Henkyou Gurashi no Maou, Tensei shite Saikyou no Majutsushi ni naru - Ch. 39 - Odette Breaks the Spell

[Miserys_End]

She chose to obey his orders. That is her fault. She also refused to speak when her much higher authority, the Princess, ordered her to; that is choosing loyalty to the duke over the kingdom.

That assumes the father wouldnt hold her family accountable for her failure to carry out his orders.

The Princess may have a higher standing, but that doesn't mean she can countermend the orders of a high noble. Viewed another way, failing to comply with the princesses orders falls on her neck, disobeying the Duke's orders could mean her family is punished.

Yes the Princess might be able to save them, but there is no guarantee. And if you haven't noticed the poor girl looks like she has lost all hope and looked ready to commit suicide to accomplish her orders. Not exactly the actions of someone who was in the right frame of mind or hoped for salvation after all the had done.

And before you start using arguments based on modern sensibilities, this is a fantasy novel. While we the audience view the story thrue the lense of our morals and biases, that isn't necessarily true for the characters the author has written. Try expanding your PoV to that of the character's, rather then your own.

 

[Druhms]

Her father's word is worthless to her now. He altered the agreement he had with her one sidedly and then outright cheated. It is clear now that the father never intended to grant her wish regardless of the outcome.

The only way she is going to get what she wants is to take her own path regardless of his will/opinion. He can arrange a marriage, but he can't force her to say "yes". The downside to this is potentially being cut off, disowned, continually harassed, imprisoned under house arrest, and/or assassinated. It depends on how much she is worth to him, how certain he is that she will give up and give in to his demands, and how much shame/trouble she causes.

"I have altered the deal, pray I don't alter it any further"
"This deal's getting worse all the time"

 

[fight2live]

Odette is now the main character of this manga in my eyes. if she does not find happiness, i will drop this

 

[Kaarme]

But it's not really her fault. By her own admission, she was acting as a tool to Odette's father who wants to make certain only his outcome is possible.

She lost my sympathy 100% when she started to beg for mercy from the person she had betrayed. Even if Therese had been blackmailed into doing this, it was still her choice, nonetheless, to participate in a wicked plot, instead of taking the fall honourably. There would have been consequences if she disobeyd, there would be consequences if she obeyd. That's how choices work. She should have carried the results of her choice like a woman and apologised once, but not beg for mercy from her very victim. It's ridiculous how she considers herself the bigger victim than the actual victim of the criminal scheme she was actively partaking in.

Therese should be dishonourably discharged from the magic guild. Unfortunately I don't see anything happening to the duke, Odette's father, as he probably has the royals' backing, but rumours could always be spread. If folks learn the duke betrayed even his own daughter and blackmails even the magic guild for stupid purposes, merchants and professionals may charge him more, to alleviate risks.

 

[dmbase]

Man, imagine playing a basic JRPG, entering the first cave dungeon, and the basic bat enemy you encounter casts BURNING METEOR on you.

That's some Dark Souls level of bullshit right there.

 

[Rafalga]

But it's not really her fault. By her own admission, she was acting as a tool to Odette's father who wants to make certain only his outcome is possible.

You always have a choice to determine how to act. It's not like she was brainwashed. She has absolutely no value to keep around after this point. Punishment might be too much but she should never show her face again.

 

[le3]

Man, I thought Odette gonna accidentally unseal an Elysian apparition from the title

 

[Jakeh24]

She deserves the world an if I gotta put up witha harem tag to make it happen. So be it

 

[AnotherDuck]

It's ridiculous how she considers herself the bigger victim than the actual victim of the criminal scheme she was actively partaking in.

I don't think she does. She's just mentally broken. But yeah, no sympathy for her. Maybe pity.

 

[Amariithynar]

That assumes the father wouldnt hold her family accountable for her failure to carry out his orders.

The Princess may have a higher standing, but that doesn't mean she can countermend the orders of a high noble. Viewed another way, failing to comply with the princesses orders falls on her neck, disobeying the Duke's orders could mean her family is punished.

Yes the Princess might be able to save them, but there is no guarantee. And if you haven't noticed the poor girl looks like she has lost all hope and looked ready to commit suicide to accomplish her orders. Not exactly the actions of someone who was in the right frame of mind or hoped for salvation after all the had done.

She had no plans of suicide; forcing an activation of the armband was her part in the duke's plan all along, be it from getting her lost, not letting her see the correct map, or activating the monster swarm from the arena. Obviously the duke doesn't care about her life to the point of securing it from extreme accident, but he's also confident enough that doing this would not be life-threatening to the point of death for her or his daughter; no chessmaster wants to lose a pawn, after all. None of this absolves her of her guilt in choosing to follow through with any of this; she made the choice to follow orders. It should be accounted for when determining a punishment, certainly, but not allow one to escape it.

And of course the duke would hold her family hostage over her if needs be, given his attitude, but that gives even more reason for her to ask for the princess' grace, and extract a promise of protection; if not for herself and family, at least for her family, before giving anything up. Instead she just refuses outright in defense of the duke; that is why it is held against her.

And before you start using arguments based on modern sensibilities, this is a fantasy novel. While we the audience view the story thrue the lense of our morals and biases, that isn't necessarily true for the characters the author has written. Try expanding your PoV to that of the character's, rather then your own.

I am the LAST person to accuse of using modern sensibilities or not understanding the POV of characters, especially for situations like this, hah. Try doing more than just sympathizing with a single view of a character's actions and understand how it affects those around her, as a noble would be taught.

 

[mojo72400]

Odette is best girl. While I still don't know if I want her to become a love interest, I want her to be happy more than any other character in this manga.

Love interest wise, I still just want Alice to become wife and the maid as a mistress.

This is why I tried to ask for LN spoilers in Reddit if Yuuki and Odette's relationship stays platonic or not? I'm not against either as long as both sides are happy.

 

[Redeye285]

So, why is the duke forcing odette into political marriage in first place? Am i missing something, because we don't the partner of the marriage.

 

[Shrimperor]

Man, imagine playing a basic JRPG, entering the first cave dungeon, and the basic bat enemy you encounter casts BURNING METEOR on you.

Bat on NG+

 

[Kaarme]

So, why is the duke forcing odette into political marriage in first place? Am i missing something, because we don't the partner of the marriage.

It's a political marriage. The term itself explains it's for political reasons. The duke gains an ally by forming such a bond with another important family. The majority of noble marriages of this type (children of ruling nobles) used to be political marriages. The same went for a great portion of all marriages in the distant past, for example between the children of successful merchants. Or a wealthy merchant managing to marry their child off to an impoverished noble family by promising financial aid.

Since this is a fantasy world, Odette actually could, theoretically, become so important that allowing her to chase her own career would be more valuable than marrying her off. The duke doesn't seem to have much faith in that, though, instead wanting to have her serve the role of a bride, even if he needs to cheat to speed things up.

 

[Miserys_End]

She had no plans of suicide; forcing an activation of the armband was her part in the duke's plan all along, be it from getting her lost, not letting her see the correct map, or activating the monster swarm from the arena. Obviously the duke doesn't care about her life to the point of securing it from extreme accident, but he's also confident enough that doing this would not be life-threatening to the point of death for her or his daughter; no chessmaster wants to lose a pawn, after all. None of this absolves her of her guilt in choosing to follow through with any of this; she made the choice to follow orders. It should be accounted for when determining a punishment, certainly, but not allow one to escape it.

And of course the duke would hold her family hostage over her if needs be, given his attitude, but that gives even more reason for her to ask for the princess' grace, and extract a promise of protection; if not for herself and family, at least for her family, before giving anything up. Instead she just refuses outright in defense of the duke; that is why it is held against her.

Actually that's all she does once the princess arrives. If you didnt notice much of the explanation happened in a time skip afterwhich she apologizes profusely. Then there was talk of an investigation and they moved on. So what more do you want? Does ten more pages of her groveling on the floor before they continue on with the exam sound like a fun read?

I am the LAST person to accuse of using modern sensibilities or not understanding the POV of characters, especially for situations like this, hah. Try doing more than just sympathizing with a single view of a character's actions and understand how it affects those around her, as a noble would be taught.

Sorry, but I'm not sorry. It's just become so common for post overfilled with condemnation and vitriol to be from SJWs with little to no concept a different PoV or culture then their own. Especially when it's obvious the target of their angst is under duress and has so little hope of survival.

You say she could escape at any time with the artifact, yet there she is literally face to the floor practically in tears. Yes her actions are reprehensible, but never once do we see her act out of malice. Only hopelessly pleading for her mistress to comply with her father's orders so her own family isn't punished.

 

[Lame_Security]

Sounds like playing one of the old Wizardry games

If it's Wizardry that's because you strayed past the noob zone into somewhere you're meant to be higher level at (which sometimes the games just don't label it like any other sane games would do).

This is more like a F.O.E encounter from Etrian Odyssey series.

 

[BlackAeronaut]

Regarding this discourse over the betrayal...

.... Has anyone given any thought what-so-ever as to what the Slay Duchy has on her that would motivate her to do something like this?

I know some of y'all love to see someone burn at the stake, but I'm pretty sure that you'd be pretty quick to change your tune if the leverage on that girl was something like, "If you don't do as you're instructed, then we'll kill your bed-ridden little brother who happens to be under our care."

 

[BlackAeronaut]

If it's Wizardry that's because you strayed past the noob zone into somewhere you're meant to be higher level at (which sometimes the games just don't label it like any other sane games would do).

Heh. That kinda thing amuses the hell out of me. It reminds me of the original Metroid where if you REALLY wanted to, you can skip pretty much everything and take on Mother Brain with nothing but mad skillz.

"Welcome to the world of Classic Metroidvania. Sure, you can min-max your way past this door that seems to be impassible at first glance, but do you REALLY wanna?"

 

[Lame_Security]

Heh. That kinda thing amuses the hell out of me. It reminds me of the original Metroid where if you REALLY wanted to, you can skip pretty much everything and take on Mother Brain with nothing but mad skillz.

"Welcome to the world of Classic Metroidvania. Sure, you can min-max your way past this door that seems to be impassible at first glance, but do you REALLY wanna?"

Old ass RPG near Wizardry age too. I remember in Digimon World 3 where you're feeling confident with the 3 starting zone, then you enter that beach zone that looks 90% identical with the noob zone but the random encounter will two shots you.

 

[XNFEdayo]

Old ass RPG near Wizardry age too. I remember in Digimon World 3 where you're feeling confident with the 3 starting zone, then you enter that beach zone that looks 90% identical with the noob zone but the random encounter will two shots you.

Final Fucking Fantasy 2....a simple bridge at the very start of the game is the difference between farmable mobs and 99% chance of a 1 turn party wipe. A damn bridge.