Kenja no Mago - Vol. 14 Ch. 46

[PhoenixStriker5251]

@Next_order
The previous incident was in Earlshide. The commander was from Ys (I think?), and the exact details of the incident were covered up via the Royal Family and the intentional publishing of a story (much like how the Kurt incident was covered up in the intentional spreading of rumors).

SPOILERS:

Spoiler

The previous devil was Merlin’s best friend/rival/coworker within the magic institute, seemingly driven mad by being overshadowed by Merlin and his unrequited crush for Melinda.
That is (implied to be) the reason why the Magi and Guru are no longer married, and it is also why Melinda wants Shin to gain the foresight and awareness to consider the potential indirect consequences of his actions.
(Sidenote: The devil from the story was a powerful high class mage. These mooks are mostly converted civilians, so they’re not nearly as powerful.)
As shown repeatedly, Shin tends to just do ridiculous things without any considerations of just how far his influence can reach. Poor Melinda gets angry every single time, and Shin sorta brushes it off.

This time, he won’t be able to just brush it off.
As said by other commenters, Shin HAD the clues and hints that the commander might do something, and yet Shin did nothing about the situation. Because he failed to convey just how dangerous these devils are, this happened.

Though the operation (in the novel) still succeeds due to the timely intervention of his grandparents, Shin remains haunted by this mistake as well as his failure to properly communicate with the coalition as he desperately chased after the fleeing stragglers who escaped towards Earlshide. He feels immensely guilty when his failure goes unmentioned...

 

[Kaarme]

Conveniently the idiot went and got himself killed. The devils probably think they won the first clash of the battle, but in fact they only did the human army a great service by removing the weak link among them.

 

[Dezaki]

finally that prick died, but there's still moles inside the army spreading the seed of anxiety.

 

[raos044]

@PhoenixStriker5251 What you are talking about is most likely the web novel. The Manga is adapted from the light novel version. Usually when a publisher picks up a web novel series to be published they have an editor help the author make these sorts of changes to flesh things out and fix what they consider to be issues with the story. Most of the deviations made in the plot from the web novel to the manga were likely first introduced in the light novel version.

 

[PhoenixStriker5251]

Shin's growth as a character revolves less about his power creep, op magic, or plagiarized magic appliances and more about him learning "common sense" and gaining the awareness and foresight to understand the potential direct and indirect consequences of his influence and actions.

Several important plot points revolve around him either failing to recognize signs of a problem, him creating new magics or tools in anticipation of a problem only for a completely different problem to blindside him, OR him unintentionally CAUSING problems as a result of said tools or magic.

 

[PhoenixStriker5251]

@raos044 Yeah, I'm referring to the web novel (the one on Novel Updates). Honestly, I wasn't even aware that there was a light novel for this. Yeah, light novels tend to be more fleshed out than the source web novel.

 

[InsaneAwesomeTony]

Thanks for the translation 😆

 

[hyun50]

Is it a mistake, or there's actually 2 blank balloon in page 2 ?

 

[karanga]

Thanks but this chapter was just filler lmao

 

[Siikalahna]

I don't understand why he bothers to even head there himself? Just gather solar power up outside the atmosphere for an extended period of time, and then blast it all in a massive amount to wipe the whole place out. Yes, it's night, but that doesn't mean sun has suddenly turned off, it just means they're facing the other side. So, just gather it in the space, have it transfer to position and blast. Heck, they could've wiped out the whole empire's area out with that. Just gather enough. It's not like people can sense the magical power from that great of a distance even if they tried. And when you blast it down, there is no magic involved in the energy itself. Problem solved without taking a single step to the empire's soil.

 

[Antairan]

for all we know, Shin could simply put the whole area around the castle into a void, devils need to breath as far as we know. He could also plummet the temperature to 0K and freeze them all right there. However, what's the fun in that? Gota have some drama!

 

[CaTastrophy427]

"Ah yes, let's try to sneak behind enemy lines and lie in wait to attack the capital when the people who can teleport at will are gone, but they still have communication equipment linked to the ones in the capital, nothing can go wrong with this plan"

 

[Xarxyc]

@Siikalahna
Did you even try to think why during the war Forts and Cities are usually captured instead of razed to the ground and even repaired if damaged during the siege?
Answer: Captors use them afterwards. Turns out, having a bloody fortress or city to store army and provisions is quite convenient.

 

[flannan]

Frankly, all that plotting and mind controlling resulting in just one army of mooks getting wiped out is underwhelming. That army was never a threat. But I guess demons never figured it out.

 

[kenkagejack]

To the author's benefit of doubt, there probably was an implication that there are several forts and towns filling up all that empty space between the boarder and the capital, but the author only depicted the PoV of the MC and the artist isn't filling in for the non-MC character armies outside of a giant monster.

To the author's blame the devils killing off all the farmers and then asking the fort-devils for food is pretty dumb.

 

[mahtan]

"Why did turning into devils was all that took for them to be so heartless?"
You answered that yourself, they were humans before.

 

[Clad95150]

@kenkagejack : Devils aren't one hive-mind. It's like reality, some people can do something, and others do other things.

Most devils killed mercilessly (and the devils' animals killed a lot too) but those who could stay rational didn't.
After the revolution, all the pure devils got killed and those who stayed alive (the rational ones) asked for food.

They are both devils, but aren't the same group.

 

[Asynchria]

Page 2 has a blank speech bubble... maybe two.

4th panel and 5th/final panel.

 

[kenkagejack]

@Clad95150 haha, I'm picturing Strom facepalming with a grumbling stomach.

 

[Chet31]

I think that is it for me, been struggling for the past 10 chapters with this and I know a battle is coming up that is just 95% bullshit and misunderstanding, thats gonna take another 5 chapters then someone will have the brilliant idea of talking, some things will be resolved, maybe the devils wont get killed since they will help them beat the shit out of zest then maybe they can hide somewhere if they prove they are just evil, not evil evil or some stupid shit. Then a ultimate magician will get hurt, walford will annihilate the devils and whatever that strategist under Strom is called will just cackle since he won.