I did some minor bot updates yesterday and, while I was at it, I went ahead and enabled posting cover images when the post is made. In no way is this meant to displace the screenshots submitted in the comments. So, feel free to post a screenshot and tag rikka like normal, I will just edit it in like I normally do.

Really fun episode this week. That showdown with Liz and LIz's freckled lackey was so good. I died when Alicia literally pushed the other girl aside so that she could whisper sweet evils into Liz's ear. It's like when Alicia dons all black, she finally learned how to be a proper Villainess (the look is great as well).

And, frankly, she was right to tell off Duke. The dude is pervy as hell. You are a villainess now Alicia! Channel your inner mean-spiritedness and embrace it. 'Tis better to die a hated Villainess than to live as a half-hearted one!

ALICIA IS BACK! And the first thing she does is give her eye away. Guess she really wants a reason to wear that eyepatch. And boy does it make her look like such a villainess

@rikka@ani.social

Still, I found it weird that she gave it away basically for nothing. That wasn't very villainessy of her. We get confirmation that her magic is now at least at level 91, since she needed that level of magic to give away her eye. Whether or not her magic is at 100 or not remains to be seen. I still think it's possible she went straight to 100, but considering she was so excited about giving her eye away she did it immediately after leaving the cottage I have my doubts now.

And the confrontation with Liz. That was so fierce!

This exchange seems a bit more straightforward in answering some lingering questions. It appears that Liz doesn't have knowledge of the game. Rather, she is aware that no matter what she does things always work out for her. She basically has plot armor as the protagonist. It could be that her brainwashing is just a side-effect of this phenomena and she's completely unaware she's even doing it. If that's the case, it makes me wonder how Alicia is able to counteract it. I do love how Alicia basically reprimands Liz for not trying to min-max her cheat ability.

Prince Duke shows up to be creepy again. Yes Duke, tell the girl you've been watching her constantly without her knowledge.

But in a surprise twist, Alicia screws up. She ends up chastising Duke and pushing him away. Wait, isn't that a perfectly normal thing to do when someone basically admits to stalking you? Well, considering that Alicia internally says she didn't want to say those things, it makes me wonder if the game phenomenon isn't trying to force Alicia back towards her intended path. Or maybe she was just caught off-guard and genuinely screwed up since she wasn't expecting Duke to be angry with her.

At the very end we finally get a good look at Mel

This is the glimpse we got of Mel last week:

Considering that Duke tasks her with finding out the secrets of Liz's ability to brainwash people, how she seems to talk in an omnipresent voice to Duke, and how Mel calls Alicia a "villainess," I'm guessing she's some kind of supernatural entity. She might even have some insight to the workings of the game.

Just wow, what a lot to unpack this episode.