@Paul-Nebeling Doesn't the new little Dungeon Master (name forgotten) also know?

I think I've predicted this before, but the talk of the economic importance of a dungeon which you can harvest iron from reinforces it: eventually, the dungeon plus hinterland will become a barony. There will be a sizable town built around the dungeon to process materials coming from it. Chances are either Nao or Haruka will be the baron, with agreement from the rest of the party. They'll likely employ Diola as steward to oversee the financial side and act as regent when they're busy adventuring.

Are we about to have a romance for Diola subplot?

The series artist must really love how Krai keeps finding Grieving Soul doppelgangers, it makes it so much easier to to design new characters when they so heavily resemble old ones.

@TheGrimLich I don't think the question angered him because of the need for clarification, but because it was out of the golem's specifications, and he's the kind of perfectionist that doesn't care if a 'defect' is an improvement or not, just that it deviated from his spec.

Poor Arnold doesn't get to be on the cover.

@unclerupee

I mean... that's Blanc.

@kuali To be fair, that's from Torre's perspective. The guy isn't exactly the best at understanding his emotions at his current age.

I hear that fourth wall rumbling stronger than ever for this novel. Will it hold?

@Alex232 said in The Villainess Speaks Not Vol. 3 Discussion:

@GeorgeMTO Thank you. I still don't get how Sasha comes from Alexandra but I guess it's just one of those weird nickname things.

It's kinda like how Dick is derived from Richard.

Looks like we finally get to meet his heroic friend Hiro, after she's been alluded to repeatedly in each of the past five volumes. That's gotta be her on the cover.

Did she just murder and eat her past apprenctice, then desecrate and plunder her own tomb and steal her own corpse?

One moment you're riding the cliche train reading about item boxes and appraisal, then this. I'm left wondering what's next.

@coldsonata said in Miss Medic’s Diary at War Vol. 3 Discussion!:

@Phabiohost Familiar handwriting in the diary implies it's Tory, because he isn't familiar with anything else in that context. So Tory wrote that in her diary. Which means something happened that she found unforgivable.

Does it? If it were hers they wouldn't even mention the handwriting being familiar. It would just be the expected handwriting. Calling it familiar in a place where there is only supposed to be one person's handwriting would be redundant.

He also called out that medic from a picture. Implying he had met or knew of her appearance. It's likely he's seen other people's handwriting too.

Edit - my money is it being the nurse. Maybe one of her friends was critical and Tory had to make the hard choice to leave him to die.

@Valanduin Ah, fair. I knew they weren't as durable as metal shields, but I didn't think they were quite so undurable as that. But I probably should've, because wood is... wood.

I find the Rafina of Bel's timeline to be the most tragic. She clearly valued Mia as a friend still, how could she have been so twisted by the Serpents that she would think it logical to kill off her descendants? Perhaps she somehow learned of Tearmoon's ancient ties with the Serpents? After all, the other star bearing houses would've been the most likely perpetrators (and in fact it was probably Citrina) and they all share the same blood. Wouldn't be too much of leap that Rafina'd be convinced that Mia's descendants are hellspawn like her other relatives.

The princess seems like a pretty reasonable person in general. Her country's geopolitical state makes her very defensive of resources she needs, but she seems willing to make deals. The problem is that she doesn't buy that Ernie's side is uninterested in etherite, and thus suspects that their stance of "protecting the harpies" is just an excuse to kick off all invaders and monopolize the etherite. However, unlike the last country with a dragon ship, her belligerence seems rooted in proactively protecting her country, rather than conquest. With this incident, I doubt she'll be hostile in the long term.

I think it might be safe for her to find out they're from Fremmevilla. The reason she's so wary is because all of the occidents are potential enemies, so she can't trust their words. But Fremmevilla is a step removed from the conflict; they may back their allies defensively, but they have nothing to gain from a war of conquest.

I wonder what'll happen to the airship engineer. He's more mad scientist than actual bad guy, but there's still the problem that his and Ernie's design philosophies are categorically at odds, and both of them desire to prove that their way is better.

@Kurzaa not just working on 14, it's finished and off to the printers. It's on the publishing schedule for September and has a volume cover and everything.

@karasutengu You have a point, but this doesn't really feel like that. He has way more animosity towards Elgart than Ridelle (who he has already forgiven after she offered herself), Elgart's wife could well deserve a portion of that animosity. I don't think he ever forgave Elgart (though I may be wrong), he just let it go because going too hard after him would have backlash. If lady Quis' reputation is less than stellar, this might even be a weakness that's safe to strike at.