Jun 29, 2020
I decided on the tumbs-up for this chapter. 
I feel like it flows so much better than the first chapter. The paragraphs were less daunting to read, and there was less telling and more showing (though there was still a great lot of telling in here).
Don't think I didn't notice.
This chapter clearly mirrors chapter 1, as they happen in tandem, as two parallel sides of the same day.
From both waking up to starting their day, interacting with the people around them, their backstory since the prologue and finally the incident with the cart at the end of both chapters, they show the two very different lives of two girls who can't quite forget that one childhood friend they miss (and probably fall in love with once they meet again, which is what I'm looking forward to most).
While we're on that topic of yuri, let's skip ahead and screw with continuity and my typical start-to-finish attitude.
There was this one scene where Eleanor thought about how she could choose her own husband, and I was just like 'if you still think that's going to be a man, then you're in for a surprise.'
The author (don't know if Lily or Jay did this one) also placed hints towards that outcome throughout the chapter, like Eleanor thinking positively about Helene, but her not liking guns as they are 'masculine display-pieces of power' or something.
Sorry for forgetting the exact wording, but I'll not go through that long-ass chapter again and search for it.
You know what I mean if you read that chapter.
This is all so peaceful.
From the moment Eleanor wakes up, there is a very stark contrast to Helene's life. There's no one who's about to die, no rude people around her, she's calm, collected, and at most exasperated with the people around her.
Helene was outgoing, a rascal, and open about her irritation, while there's no irritation in this chapter at all.
She just calmly talks (thinks) about all the good people around her, about how her father is nice to servants, about how the servants are nice to her, about how her brother has a good woman to marry, just calm, calmer, the calmest. Everything seems fine, except for that one part... well, there are two.
The first one is when the second song about the Fox-Valley story is played.
It's not as happy as the first one and the general tone of this chapter, and it's hinted that Eleanor's father knows something more.
He's the ruler, after all.
He probably has some insight on the past and the truth behind this national treasure of a story collection that was distributed all over the place.
We don't even know and can't even confirm that it's the actual stuff that's written in the original, so that mystery still remains.
Maybe the OG copy contains the end, or many more stories like this one?
Maybe it's not just legends and stories, but the actual truth about the past someone wants to conceal?
Questions and questions...
By the way, there was something in the first song people in Germany would call 'Flowfehler'.
Poems and song lyrics are always hard, but I really tried and I couldn't get the rhythm right. Thus I challenge Jay to sing this one in the next Orion podcast so that I know how it should flow.
Because I think the number of syllables for each row should be 8, but two of those have like 9 and it completely throws me off.
Your average reader probably won't notice, though.
Maybe it was intended like that, too, so let's wait for the answer, I guess.
(I still want you to sing that one, Jay!)
Another thing that mirrors the first chapter is the part where Eleanor thinks about how Helene probably grew up to be more womanly.
The exact wording is something akin to 'having acquired more womanly traits.'
It's cute how she believes in her friend being alive, though she was told otherwise.
Maybe they have a telepathic connection?
Star-crossed lovers or something, perhaps?
Well, it's like we started on one road which separated, then met again sometimes later, only to separate again.
The one we started on being the prologue, the separation being the days in the lives of Helene and Eleanor, and the interception being the ending scene with the cart.
Another mirroring event, with how they both just suspected this other person to be there.
I can't wait to see how their journey continues...
Ine Airlcana
