Ofttimes when Otoyomegatari has veered into deadly serious territory, it’s done so in breakneck fashion.  This time, though, Mori-sensei has taken her time building up to it.  War has been coming for a long time, creeping in around the edges of the narrative without quite intruding directly.  That’s changed now, though, and I suspect “A Bride’s Story” will never be the same.

As I was reading this chapter I was thinking back, trying to remember if we’ve had anyone we really care about die in this series.  There’s Amir’s father of course, but by then he’d thoroughly cast himself as a villain.  And I don’t remember anyone from Karluk’s village dying in that skirmish (though I could certainly be forgetting someone).  I was pretty sure that was going to change here with Niklovski – he was waving some death flags pretty proudly.  But – somehow – he managed to extricate himself to the next chapter.

I’m not convinced that’s not going to change.  Niklovski sacrificing himself for the villager’s daughters – or even their father – seems like a very real possibility.  And of course he may do so for Mr. Smith himself.  I’ve come to really like Niklovski so that would definitely be a sad turn, but the current situation is pretty dire.  A temporary escape into the mountains with the women and children has been secured thanks to Niklovski’s heroism, but the village is burning and the pursuers aren’t bandits, but an army (Russian presumably).

Ali lays it all out there pretty bluntly – “this is too much for me”.  He’s seen enough, and trying to protect Mr. Smith from an army is not what he signed on for.  He might try if Smith asked it of him, and I’ve no doubt Niklovski would without even being asked.  But their urgings to abandon their journey seem hard to rebuff.  That seems incompatible with Mori’s plans for the story, though, so one way or the other something is going to have to give.