Silent Witch - Chinmoku no Majo no Kakushigoto - Ch. 27

[Sekraan]

still felt like a retcon to me, at least for the manga, since early in the manga it is heavily implied that she never went to school.
If she did, her entire monologue would be about her bad memories of school.

and the rest is still weak argument to me, putting headcanon over another headcanon.
I don't buy that the prince can't get at least an image or drawing of her face if the school is known.

They literally tell you that she invented silent spellcasting while at school in Chapter 1 and show flashbacks to that time in subsequent chapters.

The manga also explains in Chapter 1 that she has been a recluse and hiding her appearance since assuming the position of a Sage. As far as we know, cameras don't exist in this world, and she hasn't had a portrait painted of her, so how the hell would the prince get a drawing of her?

 

[undeed]

They literally tell you that she invented silent spellcasting while at school

nope, not literally "at school"
I checked, even in my book, it says "institution", unless I missed it
you can argue that "institution" is school, sure
it still retcon the monologue and the implied that she invented it by herself

the rest is, again, still weak argument
as if the prince doesn't have spies that can ask and draw
even nowadays when we have camera, police still draw with pen and paper
to say that nobody knows her at school, can't remember her face, while being bullied an has a nick name the whole time is a stretch at this point,
her appearance didn't even change, which is going to be a plot point after this in the anime

 

[Zephyr]

nope, not literally "at school"
I checked, even in my book, it says "institution", unless I missed it
you can argue that "institution" is school, sure
it still retcon the monologue and the implied that she invented it by herself

the rest is, again, still weak argument
as if the prince doesn't have spies that can ask and draw
even nowadays when we have camera, police still draw with pen and paper
to say that nobody knows her at school, can't remember her face, while being bullied an has a nick name the whole time is a stretch at this point,
her appearance didn't even change, which is going to be a plot point after this in the anime

This is such a strange thing to dig your heels in about. The chapter 1 monologue was pretty obviously presented from Louis Miller's point of view, as a fellow sage, and was clearly just a general summation of her history as he understood it. It's not a "retcon" to discover that there was more to the story than what her coworker knew about. That's even assuming that he said anything actually incorrect or contradictory, which he didn't. His monologue says she discovered silent casting while attending "a training institute for sorcerers". Cut to chapter 27, and sure enough, we see that it takes place in "Minerva's Mage Training Institute". If you're going to get fussy about the word "institute" being used instead of "school", I don’t know what to tell you. It's a commonly used word.

To begin with, I completely do not understand why you're getting this stubborn and this fixated over some honestly rather minor revelations in the story, when you said yourself that you "read it in passing without paying much attention to the lore". You came up with this idea of her inventing chantless magic while living alone as a hermit, and that she became a sage completely in secret, purely as your own headcanon. It's not what was ever said in the story. I'm sorry if it's uncomfortable for you when the words on the page contradict your daydreams, but that's not a retcon, that's just you not paying attention and being wrong about it.

 

[TrapCard113]

nope, not literally "at school"
I checked, even in my book, it says "institution", unless I missed it
you can argue that "institution" is school, sure
it still retcon the monologue and the implied that she invented it by herself

She learned quick-chanting from him, and invented non-chanting by herself. It still matches the text of the first chapter, as nobody before her ever conceived of chantless magic.

 

[AnotherDuck]

Oh, right, this guy.

"What kind of logic is that?"

Normal logic. Actions have consequences, and she's thanking you for the consequences of what you did.

Do quick-chanting to reduce what you need to say by half, and improve it yourself by another 50%, and you've got the Silent Witch who doesn't need any chanting.

Then the moment she gitted gud, his pride went haywire with his morals.

WE HAD A PERFECTLY FUNCTIONAL WITCH AND LOOK AT HER NOW!!! SHE HAS ANXIETY!!!

She was never perfectly functional. She always had a lot of anxiety. Well, past a certain point before she met him.

this feels like retcon over retcon over retcon
So in my headcannon is that her whole deal is that she learn magic in secret.

Just because it breaks your headcanon doesn't make it a retcon. It just means you've misunderstood the story. I don't buy any of your arguments.

The anime has skipped a shitton, particularly in the first half. It's skipped enough dialogue to actively mess with characterizations of important people. It's been one of my persistent complaints with it.

I've read the novel, but not seen the anime. What did it skip?

 

[SuperBigMac]

this feels like retcon over retcon over retcon

So in my headcannon

So, without paying attention to anything that's being said in the story, you rewrote a whole different backstory in your head, and now you're mad about it?

We've been getting her backstory since the very beginning. We learned she discovered silent casting, and then whyshe developed silent casting, and this is us learning how she developed silent casting. You can't call something a retcon just because you didn't pay attention my guy.

 

[TakeiDaloui]

Well it was good to finally see Bernie here and see why he haunts Monica. We see here early on too that it seems he did want to help her. Since we see his thoughts on that it makes it clearer than the assumption I had that he only ever took her on as a charity case.
But his ego couldn't accept her being better than him. While he might have befriended her honestly, he obviously never considered she could be better than him. And so when she surpassed him with ease, that friendship turned to scorn. He only wanted to hurt her now.

 

[karmsand]

Oh, right, this guy.


Normal logic. Actions have consequences, and she's thanking you for the consequences of what you did.

Do quick-chanting to reduce what you need to say by half, and improve it yourself by another 50%, and you've got the Silent Witch who doesn't need any chanting.

Then the moment she gitted gud, his pride went haywire with his morals.

And considering her personality she most likely would have taught him silent chanting too, the dude just fucked up everything.

 

[undeed]

This is such a strange thing to dig your heels in about. The chapter 1 monologue was pretty obviously presented from Louis Miller's point of view, as a fellow sage, and was clearly just a general summation of her history as he understood it. It's not a "retcon" to discover that there was more to the story than what her coworker knew about. That's even assuming that he said anything actually incorrect or contradictory, which he didn't. His monologue says she discovered silent casting while attending "a training institute for sorcerers". Cut to chapter 27, and sure enough, we see that it takes place in "Minerva's Mage Training Institute".

ok, I can somehow accept this one
it's Lous' monogue

If you're going to get fussy about the word "institute" being used instead of "school", I don’t know what to tell you. It's a commonly used word.

well, I wish the guy didn't use the word "literally" then

She learned quick-chanting from him, and invented non-chanting by herself. It still matches the text of the first chapter, as nobody before her ever conceived of chantless magic.

Just because it breaks your headcanon doesn't make it a retcon. It just means you've misunderstood the story. I don't buy any of your arguments.

So, without paying attention to anything that's being said in the story, you rewrote a whole different backstory in your head, and now you're mad about it?

right, right, right

I guess retcon is the wrong word.
What I mean to say that is that I have problem that this chapter depicted that so many people has interacted with her prior to her being the sage. Which breaks the idea of nobody knows her, yet she is so famous for being the only one in a millennium.
Before this, the whole institution is never clearly depicted. (I'm talking specifically the manga)
It is said she studied in said institution, We saw her professor. But never depicted how the institution functions.
So, again, yes, I admit, it's in my headcanon,
But I saw the institution works as a group like in witch hat atelier. So only those in the atelier know her face. Very few has interaction with her. And the sage selection is only done to select eyes. Public only knows that there is this genius witch. But nobody outside actually saw her.
With this depiction in the chapter, it doesn't makes sense to me that the prince, being a fanboy as he is, doesn't at least try to find out her appearance.

 

[asa_menu]

With this depiction in the chapter, it doesn't makes sense to me that the prince, being a fanboy as he is, doesn't at least try to find out her appearance.

The Prince certainly tries to find out, but you have to remember that Monica is a huge recluse. It's been 3 months since her last public appearance taking down the Black Dragon. There have been no chances to see her since then.

It might also help to remember the Prince is in a succession battle, so he cannot use any and all resources for fun.

I imagine that anyone snooping around for information on the Sages are suspicious, and as such, would make any apprehensive about answering questions about them.

 

[undeed]

The Prince certainly tries to find out, but you have to remember that Monica is a huge recluse. It's been 3 months since her last public appearance taking down the Black Dragon. There have been no chances to see her since then.

It might also help to remember the Prince is in a succession battle, so he cannot use any and all resources for fun.

I imagine that anyone snooping around for information on the Sages are suspicious, and as such, would make any apprehensive about answering questions about them.

sure,
but that's the thing
if fewer people ever saw her, it would be even more believable
now with this chapter depiction, the whole auditorium saw her silent casting
which breaks the illusion that no one knows her face
even the other fan girl doesn't recognize her

the anime did it better depicting this part
which I have another continuity error problem in the anime,
which makes this continuity problem in this chapter a double blow to me
which made me ranting this whole nonsense

 

[Suisuigo]

Pathetic and vile creature

 

[Kireato]

still felt like a retcon to me, at least for the manga, since early in the manga it is heavily implied that she never went to school.
If she did, her entire monologue would be about her bad memories of school.

and the rest is still weak argument to me, putting headcanon over another headcanon.
I don't buy that the prince can't get at least an image or drawing of her face if the school is known.

I went back because I instead got the impression that she had been to school, and indeed, page 11 of chapter 1.1, "A few years ago, while attending a training institute for sorcerers, [...]". As for being known, see chapter 1.2, page 1, "no one knows your face". Like, there's no retcon here, this is the very premise of the manga.

I don't think I've seen any pictures in this manga; there might have been paintings but those take time, so there probably doesn't exist any pictures of her. In this chapter, it's established that, the moment she became a sage she went to Bernie who spurned her. It's not shown, but my understanding is that she immediately went into seclusion after that so no one could even attempt to make a picture of her.

It's true that this chapter adds the important detail of having someone who encouraged and guided her towards quicker chanting, while I had expected her to be completely alone, but that's more of a reframing.

 

[Chaos47]

It feels like this chapter hurt the established story and the overall world building. An out of nowhere betrayal by a SUPER IMPORTANT yet never mentioned before school friend...heck, her going to school is already a shocking revelation. The origin of her silent casting was also a lot cooler before this reveal... they had alluded that desperation forced her to invent the chant less magic system she's famous for... now we know that is not the case.
It also makes us question exactly how the sage system works. It looks like the only thing they take into account is being proficient in magic...with little to no regard to anything else. Seriously, aptitude, ability, personality, mental stability...none of these matter to these crazy mages. It's an insane set up, and the more the author describes it and adds to it, the less sense it makes. Who decides who becomes a sage? Why are there limited spots in the group? Did someone had to retire when our MC became one? If there are three competent genius students, but only one post is open, does that mean two of them don't get the title due to some arbitrary sage limit? The king, the military, and those in power don't have an interest in keeping tabs on such a powerful and dangerous group? There is no way in he'll a group like that would be able to remain anonymous. They even have chunny titles in their names.

 

[Zephyr]

sure,
but that's the thing
if fewer people ever saw her, it would be even more believable
now with this chapter depiction, the whole auditorium saw her silent casting
which breaks the illusion that no one knows her face
even the other fan girl doesn't recognize her

the anime did it better depicting this part
which I have another continuity error problem in the anime,
which makes this continuity problem in this chapter a double blow to me
which made me ranting this whole nonsense

Again, you're taking the simple premise of "Monica is a shy recluse who avoids public appearances, so her face isn't well-known" and jumping all the way to "Monica's identity as the Silent Witch is a complete mystery and nobody on the planet knows about it", which was never the case. There was a whole panic just a few chapters ago when her old teacher transferred in, who obviously recognises his most successful and famous student. Monica had a moment of uncertainty of whether he'd blow her cover, or if he'd figure out that something was going on and keep quiet. The big giveaway you're talking about has literally already happened, and the pieces are in place for it to come up again later.

Her hidden identity literally only matters inside of this school and around the prince. It's not a national secret, and it's never been presented as a national secret. This is just you not paying attention, imagining a completely different story in your head, and getting upset when the actual manga doesn't play along. Even if the prince was an obsessed Silent Witch fanboy, bordering on stalker, who has exhaustively researched the Silent Witch's origins and appearance, he's no sooner going to assume that the famously magical genius Monica Everett is the same person as his classmate, the meek and bumbling Monica Norton, than you would assume your awkward and clumsy coworker is Superman just because they both have black hair and a good jawline. She's undercover, with a fake name, a fake cover story, and with both the faculty and other schoolmates corroborating her false identity. There's no reason to suspect that she's anyone other than who she says she is.

However, that's only been the case until literally this last chapter. Now that the prince has discovered that the Silent Witch has been at his school, and has actively protected him from an assassination attempt, he's presumably going to start trying to figure out where she could be, and if she's hiding in plain sight. He's likely going to put the dots together for exactly the same reasons as you've described, and come to the conclusion that it's Monica. It's not a plot hole. This is the story that is actively unfolding. Maybe you'd like to join us in reading it, instead of just vaguely glancing at the pictures and coming up with a totally different story in your head.

 

[polarisunique]

The school vs. institute argument is kinda funny because it's probably just a product of different translators. The initial chapters done by Candyman Scans were intentionally written in a more sophisticated tone because the translator thought it fit better. It probably just said "school" in Japanese.

 

[CrimsonNanashi]

still felt like a retcon to me, at least for the manga, since early in the manga it is heavily implied that she never went to school.
If she did, her entire monologue would be about her bad memories of school.

and the rest is still weak argument to me, putting headcanon over another headcanon.
I don't buy that the prince can't get at least an image or drawing of her face if the school is known.

Err the early part of the manga made it clear though she did go to magic school though?

The prince never saw what she looked like and I doubt Monica would have sat down for a portrait. There’s really no reason to think he would be able to get a drawing of her face. Who exactly do you think is gonna know what she looked like and be able to draw well?

 

[CrimsonNanashi]

It feels like this chapter hurt the established story and the overall world building. An out of nowhere betrayal by a SUPER IMPORTANT yet never mentioned before school friend...heck, her going to school is already a shocking revelation. The origin of her silent casting was also a lot cooler before this reveal... they had alluded that desperation forced her to invent the chant less magic system she's famous for... now we know that is not the case.
It also makes us question exactly how the sage system works. It looks like the only thing they take into account is being proficient in magic...with little to no regard to anything else. Seriously, aptitude, ability, personality, mental stability...none of these matter to these crazy mages. It's an insane set up, and the more the author describes it and adds to it, the less sense it makes. Who decides who becomes a sage? Why are there limited spots in the group? Did someone had to retire when our MC became one? If there are three competent genius students, but only one post is open, does that mean two of them don't get the title due to some arbitrary sage limit? The king, the military, and those in power don't have an interest in keeping tabs on such a powerful and dangerous group? There is no way in he'll a group like that would be able to remain anonymous. They even have chunny titles in their names.

Bernie is shown in flashbacks so not sure why you’re claiming he wasn’t mentioned before.

How is it still jot the case? Shortened chants are the only thing that was suggested to her as a way to deal with her problems of talking in front of others. She then went even further cause she got inspiration from that suggestion. None of this clashes with what was previously known. Is it somehow less special because she got a hint that led to her invention of chantless magic?

We quite literally know almost nothing about the seven sage’s system. Most we know is they’re tested but we don’t know much on everything that goes into it. For all we know they do indeed take all of that into consideration. For all we know there’s no hard limit on the number of sages. It could very easily just be she’s the 7th one who was able to become a sage and anyone else that displays what she did also gets to be a sage

 

[pir0zhki]

After becoming a sage, Monica only ever appeared in public fully robed, hood up, head down. She made every effort to not engage in conversation with anybody, and definitely not have to look anyone in the eye. Even in public, after becoming a sage, basically nobody was ever able to see her face directly, including the prince, who has seen her at ceremonies but never was able to get a good look at her face, and had never heard her speak. This is why she can blend in at the prince's school -- so long as nobody she knew from Minerva shows up. Hence the panic when the teacher made his appearance.

 

[pir0zhki]

It feels like this chapter hurt the established story and the overall world building. An out of nowhere betrayal by a SUPER IMPORTANT yet never mentioned before school friend...heck, her going to school is already a shocking revelation. The origin of her silent casting was also a lot cooler before this reveal... they had alluded that desperation forced her to invent the chant less magic system she's famous for... now we know that is not the case.
It also makes us question exactly how the sage system works. It looks like the only thing they take into account is being proficient in magic...with little to no regard to anything else. Seriously, aptitude, ability, personality, mental stability...none of these matter to these crazy mages. It's an insane set up, and the more the author describes it and adds to it, the less sense it makes. Who decides who becomes a sage? Why are there limited spots in the group? Did someone had to retire when our MC became one? If there are three competent genius students, but only one post is open, does that mean two of them don't get the title due to some arbitrary sage limit? The king, the military, and those in power don't have an interest in keeping tabs on such a powerful and dangerous group? There is no way in he'll a group like that would be able to remain anonymous. They even have chunny titles in their names.

We knew she went to Minerva since the very beginning, and we also knew there was someone that she had a falling out with (Bernie's "you were always looking down on me" line was even spoken in brief flashback directly). This chapter doesn't really change anything there, merely filling in the blanks. Desperation was still the catalyst for the invention of chantless magic; she just first was given the idea of quick chant magic (which was already a thing) and took it further than anyone before her, being the first to figure out how to eliminate the chant entirely.

It's also well established that high level mages, and especially the sages, tend to be eccentrics/wackos, and that there is indeed a fixed number of seats in the sages. This is evidenced by Monica saying she only got in via the 'waiting list' because another seat happened to open up. Also, yeah, the king does keep tabs on them, given that they are literally under his direct control. No middle men, no command structure; they report directly to the king.