Content Warning: Racism, self harm, and Dale’s cold fury
Okay. This is it. I can do this. I know I can… Okay.
It’s time for The Incident. In a bit.
This volume opens with Latina and her friends attending school and learning things. One of the things we learn is the colors, names, and spheres of influence, which is really interesting. As I mentioned before all of this relates to the number seven. And how rainbows represent them looking down upon the world. There’s a very bitter sweet part about Latina’s father’s wish for her future. Which is only going to make the next part even harsher.
Okay. Okay. I can do this. I’m sorry but every time I read or see The Incident, and what happens after, I cry. I’m just going to power through it.
The happy times come to crashing halt when Latina gets a new teacher. The one with the scary eyes. This teacher scares Latina. Keep in mind, she’s been growing up in a tavern that caters to adventurers, who aren’t exactly the nicest looking people. So, that’s a thing. What happens next is just… Tragic. Latina drops her chalk and her new teacher sees her horn. And she flips all of her shit. Starts talking about how she’s a beast, not human, so on and so forth. Now, I’m going to tell the story in chronological order, rather than the flashbacks in the story.
When this happens, Latina just shuts down. Why? Because in the rant from the teacher, Latina learns that she will live 100 years. You might be wondering why that effects her more than anything that’s been said. Think about it: Latina has been cast out of her home, her father died trying to give her a better life. Everyone she knows now, especially Dale who’s older than her, will die longer before her. Even her friends, who are the same age as her will die as old men and women, and she will still live on for decades more. She’s eight years old and she realized that she will die alone. Thankfully, her friends come to her rescue. Chloe, the best friend ever, throws her slate at the teacher, but misses. Rudy, Marcel, and Anthony leap into action, kicking over the table and putting themselves between the teacher and Latina. The ruckus brings in the other priests, who hear the teacher call Latina “it.” So, yeah, fuck that bitch with a bundle of rusty barbed wire. Just to make this clear, never, ever, EVER refer to a person as an “it” unless they’re a corpse.
Ahem. Anyway. Latina gets back home and looks like a zombie. She goes up to her room that she shares with Dale and… This part is the hardest part to go over. I’m not even looking at it and I want to cry. Inner Strength! Ahem. So… She uses the spell Dale taught her for self defense and uses it cut off her remaining horn. What she doesn’t realize, or maybe she just doesn’t care about, is that the horn has blood vessels and nerve connections to it. When Kenneth makes his way up there, she’s passed out and bleeding. He gets one of the regulars to cast a healing spell and then rushes her to the Indio deity to get more help. When Dale gets home, Rita tells him what happened and he rushes there. After he gets there, he and Latina talk about some hard truths. Even if Latina was human, she would out live Dale, in part because he’s about ten years older than her and also because he’s an adventurer. He tells her how important she is to him and she tells him that he’s her “special person.”
After this, Dale goes on the war path. It turns out that Dale is a high ranking priest of the Yellow deity of fertility. He uses this to go to the school, run but the Green deity of knowledge, to get the whole story out of the headmistress. She tries to defend the teacher by saying that she’s from a village near the Demon lands and her family was killed in a dispute but… Yeah, that doesn’t go over well. Dale then uses his rank and status to get the teacher kicked out of the order. Which, have to say, is way better than she deserves. I’d say put her to the sword but I’m not exactly known for my kindness.
The last bits of fallout is when Chloe goes to see Latina after she recovers. And slaps her for being so stupid. I keep telling you, Chloe is the best. They talk, they cry, and things are put back to normal. Latina then goes down into the tavern and celebrates with everyone, who’s happy to see that she’s recovered. We also find out that Latina has one thing she can’t do: She can’t hold a key or a tune. So, I guess she’s not completely perfect. Just, you know, mostly perfect.
The very last bit, a comic version of a side story presented in an earlier volume, shows how Latina helps out the adventurer community. She draws pictures of missing animals, to help people identify them, and helps some new adventurers with finding work that’s suited to their experience.
This is a good volume. Most of it is about The Incident, which is important. However, one thing I find is interesting is how this stuff isn’t really brought up again in later volumes. Except for the horn. When I first read this, I was thinking that the teacher would become a foe for Latina and Dale but that hasn’t happened yet. Which I feel is a shame. Latina is amazing and seems to befriend just about everyone she meets but here’s a chance to have someone to become a low-level antagonist and it doesn’t happen. Just because you have a setting that has high adventure and monsters doesn’t mean that your enemies must be black hearted villains and monsters. Someone who hates a Latina for getting her kicked out of her order would have made for an interesting threat for her, without it being life or death. Of course, the former teacher would be going against some very rough and tumble adventurers, so…
Rating: 5 out of 5
Suggestion: An
important part of the story, so far, and one of the more emotional
parts of the story. Read it.
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