tl;dr Frost wins in my book.

I'm glad to see someone else was thinking the same. This was clearly Frost's win and Shion would already have her throat cut if this was an actual fight to the death. That being said, I do believe that it only appears this way due to the artist not considering the technicalities and the intended reading is a draw.

Maybe, but sometime has been writing action series for at least five years at this point, so I find it hard to believe they would have made such a mistake.

tl;dr Frost wins in my book.

I'm glad to see someone else was thinking the same. This was clearly Frost's win and Shion would already have her throat cut if this was an actual fight to the death. That being said, I do believe that it only appears this way due to the artist not considering the technicalities and the intended reading is a draw.

Maybe, but sometime has been writing action series for at least five years at this point, so I find it hard to believe they would have made such a mistake.

Unless it gets brought up again, I'd assume it's a tie. The story treated it that way. She might have noticed the difference in the art but I can't imagine most of the audience will worry about that--she might have thought the same. Cool scene though! Sometime is great.

last edited at Mar 5, 2025 10:58AM

Frost absolutely won, she was fighting with a handicap to not give up her identity as the Black Knight and was able to not only force Shion to pull out her mask power-up but end the fight on a stalemate (that as pointed out was less of a stalemate than a dramatic clash on Frost's favor).

This kinda cliché "I trust them anyway" development doesn't really feel earned at this point. There should've been a bit more development to make such a statement feel substantiated with something besides "those are the protagonists so of course".

I mean, her life was literally saved the knight, no? We’ve seen Frost go out to fight and try and save ppl (albeit not in the best way, but still)

It’s obvious Frost isn’t as malicious as ppl paint her, and trusting the person you’re married to and share a roof under over a person you literally just met (and also confessed they don’t know WHY frost even killed “his” dad) makes enough sense to me

And it’s not even blind trust—“I’ll just ask Frost what happened instead of immediately leaving “him””— is basically what happened lol

Yeah a hugely important part of this exchange is Do you know why Frost did those things? No? Okay then, I will uncover the truth myself. Combined with this exact line "I refuse to make assumptions out of fear". I don't think this is cliché or unreasonable. Our protagonist entered into a marriage with someone that people judge without knowing the whole picture, and she wants to determine the truth for herself without giving into rumors based on fear mongering. She's being level headed and reasonable, especially as she knows this woman selling her these claims has an agenda because it's obvious, and she's known this woman for even less time than Frost.

This chapter was great in my opinion, especially as there was no real reason for her to go against Frost here anyways. She has decided to trust Frost up to this point as a wife, why would she fold easily now? That would be absurd.

One other reason Clarice's choice makes sense to me is that she was definitely hesitating a bit. She admits to herself the possibility that Frost has been misleading her, but she chooses to have faith in Frost's humanity (almost in the literal sense, because everybody else only knows the Black Knight as a silent, walking armor). Clarice knows she is in a unique position that makes her possibly the only person at this time who can advocate for Frost in this way, and she is a kind girl to a fault.

And another one is that throughout the story Clarice has been shown to be bold, bordering on reckless. She volunteered to be the bride of the Black Knight, despite his terrifying reputation, because she just loves her family that much, and perhaps does not value her own safety quite enough. And since then, she has been rolling with the punches. "The Black Knight is a woman? No problem, we can still consummate the marriage. She threatened to kill me to protect her secret? Well, maybe she will reconsider if I pretend to be in love with her. All the chefs resigned? No problem, I'll be the chef." And so on. We could say that Violet's warning that Clarice's life is in danger comes a little too late.

I think the revelations from Violet upset Clarice more because she does not see her marriage to Frost as just a scheme to save her family anymore. If the marriage was still pure business, it would be easy for her to say no to Violet, as it would just be the next step in the scheme. Clarice is a kind girl who does not like to see the townspeople suffer, but even if Violet is right about Frost, running away from Frost would not by itself help the townspeople. So the aspect of irrationality in this exchange is not that Clarice says no to Violet. It's that she wants to believe that people are wrong about Frost, even though dismissing Frost as a bad person could make her feel better about trying to use Frost's wealth to help her own family. Cliché or not, that kernel of irrationality is kind of unavoidable in a yuri/romance plot, especially of this type.

Now, this is just speculation, but I have some ideas for how Clarice started to feel something so quickly, in this crazy marriage. I mentioned above the unique position where she might be the only one who knows who Frost is when the armor comes off. Frost may be an impulsive and insecure person with a horrible temper, but she is a person, and on top of that a really tall and beautiful woman (a "ridiculously hot" "mythical goddess"). I think that contrast alone, between the silent war machine everyone sees vs the weird but still human woman only Clarice can see, is messing with her head a little bit. It's more than just a humanizing effect because Clarice has had to shoulder the knowledge alone. And given her terrible first impression of Frost's personality, every small concession (praising the food Clarice makes, the chess game, the "date" in Lübeck) Clarice has been able to get out of her becomes magnified. She noted to herself that she has gotten better at "handling" Frost, and I think having that exclusive ability to influence Frost is part of why she is no longer that scared of her. As the plan to seduce the Black Knight feels like a more and more real possibility, it starts to feel like more than just a means to an end.

I have this weird feeling like the mangaka introduced a character intending them to be one way and then lost control and let them talk until they were another way.

So far I see nothing here except a basic case of the first impressions about the character being challenged by new information. Even if the price gouging ends up being completely swept under the rug -which is not something I'm inclined to assume yet- it would not be "weird" because wrongdoing being overridden by backstory or one big heroic act is a pretty common thing in more pulpy media.

last edited at Mar 9, 2025 5:08PM