I'm curious about the gears tuning in the thot's eyes. Also, Claude's reaction to her words. Does she have some kind of charm magic or were those supposed to be the gears of fate that revolve around her?
She certainly has magic (she even commented this chapter, when Belzebub tried to attack her, as a forcefield didn't let him and she said something about it finally being the time for something - most likely her delayed awakening as the holy maiden), but I doubt that Claude's reaction was due to it. Going by the gears metaphor, only Aileen, and after the fenrir incident the thot became self-aware gears, and so influenced the others around them. The rest (including Claude) were still not self-aware, and thus when others act according to the way they were supposed to in the game, they have no choice but to act the same. Here, in this chapter, the same thing was happening. The thot played her part (she even said that "she did everything perfectly"), and so the "gears" were trying to force Claude into reacting as he would in the game - however, Aileen did enough things differently that she influenced Claude's path, so it didn't fit anymore in the original game, thus the gear (that would have made him like the thot) broke under the pressure. He most likely did not become self-aware, just changed his path.
SOME SPOILERS AHEAD
I see quite a few of the fans who looked at the raws dislike the love rival (the blond guy). I think it's interesting though. He is apparently Jamil's long time rival and he despises humans. There is no way protective Jamil would let that guy any where near Jan. I can see blonde hurting Jan just to get to Jamil. However, we can see in the raws that Jamil is not chasing the blonde guy away from Jan. The only reason I can think off for this is that the blonde guy also bonds with Jan. If I'm right, then I think it'll be interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing how this guy handles being bonded to Jamil's human.
1). Is it just me, or does the author seem to have a bit of trouble drawing Ariadna as a 14 year old? She seems to look 14 in some parts and younger than 14 in others (more like 10 years old.)
2). What happened with Ariadna's cousin? As I recall, Caitel allowed them (the cousin and the cousin's mother) to stay in the palace but forbid Ariadna from going near them. Has this been settled yet or is it still hanging?
If anyone's interested.
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/i-will-quit-the-entourage-of-the-villainess/
Diablo has gotten really good at bluffing.