Mushoku Tensei – 19, 20, 21

「ルート選択」 (Ruuto Sentaku)
“Route Selection”

「妹侍女の生まれた日」 (Imōto Jijo no Umareta Hi)
“The Birth of My Little Sister, the Maid”

The Shirone Kingdom arc turned out to be quite a short venture, because Pax turns out to be a laughably pitiful antagonist.

The adventure hook constituted a rescue mission – specifically for Lilia and Aisha, who went missing during the teleportation disaster. Although Dead End’s current main quest is to return back to Ranoa safely, the previous arc highlights the urgent fact that half of the Greyrat family unit are still yet to be found. Rudeus even makes the promise to his father that he will help search for family members once he safely returns Eris back home. Fortunately, an opportunity for a headstart to that mission materialises. Hitogami wins the trust of Rudeus by revealing to him that members of his family are in the Kingdom, navigating him through a situation to rescue both Aisha and Lilia.

As for the rescuing, the worst case scenario hasn’t happened. But the context is quite dire, given that both Lilia and Aisha have been transformed into political prisoners. Aisha is able to make it out, and Rudeus is able to rescue her from soldiers in pursuit – only to fall into Pax’s honey trap with Rudeus being lured in under false pretences that he can see Roxy once again.

Is it a bit convenient or contrived that Zanoba just so happens to be a figurine otaku, recognises Rudeus as his master, then proceed to bust him out of captivity? Yeah, definitely. However, there was no way Pax was going to stop Rujierd from busting out Rudeus.

You might be wondering – why introduce a character so simplistic and as dislikeable as Pax? He’s pretty much a cheap villain who’s stupidly one dimensional with no redeeming qualities. Me too, I’ve wondered that on occasions.

However, I think we’re meant to view Pax as being a parallel universe foil to the original Rudeus. Even if he had legitimate traumatic reasons, Rudeus was a pathetic person who fucked up his previous life cycle. Yet he’s allowed his rebirth to be a clean slate and is aspiring to live a ‘worthy’ life. They both lusted after Roxy. But for all his perversion, Rudeus never crossed the physical touching boundary – one that Pax egregiously flouts on a regular basis.

「ターニングポイント２」 (Tāningu Pointo Ni)
“Turning Point 2”

When you see the name ‘Turning Point’, you can expect that some serious shit is about to go down.

From a narrative standpoint, the episode was one whole cohesive segment introducing Orsted – the Dragon God. We start off with Eris overjoyed at being recognised as a warrior by Rujierd, eagerly suggesting that they could perhaps take on a pack of red dragons.

Being the patient and steadfast guardian, Rujierd gently chuckles this notion off and explains that only the Top 2-3 most powerful individuals in their world could possibly do that – only to be stopped mid anecdote as they proceed to encounter… Rank 2 of the Seven Great Powers. AKA The Second Most Powerful person in the world.

His aura immediately causes Rujierd and Eris to freeze in terror. Furthermore, he starts nonchalantly speaking as if he knows everything that goes on in the world and how this encounter is quite the anomaly, before continuing on his way.

But Rudeus doesn’t seem to get the memo and when questioned, openly discloses that he is an associate of Hitogami – after which Orsted unfurls like an unstoppable force of nature. Too fast for Rudeus and his magic eye to keep a track of, Orsted would have immediately killed Rudeus there and then if not for Rujierd’s intervention. Even then, Rujierd unleashes his most powerful flurry of attacks – all expertly dodged – before he gets smashed aside like putty.

If Rujierd didn’t stand a chance, there was no hope for Eris, who shakes off her fear with a courage war cry attempting to charge down Orsted – only to be instantly smashed into the cave walls, left in an incapacitated daze from the meteoric impact.

Now its time for Rudeus to make his last stand. Only he discovers that Orsted has the ability to interrupt and cancel out magic, instantly crushing Rudeus’s lungs.

If this were any mage other than Sylphy, the fight would have been over. Orsted knows that stripping mages of their ability to speak robs them of their incantations. But not Rudeus, who strikes at Orsted with a super charged surprise projectile while using wind magic to supplement his body for oxygen – and the projectile actually manages to cause visible damage to Orsted’s skin. He continues trying to put up a brave fight, to no avail as Orsted punches him through the chest – leaving him for dead.

Left to ponder on his second life, Rudeus discovers his misfortune – Orsted is the one individual Hitogami cannot keep tabs on. I think it’s apparent to everyone that Hitogami must have done something to massively offend such a formidable foe, to the point where said foe will slay anyone who offers any indication of being an associate.

For whatever reason, Orsted chooses to spare Rudeus and heal him. Now why would he do that? To send a strong message to Hitogami? Could be anyone’s best guess. For now Rudeus is still alive. But its a stark reminder for what lies out there. With all sorts of deific entities roaming the world setting, if Orsted’s powers reflect anything about the Seven Great Powers, there are several other individuals out there around this level or a step below meaning risk of dying is very real – even for an unprecedented prodigy like Rudeus.

Anyway, that’s about everything I wanted to discuss. As always, thanks for reading this post and see you soon for the Episode 21 post!