Please note: this is NOT meant to be a summary or a translation; these are only my initial thoughts on the events that roughly unfold. There may be details overlooked or misunderstood in this post, so PLEASE do not use this as a translation.
This covers parts 41 to 62.
This update starts with... Kalim cheering for Jamil and NRC, then swapping it up to ALSO cheer for Minajael and RSA. EXCEPT HE CALLS MINAJAEL "MINA-NII"... cute which confuses some Scarabia students.
(They do a unique new kind of cut-in; good on Twst for getting experimental with its visuals.)
Kalim shares a bit about his cousin! Apparently Mina has many suitors, both from his home country of the Scalding Sands and from abroad. (The women come to propose to HIM.) It's also confirmed that he keeps a tiger, and that tiger is able to do tricks like "stay". Mina's smart, athletic, handsome... the complete package, basically. THIS TICKS OFF THE SCARABIA MOBS WHO SAY THAT SOMEONE SO PERFECT SHOULDNM'T EXISt
The way this also applies to Leona but his personality is so shit no one is jealous of him/j
I would like to add cnsvsjwhkwke KALIM SAYS MINA CALLED HIS POTENTIAL SUITORS PRETENTIOUSAND COncEITED 💀 YOU CAN’T jUST CALL THEM THAT MINA
Next we get some time with the twins! We learn from them that cell phones are banned since "someone" (Azul?? Or was it some other Octa student??) once used theirs to communicate with another student in the stands to gain an unfair advantage about the layout of the stadium for a game. AND OF FUCKING COURSE AZUL TRIED TO LOOK INTO OTHER BARELY LEGAL ON A TECHNICALITY METHODS 💀
Jade and Floyd talk about how Rielle went missing two years ago (when he got his invite to RSA). It caused a big ruckus in the royal palace and everyone was trying to look for him. FLOYD COMPLAINS THAT IMPULSIVE PEOPLE ARE ANNOYING TO DEAL WITH AND JADE'S LIKE "They are, yes ^^"????? ? J word... look at your own brother... AND YOURSELF
Floyd didn't recognize Rielle right away because his bright red hair looks blackish under the water. He looks totally different now! Merform Rielle is confirmed to have a green tail. Floyd nicknames him shiira-chan, which I believe is the mahi-mahi. This is because Rielle would skip classes and leave the sea a lot.
Cut to Malleus and Silver!! Malleus apparently told Sebek to watch the game with the other first years unless there is an emergency. It’s a nice moment to contrast with Sebek once obsessively following Malleus everywhere.
Silver asks Malleus why did he put Lilia up for Relic Labyrinth when Lilia is awful at finding things??? That, and he worries about Lilia’s health and pushing it Malleus reassures Silver there’s a good reason for it, but doesn’t explain what it is.
Aaand now we’re with Savanaclaw! Some mobs wonder why did Leona put Ruggie in Relic Labyrinth since they think his strong suit is magift/spelldrive. After all, Ruggie is known as “the disc thief”.
Leona basically tells the movs he’s analyzed previous years’ data to devise a strategy for this year. He’s anticipating that RSA will have already studied their strong players so I guess NRC is trying to diversify and go for the unexpected route?
HE SAYS RSA HAS BRAinS FULL OF SUGAR OML bro, those kids with “brains full of sugar” kicked your ass last year chjsbsjwhwjw
RUGGIE SCAMMED THE SAVQnACLAW STUDENTS 💀 Th-They try to get over it and cheer him on anyway…
We’re finally in the game!!!
The NRC team studies the map they’re given. It looks like it’s sorted into three different floors, each increasingly smaller as you go down. On the topmost floor are magic stones which are spread out. In the middle floor are bigger clusters of magic stones in a smaller space. However, there are also many more traps.
And finally, on the lowest floor are the stations where the teams shall place their charged magic stones to be converted into points. The lowermost floor is set up such that there is a high likelihood of running into the opposition team; a lot of fights may happen here, but Azul wants to avoid that as much as possible. (asdihaskdvuas One of their mob students is from Pomefiore and he insists they should throw a glove onto the ground to challenge RSA students to battles...)
Oh my gooood 😭 I love Love LOVE that the mob student NPCs get names and personalities, even if they don’t get their own unique designs. Azul asks an older student, Lucien (?) for his input since Lucien is very into architecture and ancient ruins. More mob involvement… 🥺
NRC is going to split into two teams. The long distance team (Jamil, Ruggie, 3 mobs) will tackle the top floor. Ruggie + Jamil and the mobs go different directions and take turns charging the stones. Jamil will mark traps on the map while they collect.
Azul and Lilia will handle the middle floor. They’ll all meet at a contact point to exchange information 30 min later. Then they’ll meet again every 20 min.
Ruggie complains about not having his phone; apparently he didn’t have one back home. Lilia didn’t have one before either.
Awww 🥰 Ruggie got a call from his granny that morning?? She’s going to take some of the neighborhood kids to watch the game on some TVs at the electric appliances shop. Now he can’t fuck this up…
The mob students seem very motivated to do well, citing their desire to win the “MVP cup” and a “rumor”. This catches Lilia’s attention.
We flash back to a few days ago?? Lilia and Malleus have been summoned to Crowley’s office, where Crowley and Trein await them.
UHHHH… There’s a rumor spreading around the school??? It’s said that if you touch the interscholastic competition’s trophy, a miracle will happen??? It started because the talking portraits overheard 😭 Trein didn’t intend for it to go out before he could verify it, RIP
… By the way, I wanna point out that even though Trein looks the oldest, he is actually the youngest person in this room of fae 💀
Anyway, the staff advise Malleus to just ask RSA to return the Princess Glow, since Malleus has a right to it. But??? Malleus refuses and says they should win it through the competition???? 😨
According to Malleus, he has no claim to the Princess Glow because it wasn’t ever the Draconia’s to begin with. ~1500 years ago, his grandmother won the Princess Glow via a battle with diurnal fae. Turns out, nocturnal fae used to occupy only the northernmost part of Briarland. Diurnal fae occupied the country far before nocturnal fae arrived there.
Even Castle Wildrose, where Princess Maleanor once resided, was seized from diurnal fae. (I guess that’s why the castle never fit the nocturnal fae + Draconia clan’s darker and more gothic aesthetic??? They just never redecorated?)
The two primary types of fae have always been fighting, and the Draconia family stood up and took charge for nocturnal fae.
… No one knows about this because these stories only started being written down 1000 years ago 💀
Maleanor was born over 700 years ago!! She was handed down the scepter with the Princess Glow in it from Maleficia.
BRUH
They suggest that diurnal fae sided with humans + told them about the Princess Glow. IS THAT WHY THEY WERE WITH THE SILVER OWLS??? To take back their land???
???
Lilia tells other versions of the Princess Glow’s origin. In one, the nocturnal fae dug it up. In another, the diurnal fae stole it from nocturnal fae 3000 years ago. Again, Lilia reiterates the idea that history can altered until no one quite knows what the truth is.
Malleus reiterates that he doesn’t want to “beg” for the magestone back. He wants to earn it himself. Crowley gets super hype and starts cheering for NRC!! It’s a really cute moment 💞 but it makes me very suspicious that he was really pushing for Malleus to get the magestone… maybe for his plans??
We’re back to the game in the present!!
The game has started aaaand… RSA does a group chant to boost morale?? Mina leads them with an inspirational speech too. Which of course DISGUSTS our NRC boys 🤢
Azul: They must be doing it to look good for sponsors!!
Jamil: Not everyone is YOU, Azul.
(A lot of the characters get new facial expressions, including our NRC boys!! Here’s a few examples:)
Oh??? Before the RSA boys head off, Rielle gives each of them one of his “treasures”, which are common everyday junk items. Notably, Mina gets an hourglass… which Princess Jasmine got trapped in…
veiebkwkw YHEY JUsT GOT A RANDOM ASS NpC MOB NaMED TIM
OMG RiELLE UM REVEAL (he casts it on the “treasures”!)
“Over the waves, riding the wind, to the very ends of this world! Path (to) Your World!”
We don’t know what it does yet; it’ll probably be revealed later. Weird little quirk, the UM seems to be linked to Rielle’s voice, as he sings after the incantation is spoken. (Mina lowkey insults Rielle here xbjsbwkwnw saying that his song is so beautiful, it’s hard to believe the usual Rielle is so noisy/makes a racket.)
Let’s catch up with Lilia and Azul now!! Their floor has a magical fog which mutes sounds and makes it easy to get lost. They find a room of magic stones but have a misalignment in strategy. Azul is cautious, but Lilia just waltzes in and triggers a trap which creates an autonomous fire golem for them to fend off 😭
Aaand BOOM new mini game!
It’s Relic Labyrinth. You need to collect the stones, go charge them up at the arrows node, then drop them off at the NRC node. Avoid being hit by the roaming enemies! You can use another character to interfere with the enemies.
Rielle’s being peak ADHD 😭 He’s just kinda going around and looking at all the neat things scattered around the area. Bro got caught up in a patch of sand that pushes him backwards… but sometimes the flow changes, and he takes that chance to leap!
Oh, Rielle is going around with a timid third gear mob student named Oliver! Rielle says Oliver reminds him of his bestie from the sea, who is also kind but a scaredy fish. The friend was always with him when he fought with his dad. Now Rielle’s feeling a little lonely without that friend. (That’s???? Gotta be twisted!Flounder, right???) He wants to do well and look cool for his bestie and dad on TV!!
They uncover a room full of Ursula’s anemones. It kinda freaks them out, so they decide to go look elsewhere.
OMG… Twisted!Sebastian lore????
Rielle mentions Horatio, who was briefly mentioned in a vignette or two. He’s a musician and Rielle’s caretaker, a friend that worries about him a lot. Horatio nags Rielle a lot and tends to immediately tell the king everything, chasing Rielle to get upset with him.
Rielle is really desperate to prove to everyone that he’s NOT a child!!
To Ruggie and Jamil!! They’ve collected some stones, but Ruggie falls and loses one. Ckjsbskw He complains he should have shoved them into his underwear…
Not all pieces of the ground are there; some parts have illusion magic cast on them but there’s nothing you’re stepping on. Jamil comes up with the idea to use water and observe which parts of the ground change color. This will help them mark off where the false parts of the ground are.
Jamil and Ruggie come across a room that’s rigged to fill with sand or water if you step inside and choose to avoid it. (Jasmine trapped in the hourglass reference??) Cb jsnskwjw Mina and some of the other RSA students are busy dealing with a water/ice golem, and a mob drops his “treasure” from Rielle.
Another Relic Labyrinth mini game segment!! (They get attacked by a golem cuz Ruggie tried to swipe a stone chdvskskw)
After winning the battle, Ruggie and Jamil find the dropped “treasure” and Ruggie in particular gets panicked about it. There seems to be a voice coming from the “treasure”?
… Don’t tell me 😭 Did Rielle’s UM create makeshift phones out of those items he passed around earlier???
Minajael and some mobs came to a dead end. As it turns out, you need to step on a protrusion to unlock the door. Simply adding weight on top of the protrusion doesn’t work. Mina stands guard at the entrance while the mobs go inside the hidden room. He instructs the mobs to look for a switch inside the room.
I’m not disappointed 😭 Mina really is big brained, he anticipated that NRC students coming across them would attack and try to trap people inside the room.
Tim, one of the RSA mobs, is part of an athletic club. He mentions how many stairs there are and that those from cultural clubs might struggle with them. Mina smirks cjbsjsjwkw and kinda jokes around, saying cultural clubs are full of twings?? What does that make me then??
MINA’S INA CULTURAL CLUB
DRAMA CLUB
He??? Was in a musical for the cultural fair??? AnD HE PLAYED tHE PARR T IFTHE DESERT PRINCESS iN A RED DRESS 💀 JASMIBE’S RED LOOK???? EXCUSE ME??????????? AND TIM HAD NO CLUEvvvvbBBNNNnnnsbdbks HE THOUGHT THAT WAS A WOMAN
Official confirmation that RSA is an all-boys school 🏫
Mina notices that the steps have increased in number; he was keeping track of them while speaking with the RSA mobs. It’s probably an illusion spell to prevent room raiders from escaping.
MINA UM REVEAL LET’S GOOOOOOO
“Do not close your eyes. Do not be afraid. Now, release/break the chains. Crystallize Clear.”
Mina’s UM allows him to detect the spells placed on something and how/what they’re made of? When he does it with the stairs, he finds himself on the ceiling. The illusion magic made him think he was walking down when he was really walking up, so he could never truly “leave”.
He explains a bit about how his UM works; it’s like a scan I guess?? And then I think he uses his own non-UM magic to try and get rid of whatever spell he looked at?? Back home, people would devise all kinds of ways to keep him trapped in the palace and it would take him a while to find ways to break out. One time it took him like half a month. Mina gives the example of a sliding lock; you can understand how it works but it doesn’t mean you actually know how to unlock it when the time comes for that. I guess he’s a self-taught jail breaker??
Uuuh cut to Lilia and Azul, who are depositing the stones they found to their pedestal. But… it looks like RSA has somehow accumulated over 180 stones (182 of them) in 30 minutes, which is a TON.
The NRC boys assemble, and share bad news. Together, they deduce that RSA has collected so many stones because Rielle’s UM allows them to communicate from a distance using the items enchanted with his magic as makeshift phones. They’re able to effectively communicate and quickly gather stones this way.
NRC ONLY HAS 58 STONES, RSA IS WORKING AT 300% MORE EFFICIENCY
The mobs get down, but Ruggie and the others reassure them they have the upper hand since RSA doesn’t know that they know about Rielle’s UM. Azul gets to laugh like a super villain here cjdbjsebjdkss 🤡
We’re back to Rielle and Oliver!! Oliver is super pooped; he was picked got this game because his Magic Analysis grades are good, not because he’s physically fit. He’s having a hard time babysitting Rielle, who charges off on his own and gets distracted very easily.
Rielle runs off to a room full of items he’s never seen before and accidentally triggers a trap. The room begins to fill with water and a random shark golem?????! And Oliver doesn’t seem to be able to swim cjdbjshwkwkw Rielle saves him, but has to sacrifice all the stones he had on him since they were weighing him down.
Minajael comes along and discovers Rielle lost allllll those stones 💀 AnD BRO GETS SO STEAmED ABOuT iT hot
HOLY
THE GiRLIES ARE FIGHTIIIIING 😭 I LOVE THiS BEEF IT’S asAO JUICY
Minajael scolds Rielle for losing so many stones, saying Rielle doesn’t understand his position + he told Rielle so many times to focus on the game! Their strat depends on Rielle’s UM so what happens if he goes down???? HE CALLS RIELLE A CHILD THAT GOT SO DISTRACTED BY ITEMS IN THE BAZAaR THAT HE LOST HIS OWN WALLET AnD DIDn’T REALIZE IT
Rielle gets mad right back and accuses Minajael of ordering him around like his father does. He calls Mina ARROGANT despite only being one year older and treating his friends like servants cjdbsjwkek In an emotional outburst, Rielle runs away to find more stones with Oliver.
Mina kicks himself for snapping at Rielle and says to himself that he should have been more mindful of his peers instead of devolving into the vey behavior he resents getting from his own dad. How could he hurt his beloved friend like that? 🥺 Ultimately he decides he and Rielle should go their separate ways to cool off their heads.
cbjsbwjw In the past, Minajael forgot to bring his wallet with him when he snuck out of the palace. Wonder if he had a Jasmine-cannot-pay-for-an-apple moment??
Rielle returns to the anemone room but he and Oliver get entangled…! They try to escape, but then out comes Azul and Lilia, who freeze the RSA duo.
WE GET inTO A FIGHT wiTH RUEKLE????? Since the devs have made the assets already, does this mean we might actually get a SSR for the RSA dorm leaders?? 👀
(No Minajael battle for this update, but he’s definitely got a chibi sprite!)
Azul and Lilia beat up Rielle and freeze his fork (which he was using to communicate with his teammates). It’s useless now, since sound cannot travel through the ice. The NRC duo is about to walk away, but then Rielle starts bawling.
Lilia turns around and acts all nice and pitying with Rielle. (I-Is he gaslighting Rielle by playing the role of a concerned guardian???) That’s when Azul offers to free Rielle and Oliver in exchange for… Yup, you guessed it, Rielle’s voice.
LILIA AND AZUL GOT TO HIM cnsjvsjwkw They said Rielle would be letting down his country, that he’s an adult and can make his own decisions, that his human legs will lead him to victory even without his voice… Bruh they tag teamed him… It takes some back and forth, but Rielle finally relents and we get a Twst version of Ursula retrieving Ariel’s voice.
tHAT’S IT FOR THIS UPDATE!!!
Okay, where do I even begin with this???
I adore a lot of things, from the NPC mob students being given a larger role in the story, the mind games between our team and RSA's, and all the new lore we learn about Mina and Rielle + previous years' games! I love seeing that the RSA students aren't perfect and can squabble amongst each other, that Mina knows NRC can be underhanded and tries to preemptively counter them. I LOVE HOW UNNECESSARILY BLUNT AND MEAN MINA CAN BE, ONLY TO REALIZE IT AFTERWARDS AND FEEL REMORSE FOR IT 😬 Actually, I just asdhblasdiabs really love everything we got about Mina, he's just so cool... That "Mina-nii" from Kalim and the reveals about his club activities fbhljsdavuoiyvvqerviyqefbi THEY GOT A VICEGRIP ON MY BRAIN
I have super mixed thoughts about the new information we learn about the Princess Glow and its dubious origins + ownership. The fact that no one, not even Lilia, knows where the Princess Glow really comes from or who started off with it, means we may be in for a non-committal resolution to the issue. It also paints the nocturnal fae as no different than the invading Silver Owls, since it is implied that the diurnal fae were the original owners of Briarland. And again, it continues this off trend of the Diasomnia characters not caring as much as they probably should about an important artifact for their country…
I'm glad that we're getting lore between the diurnal and nocturnal fae + we get a reason why diurnal fae sided with humans, but I feel this is way too late in the main story to elaborate on this. It should have been set up (or at least the poor relationship between these fae) mentioned much earlier. If you didn't read FG, this would be like the first time you encountered this lore in the main story.
It looks like the concept of revisionist history or several stories to explain the same thing is coming back... Will this be important to book 8, perhaps??? I get the sense that it will, since this idea keeps repeating over several books now.
The current score is 58 (NRC) to 182 (RSA)… I was so convinced that NRC would lose game 1 to establish RSA as formidable foes, but maybe our boys will be able to turn it around?!
Based on what happened in 8-62, I think Azul and co. are going to use Rielle’s voice to disorient the RSA team and lead them astray. This will allow NRC to catch up to their huge lead. Will this be enough for them to seize victory from the jaws of defeat?!
Hnnnngh… The next main story update and RSA SSRs can’t come soon enough :(( I’m just a little concerned that we’re going to spend like 3-6 months just on a single game and it’s going to take years for us to meet all the RSA boys…
