Secrets of the Silent Witch

Episode 12

Despite being the penultimate episode, this is actually one of the lowest-key episodes in the series so far. There are no assassins, no traumatic mental breaks, and very little intrigue. And while there is the threat of danger hanging over the story, it's far from being realized yet. Basically, this episode is little more than our heroine meeting with her coworkers and then walking around a festival.

And yet, that normalcy is the key to the episode. Monica is on a mission to observe the Starseer Witch making a “magecraft offering” (whatever the hell that is) at a local festival. On the other side of things is Felix, who is using the festival as cover for his un-princely backroom dealings. Yet, once they encounter each other, their respective covers force them to act neither as a prince nor a sage, but rather as two young people sneaking out to a festival to have fun.

Of course, the trick is that neither of them is particularly good at this. Monica is a bundle of tightly wound social anxiety. Meanwhile, Felix is a fount of superficiality—mostly spouting light flirting and gentlemanly behavior, which is basically his survival mechanism for the royal court. Of course, this has absolutely no effect on Monica as she is incapable of seeing beyond his words and their literal meaning.

This, in turn, allows them to be strikingly honest with each other. Monica doesn't particularly want a shiny bobble from the Prince—she feels that they don't suit her, and such a gift would have no deeper meaning to it. Felix, bothering to bend down and pick up the nuts she dropped upon their first meeting, on the other hand, makes those nuts an emotional treasure—a symbol of his kind heart and how it reached out to her in a time of need.

Meanwhile, for his part, Felix can do things with Monica that others of his social class would normally read into—like having someone call him by a nickname, sharing a couple's cookie, or picking a crumb off of Monica's cheek. But with Monica, he can trust that they'll be taken at face value.

Of course, this happy little friend-date goes off the rails in the final moments of the episode where it's revealed that a local forger of items has stolen the artifact to be used in the festival—clearly not knowing it A) has a personality B) has the power to drain the entire area of mana, and C) can potentially use that stolen mana to cast super-destructive magic. Looks like the series will end with a bang next week if nothing else.

Rating:

Secrets of the Silent Witch is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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