Kyoukoku no Recuerdo - Vol. 2 Ch. 21

[MangaDex]

 

[Mitsu13]

Can you hear it? The sound of my heart breaking

 

[Shinkhi]

@Mitsu13 Sorry I can't hear it over the sound of mine TT^TT

 

[TakeiDaloui]

Sauro no...
I knew this was to happen. I guess this is how he'll get his burn too, from Arsenio's flames. But damn this is getting sad. Especially when right before this he was planning to escape with him, willing to throw away his chances at being a knight if it mean saving his friend. Just the sight of him having been tortured almost made him snap and go and kill those who did it.
And now he's stuck confused at what he's meant to do. Arsenio looks like Arsenio, talks like him, sounds like him, but everything he knows about monsters in these situations tells him it's all an act. And since he saw Arsenio with salamander scales (was that the most scales we've ever seen him show since he looked entirely covered), the impression of a monster has been set there.

 

[TetraSky]

You see kids, this is why religion is bad. It forces you to go against your best friends at the whims of the higher ups (humans).

 

[WTFits]

"Arsenio, there's something that I've been meaning to ask you."
"What is it?"
"How long have you been a monster..?"
"... I was a human until I got burned at the stake."
"Thats... Lord. You're too cruel. Arsenio... I'm sorry."

 

[Ceiye]

Oh boy one chapter left... I hope there are volume extras

If the story didn't focus on the emotions and human drama, this scenario is a very standard shounen affair, if a little edgy. We were shown one from someone we know to be a good person and had very negative experiences with the environment they grew up in. But how about from a cookie-cutter shounen protag with a very straightforward take? Stop me if you haven't heard this before:
Protagonist lives in a world with monsters
Monsters killed people protagonist cares about
Protagonist grows up wanting to get rid of these monsters
Monsters also turn out to formerly be human, generally against their will. But the monsters shown end up doing bad anyways, so they get killed and die without much introspection. Sometimes there are good ones, but they are shown to be an exception rather than the norm
Monster-itus takes hold of an important character that Protag trusts

Standard:
Protag believes that Important Character is still good, and gets hurt because of it
Dozens of comments saying Protag is a dumbass for believing that Important Character was still trustworthy
Protag goes to kill all the monsters because after his experience, he realizes they can't be redeemed no matter how much they don't want to believe it

But Sauro isn't a shounen protag, and this series is a more nuanced (yeah, I'm surprised I'm using this word to describe a Mochi series too) take, so:
Sauro believes that Arsenio has turned evil, and gets hurt because of it
Understandably, dozens of comments saying Sauro is a dumbass for not believing that Arsenio was still trustworthy
Sauro goes off to kill all the monsters because if he believes that they can be redeemed, he will be crushed by the guilt of what he's done

It's incredible how different the same actions and world are depending on what you see and experience. Is this an allegory for something? Noooooooo, totally not /s

 

[Chaoxss_kayy]

@tetrasky please do not compare this cult like behaviour to something like a religion. This is not a religion this is not reality, its a manga, fiction and not reality

 

[TetraSky]

@Chaoxss_kayy totally the same thing.

 

[BeenSwotted]

@Chaoxss_kayy I agree, allegory is fake. Writing happens in a vacuum and draws no inspiration from reality. Turn your brain off and look at the pictures. Starship Troopers is about space bugs.

 

[NinjaGoemon]

Tragedy tag incoming

 

[onemanshow]

Everyone doing high-level analysis here and I'm just stuck at "no my poor babies..."
This whole series is really good though. Most I've emphasized with characters in a while.

 

[vessalius]

i knew he would do that since i read the main series... but it still hurts

 

[vessalius]

@TetraSky while I would say that the Espanian culture and religion do indeed take many inspirations from the witch-hunting period of Western Europe (and subsequently Catholicism as the dominant religion in that region), I would caution against making blanket terms that generalize and therefore misrepresent a massive group of various individuals. I highly doubt most religious folks would truthfully state that they believe everything about their own religion, but I concede that the overarching notion that "Religion can influence groups of people poorly" is indeed true.

 

[Opelia]

Aahh its pained me by reading this
SAURO DONT 😫 !!!

 

[iskaeil]

I mean, I know Sauro's plan probably had a 0.01% chance of working out but that's a damn shame. I'm really not a fan of the misunderstanding trope but at least I knew it was coming.

 

[AnimuVsMango]

Suffer not the heretic to live.

 

[Red225]

The quote from @WTFits takes place in chapter 53 of the sequel, Majo no Geboku to Maou no Tsuno.

This whole prequel is a build up to that quote to emphasize the suffering both of them have gone through.

It is well worth the read.

 

[Georg-Prime]

Haha T_T

 

[Gooseknonopeace]

Kill the whole town.