According to Qifrey, Agott has not taken the second test. She’s not ready. How does Agott respond? She immediately slaps his hand away. She’s not quite yelling, but she’s clearly angry. Qifrey still isn’t convinced, but he hesitates. He isn’t firm. So Olruggio comes along and says that he’ll take Agott with him. And just like that, the rest of the girls want to come along as well. Bro, c’mon. This is an actual rescue mission. In other words, a life is at stake. A kid’s life! Yeah, Agott needs opportunities, but this isn’t the time for her to be testing her limits. Qifrey is not only the adult, he’s also her teacher, role model, mentor, etc. He should be putting his foot down. A person’s life is not something to trifle with, but he just lets her talk her way onto the mission? That’s baffling to me. This is the guy every other anime fan is glazing? He just looks cool, but otherwise, he’s a complete boyfailure. In desperate situations, the anime gives him every opportunity to farm aura, but he can’t even do the basic things right. He can’t control his apprentices. In fact, maybe if he had been more attentive to Agott’s needs, we wouldn’t be in this mess of a situation.

Qifrey then opens up a bit to Olfruggio about Agott’s problem. It’s not that she isn’t capable, but rather, she doesn’t currently derive joy from magic. She’s too hasty to make progress for whatever deep-seated reason — I’m sure it’ll be a very dramatic backstory — that it might lead her down the wrong path one day. Well, have you talked to her about it? How ’bout that, huh? How ’bout addressing your actual apprentice rather than brooding about it on the side?

Olruggio isn’t completely hopeless; he tries to use this moment as a learning opportunity. Unfortunately, he also pulled a bait-and-switch on Agott. He let her think that she would finally get the chance to prove herself. But when she gets to the site of the accident, Olruggio lectures her instead. He scolds her for being impatient. That would piss any kid off. I’m sorry, but have any of these men ever been trained to teach children before? ‘Cause this isn’t how you do it.

Angry (again) and disappointed, Agott mutters under her breath. I hate it when shows are vague for the sake of being vague. We’ll later find out that she’s likely referring to her own mother. But still, this feels stilted. If you were in her situation, you wouldn’t obfuscate the individual you’re directly thinking about as “that person.” I hate these cheap ass storytelling tricks. It’s not very clever. It’s not clever at all.

The rescue mission goes off without a hitch. The group then splits up to check up and down the river, which leaves Agott behind with Coco to help with the survivors. Welp, you know what that means: our two girlies are going to get into trouble. Will Qifrey ever learn his lesson? Will he ever stop being irresponsible with his young charges? But he’s hot tho! And so cool. He can split the river like Moses with his dope-ass sword! Who cares if he’s a dumbass who can’t keep track of his students?

But everyone’s safe, right? So what could go wrong? Oh, a lot can go wrong. A lot. For one thing, the survivors still haven’t moved away from the precarious riverbank. If I almost fell into a raging river and drowned, you bet your ass I would get myself further inland the first chance I get! But not these folks! Oh no! Perish the pragmatic thought! So of course, the kid who got trapped in the wagon because he wanted to save the cargo… still wants to save the cargo. Why wasn’t an adult keeping an eye on him? ‘Cause adults fucking suck in this story. As for the kid, he literally just got saved, but he’s plunging his ass back into danger again. For fuck’s sake, man. What the hell is going on in this universe? Naturally, the worst comes to pass, and now the dumb kid needs to be rescued yet again.

At this moment, we see a very important looking witch being informed about this incident. Lemme guess… he’s a member of the Knights Moralis that we’ve been hearing so much about, and he’s about to catch Coco and/or Agott doing a big no-no.

Back with Agott and Coco, this is when the former starts hearing voices. Have the Brimmed Caps been watching this whole mess play out this entire time? Are they just waiting to corrupt these kids? Not like they have to wait very long. Qifrey is a shitty, neglectful teacher, after all. Continuing with the theme of shitty adults, we learn that Agott’s mother is shitty too. She basically rejected her own daughter for not being as talented as she is. Hey, maybe Agott’s a late bloomer. Also, you should love your daughter no matter who she is, but I guess we can’t expect the adults in this series to understand something as basic as that. Who’s been the one decent grown-up that we’ve seen so far? Coco’s mom? And hey, she’s basically stone now!

The biggest constraint at the moment is that you can’t let the normies see how you cast magic. As a result, you have to hide the act beneath your cloak and rely on your muscle memory. Coco is obviously the newbie, so she can’t be relied upon to pull this off. As a result, Agott sends a pretty little bird soaring into the sky mainly to distract the normies… which is kinda hilarious, if you think about it. Oh no, a kid is trapped under a rock and could die… but pretty bird, tho… pretty, pretty bird… The adults eventually catch on that the spell does nothing, but by then, Coco has already gotten the job done. Somehow, she manages to not only free the kid from the rock (using the disintegration spell she had seen in a previous episode), she also gets herself and the kid to levitate. Hey, looks like Coco’s a fast learner. At the same time, however, I’m waiting with bated breath to find out what rule she must’ve broken. After all, the Knights Moralis about to arrive.

Speaking of the devil, the cops of the wizarding world are finally here, and they immediately restrain Coco and Agott. Five individuals just to hold down a pair of kids. Huh. Well, it doesn’t look like the Knights Moralis are interested in doing a thorough investigation (just like real cops!). Right off the bat, they accuse the girls of using forbidden magic, boldly proclaim that they will show no mercy even to children, and intend to erase Coco’s memories. They have a sledgehammer for a solution, and they want to use it on every single problem, large or small (just like real cops!). But to be fair, it looks like I was wrong about Coco. I don’t think she actually messed up and broke any rule. Rather, the Brimmed Caps are probably up to no good again.