Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki Part 2 | Episode Nine: Getting Educated.

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Believe it or not, episode nine was actually one of the better episodes because someone other than Souma and his harem stood at its center. Episode nine presented a change in pace, a change of scenery and most importantly, a change in characters. It’s no secret that Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki Part 2 lacked differentiation so having this one-off episode was a welcomed and nice change. This honestly should have happened way earlier in the anime, maybe my opinion on the second part of the series would have been a little different. But hey, that’s neither here nor there.

The subject of slavery

Episode nine covers a more pressing issue, slavery. More importantly, the story of episode nine follows Ginger Camus a boy who inherits his grandfather’s business of slave trading. The catch is, this young boy dislikes slavery and doesn’t want anything to do with being a slave owner, or taking part in the occupation of trading them off for assets. So instead this young boy does everything in his power to make sure the slaves that were under his possession knew how to read, write and do math. So that when the time came from them to depart from his care, these people would be literate and would have the basic tools to free themselves from the world of slavery.

Not only that but Ginger Camus made it a point to all of his slaves that he would only give them away to individuals who would take in their families as well. (As many of the slaves under his possession had children of their own). I admire Ginger in that sense. He doesn’t want to split up the families, he wants them all to be together. He also wants everyone to know how to read, write and know the basics in mathematics. Which is a luxury that slaves are not usually awarded or given. If only our world was as compassionate as Ginger was towards his slaves.

Souma’s big brain

This is where Souma comes in clutch. One of the many things I admire about Souma is that he tries to understand everything from the other’s point of view. That’s what makes him an exceptional ruler because he wants to know everything about the kingdom he governs, from all the good to all the bad. Souma would like to know everything. Souma understood that slavery was a thing and that the national literacy rate was low. So what does Souma do to address both things? Souma issues an order that requires that individuals who own land in his kingdom must know how to read, write and know basic athematic.

Forcing all these nobles to find people who can perform all these things, something that Ginger Camus has taught all his slaves to do.

This is where another big brain play comes in. Souma somehow knew that these nobles will come and see Ginger because somehow Souma knew that Ginger’s slaves could preform the basics and offered him a proposal when it came time for Souma to meet Ginger. Souma offered Ginger the opportunity to be ‘Head of Job Training’ (something similar to that effect). Where he would be tasked with providing basic education to all ‘slaves’ throughout the kingdom preparing them for real paying jobs not just senseless manual labor.

Obviously, the intention is to overturn slavery and to free those trapped within it by providing them with the tools to make former slaves more valuable to society, therefore, makin them more likely to succeed as a result. But by also raising the literacy rate, which as we know benefits everyone.

Episode nine was a great episode in that respect. It was different and it tackled the question of “how to get rid of slavery”. I also really liked that it ended on a relatively happy note, episode nine for sure, was one of the better episodes.