I... didn't quite expect that. Veda's seemed pretty thoroughly unsentimental, and she's the one who implemented the "points" system with a defined (and non-trivial) cutoff. Still, in retrospect it matches her behavior- personally focusing on Natalie, badgering Garth into giving Felix points for the river-crossing challenge, and picking out the Spirit Sense test for Noah.

It's difficult to tell whether it's a moral thing for Veda, or simply an unwillingness to discard power. After all, even the physically unimpressive (and therefore bad at Spirit Fighting) Noah has made a big difference with just Spirit Magic (his development has been accelerated by his power, but not the outer bounds of his capabilities), and the only people in the project who can't learn Spirit Magic are Fuuka and Alex, whose usefulness is presumably not even in question.

It seems unlikely to be a moral thing - Veda speaks harshly to and about children, and actively sought out Malhart's children, endangering them. Besides, there's the seeming contempt in how Veda talks about Malhart's philanthropy (https://www.neorice.com/hoh_noah_1973). Still... WRT that scene, they say the thing that one hates most is seeing disliked parts of the self reflected in others.

As for why Eloy's talking about this? I just think he has loose lips (he spilled the magic soldiers thing before it was formally revealed) and he likes unsettling Noah.

That's the most realistic outcome, honestly. Even though Veda did mess up quite a bit, the kids did prove their worth. Though I'm not sure she'll be actually prosecuted, she did accomplish her task, and the empire can find a scapegoat rather easily.

Oh, I knew it was about executions.
And ... did he call Noah useless? So where's the catch? Do they have to sacrifice a child to appease some Justopea faction?

Eloy weirdly might in my top 5 favorite characters. Good job on excellent side characters Neo.

I think Eloy just kinda likes Noah and wants to give him an update because he's weirdly kind like that.

I almost wanted to say that he might be trying to slip in some information he's not officially allowed to say, but I think if that were the case he'd just say it straight anyway and then pretend he didn't.

@Cellphone
Was it actually Veda who decided on the points system? I thought it was someone else's idea. I mean, if it was Veda's doing, you'd think she'd just set it up differently rather than try so hard to game it.

I think it's just a matter of cold practicality. Executing a loyal asset, no matter how weak, accomplishes absolutely nothing. The empire's crusade against any magic is something Veda has no interest in or respect for.

@Cellphone, I think Veda knows that magic powers can be quite random, and anyone can end up being useful in the future. Noah started out as a complete failure of a soldier, weak and disappointing in every sense of those words, and now his obscure power saved an entire city which wasn't her focus probably, but still. Felix possesses a honestly pretty incredible pandemonium power - he still needs some training before he reaches his full potential, but he's definitely going to be useful one day. And Natalie is a complete mystery, her power could turn out be literally anything - and the upper range for magic powers is way up in the skies.

And Eloy clearly likes Noah. This is probably what he considers normal. And he also knows he can't get too attached to any of the kids because well, he might be ordered to kill them. Truth is what the Empire says it is and all that.

If Veda wants EVERY magic kid to survive no matter what, clearly each kid has the potential to do something for her, maybe the same thing?

Somehow I feel like the trial is a sham, and the empire will keep her working in the shadows.

So Veda's trial is ongoing which means she has a chance to come out of it still in some position of power.

Arguably she has two scapegoats to avoid punishment.

The first is the secret police who withheld information on what happened in Haven. They knew that there were reasons why taking out Malhart was a bad idea and kept those hidden rather than reveal them when the decision was made to test the Veda Project by taking out Malhart. Their contingency plans then failed due to in some ways their own incompetence as they forgot/lost the number for activating their bombs and impeded other plans. And best of all for use as a scapegoat, the one in charge of that operation is dead and can't defend himself.

The second is the military who ignored the evacuation request.

Like I doubt she gets through the trial unscathed but considering she was able to convince higher-ups to go against their existing policies for the Veda Project I could see her surviving this.

Those deemed useless can have some surprising abilities & uses hidden away. Just look at Noah, who, despite being nonathletic and antithetical to physical effort was useful for finding things nobody else could with Spirit.

Felix is another example. His personality & seeming general incompetence makes him a liability for the most part, but his card power is actually incredibly useful. He could easily carry around an entire army's worth of supplies, and that's ignoring the fact that he seemingly could open any door by making it into a card temporarily.

Gazz is the exact opposite of Noah, great physically, but incapable with his Magical Potential. Give him something like six months of hardcore training and he could theoretically approach being able to challenge the weakest of the Royal Guard in fair one-on-one spar.

Eloy might have loose lips, but he's demonstrated time and again that he's trying to help these kids.

Time for Professor Null to take over I suppose.

I think Veda mostly wanted to have a big army she could kind of control and knew the following things:
- even apparently useless powers can be very useful in the right circumstances.
- you have to seriously raise the stakes if you want to motivate Noah into actually doing anything.
- if the magic kids can be lead to believe that she's their benefactor and that they ower her their lives, that's very good for her.

Is veda alive?

A lack of power is nothing a little magical trauma can’t fix

Now I wonder, is it possible for a magic user to become an Esper with enough magical trauma?

So is it a next level of the dream, or is Noah in real world now? I so, how could he know about Veda's trial, if he was unconscious?

Maybe his dream (with info about outcome of the trial) was a vision of future?

I'm suddenly realizing the concerned-looking physician looks a lot like Dr Mario. :P

@Joe: yes, Veda is alive. She has some sort of magic power that makes her impossible to kill.

Not, however, impossible to maim, so her being alive does not mean she is unharmed.

See from page 3054 "Just give me the order." to page 3058 "Don't expect answers from me, creep."

Notably Nail saying "Veda, you're still alive, this power can't possibly rewrite..." and Hallowman saying "I can't seem to kill her. I can hurt and maim her all I wish, but anything that would be fatal... it's like my very body betrays me."

See also how Veda's punishment for the Haven disaster was exile. Not execution. Despite how much every authority in Justopea loves execution, and despite the enormous gravity of what befell the people of Haven, they couldn't manage to sentence her to death.

@someone
Veda's punishment is still undecided, otherwise Eloy wouldn't be saying that she is currently on trial. The newscast we heard was in a dream and thus not real.

But yeah unless something massively changed, they wouldn't be able to execute her, true.

@Saiko
Probably just a logical extrapolation, either by Hallowman or by Noah's subconscious itself. He was present when Hallowman was talking about her immortality, so exile being the result would be a reasonable assumption to make.