When real Konoha returns to the party, she finds Menoa’s her half-sister berating the poor girl in front of everyone. This seems rather gauche for a noblewoman, but no one around them seems to care. I guess it’s okay to act like a petulant brat if you’re bullying a child born from a sordid dalliance with a mistress. Well, thanks to Reddit, I’m so over step or half-sibling drama. As an only child, I simply can’t understand wasting so much time and energy hating on someone like this. Perhaps real Konoha seems to agree, because Iana suddenly steps in and takes the “blow,” i.e. a glass of red wine to the face. The choice to make it look like she’s bleeding from her eyes must have been deliberate. I guess this makes her look like a villainess? Well, she certainly still has that reputation, so now everyone thinks Iana is out to get the mean half-sibling.

Everyone else might still hate her, but Menoa definitely appreciates Iana coming to her rescue. After all, since people are scared of crossing the villainess who tried to murder her sister, they can’t pick on Menoa anymore. The girl feels as though she has to return the favor, so she even comes to Iana’s “rescue” by mistakenly assuming that Sol is perving on her new buddy. I like it when harem leads make regular, normal friends. I like it when they’re not only interacting with their boy or girl toys. It’s like how in The Fated Princess, I’m just begging for Athanasia to befriend Jennette. So for this anime, I sincerely hope real Konoha can step out of the bubble of ideal Konoha, Ginoford, Sol, etc, and find someone that she can truly confide in. Basically, it would suck if Menoa ends up being an evil character or whatever. Unfortunately, our “villainess” seems so giddy at the idea of hanging out with Menoa that I can’t help but now be suspicious of the latter. Plus, there’s still that conspicuous jewelry she dropped. Makes me wonder now if it was truly an accident.

In any case, ideal Konoha has been invited to speak to the duchess alone, but she wants her sister to come with her. Ginoford volunteers to also come along, but ideal Konoha then says, “I couldn’t make you listen to us chat about makeup and such, Lord Ginoford.” If you want to have girl talk or girl time, that’s fine. But doing it because you think guys can’t handle the subject matter is ridiculous. That sort of mentality leads to guys stupidly acting like hearing anything about periods is the end of the world. Plus, we later see that Sol is with ideal Konoha. Somehow, it’s okay for him to listen to them “chat about makeup and such.”Unfortunately, real Konoha is currently fixated on her new friend, so she doesn’t go with her sister. I guess she wants to return the earring that badly, but considering how pretty girls have been disappearing lately, this seems foolish. Hell, I would’ve advised real Konoha not to attend the tea session at all! But I guess everyone just naively assumes that the duchess isn’t acting shady. I had her peg from the moment she first interacted with ideal Konoha in last week’s episode.

Lo and behold, it’s Menoa who has gone missing. Naturally, everyone now suspects Iana, especially Inspector Cheneau. Again, what a terrible cop (par for the course). Anyways, real Konoha hasn’t done herself any favors. Her coming to Menoa’s rescue only makes her a prime target, since everyone finds it strange that she would befriend the “bastard child” in the first place. Unfortunately, our girl doesn’t have an airtight alibi. She can’t really account for the small gap that she spent with Menoa and Menoa alone. Plus, she still has Menoa’s earring on her, which she also can’t explain. I previously said that I think it’s important for her to step out of her bubble. Unfortunately, this only seems to have heighten the chances of her getting killed. Of course, we know the main character’s not going to die. Rather, it’s how she responds to this incident in the aftermath that’s concerning. Is real Konoha going to withdraw even further into her “safe zone” and avoid socializing with anyone outside of the bubble? I hope not.

Ideal Konoha suddenly feels ill, and this finally unlocks real Konoha’s memories of the story she wrote. Finally, we connect the dots and see the duchess for who she really is. But, uh, her inspiration for this plot feels a bit… inappropriate for young girls. What on earth were she and her friends watching in her previous life? But I digress. To make a long story short, the duchess has gone from kidnapping girls and turning them into dolls to straight up drinking their blood like some kind of bargain bin Elizabeth Bathory. Unfortunately, real Konoha still feels like she has no ally that she can depend on. After all this time, she still thinks that any wrong move — no matter how slight — will trigger Sol and make him straight up assassinate her. As a result, she intends to expose the duchess’s crimes all on her own. But we know what’s going to happen, don’t we? She’ll definitely save her sister, but in the process, she’ll put herself in harm’s way and nearly die. This is thus Sol’s cue to swoop in and gallantly save our girl while staring dreamily into her eyes… only for real Konoha to go right back to fearing him in the next big story arc. Sigh, we will ever make real progress? One can only hope.