Arrogant Slave - Ch. 46 - The Prayer of the Arrogant Slave

[ultrabread]

This ended up being a sort of homage to the tragic wanderer type stories, where this is a sorta prequel story. It reminds me a bit of stories like trigun, rurouni kenshin, and cowboy bebop; where the main character being studied is denying the worst aspect of themselves which virtually incarnates itself as an antagonist which they're seeking out to destroy. In which the slave's mentality is the key aspect, she is in denial about her actual upbringing is what the ending implies.

Another interesting aspect here in this story thats not fully explored are how bodies of men are a key aspect, in particular how virtually no character treat the body of the knight that well. The lord's daughter only begins to possibly regret things until the very end, the slave remains delusional about his state, and when the knight was conscious he only got realistic about his situation towards the end. This is a pretty uncommon topic to cover and perhaps the arrogant slave was the knight the whole time; since he was obligated to die for his lord which would make him not the owner of his body and effectively a fighting slave. an arrogant one who ignores his injuries.

 

[Senpaithatfriendzonesyou]

It's been a long time since i encountered good story telling. Good storytelling makes the readers ask questions, people have discussions, people think.

This was good storytelling.

 

[WiseMansBlood]

Wait, did he survive or not?

nah he dead pretty sure

 

[WiseMansBlood]

This ended up being a sort of homage to the tragic wanderer type stories, where this is a sorta prequel story. It reminds me a bit of stories like trigun, rurouni kenshin, and cowboy bebop; where the main character being studied is denying the worst aspect of themselves which virtually incarnates itself as an antagonist which they're seeking out to destroy. In which the slave's mentality is the key aspect, she is in denial about her actual upbringing is what the ending implies.

Another interesting aspect here in this story thats not fully explored are how bodies of men are a key aspect, in particular how virtually no character treat the body of the knight that well. The lord's daughter only begins to possibly regret things until the very end, the slave remains delusional about his state, and when the knight was conscious he only got realistic about his situation towards the end. This is a pretty uncommon topic to cover and perhaps the arrogant slave was the knight the whole time; since he was obligated to die for his lord which would make him not the owner of his body and effectively a fighting slave. an arrogant one who ignores his injuries.

ohh yeah the commoner being the arrogant slave would make a lot of sense and explain a lot.

you might wanna add that bro on the cart was also a slave who once lived under really bad conditions (getting hit on the head with a hammer to wake up), although idk what kind of philosophical aspect that would be.

 

[WiseMansBlood]

No understand ending

he dead, she delusional, bro on the cart says that the kingdom he left is gonna collapse. The hammer thing? Well it basically means that bro on the cart was the same as the slave. Since the slave was like: "if you want to wake me up hit me with a hammer" and the Bro on the cart is saying he got hit by a hammer to wake him up, aka He was a slave that lived under the conditions that the slave in the story already assumes is how she is supposed to live (how she always said it should be: Sleeping outside on the ground, eating from the floor, not sleeping to guard for her master etc.)

Any questions?

 

[_Nonoko-chan_]

She got her shoes back, he sacrifice a leg to survive ? I choose this path

What I interpreted is that
unfortunately, I highly doubt he survived, and she knows it, but is willing to stay by his side "until he wakes her up", despite knowing he won't (so she'll die as well by his side).

 

[_Nonoko-chan_]

I need an explanation too.

Like, obviously Slave is in denial about Commoner dying. He was probably near dead when the insomniac knight looked at him several chapters ago, hence why he didn't bother killing him. But I don't understand what he was saying at the end.

"The kingdom is in the grip of a strange boy" ??

That was the best translation I could figure out, but I can't really understand what he means with those words either... I'm sorry.

 

[_Nonoko-chan_]

????

Yeah, I have to admit google translator was of good help in there...

 

[_Nonoko-chan_]

The translation is pretty bad, that's why we can't understand shit that's happening
Mostly, I think that what the Commoner had was the Plague, so pretty much the whole kingdom is doomed if what's going on is a plague outbreak

I am sorry, I did the best I could, I really don't know Indonesian but wanted to try and make something somewhat understandable. I am glad people in the comments are correcting my mistakes.

 

[JVick]

I am sorry, I did the best I could, I really don't know Indonesian but wanted to try and make something somewhat understandable. I am glad people in the comments are correcting my mistakes.

Don't worry, when you're translating a manga from this author, there is so much twist you don't need to remember what was said 5 chapters ago because it's already irrelevant to the plot.

 

[wallsg]

Hamita sensei… do you know happiness?

Read his one-shots. Many of them are happy.

 

[exxeld]

It's probably even worse, he probably got the plague or some shit like that, so the slave, the young lady and everyone they've encountered on their way back are probably infected too. That's why the guy who killed the cat said that the kingdom is doomed. Or maybe I did get it at all and i'm wrong. Well, who cares ?

That’s the answer I was looking for I forgot the time period. I imagine the strange boy line is referring to the black plague but translated strangely.

 

[Carn109]

Damn

 

[Szaal]

can anyone explain ending to me

Probably someone already attempted the explanation, but I just wanted to put down what I have found with this manga (hello, Hamita new enjoyer here!) without poring through 8 pages of comments

First, the Commoner Knight is dead. That one is obvious.
Second, the Slave took on such character, being obsessive to her master, is simply due to her upbringing. She was living a meaningless, empty live, and it was slavery that actually fill her live with meaning. She sees slavery as profession of dream and her master, whoever it was at the time, as a figure to idolize. They're the one who gives meaning to her existence, after all.

And it's no different towards the Commoner Knight. Sure, he is so un-noblelike, but he is still her master. Does she admire him? Does she love him? Who knows. But it is clear that she idolizes him. He gave her pointless life meaning, after all.

She doesn't want to go back living the meaningless life, so she is ignorant towards the fact that the Commoner Knight has died.

Scene change to the Slave backstory. We are shown that someone (a slave?) was trying to escape, so its owner(?) hit him with a hammer, putting him to a state where he never wakes up. Forever asleep.
Scene change to the Gentleman Swordsman in Shorts (or Shortsman, in short). He said he has the lifeless eye because of insomnia, caused by someone hitting him with a hammer on the head. He is forever sleepless.
Scene change to the ending panel. The hammer (and her note). It is clear that she is asleep, and is currently waiting for her dead master to bonk her at head with the hammer. But will the hammer, a symbol capable to put the awake to sleep forever and the aslept to awake forever, be swung? By the one who is forever asleep to awaken the one who is not supposed to sleep forever?

It takes a certain degree of skill to connect the chekov's gun. Sure, it may only appear twice or thrice and very brief, but I find the symbolism p cool fwiw. Not to mention the black spot being believed as a witch's doing, yet the slave is carrying a corpse with black spot; through a nobility's mansion no less. The other scanlation had better TL, and I think the open-ended nature of the story really is... something.