It seemed pretty clear that the end of Chapter 66 was going to be the end of the “Karluk Man Training Arc” – one could hardly have imagined a more perfect way to wrap up that episode.  So while it’s bittersweet to say goodbye to Amir and Karluk given that the chapters focusing on them are almost invariably the best side Otoyomegatari has on offer, Mori-sensei has cushioned the blow as well as it possibly could have been cushioned.

Of course, it’s also consolation that the story returns at last to Mr. Smith and Ali, whose long and eventful journey to Ankara has provided some interesting sidebars (some better than others from a narrative standpoint, but all interesting).  For now at least the focus is actually on these two rather than the locals they encounter, which makes a nice change.  In the wake of their misfortune they’ve hooked up with a caravan headed in the same direction, but are currently stalled in a village on the border between between Persia and the Ottoman Empire – the threat of snow on the high mountain passes having convinced the caravan master that proceeding (and putting his goods and animals at risk) would be imprudent.

The tensions with Russia have their fingerprints on the story of Otoyomegatari in many places, but never more than in Mr. Smith’s arc.  And Ali has forced him to take numerous precautions to avoid having the locals (who don’t see a lot of Europeans) come to think that Smith is a Russian agent – he’s telling them he’s a Tatar (often light-skinned and not so exotic to the locals as to stretch credulity) and he’s forbidden Mr. Smith from writing in public.

The enemy of the moment, however, is boredom.  As the days drift by and the master declines to tackles the mountains, Smith grows impatient – he wants to get to Ankara and meet his friend, as well as try to procure a camera (which he’s somewhat surprised to find that Ali has heard of).  But perhaps the most interesting part of this exchange comes when Smith tells Ali that rather than go back home from to England there, he want to return the way he came in order to photograph…  What?  Or who – Amir and Karluk?  The woman he fell in love with, Talas?  In any event Ali does agree to guide Mr. Smith back to Karluk’s village – once the Englishman agrees to double his fee.

One often sense that Mori-sensei will throw in a plot twist here and there just to give herself a chance to show off and have fun – and so it is with Ali deciding to pass the time by giving haircuts to the camels.  And not just the camels, but the local goats, too – anything with four legs, pretty much.  It’s certainly not a development that’s essential to the progression of the story, but it does shed a little light on Ali’s whimsical and artistic side – and, of course, Mori’s drawings of the coiffed critters are as astonishing as you’d expect.