Unsurprising that they'd get unreasonably blamed for the situation, as it's the easiest way out; simply throw someone else into the fire. Sometimes I forget the medieval period is a time when people can be easily killed for no fault of their own. Aside from Ms. Iima the tavern lady, the rest of the villagers can get f-ed by Enberch. Their easy way of life was thanks to Father Franz for getting that deal (and Elsa for trying to maintain that deal by trying to find backers), but they've never once supported Father Franz's daughter or his local church in any way; instead worshiping their snake god for everything good that happened. Only Ms Iima was the one who supported Elsa and Evan's livelihoods.
So they're going to run away from the angry mob looking to make them into scapegoats so the villagers can save their own asses. Fools, as if turning them over as the culprits were going to be enough to make Enberch stop their plotting when their ultimate end goal is to scrap the deal. All they'd do is simply kick the can down the road delaying payments at best, and then Enberch will come back next season to try and screw them over again. The village had the best card to play, an experienced merchant to help them get out of this in the long term, but the idiots can only think in the short term. Speaking of which, what happened to Lawrence agreeing to lend the village chief his merchant's knowledge and money, and getting back the appropriate compensation if he can turn this situation around? Guess that's a tall order with the angry pitchfork and torch mob that can't be reasoned with at the doorstep. Whelp, looks like the daytime drinking is over for the villagers, as they'll have to tighten their bootstraps trying to survive the winter with no reserves after their deal gets scrapped, just as Enberch planned. They may be able to eat their own returned wheat over the winter, but they wouldn't be able to pay them back, so the deal is likely going to be scrapped for good. But now with no miller, an important job that somebody still has to do so the village can eat, the villagers are just cutting their noses off to spite their faces.
I hope Evan took that axe he had with him for self-preservation, but it doesn't look likely as they'll have to ride on Holo's back at high speed. I would have slipped it in my belt on my back with a sheath over it.
Maybe the the village chief hesitated to immediately tie up Lawrence not because of Lawrence mentioning his association connection, or the bag of wheat tribute Lawrence brought as the chief claimed, but because of lingering suspicions that he may be a person of Enberch on official orders. That would seem more likely. But since Lawrence assured him he was simply passing through, neither the village chief nor the villagers have any more reason to "protect" them when all they're doing is threatening them. None of those fools have any foresight, although I can't be too surprised when they have no specialized occupations other than wheat farmers.
I'm curious if Lawrence will still try to fix the situation somehow plaguing the village after Lawrence and crew successfully manage to get to safety, or simply focus all of his efforts solely on running away. Even if he takes the loss of losing his merchandise of wheat in his cart (and the poor horse that's been with him from the start), he can still rebuild his life so long as he's not on the hook and still has his coin purse on him. The villagers can still try and frame him saying the culprit ran away and put a bounty of his head as a fugitive, but Lawrence can just as easily claim he left days ago that would have taken too long via horse, far too soon for them to have enough time for the village to sell his wheat.
Next week's episode will be an exciting one, with only 2 more episodes until the end of this season. |