I continue to like that the secondary characters have lives and conflicts of their own. Here: Eliott picking on Cyril because he’s illegitimate.
Leaving aside that it was kind of a weird coincidence that the thieves decided to strike right after everyone got a refresher on what the company logo looks like…cool scene. Elliott grew on me again when he still obsessed about his illicit chess win and tried to sacrifice himself out of a sense of noblesse oblige. Also, nice co-op between him and Monica in realizing there’s something off about the “traders”.
And…new character! Monica seems to be on a lucky streak with finding people who also don’t really fit into high-class society and are willing to make friends with her. Aaand, her electives problem got solved.
The last scene didn’t really seem to add much if you don’t find crossdressing funny. Finally something the anime could skip without a loss.
三章 尾の無い雄牛と快活令嬢、スカートを穿いた猫
???
（……でも、チェスの授業、楽しかったな）
チェスには、数式や魔術式とはまた違う楽しさがあった。
エリオットはチェスを知らなかった田舎娘に追い詰められ、そしてムキになってしまったのだ。
こんなのフェアじゃない。人の上に立つ貴族として恥ずべき振る舞いだ。
His questionable “nobles are superior” stance aside - I like that he at least also feels like nobles have responsibility towards those he considers inferior.
「車輪の軸が本来は一二本なのに、あの馬車の紋章は一〇本しかない、です」
Huh. I expected something like distances or proportions being wrong since it’s harder to eyeball and copy, but this seems like a detail that’s much harder to get wrong.
Also: What the heck are the guards doing? I’d expect them to have a catalogue of all the crests to visually compare to.
Hmmm. I think our mysterious conspirator from the prologue is probably a new character. And if I remember correctly, they also mentioned mentioned something about the merchants coming for the festial?
And well, here we have some of those “merchants” and a new character in one scene. Suspicious!
私、田舎貴族だから、[…]
I gotta read the conspirator part from the prologue again, but it did sound a lot like they were from a rural part (because it wasn’t well defended against dragons).
Now you just gotta mention dragons to seal the deal…
If she’s not the conspirator, I’ll have to put out a formal apology. Here we have Monica and her bonding over horses and mathematical sequences a song about pigs, and I’m all “SUSPICIOUS!!”
Also, if she turns out to be that conspirator, I wonder if there’s a chance she’ll join the troupe.
だが、飛行魔術を使えないモニカにとって、乗馬は覚えて損は無い技術である。なにより……。
（……新しいこと、やってみたい）
Okay…
「でもネロって、人に化ける時は、いつもあのローブ姿でしょ？」
I think the bigger problem would honestly be his behaviour and his way of talking
Yep - it’s really nice that they aren’t just definied by their relationship with Monica.
And it even went from “I wish I didn’t have to pick anything” to “I’m glad I can pick two, I’m really looking forward to this”!
Yeah, seems like that was just comical relief without much (any?) actual content. At least it was really short, so I don’t mind.
Ah, the overly suspicious mind you get from reading with too many mystery novel book clubs 
. I am intimately familiar with the problem. I mean, we don’t even know how many country noble houses this country has, could be hundreds for all we know. But if Casey really is the conspirator, it would kind of fit because it means the conspiracy-mystery can easily be wrapped up within the rest of this volume. Just like last volume, where the solution was also very straightforward in the end.
Speaking of suspects, I’m also keeping an eye on the new teacher character, Ms Pail (sp?). Not because she’s done anything noteworthy so far, just because she’s new.
Meanwhile, I watched the anime adaptation of this chapter. All 5 minutes of it. It’s a shame they dropped that one line from Elliott’s inner monologue where he gets suspicious because he realizes that it’s off for the driver to remain in the driver’s seat. I liked that his familiarity with noble customs was good for something.
But they improved upon the scene with the horses, I think. I had trouble picturing some parts of it in the LN. Especially when Monica and Casey were stroking the horses even though they’d already climbed into the driver’s seat and should be too far away to reach them.
You and me both. At some point I just accepted that things are happening, nevermind where exactly they were happening or which path they took.
Yes! That runaway horse cart seemed to chase Monica and Elliott around the tree, too. I just tried not to look too closely.
