Nanaten's Random Friday
Nanaten here procrastinating again. Looking back to my first impression posts, I realized that I'm terrible at reviews. So I might as well give up and just spoil the whole thing. This time I'm doing Corseltel no Ryuujutsushi Spin-off manga, Illbeck no Ryuujutsushi by Ayuma Isurugi.
All of the scans are taken from Purple Candy's blog. If anyone of you knew Chinese, say hi to him.
Anyway, here we go. Ultimate Spoiler Warning
Illbeck no Seireijutsushi (Spirit Mage of Illbeck)
Story and Art: Ayuma ISURUGI
Publisher: Ichijinsha (Zero-Sum Magazine)
Status: Complete (2 Volumes)
Little background story: as explained in volume 2 of CnR, Spirit Mage is someone who use the power of spirits. However, unlike Dragon mages, spirit mages locked their spirits inside a cage. This is the common practice and those who don't keep their spirits are called Empty Mages. And as I explained at volume 8 of CnRM, there are two spirits of the moon: Illbeck and Corseltel. Both places in this series are named after them. However, unlike CnR, the title Illbeck does not refer to the place, but the actual spirit.
The manga begins with one of the empty mage girl, Cleria, looking for a job. Then she met a mysterious woman (This is actually Milleu's mother, Ekaterina). She offered her a job she claimed only Cleria can do. Cleria accepts and literally blown away.
She landed and finds a collapsed man near an abandoned village. The man introduced himself as Etwass, a man with Travelling Moon Spirit Illbeck living inside of him. Etwass wanted to free Illbeck from his body. However, doing that would cost him his life. Cleria refused and Etwass decided to jump off a cliff. Cleria follows and Etwass used Illbbeck's power to save her.
A flashback sequence starts and Etwass childhood is revealed. The abandoned village is Etwass'. Everyone died because Illbeck's power inside him was too powerful (or something). His only companion was a Forest King Spirit, Kururu. Then Cleria met Illbeck during the sequence. Illbeck wants Cleria to take care of Etwass because he's too weak to control his power. She wanted him to live as a human and live a happy life. Cleria and Etwass (with Kururu in tow) decided to travel together.
Cleria and Etwass arrived at a city. Running low on cash, Cleria decided to look for a job request. On her job, she uses spirit magic to leave her body (the same magic Kadio accidentally use in CnRM volume 2) to free a water spirit. This leaves her body vulnerable to black spirit, leaving Etwass to protect her. He met a mysterious man called Bica. After the confrontation with the black spirits, Bica decided to help them looking for Sleeping Moon Spirit, Corseltel.
While gathering information, Cleria and Etwass runs into Chief Mage of the country and her disciples. The Chief Mage recognize Illbeck inside of Etwass and ordered her disciples to chase them. After accidentally freed the disciple's spirits, Etwass and Cleria ran away. Kadio's spirit mage teacher also made an appearance. It is revealed that Cleria also studied under his tutelage. During their report, the disciple let Cleria's name slipped on accident, causing the whole mage association looking for her.
To escape, the city, Cleria split up with Etwass and Bica, but she couldn't escape. Bica decided to look for her. Feeling useless, Etwass was left alone. Then he met a mysterious man (Milleu) who taught him how to use his moon power. After all of them managed to overpowered their pursuers, the man introduced himself as their spirit teacher. He taught Etwass how to utilize his moon power to talk to cleria from afar and boost other spirits' power. Then he revealed Bica's real name and gender before he leave.
After that, the trio entered a crystal cave. But the spirit of land (and Craybelle's brother) Kalnas, in fear of Illbeck, captured Etwass and locked him inside of a crystal. Etwass passed out and another flashback sequence starts. During Etwass childhood, Illbeck almost give up on being a human and temporarily left Etwass' body. While traveling, she encountered young Marciel floating on a river (the details of their encounter is explained in the bonus chapter). Etwass then reach an understanding with Illbeck.
While looking for him, Cleria tripped on a teleporter and got send off to Corseltel. After Cleria mistook Ranbalus for a bandit, she escaped and got lost in Agrina's basement. Meanwhile, Bica persuaded Kalnas to let Etwass out in exchange of never entering Corseltel. But after hearing that Cleria was teleported there. Etwass decided to go look for her while also threatening to destroy the world is something were happen to her.
Kadio used spirit magic to get Cleria out of the basement. But once she's outside, she was caught by sleeping moon spirit Corseltel. Marciel arrived and with his and his dragons' help, she was able to escape Corseltel's dream. Etwass decided to have a talk with Corseltel. Chaos happened as two moons appeared at Corseltel. With the help of dragon mages, Cleria was able to control Illbeck's power and crisis was averted. Illbeck and Corseltel then have a proper talk instead of fighting like everyone in the series have assumed. Illbeck decided to walk on earth as a human and Corseltel decided to wake up someday. Etwass then pass out due to exhaustion. What happens during their stay at Corseltel is explained in CnR-KM volume 6.
Few days later, Bica and Milleu arrived just outside of Corseltel. However, Milleu told Bica that she cannot enter Corseltel... yet. Etwass and Cleria soon appeared and fly to them.
Based on how CnR explained, I have an assumption that Spirit Mages are evil mages. You know, enslaving spirits and use them dry. But now I see they're just like pokemon trainers: enslaving spirits, use them dry, and keep them inside a small cage. This is a light-hearted series, so of course violence is out of the question.
It's funny of how each character's react (mostly Etwass) when something about them is revealed, like how Cleria is able to make money despite being an empty mage, Bica's identity, all of them are played for laughs.
Many reference to the main series are made of course. And despite of appearing for only one chapter, Ekaterina made a great real first appearance in the series. It's funny how she and Milleu managed to overcomplicate things by not explaining anything to InS and CnR characters. Marcial, his dragons, and most CnR characters faces are not shown for the entire series because from InS perspective, they're outsiders.
The new characters are fun and great addition to the series. It's always great to know about the world surrounding Corseltel and its lore. And knowing this is not the last time we'll see them in this series make me joyful.
The bonus contents are fun. It details the first meeting of Marciel and Illbeck that leads to Marciel's arrival in Corseltel. Some part of Marciel's family is also revealed, completing the circle.
That's my summary for InS. Sorry if it's a little bit messy. If you like it, I might be writing about what happened in CnR-KM side during this arc (volume 5 and 6).