Last month, I reviewed Kore Yamazaki’s The Ancient Magus’ Bride Vol. 1. This month, I continue to review the 10 volume manga series with this blog focusing on volume 2.
So, if you read last month’s blog, you’ll know that Yamazaki left us hanging at the end of the volume. Renfred and Alice (Renfred’s apprentice) captured Chise as she was starting the purification spell that would destroy the blight that had been giving the Cats of Ulthar problems.
Just like Volume 1, Vol.2 is jam-packed with background information, filler content, and ends with a cliff hanger that makes me want to pull my hair out.
So to begin, the first really important bit of the book is probably the very beginning where Yamazaki starts right where he left off. As i already said, the Alchemists have Chise and Ariel in his grasps. Chise, of course, makes a rash decision and escapes, saving Ariel from the very literal iron fist of Renfred and ends up only slightly injured in the process. Pilum Murale (or Elias) uses his magic to teleport(?) to Chise.
While this is all really interesting artwork and action, the most important aspect of these scenes is the dialogue. We learn that as Sleigh Buggy, Chise’s lifespan is very short. We also learn that Elias is using her as a “guinea pig” of sorts. Once again, Chise is offered a way out of the magical lifestyle she has been thrown into, but she doesn’t take it. Instead, she states very clearly that Elias is her family now and that she will stick by him until her death which is presumably coming very quickly.
But anyways, Chise purifies the blight and then goes into a fortnight (2 week) long coma.
The next really important scene takes place in Chapter 8: The Faerie Queene. In this chapter, Elias visits Chise as she sleeps in the forest. Apparently, he thought this was the best way for her to regain her magic and consciousness because nature. But no matter how ridiculous that is, he visits her out in the woods.
Here, Titania, the Queen of all Faerie, and Oberon, her husband, visit Elias and a sleeping Chise. Oberon actually uses his magic to awaken Chise. We are also reminded that Chise is not only Elias’s mentee but his fiancèe as well.
We learn of some interesting new conflicts when the queen and her husband leave through their guard, Spriggan. After the queen invites Chise and Elias to Albion, the Fae kingdom, he threatens Elias by saying “…do not dream of setting foot into our lands. A flesh clad halfling like you has no place there.”
This is interesting because this is not the first time we’ve heard Elias be referred to as a halfling. At the beginning of Vol. 2, Renfred makes a comment saying how Elias will never be human and can never be Fae again.
But that is all we receive from Yamazaki in this volume on that specific matter.
Anyways, Spriggan then speaks to Oberon and says, “The liath anam herald disaster and despair… How many souls have been lost because of him?” This only deepens my curiosity about Elias and his past in Albion. But Yamazaki gives nothing more on this either.
The next big event occurs in Chapter 10: Speak of the devil, and he is sure to appear. This is happens to be when we learn of the “main bad guy,” an alchemist. Alice, who was captured by Chise, speak of the boy(?), and he appears just as the title references.
This volume ends with the Alchemist injuring Chise when she tries to save Alice from getting attacked by the Alchemist’s chimera.
