Last volume we finished up Philomela’s arc after spending quite a lot of time on it and we started the transitional period between arcs, which we continue in this volume. Different pieces of the puzzle slowly started moving in the last volume and will continue to do so and I will let you know all about what is going on.

The first thing that happens is that the heads of the Seven Shields – the seven great families that founded the college and keep an eye on things – interrogate the children to make sure they have a good idea of what is going on here. The only ones that actually show up are Scrimgeour (Rían’s dad), Fowler (Isaac’s dad) and St. George (the twins’ dad). Veronica is here instead of her father and the other three families did not send anyone. They seem to have fairly harsh personalities but not unreasonable and after a long day of questioning the kids can go back to their business. None of the parents are particularly difficult about their children spending Christmas with Elias, despite the latter thinking it better to not get too involved with the families. He has a lot on his plate after all, with Chise shapeshifting into a dragon without even realizing it and causing a massive stir on the British Isles. 

During all of this, Veronica relieves Philomela of her duties as a servant to the Rickenbacker family, considering she is the only living Sargant left. Philomela doesn’t really know what to think about this, but as the reader we know that Veronica has used her for all she’s worth and is now simply discarding her. I hope the Rickenbackers get what’s coming to them before too long. A lot of things happen here but the important takeaway is that Torrey’s cousin makes prosthetics and they go to visit him for Philomela’s fingers. His design reminds me a lot of Uta from Tokyo Ghoul and I’m not sure I like that. During the chaos a strange mage shows up that eats up the curse in Philomela’s arms and fingers. We don’t really get any explanation beyond that yet, but instead we get whispers of the dragon again. The dragon waking up is a problem for many of the spirits of the isle so the information travels quickly all the way to Chise’s home where Ashen Eye and Stella pick up on it too. Not only that, but they soon end up dealing with a young man being attacked by one of the dangers woken up by the dragon. Ashen Eye continues to be tsundere here.

We have a bunch of visitors here from the neighbours to the church to the school friends. At the core of this is a single problem. Elias is worried that his way of teaching is not enough for Chise and that one day she will need someone else. He gets a bit jealous at the idea. The mage that ate Philomela’s curse offers her to join him but he is stopped by Torrey. It didn’t escape Elias that Chise didn’t immediately say no and that has him worried. I doubt Chise has any intention to leave Elias behind anytime soon.

Probably the most important visitors throughout it all are King Oberon and Queen Titania. The duo instills fear wherever they walk due to how powerful they are. Luckily Chise remembers that Elias taught her never to ask anything from a god and she stops herself. Zoey’s meeting with them is a lot and he is terrified by Titania. I would be too. Or I’d want her to step on me. Either or. 

After all of this, the kids go to visit their respective parents, despite not wanting to do so in the case of Rían and Isaac. After some deliberation, Torrey drives them to Isaac’s house where Rían’s father was also awaiting them, knowing what his son is like. They spend some time there before Rían and Philomela accompany Rían’s father to their home. At their home, we also find the St. George twins again who have been staying there for the time being. This is where things get particularly dangerous. We saw the dangerous creature that was around the young man earlier now hovering over Torrey and seemingly later being spotted by Jasmine and Violet. The parents in the meantime are talking about how to deal with the red dragon that appeared the other day.

From all of this we can understand a few things. The witches coven, the church, the academy, the seven families, the neighbours and even several of the mages we see throughout the story are all up in arms to try and figure out how to deal with this problem. Elias and Chise are the only ones who know what happened and it doesn’t seem like Chise is really aware of exactly what she did either. With Philomela adopted by the Scrimgeour family for the time being and all the kids staying in separate places now after splitting up on Christmas Eve, we get ready for the 21st volume. I will be revisiting my recap of that volume shortly before diving into the latest volume – as of writing this. For now, I hope you enjoyed this recap and as always, thanks for reading!