My Status as an Assassin
“Holy Tree Duel”
When Episode 3 ended on that cliffhanger, with Kilika emerging from the shadows to call Amelia the “child of blight,” I said you’d want Episode 4 immediately. That was me being honest. That’s the sign of a show doing its job. But I’ll also be honest: I took a break from this series. Not because I dropped it, but because life happens and other shows beckon. Most of you have probably moved on. You’ve either dropped it, completed it, or left your scores. I figure I need to do the same. You know, the whole “don’t leave an anime behind” thing.
With that said, when I paused, Episode 3 did its job of keeping me interested and entertained, with enough juice to make me visit Episode 4. The question is whether Episode 4 can maintain the momentum. Let’s dive in.
Episode 4 opens with a chase scene. A young elf runs through the forest. Turns out it’s Princess Kilika, and there’s no actual danger. Just a sparring match. Her sister, Princess Amelia, watches from a distance. An elf tells Amelia that while Kilika is a formidable fighter, it’s Amelia who will one day lead the country. Right after that, we cut to an elf kneeling before Amelia, asking to call off their engagement. Kilika steps forward and drops the reason: Amelia is the “child of blight.”
The sequence unfolds rapidly from that point: Amelia is cast out, with Kilika condemning her actions as unforgivable. The decree is handed down that a “child of blight” cannot inherit the throne, cementing Kilika as the rightful heir. They are even ready to execute Amelia. We cut back to the present, where the sisters face each other, and Akira walks up, asking if everyone can tone it down a notch—just your friendly neighborhood assassin who got to know her recently.
Kilika reveals her poisoned arm and says Amelia gave her poison disguised as a healing potion. Amelia protests her innocence. No one is allowed to harm a royal, not even one of their own. She tries her Memorize skill on Akira, which seduces men and captures their hearts, but it doesn’t work. Night, the cat, quietly explains that the skill doesn’t function on someone at a much higher level. Then their father arrives and shuts the whole thing down. He knew Kilika used Memorize on the troops and demanded she release it immediately. That’s how dads are. They know when the daughters are out here acting up. He apologizes to Akira and Amelia with the gravity of a king, and yeah, Kazuya Ichijou has a beautiful voice delivering those lines. That commanding, warm, fatherly register. Real kudos to the casting for that.
The father challenges Akira to a duel to settle whether Amelia can leave, with Kilika fighting as his proxy under the Holy Tree. As they walk toward the tree, Amelia explains the elven legend: in pairs of twins, one won’t resemble their parents at all. That child is a “child of blight” who will bring calamity. Night (Yoru, depending on subtitles) asks if the killing of blighted twins wasn’t deemed a myth and done away with long ago. It was, but Amelia still doesn’t share her parents’ hair or eye colors. Akira, to his credit, tells her he thinks her eyes and hair are pretty. The man knows when to say the right thing.
The duel is where the episode both delivers and stumbles. Akira fights Kilika without unsheathing his blade—the assassin who tries not to kill. Kilika fights out of resentment for a sister she believes took everything from her. Even during the fight, Akira notices she has the face of someone unsure of victory.
Then the truth is revealed. Through a flashback, we learn that Amelia was classified as a spirit medium, a messenger from the gods who can bend the world to her will. Her gift would bring prosperity to the kingdom, but the cost was that everyone stopped caring about Kilika. Worse, Kilika witnessed Liam’s death during a monster incident secretly orchestrated by a hooded figure who handed her a summoning item and laughed from a tree while chaos unfolded. Her father, instead of helping her process the trauma, erased her memories with a Forgetting Spell. Amelia resurrected Liam using two skills she created, Gravity and Resurrection, and a leaf from the Holy Tree fell on him during the process, making him immune to Memorize.
None of the above is obvious. Why not just tell your daughter the truth? She could have avoided all this resentment, hatred, and bitterness if she’d known Liam was saved. The father tried to protect her from PTSD and ended up creating a worse problem. The leaf-on-the-body explanation for Liam’s immunity is the most convoluted thing I’ve heard in a minute, but hey, if it works, it works.
Emotionally, the moment works. The father acknowledges his mistakes, recovers Kilika’s memories, and the sisters reconcile. There is genuine heart in seeing the person blessed with immense natural talent look up to the one who relies on sheer perseverance. What nags me is that nobody gets to the source. The hooded figure in the tree who set all of these events in motion vanishes from the episode. That unresolved plot thread is still hanging, and I’m still watching it closely.
The episode closes with a welcome party for Akira, Amelia’s freedom secured, and the pair setting off for the beastfolk continent to get weapons worked on. Night, sitting in a tree, observes the two of them bickering like children and breaks the fourth wall: “It’s unbearable.” That should have been the ending. Instead, we cut to the other party members, Asahina and the crew, on a ship heading to the same destination. Everybody’s converging.
When a Name Means Something: Amelia, Kilika, and the Damage Adults Leave Behind
Akira remains the most compelling part of this show. He’s the assassin who respects life, fights without drawing his blade, and keeps ending up in the middle of other people’s family drama. When he steps up to defend Amelia’s right to choose, I’m hearing Peter Cetera in my head. “I am the man who will fight for your honor.” That’s the kind of “Glory of Love” energy you get in Karate Kid Part II. He’s not trying to be a hero; he’s just doing what’s right.
When he stands before Amelia’s father and casually refers to her as “this one” with a thumb point, Amelia later corrects him. She teaches him to say her name. Later, at the door, she asks him to say it again, as he did before the duel. Not “you” or “this one.” Her name. He calls her a weirdo. She says she’ll go wherever he goes. He says, “Damn, girl, fine if that’s what you want.” She gets mad because he called her “girl.” Then he says, “Amelia.” He’s trying to be Mr. Cool and failing, and it works because the show doesn’t oversell the romance. Just keeps pulling and pushing.
Amelia’s characterization is something I really admire. Rather than being relegated to a helpless princess who needs saving, she takes an active role in her own narrative. She developed two distinct magic skills, brought a man back from the dead, and even channels purifying energy while standing atop a cat. Beyond that, she proactively guides Akira on how to treat her. That’s precisely the kind of thoughtful character writing I love to see.
Kilika is easily the more heartbreaking character here. She’s fueled by bitterness, and when she starts crying mid-duel because she can feel the win slipping away, it’s a real blow. When the veil is lifted, she has to swallow the pill that her years of loathing were constructed on a fabrication by her own dad. The series doesn’t excuse her choices, but it does provide the necessary context. She’s essentially a child who experienced loss and was denied the chance actually to process that grief.
The father is the character I keep coming back to. He decided to protect his daughter, and it backfired spectacularly. He throws Akira under the bus, hoping Kilika will win, drop Mesmerize, and emerge on her own. He ended up having to reveal the secret in a way he hadn’t planned. As my grandmother said before she passed, she told my mom: there is no manual for how to parent children. You do the best you can, and along the way you make many mistakes. But my god, this was an unnecessary mistake to save face.
Liam deserves a mention. They love making these handsome blonde-haired dudes suffer in anime. Dude got punched in the stomach by a labyrinth monster, died, got resurrected, and then had to be the one apologizing for trying to separate the sisters before Kilika’s hatred grew. Give the blonde guys a break.
Night remains the MVP. Observing the budding romance from a tree, remarking that both Amelia and his master are like children, and breaking the fourth wall with what we’ve all been thinking. That feline possesses far more emotional intelligence than half the anime’s cast.
When the Music Has to Save the Fight
The music is where I need to give credit. The background music in this episode is excellent. I put on a pair of headphones to really hear it, and it does an outstanding job with the tension and emotional beats. During the duel, the flashbacks, and the revelations, the score does the hard work. When the animation can’t fully sell a moment, the music steps in and carries it across the finish line. Kudos to the composer and the sound team. They understood the assignment, but the fight scene between Akira and Kilika is disappointing—no fluid movement. Slides and stills are how I’d describe it. Kilika pulls a wind buff; Akira counters with Shadow Magic, and when his shadows can’t consume her blast, he makes the shadows consume him instead, converting it to a shadow element to thwart her attack. The concept is cool. The execution is budgeted.
I’ll be fair, though. The series packs so much into each episode, and the quick pacing helps mask the limitations. I also thought the king had already made Kilika release Memorize earlier, so the Holy Tree branch that later purified the soldiers threw me off a little. But okay, if that’s what we’re going with. The fight isn’t horrible. It isn’t great. The background music fills in the tension the animation can’t provide.
Why I’m Still Here for Episode 5
Not a bad episode. I think the first three were better, but Episode 4 holds its own. I’m not going to give it a rating. What I will say is that when I made these notes, its score on MyAnimeList was around 6.56, which is actually lower than that of The Exiled Heavy Knight, which is currently airing. The show is exploring family trauma, manufactured resentment, and the cost of protecting people from the truth. It’s convoluted, but it’s trying. And sometimes trying keeps you in the middle of the bed. Make of that what you will.
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