Villain in Glasses

Villain in Glasses is the 8th episode of the Log Horizon anime. It covers a later portion of The Knights of Camelot chapter 3.

Cold Open
Quests are missions that adventurers can undertake, from solving kidnappings, to grand campaigns ; each granting rewards such as loot or knowledge, among them the Griffin whistles that Nyanta, Shiroe, and Naotsugu own.

Shopping District 8
Calasin, the guild master of the Shopping District 8, and his assistant Taro discuss the increasing difficulty of gathering ingredients in this world. Many players have switched to crafting professions because fighting monsters in one's own body is frightening. The other top production guilds have assimilated smaller crafting guilds, bolstering their influence over the market. For this reason, Calasin says that they need to take full advantage of the opportunity to negotiate with Marielle.

Inside the Crescent Moon Alliance guild hall, Henrietta coddles Akatsuki before she undertakes the negotiation between the production guilds and Crescent Moon Alliance. At the Dragon’s Nest cafe, Calasin arrives first to the table, having been acquainted with Marielle long ago. Marielle explains to him that they need a supply chain for ingredients, so he asks for the quantity and the price. Henrietta makes the price point of 60,000 gold, but Calasin presses Marielle to consider a full partnership with Shopping District 8. Marielle remembers Shiroe’s words : she only needs to smile while Henrietta dealt with the negotiations.

Henrietta informs him of the arrival of Michitaka, the guild master of Marine Organization, and Roderick, the guild master of the Roderick Firm, who are invited to negotiate an investment deal. Pressured to get a chance to negotiate the investment, Calasin offers the supplies at 50,000, but Henrietta haggles him to settle for 30,000.

Minori's side
In Hamelin's guild hall, Minori is doing forced crafting labor. She has received numerous calls from Shiroe since that day and he has made many friends. Minori realizes that even though they are in the same world, their situations are the opposite.

Minori provides her perspective on the world as she flashes back to the first few days of the Catastrophe. She was very afraid, while Touya was ecstatic about the opportunity to walk and run in this world, having fun with new experiences. They realize that they are still receiving EXP Pots, which encourages Touya, and eventually Minori to continue exploring the world.

One day, while they were exploring, the pair get PK'd by Dread Pack. They revive at the Cathedral, only to discover that they have lost all their items and gold. Only in that moment do they remember Shiroe's advice about keeping their valuables in the bank. While despairing in the rain, they are approached by Shredder, who invites them into his guild for protection. Desperate, the siblings accepted, leading to their current situation. Minori despairs over her inability to make it in the world, or to protect her younger brother, and starts to think they don't deserve to be rescued by Shiroe.

Production Guilds
Michitaka and Roderick arrive to the table, totaling three guilds at play. Henrietta knows that this moment is imperative, so she starts the discussion by explaining Calasin’s involvement in the Crescent Moon stand. After reveal this information, Henrietta analyses their reactions and notes that Michitaka has well-respected strength and will, but his weak point is his lack of subtlety, while Roderick is quite calculating much like Shiroe, though he lacks Shiroe's boldness.

Henrietta remembers Shiroe's instruction that their only offering is the "new" method of preparing food that Crescent Moon uses, along with all of their recipes. This would reveal to be the easiest secret in the world, so they need to settle the deal before word gets out. He states that they have a knowledge advantage since the production guilds are only seeking profit from the burger stand, giving Henrietta the ability to provide whatever amount of information she needed. At the same time, she had to refrain from lying in order to protect integrity.

Henrietta reveals that they need help for a grand scale operation, which makes Roderick suspect that the Crescent Moon is on a quest. She leaves his assumption uncorrected to lead him off, since she wasn’t technically providing false information. Henrietta continues by revealing that Shiroe, the "Villain in Glasses", is the mastermind behind this plan, surprising the leaders and boosting her credibility. Meanwhile Shiroe sneezes while transcribing, and Akatsuki asks if he is sick, he replies that he doesn't know if it's possible to get sick in this world.

Henrietta and Marielle ask for a five million gold investment, something that has been unheard of in Elder Tale. The sheer magnitude of the investment makes the guild leaders think they are giving money towards a legendary new quest that they do not know about, and perhaps they can't make a big profit if they invest in this project.

Marielle distracts them by offering a new custard made with ingredients from level 85, which make them think that they have new recipes from level 90. Henrietta explains that after the operation is successfully completed, the Crescent Moon Alliance will inform all the investors of the details, along with all the recipes and research of the food they’ve made. She then says that multiple guilds have been invited to invest because a single investor would be financially vulnerable. The guilds all agree to finance, but Michitaka offers to fulfill the deal as the sole sponsor, to the other leaders’ outrage.

Prelude for the Conference
Touya asks for notices of Shiroe from Minori, he then tells that he saw Shiroe the other day, but he couldn't call for his help because he doesn't deserve the right Shiroe for rescue them, reminiscing to be more like him.

In the next scene, Henrietta and Marielle are resting from the strenuous negotiations when Naotsugu, Nyanta, and Akatsuki arrive with sweets. When asked about Shiroe, Nyanta replies that he had faith in the two ladies, causing Henrietta to call him a true "Villain in Glasses."

That night, Isaac of Black Sword Knights splits his squad for sparring. Rezarick asks him about the invitation from the Crescent Moon Alliance and Log Horizon, recollecting Marielle’s unsuccessful conference. Isaac replies that he's less intrigued about her and more about Shiroe. At D.D.D's guild hall, Krusty decides to cancel the next raid in favor of attending the meeting, mainly because of Shiroe's involvement. At the same time, Shiroe uses telepathy to talk to Minori indicating that he will make a move to save her soon, and she resolves to follow in his footsteps.

Trivia

 * Changes from the light novel :
 * Marielle and Henrietta do not change outfits like they did in The Knights of Camelot or in Honey Moon Logs. Marielle wore a white blouse and long mermaid skirt with a shawl, while Henrietta wore a monotone dress and a black ribbon in her hair.
 * In the light novel, Calasin was the one to set the initial supply chain price at 50,000, with Henrietta haggling it to 40,000.