I chalk it up to narrative convenience. It could have been told as a flashback in a future episode or left out entirely, but I think it serves the purpose of world building and character development even if it’s not exactly subtle about either.

We knew that, and Elm knew that, but there’s no reason to assume the shopkeeper knew that. Unless there is, but I’m not gonna go rewatch the scene to find out!

My baseline assumption is that Ruche is figuring things out a bit later than Elm, so if she arrives at a given solution, particularly an obvious solution, Elm probably thought of it and then rejected that solution for some reason. Even supposing that this is not the case, Elm still rejects this solution and argues completely valid reasons for rejecting her solution.

As far as the shopkeeper is concerned, Elm is just another party leader trying to drive a hard bargain to maximize the party’s gold and her suspicion about Elm is that he is taking advantage of Ruche. The crone mentions this early on in their conversation and doesn’t believe Elm when he says it’s not like that.

When Ruche makes her suggestion and Elm refuses despite having wanted that skillbook, she revises her opinion of Elm and Ruche because it is then obvious that Elm is not bargaining in a way that is self-serving or even optimal. Her internal monologue stops short of saying this despite making basic observations and obvious deductions, but withholding the less obvious deductions is a something this show has been doing throughout its run.

I suppose it’s possible that someone might have to rewatch the episode. Or perhaps just rewatching the scene with these three characters might be necessary. Personally I find it funny that the audience is forced to imagine the mental state of these characters right at the point where we no longer have the benefit of hearing their internal monologues.

Personally I liked the episode.

There was some funny stuff like the parody of every other cooking show and it sets stakes for the not-Italians should imperial high command decide to open up yet another war front. There was also a nice contrast set up between what Tanya’s squad was used to and what they were able to experience during that day.

Technically high command might still be angry they could have lost their drunkard general because the not-Italians did a cowardly thing forcing his transport by sea in attempting to maintain their neutrality.

And speaking of easy and cliched writing, Malice is suddenly obsessed with Elymas? That makes zero sense to me, at least only watching the anime. If she was really that obsessed, why wouldn’t she have killed him rather than letting him leave home at the very beginning of the anime?

My hypothesis is that Malice was not in a position to just kill Elm when he was exiled, but his feats as an adventurer could undermine her claim to the position of heir to the head of their House. Her killing of the prisoner highlights two things in particular: she is efficiently power leveling up in a rather game player like way and the other is how ruthlessly she is pursuing her goal of staking her claim.

I guess in a way it wasn’t obvious because Ruche had to sacrifice her share for the trade to work and Elm was still stuck thinking he was working with 20% of the haul because he is still laboring under the assumption that his 20 80 split is the deal he has agreed to.

This works out fine for Ruche because now Elm owes her big, and he has no hope of abandoning her. Probably the hag worked out this strange relationship as well, so Elm got played good by the two women.

Clark does the klutz thing fairly convincingly, though.

I suppose you don’t have to elaborate if you don’t feel like it.

Personally I was surprised at how willing Victoria was in becoming an asset again. Her new agency made clear that they have been watching her, that they know that she was being hunted, that they knew she was involved in the jailbreak, that they killed her pursuers, and that they were able to leak disinformation to stop the hunt.

I suppose one subtext was that they really could have arrested her at any time.