Much of this week’s episode is all about prejudice. For some reason, a bunch of munchkins have started spying on Rose. They even tail her in the city. When she returns to her lake, they finally come out of hiding and pelt her with dirt, demanding that she leave and never look back. Sadly, you can almost always blame the parents for this kind of behavior. The adults must have been talking shit about witches in general, and they did it within earshot of the children. Kids aren’t born racist or bigoted. They’re simply not. The brats learned from their horrible parents, then naturally came to their erroneous conclusions. Harij hilariously drags most of the kids kicking and screaming back to Rose in an attempt to make them apologize. Imagine, however, how scary it must have been to see a grown man chasing after you in the forest.

One of the kids fetches the parents to get them out of this mess, but the adults immediately fear retribution when Harij has Rose confirm that she’s a witch. Sure, it seems like neither Rose nor her grandmother have ever done any sort of positive PR for themselves. No one has a clue what witches actually do, so Harij (with permission from Rose) sets the record straight. He rattles off all the useful items that Rose makes for them. Just the fact that she can make insecticide to protect their crops should have these parents groveling at her feet. These people are simply ignorant, but even then, it doesn’t really matter. Stay open-minded, and be kind. Don’t be a jerk. It’s sad that adults have to be taught something so simple. There’s not much else to say, because the moral of the story simply isn’t complex.

Afterwards, Harij tries to comfort Rose, offering to bring her all sorts of things, including hot water. He even offers to let her use his bathtub. It’s obvious that Harij is crushing on her, but Rose wants to maintain professional boundaries, talking about how she’s managed to live on her own all this time, so she’ll keep trucking on without his help. After all, Rose still thinks he wants the love potion because he’s in love with someone else, so she’s preemptively guarding her heart.

And just like that, the love potion is finished. Rose even stuck it in a fancy bottle and everything. No one wants to use a love potion in an ugly container! Still, it’s only the fifth episode. It’ll be funny to see how Rose reacts when Harij keeps coming back. He most certainly will. At the very least, it should be amusing. But will Rose have the guts to ask him why? And furthermore, would she dare ask the knight commander what he did with the potion?

Stray thoughts & observations:

— We see a flashback with a younger Rose chatting it up with Tien. It’s clear that Rose used to be quite comfortable with him when she was younger. Now, she acts like he’s the biggest embarrassment in the world. Ah, teenagers… but on the other hand, why hasn’t Tien visibly aged? What exactly is he? I don’t suppose the story is inclined to answer that question any time soon. I should just be glad that Tien is leaning more into the fatherly role rather than… well, anything potentially inappropriate. You never know with anime. You just never know.

— Oh my, a tablecloth? How fancy. Our girlfailure is slowly but surely transforming herself into someone with respectable habits. Now, if she could only eat something more substantial than bread, jam, and pies… well, I suppose that’s partly Harij’s fault. He keeps buying empty calories.

— Rose tells us she has so much to do, which means she’s also doing good business. I would like to think Tien isn’t taking advantage of her, so does this mean she’s making lots of money? But then where is it going? Even if she cleans up her dump of a cabin, it’s still a pretty modest hovel. What exactly does she do with the money she gets from selling all her potions and salves?