It’s been a bit now since chapter 131 was published but I am very slow and I’d like to say something about it; specifically about this particular part.

I love the way Lily smiles in this panel. Of all the Lily smiles we get throughout the entire manga, I think this is one of the best. Which is no small feat, because Lily is smiling most of the time he gets to be part of the story, even when busy with things like beheading some clown he found in a back alley, or being attacked by creepy puppet versions of himself, or scaring the living daylights out of his Eve’s shitty father. His habit of always smiling is even acknowledged in what I’d consider some of the more meta (but still official) Servamp content we have, like Lust pair’s (absolutely bonkers) Idol Drama CD track.

This is me, the always smiling, soothing-type big brother, the one where all the love is gathered, the lusty vampire, Snow Lily.

Of course by now we can assume that – like many things about Lily – his smiles aren’t entirely honest. Lily is guarding his truths very well, and he has always presented himself as harmless and sometimes downright ditzy while leaving no clues as to how he actually feels about the events going on around him, hiding it all away behind a smile. Misono even comments on this in Lust pair’s shared character song “Not Fragile Love”: 

What the two of us have built up over time now crumbles,What have you continued to hide from me behind that smile?

This panel, and this expression are the culmination of all that, I like to think. This calm, eerie smile in the face of Misono’s fury is nothing but a facade, and what a good one at that – we have no idea what his thoughts might be. The only thing we can be sure of with Lily, I think, is that he loves Misono (this is all for him, after all); and yet he doesn’t seem upset at all that Misono is currently not very happy with him, or may even never forgive him at all, as he himself stated. We can only guess that he might not be as pleased as he shows himself to be.

Misono’s challenge is to break his Servamp’s facade. When Lily’s betrayal was revealed I remember someone saying it is as though lust pair’s arc all the way back in volume four didn’t even happen; but I don’t think that is true at all – the lust arc we already had was needed to make Misono into someone capable of doing what he needs to do now; capable of seeing beyond the walls someone put up, to offer his love and to reach out himself when it is rejected, like he has watched his friends do before, time and time again. 

I love volume four with all my heart and I maintain it’s the best Servamp as a series has ever been (though maybe, the coming chapters are about to prove me wrong). But the story back then wasn’t really about Lily all that much. He didn’t go through any major changes, he only allowed hints of himself and his past to be revealed while all the big secrets we learned were about the Alicein family rather than him. Lily’s turn to be changed is now, and he will experience his change at the hands of Misono, who has come all the way back to him, back to the chess board, back to the very first technique he learned to use through his bond with Lily. 

Misono has gathered the strength to crack him open like a geode, has learned to meet all he finds inside with kindness, and compassion, and love. He will wipe that smile right off of Lily’s face.