The foreshadowing and implication that the Pharmacist Guild is evil is surprisingly acceptable to me. Big Businesses are always in it for the greed. Add nobility to that and you got yourself an surefire equation for evil. At the same time, though, NB4 we start seeing the shadowy table of old men thinking up murder plots.
Also, that set up for new side character is so forced on the last page. Might as well put a neon sign saying "This person is important to the plot."
I wonder if they're gonna skip his problem too, like Melodie's