Jean has finally found the coup that everyone has been discussing in hushed whispers!
Oh wait never mind. This is just one of many, semi-regular coups, this time in the district of Suitsu, the most isolated district whose citizens are fed up with being cut off from the rest of the country. But this does seem to be Jean’s first brush with a seedier side of his country, one with deeper problems than mere corruption and one that desires change. As he continues to travel through the districts he begins poking and prodding and asking more questions about the coup. He’s still not sure why everyone seems to think that he’s the go-between but Nico, and Director General Mauve, seem to know why.
ACCA-13 continues to spend more time introducing the reader to the different districts that Jean is auditing rather than getting to the heart of things, and while the districts are interesting, it does feel like Natsume Ono just wasn’t quite sure how to get the ball rolling on the larger story. This means that the second half of volume three is much more satisfying than the first half as it digs more into Jean’s personal relationships and ideas, something that has been missing so far with our curiously reserved main character. Jean and Nico have a long talk as Jean has finally discovered that Nico has been tailing him for quite a while now. I always found their relationship to be one of the most interesting parts in the story since it becomes clear that Nico is mixing work and pleasure with his interactions with Jean and that even Nico isn’t sure where that line lies.
As Jean visits the district of Rokkusu, where both of his parents perished in a train accident years earlier, we also get a surprising look into both why Jean wanted to go into ACCA and why he respects Chief Officer Grossular so much, ie, why Jean is disinclined to believe that Grossular is behind the coup, despite what he’s been explicitly told. Funny enough, this strong conviction from Jean, previously unseen, is what makes some other members of ACCA consider him to be such a dangerous character. He may be reserved but he is not a pushover or easily fooled. Honestly, he’s just tired and laid back even when he’s well-rested. And, once he puts his mind to it, he is able to start gleaning information from the leaders of other districts as to what is going on, although a large infodump will be coming in volume 5 with more details.
Concurrently, the story once again shifts focus to look at Prince and heir to the throne Schwan. His interest in Jean’s younger sister Lotte turns out to be for a far more serious reason than “a young man in love, using his extensive powers and privileges to spy on another person.” Where Jean has been traveling around the country and does seem to enjoy doing so, Schwan is walled inside the castle and, even when suggested by his aides, he never seems to have much interest in traveling the country he is set to rule.
In his first appearance, Schwan appears to be a vacuous airhead and, while he still doesn’t appear to be the most empathetic tool in the box, he’s not abjectly stupid either. Schwan doesn’t appear to have heard about this most elusive of coups yet but since it seems clear that he will at some point, I doubt he will take this threat to what he perceives to be his rightful inheritance, his chance to shape Acca and the country of Dowa, laying down. He’s already realized that Jean might be his enemy so it seems that Jean will have even more of a mess on his hands in future volumes.