We finally meet the capture targets, and there’s always a shota. Always, always, always. It’s kinda disgusting if you ask me. If you go too far down his route, the game should just automatically dial the police and give them your name and address. In any case, everyone is busy talking about Bertia. Normally, they should be obsessed with the heroine, right? I also don’t think you should be openly yapping about the prince’s fiancee like this. But we have to remember that Cecil is mostly amused by Bertia for now. He hasn’t quite fallen in love with her just yet.
What I sorta like is that this is as much Cecil’s story as it is hers. She’s the bumbling villainess who should eventually realize her own self-worth. On the other hand, he’s the ice-hearted prince who learns to become a real boy with real feelings! I say that a bit flippantly, but this actually isn’t a bad thing. As fun as May I Ask for One Final Thing? was in general, Julius lacked character development. He was the same guy at the end of the series as he was at the start. Cecil’s whole “I’m a psychopath who is dead on the inside” schtick isn’t exactly original, but it does offer him an opportunity grow and change over the course of the series. He’ll have as much as a character arc as Bertia.
On his way to see Bertia, Cecil officially sees Heronia for the first time. He deliberately chooses not to meet her, though. Why? Because this school still adheres to antiquated notions of etiquette, i.e. classism. Basically, you shouldn’t pal around with the upper class unless you’ve been formally introduced. Otherwise, it is the height of bad manners! Much to both Bertia and Heronia’s chagrin, Cecil takes advantage of this unwritten rule to pretty much ignore Heronia every chance he gets. He even tells Bertia later that he had Courtgain report Heronia to a teacher. I’m not sure if this actually happens. Regardless, while it is kind of amusing to see Cecil mess with the girls a bit, at some point, you gotta stop playing games. Again, this hinges on whether or not Cecil has fallen for Bertia. She gives him a reason to enjoy his day-to-day life, so her awkward attempts to pair him up with Heronia doesn’t bother him. But once he starts to truly care about her, her constant rejection of his love and attention will start to hurt. I wonder how far Cecil is willing to let this go.
Cecil eventually introduces the menagerie of boys to his fiancee, but he finds her with company. Bertia has made friends, and she affectionately refers to them as her minions. You must forgive her, because her brain is always in otome mode. There’s literally a girl for each of the capture target, too. Since this isn’t going to play out like your standard otome game, I fully expect each girl to end up with their respective boy. After all, Bertia is trying to pair Cecil up with Heronia, so she can’t allow these girls to gun for her man. I don’t know who matches up with whom, but the group soon solves that problem for us. How nice of the boys to stand by their future partners. I just feel bad for the girl who literally draws the short stick in the shota, but I digress.
What’s kinda neat here is that the girls have formed an unofficial official fan club for Bertia. She’s supposed to be the villainess, but she has charmed them instead. And unlike Heronia, it wasn’t done through magic. Bertia’s just a likable goober. She doesn’t have a mean bone in her body, so she impresses them by being a good person. I have to imagine that in the original scenario, they are all supposed to be bitter rivals. You especially get that feeling from Joanna when she meets with Cecil privately. In your average series, she would probably be the ringleader of a group of bullies. But in this timeline, Joanna and the rest of the girls are all buddy buddy with each other, and y’know what? I don’t hate that. The older I get, the more I just want to see everyone get along. If they could redeem Heronia and make her a part of the gang, I would like that too. Too bad it looks like she’s penciled in as the overarching antagonist.
Bertia continues to fret over any small changes to the script (nevermind the fact that the story has vastly deviated ever since Cecil quelled the pandemic). I would be so curious in Cecil’s shoes. I would ask her directly why the scenario has to play out a certain way. What bad end is she trying to avoid? But Cecil doesn’t press her for details like he should. He simply lets it go, which I find baffling. The story is purposefully keeping us in the dark, which feels a bit contrived. To his credit, Cecil does tell Bertia over and over that he finds her much more interesting than anyone else (much less the heroine), but this still doesn’t take her mind off of the blasted scenario. Cecil’s eyes narrow to imply that he’s disappointed by her reaction, but I suppose this is where he can still learn and grow. You gotta be direct, man!
For the rest of the episode, Bertia keeps trying to engineer situations in which Cecil would bump into and thus fall in love with Heronia. And every single time, he’s wise to her antics. He acts as though Heronia doesn’t exist even when she’s pretending to hack up a lung. He even yeets himself out of a window at one point to avoid her. Plus, with Bertia being such a klutz, she can never follow through with any of her schemes. She always gives herself up. Again, it’s all fun and games for now until he falls for her. But what about Heronia? What is going through that mind of hers? She’s also someone who has been isekai’d. She knows the scenario. She knows that things aren’t going as planned. Or rather, she should know this. Why is it that both she and Bertia aren’t bright enough to take a step back and reassess? Something like, “Hm, that’s odd. The prince isn’t acting like he should. Maybe… just maybe the original scenario has gone out the window.” Now, you can sorta excuse this with Bertia, because she has that oh-so-mysterious reason for why Cecil has to end up with Heronia. But what’s the heroine’s excuse? Why is she so hellbent on Cecil? It would be nice if her motivations were deeper than “I’m the heroine so I deserve whatever my heart desires.”
Stray thoughts & observations:
— Look at these NPCs. Same build, same face, same general attire. They really didn’t put in any effort to vary these characters up.
— Bro, why are you working in a crowded room if you desire peace and quiet?
— If Kuro didn’t look like such a little girl, I would also say she matches up with Zeno, Cecil’s contracted spirit. Cecil does imply that she only looks this young in order to fit in as Bertia’s maid, but eh… flimsy excuse if you ask me.
— Man, Bertia really loves to create reading material.
— It’s such a shame that Joanna is into shota characters. She seems like she could be a cool character, but alas…
— Wow, a year has passed already. Well, the story definitely isn’t standing around, smelling the roses. I’m fine with it. The older the characters, the better.
