Connie has been somewhat reluctantly following the legendary evil woman Scarlett’s orders, but the ghost has helped her out at several times. But as loan sharks get more abrasive about demanding repayment, Connie realizes she can’t just live her life being sincere. If she has to blackmail someone to help her, she’ll do it to protect her family. And with Scarlett’s excellent memory and assistance, perhaps even the former honest-to-a-fault girl can be a villainess.
…Or not, as you can take the girl out of sincerity, but you can’t take the sincerity out of the girl. Or something like that. All Scarlett knows is that Connie is an idiot.
But as The Holy Grail of Eris volume 3 shows, despite her words, Scarlett has become rather fond of the Grail girl. With a personality like Scarlett’s, it’s easy to understand why she doesn’t have many friends, but as we see here, there are people she truly treasures. When Connie reacts in a way Scarlett doesn’t expect about someone close to the ghost, Scarlett opens up a bit. And later, when Connie is a sitting duck during a raid at a shady party, Scarlett begs Connie and hurls insults to try to convince her to leave a collapsed woman.
Yes, Connie may be willing to get into some shady business (like sneaking into Scarlett’s house to steal — er, borrow a mask), but Connie still has her sincere heart. Of course, at times, it seems like her kindness is going to be her downfall. And trouble is easy to fall into with all the debauchery going on in the nobility, like murders, slave auctions, and suspicious vials. With all of that comes some sniffing around by officials, namely Randolph Ulster.
Randolph realized Connie’s nun ruse, and he encounters her twice more in volume 3. And with his third appearance, he cements his status as a main character. Scarlett can’t stand to be around him, and Connie realizes it’s due to Randolph’s serious yet offbeat personality. As a character, though, he doesn’t come across as very interesting. Scarlett yells that Randolph “always has the most insane ideas”, and while his latest catches both her and Connie completely off-guard, it’s not really the laugh-out-loud moment it’s meant to be. As Connie (and readers) discover the man nicknamed His Excellency the Grim Reaper isn’t as cold as his name suggests, there is a distinct lack of chemistry between him and Connie.
Connie and Scarlett, though, are a delight to witness growing closer. And the irony of Scarlett being infamous for her wickedness while other nobles engage in illicit affairs, drugging, and slavery is not lost, making readers root for Scarlett to get some sort of vengeance. And the manga is doing well to provide some important clues and building up toward the meaning behind Lily’s last words.