Hey and thanks for stopping by my blog today. We’re reviewing the ninth episode of RekiAku (AKA I’ll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down In History). This episode featured a cool showdown after Alicia was falsely accused of bullying. Although I enjoyed this episode overall, I’m not sure how objectively good it was, and I am still bothered by Duke and his creepiness. Let’s recap what happened in this installment.

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Episode 9: The Villainess and the Dramatic Chin Lift

Episode Rating: 7/10

Alicia transfers into the same class with Duke and Liz after surpassing the students of the lower grade levels. Despite Alicia’s coldness, Liz continues trying to push the idea of a friendship between them. At the cafeteria that day, Alicia makes it clear that she likes Duke and wants him to be bolder in his pursuit of her. She openly flirts with him in front of Liz, touching his face and lifting it toward hers in a “dramatic chin lift.”

Duke is clearly overjoyed with the attention and promises to be more direct with his efforts. Alicia is also feeling good about things since she established herself as Liz’s romantic rival. However, Liz feels jealous, hurt, and vindictive – if only for a moment. She seems to have unconsciously radiated her negative feelings to the people around her using some form of magic. As a result, Liz herself continues acting nice, while the negative emotions influence her followers to want to punish Alicia.

Before long, Alicia has a strange interaction with a wimpy-looking girl named Marika. Although Alicia was slightly curt, she did nothing rude or bullyish. However, Marika recorded the interaction and edited it to make it sound like Alicia was bullying her. This was a plot by Jane to wreck Alicia’s reputation. Marika and Jane confronted Alicia in front of Liz’s followers and played the recording.

Although most of the people present immediately turned against Alicia, not everyone was affected by Liz’s brainwashing. A timid girl with pale blue hair (named Carol) tried to stand up for Alicia. However, because of her social anxiety, she didn’t leave much of an impact. Alicia would have allowed herself to be painted as a bully, if not for the appearance of a petite but extremely bold girl with pink hair. She presented the actual recording of the interaction with Marika, thus clearing Alicia’s name.

The pink-haired girl is revealed to be Mel, a student who is extremely good at magic and can make herself invisible. She’s been “keeping an eye” on Alicia for many years now as ordered by Duke. In other words, Mel is Duke’s spy. So far, I really love the personality of Mel. Since I’m fond of Alicia, I also want things to work out for her and the guy she likes. However, I still think it was super creepy to use Mel as a spy all this time.

Rather than being creeped out or angry, Alicia seems impressed with Duke’s “villainous” nature. She also got extremely flustered after Gill referred to Duke as “the guy you like.” Oh, young love. On the bright side of things, I guess it’s good that Duke came clean about the spying. Because of that, Mel can now be friends with Alicia, whom she intensely admires. (It was slightly gay, NGL.)

At the end of the episode, Alicia visits Roana to check on Rebecca and the new militia. The leader of the militia is Old Man Will. Out of nowhere, Will confronts Alicia and Gill, saying that he’s about to tell them the truth of his identity. He then reveals that he’s the King’s brother and thus Duke’s uncle. I didn’t see that coming. We’ll have to wait for next week to learn Will’s story and how he ended up banished and blinded. To be continued.

~Thanks for reading~

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Written by 7Mononoke