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I just need to rant about my favorite chapter in the entire series: The Meeting (Chapter 9, Vol. 11 of the Light Novel).

As a preface, I love political schemes and intrigues. It's the same reason why I love shrewd and cunning characters.

And holy shit, when I was reading this chapter I was grinning from ear to ear. And by the end of it, I was just as stunned as the Western Capital bureaucrats who watched this nerve-wrecking political dance between Jinshi and Gyoku-ou.

Heavy spoilers ahead!

At the beginning of the chapter, we see Jinshi and his entourage (Gaoshun and Chue) make their way to a meeting place after being summoned by Gyoku-ou—then leader of the Western Capital and Empress Gyokuyou's brother. During the carriage ride, we are treated with Jinshi's thoughts on the ongoing Locust plague relief efforts.

It's by no means an exaggeration to say that he has done so fucking much to prepare for the plague. A short laundry list of his accomplishments would include the following:

As early as Vol. 5, he raised taxes on grains to accommodate the expected shortfall from the devastation. He also banned sparrow-hunting to increase the insects' natural predators.

He brought tons and tons of provisions and supplies (e.g. potatoes).

Help from the Capital came quickly because he sent a post-horse as soon as the swarm came—also taking into consideration the time it took for the request to pass through the Capital's committees.

He sent messengers to assess the damage to nearby villages and calculated the needed food per location.

He wrote close to 200 letters soliciting for more aid to the Western Capital.

He tapped his team to research on fast-growing crops and medicine.

But given how limited his reach is within the Western Capital and how much faster it would be if Gyoku-ou handles the distribution, he lets him distribute what he has prepared. The downside of course is that Gyoku-ou gets all the credit, but Jinshi would rather throw away pride than not help people. I love how we get a glimpse of his psyche:

Even his thoughts on his name is revealing. So very human, as Ah-Duo mentioned in Vol. 15.

Soon after, they arrive at the meeting place with Gyoku-ou and Lakan already present. As usual, Lakan is busy working on his Go problems.

Gyoku-ou thanks Jinshi for all his efforts but now asks for help in getting more soldiers. He reveals his true goal: to start a war against Shaoh, with the Imperial Brother leading the army. He defends this by saying that resources would come faster to the Western Capital by annexing Shaoh’s ports, but we know that Gyoku-ou's deep seated hatred for all foreigners is behind all this. Gyoku-ou even uses the previous Shaoh Shrine Maiden incident to goad Jinshi into going to war.

Jinshi is of course appalled by the idea. This would make them no different than bandits. Lakan, however, is not interested in the 'why'; all he knows is how to win a war. What follows is a pretty accurate and telling description of Lakan:

I really like this depiction of Lakan: he possesses no malice or virtue. At his core, he is a true and frightening neutral piece.

What follows then is one of my favorite exchanges in the series: Jinshi's verbal smackdown with Gyoku-ou. He first punctures Gyoku-ou's scheme by mentioning his merchant father, Gyoku-en:

He then follows it up with the plain rejection of the plan as well as an insult exchange with Gyoku-ou:

(LOL Chue with her thumbs-up! I imagine Gaoshun breaking into cold sweat during the whole exchange though.)

Finally, Jinshi masterfully maneuvers his way out of war by manipulating Lakan:

It took me a minute to pick up my own jaw from the floor because hot damn, that is one hell of a way to squash a brewing war. I adore moments like this when Jinshi fully manifests his shrewd side—the "Imperial Brother" mode, which Maomao described as "a man who could and would use people as pawns".

(And while later on, Gyoku-ou does effectively corner Jinshi into going to war, it isn't so much as Jinshi's lack of political skill as it is Gyoku-ou being really that good of a politician.)

I know we only get snippets of powerplays like this as we are in Maomao's POV 99% of the time, but I absolutely love this chapter and the whole Western Capital 2 arc for dialing the stakes up to a 10. Truly the best arc through and through.

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can I get a job as an editor but the only thing I do is correct when someone uses the word "prone" when they mean "supine"

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Adrinette breakup this, new outfits that, let’s talk about what we really need in season 6

The name of the hamster

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Lakan feels his future son-in-low so well

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Here's a website where Palestine GoFundMes are vetted and shared that you can send out to people. The url is gazafunds.com

Easy to use and simple. Just share the site whenever someone asks for GFMs for Palestine.

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tried drawing Alphi with his long hair down^^

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Hi I feel like this

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Mods are sleep post raid diagrams that look like shit posts

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In the past 24 hours, in Rafah alone, 11 homes have been struck and levelled on top of their residents. This resulted in at least 28 people killed, 11 of which are children and many remain missing under the rubble.

Israel never stopped but it is definitely intensifying its operations.

Keep your eyes on Rafah but also speak up about Rafah and about Gaza. Do what you can because millions of lives are facing a massive threat with absolutely nowhere to go.

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Wrong question, Jinshi

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btw! I was made aware that many people don't know that we're boycotting Eurovision this year, so.

we are boycotting Eurovision, as per BDS guidelines.

don't watch the stream, don't engage with the videos, don't post it about it on social media using hashtags that are going to trend. whatever you're getting from the show isn't worth it

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CONTAINMENT BAY P1T6: THE SCALES OF WISDOM

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they're so silly

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