I Feel Like A Lot Of People Do Not Realize The Full Implication Of The Fact That Laios And Mithrun Didn't

i feel like a lot of people do not realize the full implication of the fact that laios and mithrun didn't interact until the last few chapters of the manga. this right here was their first interaction.

i don't think it was a coincidence. there were plenty of situations where they were in a one "room" together, but never had an opportunity to talk: the narrative always made them miss a conversation, one of them was either unconscious or dead or something distracted them etc. the main reason for it is to create tension in the plot, of course, because the inability to properly communicate between two people who work for two different but ultimately reasonable goals is a reliable way to create conflict in your story.

but the other reason why it was written like this is hidden in character development and only becomes obvious when they finally talk. because mithrun doesn't know laios, he barely has an idea of what kind of person he is, he's just some random young tallman to him. but out of the blue he trusts him with literally the most important thing in his life. why? because he knows that kabru trusts laios. and mithrun trusts kabru's judgement.

and like, mithrun is still very pissed at kabru at that point, because kabru forcefully stopped him from going after the demon, but when i'm saying that at this point in the story their conflict is a lot more personal than ideological, that's what i mean. he's angry but he still trusts kabru the most, he's on his side, even if he didn't fully realize it until this point (and he's stubborn as hell).

this is also why kabru is such an integral character to the plot, it's not that he simply helped laios along the way, he is the one who connects people. he was the reason why the good ending was even possible.

this is also what makes the slap scene even more hilarious. because just like the fistfight scene with toshiro and laios was the moment of weakness for both of them, this scene is not only kabru's (and marcille's) moment of weakness and panic, but mithrun's too! i bet his thoughts right there were: "maybe it is your fault actually, you stopped me and you trusted this guy and i listened to you and now the world is ending". and kabru didn't even understand what's happening, because this is the first time mithrun spoke to him in hours.