I have so many questions now! Did the アーリョ learn about the 闘蛇 weakness by seeing the interaction between the 王獣 and 闘蛇 like エリン did? Or did they somehow hear the 闘蛇 use the modulating whistle among each other, since エリン seems to think that the whistle the 王獣 used was actually the 闘蛇’s own language.
Also, since the kingdom where ジョウン lives apparently keeps the 王獣 like the アルハン keep the 闘蛇, does that mean they also use the 音無笛 to control them and the special medicine to make them stronger? I think ジョウン mentions that the 王獣 are also sterile in captivity, which is what made me think that they also use the medicine. If that is the case, then do both countries’ control of the two 獣 stem from whatever calamity happened that the アーリョ wish to prevent in the future? Did the アーリョ originally teach these countries how to use the tools to control the 獣?
This book has been really engaging. I feel like I say this every time, but I can’t wait to read more!
I seem to remember it coming up before too - it would make this even more poetically fitting somehow.
I’m afraid the pace is a bit too slow for me to remember details like this clearly. I tip my to you.
Why is 引き返す in progressive past test here? Is this some grammar (maybe in combination with ば) that would make this like “would have”? I say that because the next sentence is basically “but it stopped pouring, the sun came out, etc.”. If this is a specific grammar point that anyone has sources on that would be great, because I’m not quite sure how to search for this.
It is indeed „would have“. I just looked up the English grammar term (past conditional, I think?) + „Japanese“ to find lots of example sentences from hinative etc and also this on stackedchange with a more fleshed out explanation: (although the answer does say that you would use ている in front of the conditional ば as well, which is not the case here, so there seems to be some freedom on whether you really have to use the progressive everywhere. I also remember being taught in uni that anything ば + past tense at the end is equivalent to „would have“, but I might just be forgetting some steps)
I tip my 
to you.
I’m mostly convinced you’re right though.
I wonder if Erin will learn to work with the toda? I would love to overturn the inspectors 
