Swallow and Young Starling

Swallow and Young Starling is the twenty-second episode of the Log Horizon anime. It aired on March 1, 2014.

Opening
From a rooftop Nyanta, and Naotsugu observe and comment about how Akihabara has becomes much more lively than usual as the Libra Festival,the first festival since the Apocalypse, nears. Also many of the craft guilds are making items just for the festival. Returning to the street the two encounter Maryelle who has bought so much it won't fit in her magic bag. With the two men in tow as shopping mules the three continue down the street discussing what they will do enjoy the festival. Elsewhere on the busy street Minori is holding a flyer for a cake eating event. Sitting alone looking at her guild's building Akatsuki holds a flyer for the same cake eating event.

Invitations
Detached from the city's activities, Shiroe continues his work until a strong breeze scatters his papers across the room. Henrietta suggests that he take time away to enjoy the festival with everyone. Afterwards, both Minori and Akatsuki attempt to invite Shiroe to the a couple's cake-eating contest. Minori explains to Isuzu that she intends to use the contest's reward, an invitation to Rayneshia's Twilight Dinner Party, to improve the public's trust of Shiroe, which had been wavering as of late.

Contest
The next day, Shiroe participates with both Akatsuki and Minori and the former receives a large amount of envy from the other participants for bringing two girls, which only escalates when Akatsuki and Minori begin competing with each other for his attention. However, the trio end up failing the contest thanks to Kanako's machinations, and while mulling over the day's events atop Log Horizon's headquarters, Shiroe decides to better utilize his time with his guildmates, recommending the shop to harem master Soujiro Seta before doing so. Akatsuki then joins him and they have an awkwardly brief conversation where she shows her feelings for him despite Shiroe's obliviousness. At the same time, Minori catches them and runs away with a broken heart after admitting her feelings for Shiroe to herself. However with encouragement from Tohya, Minori realizes that since she has yet to do anything about her feelings, she has no reason to be sad.

Trivia

 * The Crunchyroll subtitles call this episode "Swallow and Young Starling" opposed to simply "Swallow and Starling" from the novel (the kanji are the same for both, though.)