Villainess Level 99

Episode 9

Oh, Yumiella, you were so close. At this point, we have to seriously consider the possibility that Yumiella is deliberately blind to Patrick and her feelings for/about him, and not just because it beggars the belief that anyone could be quite so stupid, especially with two lives worth of memories. No, this week we get to watch as Yumiella realizes she has a crush on Patrick and then promptly talks herself out of it, which frankly makes a lot more sense. We know she didn't have a particularly vibrant social life her first time around and that she's not all that good at being friendly this time (or at least at conveying friendliness), so the idea of romance could charitably be said to be potentially terrifying to her. She knows that she's only interacting with Patrick, Eleonora, and Ryu regularly, and every time she tries to be helpful, her advice is taken as the ravings of a madwoman. Even without many social skills to her name, she's smart enough to realize that this isn't the way most people function. Why, then, would she risk her best friendship just because she's developed warmer feelings for him?

She's a little torn here, and she does attempt to sound Patrick out, although she does such a bad job of it that he has no idea what she's getting at. She recognizes that she doesn't want him to have a girlfriend, it hurts when he won't tell her what he's been doing in his free time, and trusts him enough to go see Prince Edwin when he asks her to, so she's not unaware of her own emotions. But it's also very likely to be scary to her on several levels. It's much easier, not to mention safer, to convince herself that she just wants to be friends with him and lavish all of her love on her (unfortunately CG) dragon. The kicker for us is that we know that Patrick returns her feelings, somewhat to his bafflement. If she just said it flat-out, he'd be thrilled, and he'd probably even keep up with the growth amulet-fueled race to level 99, because who knows what insane adventures Yumiella would choose in the name of “dates?”

But Patrick's not her only friend, which may be confusing to her, mostly because she's reluctant to see Eleonora as a friend. Eleonora's having trouble playing her role too which is part of her charm. The scene where she catches herself asking Yumiella to help her study and quickly rephrases the question in the most obnoxious way possible is gold, trampling all over the perception of Eleonora as a stereotypical villainess and maybe even Eleonora's idea of how she's supposed to present herself. Sure, she can be a lot to take, but I think Edwin's making a mistake picking Alicia over Eleonora, who's a good enough friend to let a dragon chew on her head. And besides, where else will he find someone who views all of history as related to his family tree? Oh, wait, maybe that's not a good thing…

Although we have some very good Yumiella getting (and rejecting) a clue, this episode feels mostly like it's about bringing us to the next major plot point. The foreign agent piece turns out to be nothing much, while Edwin truly apologizing to Yumiella sets the stage for them to work together to bring down the Demon Lord, even if his pals and Alicia aren't fully onboard, as we can see from William's and Alicia's reactions. But now that Alicia has vanished after discussing a dungeon with Yumiella, we have to wonder what public opinion will be, because if she's hurt in a dark magic dungeon, it could undo all the positives Patrick has worked to tell Edwin about Yumiella.

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Villainess Level 99 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.