Grab it in Your Hand

Grab it in Your Hand (その手につかみとれ) is the 10th episode of the Log Horizon anime. It first aired on December 10, 2013.

Synopsis
The main events of this episode take place a week after the Round Table Conference. However, a sizeable portion of the episode is a flashback to the conference.

Round Table Conference
Maryelle reveals the secret of creating good-tasing food to the alliance members. The other guild master are surprised to learn that the "trick" is simply that a player with the Chef subclass must use ingredients to cook the food as it's cooked in the real world, not using the command menu.

This provides a segue for Shiroe to introduce the broader implications of this discovery. At Shiroe's prompt, Michitaka reveals that his guild, in cooperation with the Roderic Merchant Guild and the 8th Shopping District Center Guild, has created a proof-of-concept prototype for a steam engine. Achieved in just 12 hours, this achievement proves that the secret to cooking is not limited only to cooking. Shiroe explains that even though steam engines were not part of the original Elder Tale game world, a player with sufficient crafting skill can use their own hands (not the command menu) to invent entirely new items.

The guild masters of the three main production guilds express their support for the Round Table Alliance by explaining that once this knowledge becomes widespread, there will be a rush to invent new items and purchase them. This increased consumption will reinvigorate Akiba's economy and ensure a favorable economic environment for the production guilds.

Shiroe agrees with their calculus by adding that one of the reasons why players feel a sense of despair is that there's not enough for them to do. Simply put, he says that "surviving in this world costs too little money." He rationalizes that providing an outlet for people to spend their gold will inspire them to earn more money through raids or production. Bodyguard work for battle guilds will increase as more players venture out of the city in search of ingredients.

Moving on to laws and security, Shiroe says that conflict over hunting grounds should be viewed as a form of competition and not banned outright. This being said, he asserts that there are certain things that need to be banned—specifically, PKing. He suggests that the Alliance ban PKing in the low-level zones around the city of Akiba. He also brings up the issue of human rights by commenting that kidnapping and imprisonment are much graver problems in Elder Tale than in the real world because death is not absolute. He further notes that no player should be forced to join a guild and that joining or leaving one should be each player's individual choice.

Then, to the other guild masters' surprise, he adds that these laws should not only apply to adventurers but to NPCs as well. By way of explaination, he continues that the Elder Tale world they are all experiencing is influenced by the Elder Tale game but is not the same. He cautions that, at the same time, it is also different from the real world, and this world's original residents are in fact the NPCs—who now have their own personalities, concerns, and dreams. Moreover, adventurers are both outsiders and the minority.

Isaac rebuffs Shiroe's speech by saying that the idea that NPCs should be given the same rights as adventurers is idiocy. At this point, Maryelle interjects with the comment that the Crescent Moon's customers are not just players but also include NPCs. Shiroe backs up her instance on the humanity of NPCs by concluding that many NPCs work at the market and the guild meeting hall and are indispensable for the smooth functioning of Akiba. In short, he says that adventurers can't get by without them but they would probably be perfectly fine without adventurers.

He warns that if adventurers can't figure out how to govern themselves, relations between adventurers and NPCs will be irreconcilably damaged.

This sets the stage for the unanswered question of whether war between adventurers and NPCs might be a possibility. With this sobering thought as a backdrop, the main battle guilds express their support for the Round Table Alliance.

Post-Conference Events
After the Round Table Alliance is founded, the secret of cooking is widely publicized, and the Alliance collectively introduces its leadership over Akiba. Krusty announces the Alliance's new laws and regulations, while the Roderic Merchant Guild led by Rodrick takes the lead in gathering information about the disabled Fairy Rings and the state of affairs in other zones. Honesty guild master Eins also appears to have been assigned the role of implementing a tax of one gold coin for each use of the guild meeting hall. Meanwhile, Shiroe stays in the background and allows the others to be the Alliance's public face.

Some time afterward, Maryelle and Henrietta comment to each other the Hamelin guild seems to have disbanded and its members without exception departed Akiba. After being denied access to the Guild Meeting Hall, the members were trapped inside of their own guild hall until they realized they could use the Call of Home spell to transport themselves to Akiba's gate. A few members escaped by killing themselves and reviving at the Cathedral. All of the children being forcefully held by Hamelin decided to join the Crescent Moon Alliance, which subsequently moved into a larger guild hall to accommodate its expanded membership.

Meanwhile, Shiroe's Log Horizon guild moves into its new quarters. As the guild's members clean and arrange furniture, they recieve visits from the guild masters of other guilds including Karashin (who suggests hiring NPCs to handle the Round Table Alliance's paperwork), Maryelle and Henrietta (who bring a new kimono for Akatsuki and a ton of fried food for everyone else), Soujiro and Nazuna (who bring cherry sake for Nyanta), and Isaac who arrives with several summoners from his guild. They summon undine in cosplay attire who clean the guild hall with strong spurts of water.

Shiroe explains that the guild hall was actually inexpensive because not only is the building far from the city center, but also a giant tree grew through the center of the building and destroyed the elevator hallway and stairway. They had Michitaka's Marine Agency guild handle the renovations, but the process revealed the realization that not even the major production guilds know how to accurately charge for goods and services.

As Maryelle and Henrietta leave, Shiroe asks after Tohya and Minori. They hint at having some news of the twins but leave without disclosing any details. Shortly after, Nyanta steps out to purchase ingredients for dinner but returns with Minori and Tohya instead of vegetables. They reveal that instead of joining the Crescent Moon Alliance with the other new players freed from Hamelin's control, they want to join Log Horizon to thank Shiroe for his past help.

When Shiroe hesitates, Nyanta reminds him that he's now a guild master (and needs to behave like a leader). Shiroe then welcomes the two new additions to Log Horizon and, as their first mission, instructs them to eat curry with the guild's leaders. As the afternoon wears into evening, all six members gather together around a fire under the stars and eat curry together.