaning of their words.
- And what should you do to seem weak?
- Everything is easy. You have to be more vigilant about the environment. But strength can only be hidden to a certain extent.
Here it is. The strong always looks relaxed, because he has nothing to fear. This means that someone who wants to appear weak should show concern and alertness.
“So the one who looks down on others and hopes for an easy victory is stupid. A cautious adversary may be stronger than it seems. I hope I put it right.
- Yeah.
- However, there are still many nuances. This is just the quickest and easiest way to appear weak. Only on weaklings will it work. But never on me! Maybe only if Fran-chan dresses even prettier.
I'm sorry, but no. But it's good that we now understand that there are many different ways to hide your true strength.
- Thank you.
- So, and I never returned the debt to you!
- Debt?
- What, you really don't understand? I’m not someone there, but the king of the country you saved. In general, you have to kneel in front of me.
- So, old fool, here you are already true ...
- I realized.
No matter how sincere, democratic, or close the king may seem, of course, he deserves the appropriate treatment. And I understand that too.
- But now let's do this ...
With these words, the King of Beasts took Fran by the hand and bowed deeply. This bow meant the maximum degree of his gratitude. Leaving his head completely unprotected for Fran, he also showed the highest degree of his respect for her.
“This time, I have to thank you for your support. You saved all of us.
And there was no doubt that the Beast King's words of gratitude sounded extremely sincere.
With this chapter, we come to the end of the beastkin country arc.
I'll be frank. I didn't like this arc at all. In fact, I started to like this story less since chapter 195 where we found out that the persecution of the black catkins was over and that all was well in the best of the world.
The best way to explain is to compare with another story: Code Geass.
In Code Geass, the Empire of Britannia, an uchronic American monarchy corresponding to the USA, invades Japan, colonizes it, and deprives the Japanese of their rights. A fallen Britannian prince, Lelouch, who hates his original homeland obtains a power called geass and uses it under the pseudonym Zero to create an army of Japanese resistance fighters and fight Britania.
However, at one point, the governance of Japan is entrusted to Princess Euphémia, who is full of good intentions. She decides to create a special administration zone where the Japanese will be real citizens.
Of course, this doesn't appeal to most British leaders. But the smartest, like the Emperor, realize that this is the best way to fight resistance. Much like Lelouch and Japanese allies, he is even furious when he learns of this. Euphémia doesn't do this to win, she wishes the Japanese good and doesn't even realize that she adopted the best possible strategy against Lelouch, but she still serves the interests of those who invaded and destroyed Japan.
The Beastlord is exactly like Princess Euphemia. He wishes to help the black catkins and redeem the crimes of his family, but he plays the game of those who persecuted the black catkins by confirming their conquests. I don't know if he realizes it, but even if he does, he has no choice because he still can't scuttle his own country for the sake of black catkins like the did Princess Myrellia by annihilating her own people for the sake of humans.
In Code Geass, a Deus Ex Machina comes to derail Princess Euphemia's project, which allows the story to continue. But if it had been successful, the result would have been that the Japanese would have become undiscriminated citizens, but their country would remain a conquered country, with the majority of wealth and power held by British settlers, the Japanese became an ethnic minority in their own country. Better than before, but not exactly a satisfactory conclusion.
Code Geass is interesting because it shows that domination is not just oppression. Here is what happens to black catkins. In chapter 181, we find out that the Black Catkins are being persecuted because they once ruled over the Beastkins and the current royal family is afraid of them. It was a good idea from the author because it created a great stake, with a credible enemy (the royal family), which had coherent and more interesting motivations than simple racism. The author spoiled this in chapter 195 by deciding that this conflict was already resolved for years, and resolved for the benefit of the royal family since they can benefit from the gains of their ancestors without worrying about their crimes.
This reconciliation, with the black catkins satisfied with living in a poor village on barren land that no one wants, while the descendants of their persecutors can continue to reign and prosper with a clear conscience, is their defeat. A defeat all the more total as they do not even realize it and accept their downfall without the slightest resentment or desire to get up. What makes a story interesting are its stakes, and the author spoils those of his.
I would like to object to most of your points. Firstly Lelouch is a villain and Fran is not. Secondly the black catkin are far to timid to have a chance of ruling and Fran has no interest in such things. I think your upset because the story doesn’t follow what you think would be interesting even if doing so would be entirely out of character for Fran and completely against the established setting. And finally I want to say that there being great stakes are completely unnecessary for a good story. Bofuri is the example I like to use the most there are no great stakes it’s just two friends having fun playing video games together. This series has stakes but there doesn’t have to be done great conflict for it to be good. You are the person I dislike the most someone who says that a good series or even just an alright/above average series is bad just because they don’t like it at least it’s in the comments a decent way into the series and not on NU having read less than 10 chapters.(I hate those people so much they hate an a series they know basically nothing about just to get attention and end up making lots of people avoid reading a series they likely would have enjoyed.)
@Kristeen
So I want to say that I've been following this series since the beginning, not for only 10 chapters. When to qualify Lelouch as a villain, it is inaccurate since the history of Code Geass is not Manichean, and his enemies are often morally worse than him.
And to answer the main accusation, I'm not unhappy because the plot doesn't go the way I wanted, but because making the issue already resolved renders the plot pointless. Some players don't like the "synthesis" ending in Mass Effect 3 because it's fulfilling the plan of one of our enemies, granting them posthumous victory. That's exactly what Fran, Kiara and the beast lord are doing.
Of course, turning Fran into a queen and/or giving the throne to black catkins wouldn't make sense, and I don't want that. Simply, it would have been better if the past actions of the royal family, the blues catkins and the other beastkin tribes had a minimum of negative consequences for them (the loss of money and reputation for the blues catkins, it is frankly negligible ).
However, the moral of this narrative arc is that it is totally beneficial to be despicable if it is done intelligently. The plan of the beast lord who organized the persecution of the black catkins to ensure his dynasty worked so well that not only will they not take revenge but they will be ready to fight to protect it like Fran and Kiara did. And conversely, helping others is a weakness: Murellia wanted to help humans, they thanked her by blackmailing her; and she dragged all her people down with her without caring about the innocent among them.
@Alcyon I got a bit aggressive and said more than I meant but I kinda agree with some of your points however I don’t think there is cause to say that this made the plot irrelevant. The reason for Fran to prove black cats can evolve was a matter of personal determination and never really had much to do with the black cats as a whole. Sure she wanted to help them but most of all she wanted to go on an adventure. Her development later on around chapter 800 when she goes to see her parents graves after Amanda tells her about them was really a big insight into her motivations for starting her journey. And I don’t think that narratively the current beast king being who he is and doing what he did had any problems. I personally loved how they wrapped up Kiara’s story and how she died with a smile on her face having fulfilled her dream. I think of it wasn’t for both the beast king and Kiara being so well written I might agree with you. IMO the most important thing when writing characters is making them believable. The beast king’s motivations and actions are completely believable after we get an idea of his character and even more so after we meet Kiara. And Fran’s actions are just as believable. The villains were never really the beast king as he was never mentioned before thus arc that set him up as a possible villain. Fran never hated hated him and was more wary of him. Fran has always viewed the blue cats as her enemies and purely for personal reasons. She never met the beast king and only heard about him from people who had also never met him so she found it easy to forgive him for the actions of his ancestors.
@Kristeen Yes, the characters' actions are believable, they're endearing, and Kiara's ending is good. It's not the characters that's the problem, it's the large-scale context. If we look at the level of individuals, everyone wins, to varying degrees. But if we look at the scale of the peoples, the black catkins are losing, while the other beastkin tribes are winning on all counts. Even though the current generation no longer persecutes black catkins, it benefits from the fact that these ancestors did. It's the total victory of the beastlord who organized their persecution and all those who participated in it over the centuries, and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
@Alcyon Well something has to. I like it as the way it is.