The Frontier Alchemist ~ I Can't Go Back to That Job After You Made My Budget Zero - Vol. 4 Ch. 19.2 - (Part two)

[Michael_Chandra]

MC actually made the right decision.. At least in a world not ran on Plot Armor.

The fat guildmaster is now known to be a Bad'Un, and may have "gotten away" for now.
However, Kalin is a noble with her own connections, and can send a message to either a ministry or her family stating "I don't know what you lot are up to, but a fat guild toad appeared and actually threatened me and my subjects. I do trust you can keep your little dogs in line before I am forced to deal with this. Love and kisses, Kalin".
They don't have to necessarily deal with fat toady themselves, at least not immediately.

The flying sushi is a direct threat, especially since the territory Kalin holds currently is in development. An outpost.
You deal with stuff on your plate first, and only then worry about potential and theoretical what-ifs.
Which in this case is the flying sushi.

The pack of sushi splitting off towards the capital isn't even an issue to them.
If a nation's capital can't fend off a pack of flying fish coming from a known direction: That monster-infested territory that the kingdom wants developed, it deserves to be roflstomped.

Together with the fact that our MC is not suffering from Hero Syndrome, the choice to defend the outpost colony is the right one.

Yeah it might go sideways in the end, but at this point it is a fair decision to make.

 

[Tatsuya-Kai]

Meh... It's predictable. If he gets defeated and destroyed but not killed, he's gonna play the victim card and use his connections to accuse MC and his side as terrorists or something. If he doesn't get destroyed and MC just let him off, then he's gonna be a bigger threat in the future for the entire world.
Want a quick, easy, and sure way to deal with him? Off with his head.

I mean agreed, for me this hits even moreso as i'm playing a game where a traitor literally causes a war that kills 10's of thousands of innocents, but because he had a tragic backstory it's all ok somehow.

Not sure what it is with the japanese media in the last decade or so but it seems like there are 3 types of protagonists in japanese manga and anime, the all loving never kill anyone kind who will do everything by killing them with kindness (yeah good luck with that in a realistic story), the gotta protect my friends instead of killing the eldritch abomination that will probably kidnap and maybe even kill some of my friends later kind (why hello there rust), or the deadpan doesn't care protagonist (makoto from tsukimichi probably being the closest to this i guess without going overboard).

Because of the cliche i tend to like the third type more and mostly just read korean action manhwa these days unless a manga catches my eye.

As for this manga, i mean it's cliche but thankfully the cliche if i remember right isn't too overused, which is why i haven't dropped it.

 

[Utamaru1707]

The fat guildmaster is now known to be a Bad'Un, and may have "gotten away" for now.
However, Kalin is a noble with her own connections, and can send a message to either a ministry or her family stating "I don't know what you lot are up to, but a fat guild toad appeared and actually threatened me and my subjects. I do trust you can keep your little dogs in line before I am forced to deal with this. Love and kisses, Kalin".
They don't have to necessarily deal with fat toady themselves, at least not immediately.

She's a "noble" on a desolated land, and I really doubt she got that much influence to the other nobles, especially on the big cities.

And I already said it before: She's clearly a bad leader, where she can't make quick decisions, ignores the warning of a goddamn oracle, and also very sentimental towards others, even the MC could easily saw through her, where she could break down and cry.

If she's a good leader, then she would order the MC to properly finish his job, which is to chase & defeat the fungi guy, then get his ass back to the camp ASAP, because she know that letting a guy like that can only mean trouble, and the MC got the capacity to quickly defeat him.

The flying sushi is a direct threat, especially since the territory Kalin holds currently is in development. An outpost. You deal with stuff on your plate first, and only then worry about potential and theoretical what-ifs. Which in this case is the flying sushi. The pack of sushi splitting off towards the capital isn't even an issue to them.

Again, if she can't fend off that kind of threat by herself, then she might as well resign from her position, because that's clearly a sign of bad leadership.

She should've known all the risks being stationed on a desolate land with lots of monsters, including the possibility of a stampede from various types monsters, so it would be very weird if she's totally unprepared from something like this (or she's just that inept).

Together with the fact that our MC is not suffering from Hero Syndrome, the choice to defend the outpost colony is the right one.

lol, the MC is clearly suffering from emotional dependency, where he's very submissive, and easily manipulated by others or his boss, like the whole Alchemist Guild and the inept female general, which is laughable.

All in all, this series is a trainwreck, and I can't wait to see the mess created from this "right decision" from the MC in futur chapters, as long as the author doesn't pull some weird shenanigans like no casualties or some ahits...

 

[vauneg]

If master alchemists are so powerful/dangerous you would think they would be treated better, or at least treated with more caution. But it seems like even the brown nosing alchemist who spent his time focusing on politics was treated like shit by his superiors.

 

[lsweb]

Based on what he said about them not being good with flying opponents, it seems like there'd be casualties regardless (ofc going after that villain likely would've prevented a greater tragedy). That said, I still rather him stay and help protect the camp. Although in the end, this all could've been prevented if he took the villain seriously in the first place and tried to actually incapacitate and/or kill him as soon as he saw him.

yea should have kill him, but guy is just kind person in general, there is no much malice or hatred in him that will lead him take that action

 

[flannan]

If she's a good leader, then she would order the MC to properly finish his job, which is to chase & defeat the fungi guy, then get his ass back to the camp ASAP, because she know that letting a guy like that can only mean trouble, and the MC got the capacity to quickly defeat him.

Did you miss that part where alchemists are forbidden from fighting life-or-death fights? She cannot directly order the MC to break the law like that.
If she was a more pragmatic person (which I doubt - it seems she got her position simply by kicking a lot of ass), she would also let the evil alchemist get away farther from her domain. Because wherever the fight goes, the land will become desolate and possibly dangerous. Ideally, that would be somebody else's land.

Again, if she can't fend off that kind of threat by herself, then she might as well resign from her position, because that's clearly a sign of bad leadership.

She should've known all the risks being stationed on a desolate land with lots of monsters, including the possibility of a stampede from various types monsters, so it would be very weird if she's totally unprepared from something like this (or she's just that inept).

As a leader, she uses the resources she has, instead of pulling new tricks out of her ass like some sort of isekai protagonist. And what she has, is an awesome alchemist friend.

lol, the MC is clearly suffering from emotional dependency, where he's very submissive, and easily manipulated by others or his boss, like the whole Alchemist Guild and the inept female general, which is laughable.

All in all, this series is a trainwreck, and I can't wait to see the mess created from this "right decision" from the MC in futur chapters, as long as the author doesn't pull some weird shenanigans like no casualties or some ahits...

Lol, look at yourself, complaining that MC has a personality. Are you so used to bland MCs who do whatever the plot requires?

 

[Jinto]

Yep Ahri was right this is a major turning point in which the author lost it Then lean on the "Trust and Hope in comrades" while NOT trusting them to do their job which was in the military also ignoring the female that talked a lot about a major change coming so when the calm and collected girl screams and you to chase after the retreating villain lets ignore her because you don't trust your that that camp can handle things. Going to guess this is the start of the "end of the world only Rust can prevent" plot line starts

 

[Pokari]

The flying sushi is a direct threat, especially since the territory Kalin holds currently is in development. An outpost.
You deal with stuff on your plate first, and only then worry about potential and theoretical what-ifs.
Which in this case is the flying sushi.

The pack of sushi splitting off towards the capital isn't even an issue to them.
If a nation's capital can't fend off a pack of flying fish coming from a known direction: That monster-infested territory that the kingdom wants developed, it deserves to be roflstomped.

I mean, given the context of "warned against an impending war by prophecy", I'd be specifically a bit more worried about those fish splitting off towards the capital. Or rather, as with the fleeing old man: Even if you can't do anything obvious about it right now, at least warn your superior of the obvious possibility that something's up from the context that you have so that they can take it into account and, for instance, possibly make decisions to mobilize resources you don't personally know about.

 

[Grikath]

I mean, given the context of "warned against an impending war by prophecy", I'd be specifically a bit more worried about those fish splitting off towards the capital. Or rather, as with the fleeing old man: Even if you can't do anything obvious about it right now, at least warn your superior of the obvious possibility that something's up from the context that you have so that they can take it into account and, for instance, possibly make decisions to mobilize resources you don't personally know about.

That's the responsibility of the one getting the prophecy, innit?

She's in the position to inform her commander, while our MC makes his choice based on available data.
In this case doing his primary job protecting the pioneer settlement under clear direct and evident threat, instead of haring after a single person who up until this point only has been annoyingly arrogant and blatantly stupid, and risk major damage, if not worse, to the settlement.

If and when the lady commander decides, on basis of the information given to her, that that fat alchemist needs nabbing in the collar and orders our MC to do so, then he is free to go after the toad, but not until then.
Because his first and primary duty is to protect that settlement as an Alchemist.

RHIP, but a chain of command and division of duties is there for a reason...

 

[tenshineko]

Lots of keyboard warriors here, I see.

I do think the storytelling is a bit poor, though it has nothing to do with Rust’s decision here. More like everything is too easy and the characters are fairly shallow and not really consistent (how exactly did that fat, pampered blowhard make it all the way to Rust? How did he even know where he was? How is he running away so fast?). However, Rust specifically said that fights between master alchemists are forbidden due to the danger caused to those around them. So beyond the flying salmons, he himself could cause more damage in his battle.

In a better written story, Oracles are not necessarily the best advice givers - they can tell you possibilities, but not certainties. The future is in constant flux, ever changing based on the minute decisions of every person. For example, somehow Ahri is “reading his mind” because she sees what he is going to say (makes no sense since her power is supposedly activated by conflict, but ok) and thus she responds…but because she responds, he didn’t actually say it. So did the future she saw come true or not? I don’t know why Ahri’s power is now so exaggerated when previously she could see only a very tiny bit, and all related to conflict. Without having her eye on fat guy, how is she seeing a war when HE, not Rust, is the source? Yes he made a more efficient magic tool for her, and her power is supposedly growing, but really.

 

[flannan]

So did the future she saw come true or not?

Futures she sees are constantly not coming true. Normally, she is constantly witnessing fights with every person she meets.

I don’t know why Ahri’s power is now so exaggerated when previously she could see only a very tiny bit, and all related to conflict. Without having her eye on fat guy, how is she seeing a war when HE, not Rust, is the source? Yes he made a more efficient magic tool for her, and her power is supposedly growing, but really.

Her face cloth makes her powers weaker. Her new device allows her to switch between full power and inactive. So she got a big power boost just from switching to the monocle.
Still, predictions of the future are, by their nature, unreliable. And they did not have the time to sit and ponder the best course of action.

(how exactly did that fat, pampered blowhard make it all the way to Rust? How did he even know where he was? How is he running away so fast?).

They knew where Rust was, because it was even possible for them to send a telegram to him. It shouldn't be too hard for moderately rich and influential people to get somebody to ask around for that, even if MC did not say anything about where he went.
Rihaitam (or whatever his name is) is a master alchemist. He isn't as good as our MC, but he should have at least half as many tricks up his sleeve. And our MC has a lot of tricks up his sleeve. Maybe he has a potion of running like hell, or he can ride a mushroom beast.

 

[fucknvampire]

FUCK DAMN IT! EVERY TIME! Some shitty bastard who will clearly make things worse for everyone should be killed but some stupid thing happens and the mc lets them get away! Why do they never strike the decisive blow?! Every damn...grrrhhh it's so annoying!!