I’m well aware it’s been a little while, and I can only apologize. As much as I think it’s important to stick to a schedule, health always comes first. Stress had taken a physical and mental toll on me, and I also spent the month of November writing an entire novel. Nonetheless, I promised this review for today, and here it is.
To give a small recap for those of us who haven’t read this series in a while; Chise and Elias have both gone to the College. Elias as a teacher and Chise as a student. We’ve met a colorful cast here that includes a demi-gorgon and an insectoid doctor. One of Chise’s classmates, Lucy Webster, was attacked by someone and had her life energy drained. Amongst that others have been attacked too.
This volume starts us off where we left off last time. Lucy is still in bed and Marielle, the witch, is helping Elias think about what to do about the situation. They mention a dangerous book and Chise starts asking questions. They discuss some more off screen, and we don’t get to see what they talked about. With halloween now here, the younger kids are going around trick and treating, and Chise and the class learn several runes. I recognized Ehwaz for a moment and had to think back to where I remembered it from. It’s a location in Black Desert Online, an MMO I’ve played for years. There’s your little fun fact for the day.
Lucy promised to help out in a place in the college called the Abandoned halls. After her classmates finally convince her that she really shouldn’t be working in her condition, they go instead. They run into Fabio Zaccheroni, who has by far the best name out of anyone in this entire manga. You can’t not be cool with a name like that, let’s be honest here. His intentions are not quite forthcoming though, and he leads them through a dangerous part of the college, where Zoe ends up getting attacked by strangers. Luckily it all goes off without anything really bad happening, and the person who was really supposed to be in charge, professor Sigrid Wachmann shows up to reprimand Fabio.
We see a little bit more of the Vice-principal, who I still don’t trust, but turns out to definitely be more badass than I expected in this volume. She gets a letter from Philomela’s family about her leaving the academy. Luckily, she doesn’t take no bullshit and instead puts the academy in lockdown. Reading lockdown these days definitely makes you pause, it’s crazy what the past years have done for our wellbeing. This volume was printed in 2020, so I’d like to think these chapters were out pre-covid, or at the very least before this all became as big of a problem as it is now. It’s still jarring though. The volume ends with a special lesson about to start with Fabio and professor Wachmann.
All things considering, I think this was one of the better volumes. We got a little bit of everything, some of which I didn’t really mention here, like Chise talking with the postman, Alice and Renfred having a moment and Elias learning that friendship is magic. There’s only one published volume left which we’ll be looking at in about two weeks from now, but I’d like to hear what you thought of Volume 14. Did you enjoy it as much as I did? Regardless of if you did or not, thanks for reading, and please drop a like down below, it brightens my day every time someone does!
Opal Kaharis 