Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night(whichever one it is in your part of the world),
Hi! I'm here to leave a quick review!!
First Impression: Okayy..so we've got Ilami learning a little more than she bargained for although I notice how the complications surrounding Mrs. Venaria, the academy and the church are still only termed as "more than you think" rather than being explained. We only learn about this opposing church and half a plan they sort of have.
Anyway let's get right to it,
‘The fights weren’t fair and you knew it,’ Ilami hissed. Now that the Test was over, there was no reason for Mr. Haifei to train her in private. It was her idea to barge into his office first thing in the morning.
He looked up from a few papers he held and raised an eyebrow. ‘Do you expect me to do something about it?’
‘You are a combat teacher of a prestigious academy!’ She clenched her hands. ‘You should be insulted to have your student won not by their own merit, but by the twisted experimentation of the Church.’
‘Shouldn’t you be quiet about this?’ Mr. Haifei said in a low voice. ‘This office isn’t exactly soundproof.’
I love the fact that Mr. Haifei is not even bothering to attempt to deny any of those allegation. He just instantly accepts the fact and is very open about the whole thing. I like his more direct approach in that sense compared to most of the others. He's very open about knowing the not so great inner workings of the school.
Mr. Haifei left the papers on the table and titled his head. ‘No, I don’t. What I know is that before that boy went berserk, both of you were evenly matched. The same went to Felaris. The difference of skills between the three of you are minimal. Either one could’ve won the match.
‘Now that we’re on the subject of the Test, I want to ask you: do you think you winning the Test is going to impress me? To the point where I would share the academy’s secrets with you?’
‘I –’ Why did he have to make it sound ridiculous? ‘You wanted me to show you that I was worth sharing the information. Winning the Test was the only way to do it.’
Well...I guess that plan really didn't even take off at all in the first place and now Mr. Haifei has not only anticipated it, he's actively shooting it down before it can ever hope to be put into operation, now that's a rather brutal shut down which makes you question if Ilami was even thinking straight when she came up with that idea, especially because he age has been increased to a point where you wouldn't expect her to make too many naive mistakes.
Ilami bit her lip. He had a point. But why was he talking about the Church as if they were the enemy? Whose side was he really on? She decided to play along. ‘What now? They took Haka and Aleveri. Haka is their doing, I understand if they want him to be under their watch. But what about Aleveri? She’s done nothing for them.’
Mr. Haifei didn’t say a word. Instead, he stared at Ilami for a few seconds before speaking up. ‘Aleveri can be an asset to the Church. No Uora member has ever sided with them. To have someone who is young and a prodigy in the healing magic at their side is an advantage they cannot take for granted. She doesn’t have a competition, if I’m to be honest. Gael might be a brilliant scholar, but he doesn’t have Natural magic.’
‘You’re talking as if they are objects to be used,’ Ilami said.
‘I’m thinking like they do,’ Mr. Haifei said. ‘Not everyone is transparent, Ilami.’
Okayy...well, Mr. Haifei is definitely someone to keep in mind. I guess he's simply resigned to his position and just kind of goes about things, voicing his opinions exactly as they are with what he truly believes. Its a lovely change from most characters being ultra secretive.
Mr. Haifei’s mouth twitched a little bit. ‘Interesting. In your opinion, there are two sides conflicting with each other here. The one that conducts the experiment – the Church and Ms. Venaria, and the one that is against it – you and your friends. Am I correct?’
Ilami frowned. ‘Why are you stating the obvious?’
‘I’ve told you; not everything is as it seems to be. There is much you don’t know about the experiment. Without enough clues, you can’t visualize the bigger picture.’
‘Enough of that,’ Ilami said, shaking her head. ‘I want to know. Are you on our side?’
Well, okay that answer has to be something that's schooled to Mrs. Venaria's followers. This is starting to get a touch too repetitive now. Everyone simply seems to state that there's more going on than what meets the eye but never bothers to elaborate at all. I don't blame Ilami for wanting to get through that stonewall finally.
Something stirred in her heart. For so long she showed no interest with the churches, seeing them using their words to influence others. Their rethoric didn’t capture her interest. But now, her teacher seemed to imply there was a church worth being a part of, worshiping a Natural who was actually the one who blessed her. Did Xesar ruled by fear, just like Lio did? Or was he anything unlike him?
‘This church you’re speaking of, it’s against the experiment, isn’t?’ she asked. Her heart beat rapidly as she saw a decision she should make.
‘Definitely,’ Mr. Haifei said. ‘Xesar wouldn’t approve such horrible thing. He’d definitely help those who try to stop it from continuing.’
Ilami heard the words suggestive as they were. She took a drastic step. ‘I want to be a member of this church.’
Okay...so now he's just going to openly admit to being part of this opposing charge that wants to and has the resources to stand against it. Ilami's snap decision there does make sense considering how she is sometimes, but what I do not fully understand is why this church was never prominently mentioned earlier. At least if it was, I don't remember it and that can't be the sort of thing that would go unnoticed against discussions like this would it?
‘If you have enough resources to fight the Church, why haven’t you sent some of you to stop the experiment?’
He shrugged. ‘Isn’t obvious? The academy is the Church’s territory. Only an army will suffice to fight them here.’
Logical, but it still frustrated her. All this time, it wasn’t just her friends and her who actively opposed the Church. There were others too, but their efforts were so minimal she couldn’t notice it. Because of that, she didn’t think they could actually try to overthrow the Church.
Focusing on her emotions was useless. She needed to focus on something else. ‘And Mother –Kestari – other teachers – they don’t know about you being a traitor?’
Mr. Haifei smiled slyly. ‘They cannot – I am the best spy in my church. Plus – ’ he raised his eyebrow ‘ – I’m not the only traitor here.’
Okayy....he's being unnaturally open about this whole spying thing. For all he knows, Ilami could be a spy herself. Her mother is a big part of that church after all. ALso, it seems now this story is expanding beyond a simple school situation and into an all out potential civil war, which on one hand, is a lovely escalation of things here from step to step, but I feel like now we're starting to leave those earlier motivations behind just a little and step away from some of what made this story initially tick.
‘It’s obvious that you think we are not doing a good enough effort to beat the Church. But our plan is long-term. It’s brewing. And we don’t want someone like you to ruin it for us. If you cannot prove that you can be an asset to us, then, by default, you are a liability. A hindrance. If you have nothing else to say, you can go now.’
Ilami clutched her fist and bit her lip from saying something obscene. There was so much she didn’t know, and she itched to know everything. If she could just know, then she could make the right thing. Zivil’s death, his son’s death, Felaris’s brother’s death… Their deaths needed to be avenged. She wasn’t about to live knowing the only thing she excelled at was murdering people. She refused to accept that.
Well, Mr. Haifei's words are honestly simply the truth there, as harsh as it might be for Ilami to her and I do believe he reaction is reasonable, but the thing is Mr. Haifei is right and she can probably help out best by simply staying out of the way and avoiding escalating any problems.
Felaris, Seya, Veris, Gael – they could mistake.
She closed her eyes and hardened herself to make another big decision.
‘There’s something else you need to know. It’s about another plan,’ she said, risking everything with her gamble.
Well...I guess...this is going to now go into her unravelling the plans they'd all made in secret...and I really hope she isn't making a terrible mistake there...because you can never quite tell with this.
Also with respect to that author's note, I honestly think the reason of joining something with a just god is more reasonable if she really believed in that. An impulse move like this sounds in character for her but is much less logical as a decision in my opinion.
Aaaaand that's it for this one.
Overall: Overall, I think this is certainly a good part here. We learn a few important things here, but I do believe that a couple of issues do need to be addressed, there's a couple of places that don't quite fully line up here.
As always remember to take what you think was helpful and forget the rest.
Stay Safe
Harry
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