The truth, but certainly not the whole truth, and a looming mystery for another time.
What They Say:
Episode 12: “The Time to Reveal the Answer”
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of this review will contain spoilers)
It’s time to reveal the seventh brave, the traitor who lurks in the midst of heroes. Except Adlet is unsure who the traitor is! His suspicions fall on Maura, and he goes through the braves in his head giving us an idea of what he thinks of everyone. Yes, even the cast themselves had their own checklists on who it could be. Adlet guessed it was Maura, much as many of us did, because of her single-minded desire to kill him. However there’s no evidence it was her. There is evidence it was another, however, and Hans and Chamot found the smoking gun completely by luck during the time when Adlet was being chased around.
That final piece of evidence needed is a spare set of instructions and tools for activating the barrier. It clarifies the actions needed to activate and deactivate it, and while blood was part of the activation it’s the breaking of the tablet that was the last step.
The culprit ends up being whom everyone had pretty much guessed from either the get-go or the moment she lied. Nachetanya admits she was the seventh. The reveal itself is somewhat anticlimactic since Nachetanya was so suspicious from the start. She tells the others she was surprised Adlet ended up foiling her scheme, she figured him for an easily manipulated idiot. She thought Hans was the one who was going to be her greatest foe, which explains why she wanted him dead. Her frivolous nature and naivety was an act, but she ends up being unhinged in a completely different way.
The real question is why did Nachetanya do this? Why would she side with the demon lord? She doesn’t want to destroy the world, she says she wants to save it. How? Cleary she thinks she can strike a deal so all humans and fiends can live together in peace. It just might involve killing hundreds of thousands of people in the process, on top of getting rid of the braves. She delivers this fact with a smile. As if we needed any more confirmation that she wasn’t quiet right in the head.
Adlet is shocked, dismayed, and in a defining moment swiftly orders the others to kill her. Easier said than done when she was never actually there to begin with it seems. (At first I thought Chamot bit off her head! Nope, Nachetanya dissolves into goo, apparently being a puppet controlled from afar.) Unsatisfyingly, she escapes harm and becomes just another enemy to contend with later. The others try to give chase, of course, but she can’t be caught.
After the mystery ends there’s the fallout from the battle to deal with. There’s a nice scene with Adlet and Flamie alone as she tends to his wounds. Flamie is still struggling with the relationship and hates that Adlet makes her feel like she wants to live. Aw. Adlet blacks out for awhile and comes to with the barrier lowered and an army arriving with news the fiends are on the move to where they are. Maura is able to use her mountain saint powers to heal the most grievous of Adlet’s wounds and the group is ready to move.
All’s well that ends well, right? Not quite. Remember when Adlet guessed there might be an eighth fake? Right as it appears everyone is ready to regroup and get the show on the road a Saint whom Adlet knows arrives. Surprise! Guess what she is… yup, another brave! Just one that happens to be dressed like a cow. The outfit, combined with the timing, makes the whole scene come off as a huge punchline which takes some of the impact of the ending away and replaces it with a huge too be continued and a laugh. There’s no time for a repeat of everything that just came before. The entire group gets up and gets going. This means, of course, that it’s entirely possible that Maura is still a suspect, but book one is over and the story is too, for now.
Episode Grade: B +
Final words on the next page!
