WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Black Clover Episode 149, available now on Crunchyroll.
The current Wizard King, Julius Novochrono, continuously strives to create an environment free of discrimination in the Clover Kingdom. Based on the actions of the Devil Believers, the previous episodes have shown us just how dire it is to achieve this goal quickly. Luckily, our heroes see a potential solution to this problem in this week’s episode of Black Clover.
This week’s episode delves into one of Nero’s memories in particular: the moment when the first Wizard King Lumiere showed her a blueprint of a magic item that both stores and splits mana, essentially increasing an individuals’ overall mana. We’ve seen something like this before in the elves’ magic stones.
Because Lumiere recognized the difference in people’s mana was an issue that caused discrimination among his people, he created the blueprint in the hopes of helping provide mana to those with weaker magical abilities. Though he found this to be the ideal solution to this issue, the item unfortunately never came to be, since more pressing matters had arisen. Nero found it nice that her prince “thought about the future of this kingdom more than anyone else,” though, and there's an echo of this in her interaction with Julius as he observes the blueprint Lumiere had been working on.
While Lumiere was probably the only one focused on the Kingdom’s future in his time, Novachrono makes it clear to Nero that he is honoring the first Wizard King’s will by sending the blueprint to the Magic Item Research Lab, at the Magic Knights’ headquarters, to have the item made. He recognizes that if the magic item had already existed, the Devil Believers might never have been formed. Once again, it is clear that ending discrimination is his top priority.
Bringing Nero down to the basement where Lumiere showed her the blueprint not only serves to give her hope, but also to potentially reassure Novachrono that he was on the right path to ending discrimination, or at least on the path that Lumiere himself wanted to walk.
Novachrono might even take Lumiere’s solution a step further by entrusting Yami with the creation of a non-discriminatory squad, and instilling similar ideas in the mindsets of all of the Magic Knights' captains. Without those two very important additions, ending discrimination may not have been achievable solely through the magic item. These initiatives may well be the foundation that Lumiere hadn’t yet had a chance to create, considering his age’s lack of the necessary technology nor technique to bring it to life.
It is too early to tell if Novachrono’s initiative will truly achieve Lumiere’s original goal to end discrimination, especially since it has existed in the Clover Kingdom for 500 years, but then again, the existence of this item could topple the entire socio-economic system that has been in place. Still, Novachrono’s will and newfound youth provide legitimate hopes in place of Lumiere’s dreams.
