Another World Craft Life ~The Heartwarming Slow Life of a Free-spirited Production Worker~ - Chapter 40.2

Alicia’s solipsism is in full display this chapter. All she had to do was lean on Miyabi’s authority here and say he appointed her to supervise, or at least be humble enough to relay exactly as she heard from him. But instead she tried to draw situational authority from herself and her “specialness”, not realizing that authority here is something that is given.

It’s quite ironic that Alicia wanted to be special and elevate her family’s status by wielding the sword. Though she could not be a knight, no one in the story so far has opposed her training with the sword or keeping up that talent through other means, meaning she could still wield the sword even as a normal member of the family or even as a bride. Indeed, she would truly be extraordinarily special if she had followed her dream as a child to be a good bride and still trained with the sword, arguably becoming an unprecedented pillar of her house and family by honing her swordcraft and training the next generation. And in a world where women are regularly seen as adventurers, it would be something more readily acceptable to society and nobility than trying to forcefully become a knight. As her own brother said “they serve the Beldinis out of loyalty, not force”. She would even have more status at that point to talk directly to Chiffon casually, though Chiffon does not really care about those barriers.

But through her obsession with merit, she twisted her ambition into contempt for others and ultimately for herself. As her good friend Chiffon said in chapter 21, “perfectionism can become a bitter poison”. And that needless, solipsistic version of perfectionism was a poison that Alicia drank deeply from.