Rudeus Striving in Training

The scene opens with Rudeus training hard. His muscles do not betray him as he runs and does push-ups. As he learned swordsmanship from Paulo, he has a good foundation in training.

Muscles do not betray him. Eris does (at least he thinks so).

When he heads to the Adventurer’s Guild, he encounters the S-rank adventurer party, “Step Leader,” who declare they have received a request. The leader, Zolodart, gives Rudeus a contemptuous look when he leaves.

Is this request for a magical tool? Please describe it as such.

However, he is not disliked by everyone in the town. Rudeus is willing to spare no expense on his appearance to increase his reputation and is valued for it. In the anime version, it is a familiar scene, but in the novel version, there is a portrayal of him being aware of being seen as a cheap and easy-to-use mercenary. He knows this and chooses the route with the lowest potential for making enemies.

Rudeus goes to the town square to take on a low difficulty request of shoveling snow. The opening theme that played at the end of the last episode plays here.

It seems to be a magical tool for melting snow.

After that, the scene continues with no dialogue. Rudeus gathers snow in the square and infuses magic into the monument in the center, causing the snow to melt. Then, he uses healing magic on a child who fell in the square. Sara watches from the shadows, and the title call appears.

Sara’s cheeks seem to be a little red. It’s cold, you know.

The Second Time…

Sara invites Rudeus to join her on a request. Although they are not close, Sara tells Rudeus to stop using honorifics. Rudeus’s way of behaving, which is intended to not offend anyone by using honorifics and humility, can irritate people. Zolodart’s glance at him at the beginning of the episode is an example of this.

Sara frowns at Rudeus for not breaking the honorifics.

Then, the members of the Counter Arrow appear, and they talk about the request. They have been asked to collect the scales of the Snow Drake in the Gargau Ruins. According to Timothy, the Gargau Ruins are a structure built by the Demon race and were a fortress during the First Human-Demon War.

It seems to be a statue of Kishirika Kishiris.

In the anime’s second season, the male voice from Rudeus’s past explains that it is an easy job for an A-rank request. Rudeus felt the same way about the request in the first episode, but the anime did not have any dialogue about it. They probably decided to use it here.

Then, the Snow Drake group appears. It is the same pattern as the Luster Grizzly. In the previous episode, Rudeus had a scene where he listened for danger by putting his ear to the ground, but this time Mimir warns them of an impending danger.

When you see it continuously, it gives the impression that they are taking A-rank requests lightly and end up in danger every time, making them look like a weak party. Magic Warrior Patris verbalizes this feeling by saying, “This pattern again?!” This is the same in the novel version.

Rudeus stops the Snow Drake with earth magic and defeats it by dropping rocks on it using ice magic. When he turns around, he sees that the Counter Arrow members are gone. Rudeus shows a relieved expression, thinking they have escaped. He reaches out to the deity and turns to face the Snow Drake group.

In the novel version, there is a portrayal of him realizing that there is a will at the inn, which shows his despair. The expression “too many to count with both hands” is used, which expresses the feeling of despair.

This is not enough to make you despair, is it…?

In the anime version, it remains a portrayal of him being able to defeat it since it’s Rudeus. He used advanced magic in the first episode, so it feels like it will progress in the same pattern in the second episode.

Although Counter Arrow withdrew, they come back to assist Rudeus with Sara’s bow and Timothy’s fire magic. It seems as though they have misunderstood that Rudeus was about to use magic, but Sara’s line, “What are you staring blankly for!? Fight, too!” reveals that he was stunned.

Everyone from Counter Arrow comes back to help Rudeus. They are aware that they were naive.

Then Zolodart appears and cuts the Snow Drake in half. Timothy tries to greet him, but Zolodart punches him. He mistakenly thought that they had been robbed of the Snow Drake hunting request at the Ilubrum Cave by Counter Arrow. It seems that they are connected in some way.

After calming down, Zolodart apologizes, saying, “I shouldn’t have punched you without warning.” However, Zolodart still speaks arrogantly, saying that Counter Arrow’s share is only one of them. There is no explanation in the anime version, but it seems to be a common practice between adventurer parties when they are involved in such situations. So, Counter Arrow’s members accept it easily.

At the party, it is revealed that Sara was the one who went to rescue Rudeus. She blushes.

Zolodart appears at the party and begins to insult Rudeus again, saying, “You’re half-hearted.” He is still intoxicated. When Counter Arrow returns, however, Mimir and Sara are not with them. Suzanne coldly answers, “They’re dead.” Rudeus also remains calm.

“I’ll excuse myself,” says Rudeus as he prepares to travel and leaves for the forest. He departs in a blizzard and uses his weather manipulation to blow away the clouds and enters the Toria forest at midnight. He finds Mimir’s corpse and Sara’s earring and calmly buries them, putting away her belongings.

Rudeus prepares for his journey calmly.

Suddenly, he is attacked by a wood monster that uses ice magic called the Icefall Torrent, and he dodges its ice magic attack. He finds Sara trapped at its base and quickly burns the branches that are entangled around her to save her.

He casts healing magic on Sara and dries her clothes before leaving the cave.

Rudeus says, “Thank you,” to Sara.

Sara, who tries to grab Rudeus’s hand, cannot reach him and calls out to him, “I was happy you came to help me.”

The weight of someone who came alone to help. How much does that mean to a dry adventurer?

When they return to the town as the sun rises, the Counter Arrow members are leaving to rescue them. While happy about Sara’s rescue, Suzanne scolds Rudeus for going alone.

Sara happily thanks Rudeus for helping her. She has the aura of a sub-heroine.

When Timothy expresses his gratitude with tears, the ending theme “Musubime” plays. Rudeus heads to the inn, and Sara waves goodbye to him, saying, “See you later.” As Rudeus leaves, Sara mumbles something to him. Judging by her mouth shape, it might have been “Thank…you?” as “Good…night” would not fit her mouth shape and would be too sweet.

In the novel version, Sara also mumbles something to Rudeus as he looks back at Counter Arrow. As the author is not familiar with lip-reading, they do not know what she said.

Rudeus returns to the inn and places Roxy’s deity on the shrine.

This is the first time the ending theme plays. With the opening and ending themes playing, it can be seen as a continuation of Rudeus’s daily life.

Next Episode: “Rapid Approach”

Next episode is “Rapid Approach.” As the subtitle suggests, Sara will become more affectionate. And probably Zolodart will become more affectionate since it seems that episode 7 will be the end. This means that the school arc will probably start from episode 4.

I am a Japanese anime geek. I watch more than 20 anime titles that air each season. Including past productions, I watch nearly 100 titles per year.I will go on to introduce some of the anime that I have found interesting. Please forgive me if my English is still poor.