I really got taken aback by how much Laios turned into an absolute giga-chad in this chapter, but on reflection, it totally make sense. Who would have known the bumbling buffoon we met in the beginning looking for his sister, would turn into a demon-slaying king.
Laios is way smarter than he's ever, even now, been given credit for. He just had a narrow field of expertise: monsters, but in the end that was what was needed to save the day. His adding in "able to eat desires" at the last minute to his ideal monster was brilliant.
While they didn't focus on it much, Laios's affections for Marcille is most apparent here throughout the series.
Yeah, I really like those two together and the way he asked her to stay, then went and basically told the Canaries "she's staying whether you like it or not" was so awesome.
Page 31 with Thistle finally dying really hit me hard. I wonder how old Thistle was when he became the dungeon lord. He's really small, so I suspect he was still a child by elven standards. That makes everything that happened hit even harder. He was just a child trying his best to make Delgal and the rest of the Golden Kingdom citizens happy, but got in
waaaaay over his head.