Rishe is practicing her sword alone in the training yard when Lawvine approaches her, and notices there’s hesitation in his strikes. Rishe admits that she’s terrified of a future where everyone will have to go to war, fight, and die. Lawvine thinks she’s right to fear that future.
The future of his own son was taken in such a manner, and while he’ll always be proud of him for fighting, he wishes he had lived. He tells her not to neglect her own hopes and feelings, for when the time comes they’ll help her move forward in dark times.
Rishe wants to move forward, which means surviving longer than her past time loops. That’s why she’s a knight candidate; because it’s the only way she’ll get the unvarnished version of the training regimen her fiance has designed for the other would-be knights.
But one day Arnold visits a training session, and immediately recognizes Rishe. Fortunately, he doens’t have a problem with her training as long as no one else finds out and she makes sure to get proper rest. As for her overhearing him rejecting Prince Kyle’s offer, she thinks he’s putting up a tough, cruel facade to hide his fundamentally kind nature. Arnold disagrees.
Rishe manages to prepare another medicine she believes will help restore Kyle’s strength, and also tells him she overheard him asking Arnold for an alliance. She offers a modest alliance between them in his place, as she believes she’ll need Kyle’s help to convince her fiancé that war isn’t necessarily the answer.
As for Professor Michel, after hearing how Kyle’s request was shot down, he’s now convinced he’s found the royal he’s been looking for who will accept the gift of black powder, i.e. explosives, which will certainly be a game changer in any future war, not to mention a decisive advantage over any of the empire’s enemies.
Michel had a fucked-up childhood, with his father blaming him for his mother’s death, and telling him he had to atone by finding and realizing his calling. That Michel’s calling ended up being designing weapons of mass destruction doesn’t matter. Fulfilling his calling, even one that throws the world into chaos, is all that matters.
This makes him as dangerous a threat to Rishe as Arnold, as it increases the chances a horrific war will claim her life once again. The episode ends with her having arranged to use some of Theodores retainers for some purpose, but otherwise she has no idea if it’s possible to convince Michel not to present Arnold with black powder.
In that regard, the more lightweight half of Arnold discovering her disguised as a knight candidate clashed with the sudden existential crisis of her former mentor whom she had a falling out with over this very same matter.
Even if she told Michel the truth about her loops and he believed her, it wouldn’t change the fact that he believes with absolute certainty that he must bring about the destruction of the world so a new one can rise in its place. And that’s a bummer, because it’s pretty standard villain thinking.
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