Spirit Circle - Vol. 2 Ch. 8 - Stona

[MangaDex]

 

[MiniTaurus]

It feels painful to read 😣 can't even imagine how hurt they're

 

[JustCallMeDaBoss]

Fuck ....

Sigh we are all tied by our own reasons.

 

[Wolfie_Fenri]

How could I didn't find this sooner? This is such a gem!

 

[Kuroww]

BRO THIS IS BASED. Our MC just keeps having this bitch btfo. She's ngmi compared to our chad MC who has lived a good life in every single one of his lives.

 

[mrbrown]

fucking mayans...

 

[toru_okada]

This world is fucking cruel man...

 

[PoopySmeller]

Mc straight up just said he lived a hyperborrean aryan life with his adopted daughter and the bitch got angry

 

[unnaturalsolace]

She honestly seems like a hypocrite. "It's okay when I murder innocent people because I didn't want to die, but when YOU kill someone, you're a monster." And that's twice she's injured him in this life when he's literally done nothing wrong. Gonna take a miracle to make her likeable, I'll report back my findings when I finish the manga.

Spoiler

Edit: I'm back. Tbh the girl basically felt like a non-character in the present. She really didn't do much. I think so much time was spent on the past lives that the present barely felt important. The concept of the manga could have been interesting but the execution fell flat.

 

[Kutabarie]

So she's just pissed at him because things never went the way she wanted ? Man what a bitch, it's not like he wanted to kill her as the knight, and it's not like he's the one who rallied the village into overthrowing her shitty priestdom. He was only the tool for that means, and she had it coming either way, whether it was him or someone else.

 

[I_Read-Manga]

Why is Fone so dam funny!?
I'm si wired...

 

[Konrad2]

Thanks for the translation.

 

[redmikan]

She's kind of... too blinded by revenge? It was not Fone's fault for the uprising. She said it herself, the people already had their doubts. And tbh, they made the same mistakes lmao. Killing under the order of authority. Stona knew the truth, the knight didn't. Hmmm. I guess they're lucky they could recollect their past lives in this life. Maybe they'll reach a resolution somehow..

 

[Visulth]

<spoilers>

Not cool to come back here and spoil readers who are going through the chapters. You should remove your edit and post it as a comment on the final chapter.

 

[sleepyknight]

ngl i dont feel bad for stona at all. like, sorry the caste system rooted in ritual sacrifice which you devoted your life to decieving others in order to uphold ended up turning its fangs on you? its almost as if she fucked around and found out somehow.... but that couldnt be...

ofc she didnt have it coming as a medicine woman like, that koko was perfectly innocent but also like... girl the obvious parallels between a church executioner and a priest conducting ritual sacrifice... theyre not going over her head shes dodging those implications like neo

shes just such a hypocrite at this point, like i hate to describe characters as unlikable but her whole wronged avenger schtick, esp towards a normal middle school boy who's been nothing but kind to her, leaves a bad taste in ones mouth

edit:not only that but the implication that the mesoamerican priesthood derided anyone else who saw spirits as demons because they saw through the farce of the executions is just. beyond. you lost your life defending an evil, and even worse, ineffective, social order. just take the L and reincarnate, sis

 

[KyoN007]

No joke, iam glad she suffered and not had a painless death.
The priest and she knew all these sacrifices were pointless and still did them.

What irks me more that the dude lets himself be pushed around in the present

 

[mawz]

I think people's hatred towards Stona is misplaced. The sacrificial rituals and, in turn, Rei's unfortunate death were a result of the twisted society they lived in, which Stona had no control over.

As repeatedly demonstrated in the chapter, their society had an almost insatiable thirst for blood. This is evident from the "random, blind killings" that occurred before the introduction of the ritual, the ritual itself, and the public's demands to redo the ritual after Fone's rescue attempt.

While the ritualistic killings may have stopped after the uprising, the story suggests that this would only be temporary. The rebels likely opposed the sacrifices because they shared in Fone's belief that the ritual was pointless -- no god was waiting for the chosen's blood. But after their bloody rebellion, they hail Fone as a "new god." Once strife inevitably appears, with the people's belief in a higher being now reignited, they would quickly resort to human sacrifice once again. I believe this is what is meant by the final exchange,

"But nothing had changed, had it?"
"No."

In short, regardless of what form it takes, their society would continue to demand blood. As Stona recounts, a priest's previous attempt to stop the ritual resulted in his death by burning. As she puts it, "the people had changed... without blood, they could not be at ease." Any attempt she could have made to end the ritual would surely have failed. Had she tried, she too would have been killed and subsequently replaced. Nothing would change.

However, the futility of Stona's position doesn't stop her from at least trying to do good. She goes against ritual customs by letting Rei wear her beloved sandals, attempts to postpone the next ritual to 16 years rather than 8, and offers up her own life for the ritual to prevent another innocent life from being taken. Even the priesthood did what it could by celebrating the chosen's family and lover and using "[their] medicines to kill painlessly."

The fact that the mangaka includes these details suggests that he doesn't want readers to blame Stona/Kouko. Rather, she is a victim of this twisted society, much like Fone and Rei. Calling her a "bitch that deserves to die" is ignorant of what the story is trying to convey.