Allison & Lillia – 21

「宿命の父娘」 (Shukumei no Oyako)
“Father and Daughter of Fate”

Episode at a Glance:
In accordance with Treize’s plan to create a diversion, sneak into the house, and use the wireless radio on the third floor, Lillia ignites some dynamite and throws it into the kitchen stove’s furnace. However, when she attempts to get away, she stumbles and alerts one of the men inside, so she panics and heads over to where Treize is rather than hiding like they originally planned. With the kitchen walls made out of brick, no one inside is injured from the explosion that goes off, after which Treize tries to slip in through an open door. Unable to get in that way, Treize then climbs the gutter and makes his way to the balcony, where Lillia follows him due to her phobia of hide and seek, which she developed when Allison used to scare her. Meanwhile, Elisha’s men realize that someone’s missing and scour the premises, stumbling upon Ema’s party hat and some dynamite that Lillia dropped. Inside the house, Lillia comments on how the room looks like it’s for Treize, unaware that it’s actually his, before they pull out his wireless radio to call for help. While they get through, their connection is abruptly cut off, with the controller on the other end only hearing something about the royal solitary house. Two men then arrive and search Treize’s room, destroying his radio in the process, but Lillia and Treize manage to hide in the attic via a hidden entrance in the closet.

Elisha then gets informed that her men have checked the house and can’t find anyone, so she decides to move onto the next phase of their plan—head towards the airfield and fly off with Benedict and Fiona once the snow lets up. Hearing this, Benedict says that she’ll only be initiated a worldwide police search for them if they take them captive, so Elisha explains that they plan to fake their deaths by destroying the house, leaving the others to die as evidence. Fiona however says she doesn’t care what happens to them and asks Elisha to spare the others’ lives, but Elisha calls her a hypocrite and says she’ll repay them for killing her father. Shocked to hear this, Benedict and Fiona quickly clue in on who she is, with the latter wondering why she didn’t notice the same pitiful eyes that think think they can do anything, much to Elisha’s anger. She then reveals that she’s Claire Nicht, daughter of Owen Nicht, who returned to Ikstova to exact revenge on the queen, Fiona’s mother, who exiled him for learning about the royal treasure and inquiring if it can be used to help Roxche win the war. Having witnessed her father killed right in front of her after he had finally become a politician and coming across his records, old map, and will, Claire has hated the royal family ever since, making Fiona feel sympathetic towards her. Claire doesn’t want her sympathy though, so Fiona decides to reveal her true identity as Francesca’s twin sister.

Meanwhile, Treize and Lillia are still hiding in the attic, waiting for Lillia to calm down about the blonde-haired monster (i.e. Allison during hide and seek). She then questions what Treize plans to do, but he’s at a loss given how things turned out, so Lillia cheers him up saying it’s not like him to be depressed. After hearing about Fiona’s true past, how she really doesn’t know the whereabouts of the treasure, and how she’s even grateful for learning about its existence today, Claire gets pissed off because both her and her father were deceived, tears up, and slaps Fiona in the face. One of her men, Elver, manages to restrain her and calm her down by calling her “Ojou” (used to refer to a daughter of a high-class family), after which they decide to leave Ikstova with Benedict and Fiona and inform the others that she’s a fake, since nothing will get resolved here.

During this time, Treize gives Lillia some of Mirielle’s clothes to wear and some royal chocolates to calm her hunger. Using a white sheet, he then makes a white poncho to use as comoflauge in the snow and tells Lillia that he plans to go to where the others are. Being told to hide in the attic in the meantime, Lillia starts to feel lonely, but she tells him to take care of himself and to not die. Pleased to hear her concern, Treize wonders if he can get a reward from her if things go well, but Lillia thinks it’d be better to ask the queen for that, after which he entrusts his royal pendant to her. He then tells her that he’d like her to see the queen if he happens to die saving her and tries to reveal that he’s a member of the royal family (“ou-ke” 王家), but stops himself when Lillia misunderstands it as “I’m okay”. Seemingly concerned, Lillia stops Treize as he’s about to leave and asks if she can keep the pendant if he doesn’t return, prompting Treize to say that would be troublesome for him. Back at the airfield, the controller informs Travas and Axe about the message the strange radio communication he received about the royal solitary house. Outside the house, Treize notices his parents being taken away, while inside Lillia sees a man readying his gun to fire at Treize. Lillia screams out to him, but Treize gets shot in the back.

Next Episode:
「明かされた悲報」 (Akasareta Hihou)
“Revealed Treasure”

Impressions:
So while there was some uncertainty surrounding Elisha Lourie’s true identity last time, this week they revealed that she’s none other than Owen Nicht‘s daughter, Claire Nicht. It turns out that Owen raided the royal palace a year after he was exiled from the Ikstova, the country that he loved, for merely inquiring about the whereabouts of the royal treasure in hopes of using it to help win the war. According to Claire, Fiona’s mother, the queen at the time, had denied the existence of such a treasure and had exiled her father for knowing too much. Seeing as she watched her father die right in front of her when she was a child, plus came across his documents, the old map, and his will later on, I would say it’s pretty clear why she’s after her own revenge now. However, it’ll be interesting to see what Claire plans to do with Fiona and Benedict now that she knows Fiona is Francesca’s twin and really has no idea where the royal treasure is.

As for Lillia and Treize, it was pretty suspenseful watching them infiltrate the building together since Treize had the right approach, but Lillia managed to keep things “interesting”. Watching Treize entrust his royal pendant to Lillia set off a few death flag alarms in my head, but I don’t really see Treize being killed off. Regardless, it was still an effective cliffhanger to show him getting shot in the back. The preview indicates that he survived somehow (as expected) and is helped by what appears to be Benedict, plus Travas arrives to provide some Secret Intelligence covert-op assistance, so there’s a possibility that this arc may wrap up next time. Lillia gets abducted though (and we know she’ll never go quietly), so it’s probably more likely that we’re in store for a couple more before this is all over. In either case, we should find out exactly what the Ikstova treasure is next time (based on the episode title), which I’m quite looking forward to after all the build up about it during the past two episodes.

Cast:
– Lillia (リリア) / Mizuki Nana (水樹 奈々)
– Trieze (トレイズ) / Yoshino Hiroyuki (吉野 裕行)
– Travas (トラヴァス) / Morikawa Toshiyuki (森川 智之)
– Benedict (ベネディクト) / Yamadera Kouichi (山寺 宏一)
– Fiona (フィオナ) / Noto Mamiko (能登 麻美子)
– Claire (クレア) / Tanaka Rie (田中 理恵)
– Mike (マイク) / Matsuo Daisuke (松尾 大亮)
– Elver (エルバー) / Aomori Shin (青森 伸)
– Wayne (ウェイン) / Kuroda Takaya (黒田 崇矢)
– Air-traffic controller (管制官) / Konno Jun (金野 潤)