Tricks Dedicated to Witches - Ch. 10 - The Devil’s Mark

[skillrax]

well its clear the next witch is going to fill the violence deterrence gap.

I suppose this implies the next witch will also fill a gap. Almost definitely funds or seduction.

 

[pancakesXD]

Thinking this is a battle manga LOOOL

 

[exxp]

Bodyguard gonna be acquired!

 

[KamiKira00]

I am kind of disappointing in author. Instead of writing "evil guys" as people who just believe they are doing good things in the name of their religion (like in real life), he went with complete generic, overused trope of depicting MC's enemies as "I am evil, I do evil because I like evil. Murder is FUN! HA HA HA!!!" type of people.
It is disappointing.

 

[danceofmany]

I don't think the Iron Hammer folks are necessarily too smart. It's just con men recognizing a con. And if plague mask guy actually was a doctor at some point then he'd be able to tell blood from sap even if he doesn't prescribe to germ theory.

 

[Alrange]

Classic sleepy swordswoman

 

[Misticsan]

@codydub03
I see what you mean and I agree. The way the inquisitor guessed the exact tricks Makito used was too detailed to my liking.

 

[Firemorfox]

The blood and sap is easy. I dunno how to guess the sword pipe but the rope harness was also easy, especially if the church had to lynch somebody they wanted alive and did it before themselves.

 

[Chrona]

I'm kind of hating that none of the guys in the church actually believe in what they're doing. I can understand if one or two of them was like that, just like the priest, but the entire work seems to be writing off the original witch trials as some elaborate political plot as opposed to plain old mass hysteria. Seems to support an idea of the "elites" in society are the cause for all of it's trouble, and while I understand that a major message in this work is that "authority can be evil", there's a lot to be said about no one in a position of power actually believing in what that position of power purports.

@codydub03

I understand that. I guess, I don't exactly know how to explain it. I wasn't really trying to say that the MC needs to trick the Inquisition people with "magic" It's more like how intelligent they are being portrayed for their era, is kind of bonkers to me. I can agree with the Inquisition people knowing everything the MC does is an act. I mean, they basically said, that they can't expose the MC as a fraud "devil" without people questioning the legality of the churches previous actions regarding their own "miracles".

I agree with this, all the inquisitors would actually need to know is that the blood is just sap. That would be enough for them to be convinced that the rest were tricks, even if they don't understand it. They don't need to say "Ah ha, because the blood is sap, that means he had a special metal tube made for the sword, and an elaborate holster system for the hanging!" All that would be needed is "This blood isn't real, the rest of it must have been faked somehow. I don't know how he did it, but we've been tricked." Furthermore, you don't need the bad guys to all be cynical con man, @pokefairy mentioned the Priest from Castlevania being just cunning while believing in the church. I would love for one our bad guys to 100% believe in his own "tricks" as miracles, but simultaneously be fully aware that "the devil's magic" was just a trick.

One last thing, being able to convince twins that just being born twins curses them to sin or whatever doesn't sound like a proper superstition to me, it sounds like an author trying to fabricate superstition without understanding why it occurs in the first place. As if ancient peasants were just drooling morons that could be convinced of anything be just stating it's true. They may be stupid, but that doesn't mean they're easy to convince, there has to be at least some fabricated reason for why being born twins will forsake salvation.

 

[KingDM23]

A woman being strong means she's a witch, wow

 

[codydub03]

@Chrona Well, technically the "twin thing" was actually very real, especially in Medieval Europe. It all started with twins that happened to be conjoined. They were seen as signs of the devil and an evil omen sent to expose some sin or witchcraft in the community. So, they immediately saw to execute them as what they were seen as. I don't know exactly how it affected twins that didn't look alike, but twins that did, eventually got seen as "evil beings"... So, they had to take turns going out in public. The only had one thought that "They had to not be seen together."

@KingDM23 "Mob Mentality" is a scary thing. A jealous girl could literally point a finger at another girl and call her a witch in public. Eventually, everything she did, the villagers would question and it would only solidify the claim that she is a witch in their eyes.. Whether it was how she wrapped herself in a cloak to keep herself warm, to how she stays awake at night to teach herself to read. They would see it as her staying up in the middle of the night, wearing her cloak, while reading her witchcraft.. Sometimes, that's all it took.

 

[Chrona]

@codydub03

They were seen as signs of the devil and an evil omen sent to expose some sin or witchcraft in the community.

Do you have any citation on this? I've been digging through papers and, at best, I can only find this highly detailed blog about the medical understanding of twin births.
https://thewonderoftwins.wordpress.com/2013/07/23/the-significance-of-twins-in-medieval-and-early-modern-europe/
While is claimed within that twins are paired with those with other physical deformities as being "monstrous", there's no recorded understanding of twins being the result of witchcraft or the devil, unless we are specifically referring to conjoined twins. Even then, the justification for why conjoined twins could be considered monstrous is given only as "consortment with a devil could produce this offspring." The same is not true of natural twins. Natural twins only have the implications of being a result of infidelity or a woman with an uneven sexual temperament, and were associated with disasters due to the high likelihood of death for both the mother and offspring, however, nothing in my research turns up implications of them ever being considered the result of witchcraft nor of devils, even from naturalists at the time.


This is what I mean by the author not putting much thought into it as well. There's a throwaway phrase about "the curse of the twins being broken", but nothing deeper than that. I'm imagining the author just doesn't care enough to actually flesh out the church authorities, because they're just moustache twirling maniacal con men, but at least in medieval times you would still need one layer deeper understanding of why twins were "cursed". He doesn't state that they're the result of consortment with a devil, he doesn't state anything about them being the result of infidelity, it's just thrown as a random quirky thing to be superstitious about without understanding why humans get superstitions in the first place.

 

[bejad007]

@Chrona
woah, wrong point of view dude.
the evil twin isn't European thing, but Japanese superstition on the past. the author mixing the culture here. if you want to protest about the historical accuracy here, I would like to remind you that all of the character here mainly talk in Japanese.

this discussion might help a bit
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/japanese_history/twins-are-bad-luck-t409.html

 

[Chrona]

@bejad007

the evil twin isn't European thing, but Japanese superstition on the past. the author mixing the culture here.

Thinking that twins are bad luck or spawn of the devil is not the same as twins being beyond salvation. Twins being bad luck is a universal human trait, as they have a higher chance of killing the mother and two extra mouths to feed is a big problem unless you're rich.

if you want to protest about the historical accuracy here, I would like to remind you that all of the character here mainly talk in Japanese.

They explicitly aren't speaking Japanese. MC is famous internationally and speaks German (admittedly not in the dialect of medieval Germany, but he could get by). They shout german words in Chapter 2. They're in 1404 Germany. They're not speaking Japanese, they're speaking German, the author glossed over this though so I understand your confusion. As further proof they're not speaking Japanese, it's a plot point that he specifically speaks in Japanese at the start of Chapter 7 to make it sound like a magic chant. This makes no sense if he's always speaking in Japanese.

this discussion might help a bit
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/japanese_history/twins-are-bad-luck-t409.html

While I thank you for trying, no citations are given in this thread either. Just two guys talking and that's not what I'm looking for.

 

[josepiza3008]

SLEEPY AND HUNGRY GIRL?
YEAAAAAA

 

[Gravewind]

Anybody else get a strong Dr Stone vibe when reading this? Feels similar, just different kind of setting.

 

[fuyuhakai]

Bartolomeu de Gusmão was born in Brazil. We're a colony from Portugal at the time. That's why everyone call him portuguese.

 

[KawaiiFiveO]

Spoiler

 

[kn1000a]

I see someone below me is another man of culture with that umineko

 

[schwipsy]

woop woop tomboys yeaajh