Ranking of Kings: The Treasure Chest of Courage Episode 10

Kings and Cursed Swords

I’m a week late. But, Ranking of Kings: The Treasure Chest of Courage Episode 10 was the best episode of the season. It followed Desha, Despa, and Ouken, who are some of my favorite characters. And it gave us a lot of lore.

At the start of Episode 10, we see King Desha looking through the treasures in the vault. And the items that first catch his eye are swords with glowing text on them. According to the ranker (I guess we’ll call him that), every previous king chose one of these swords.

So, what makes these swords so special? Apparently, if you’re able to figure out what the text on them says, you can have any wish granted. If Desha translates the text, he’d be able to restore Ouken’s humanity. But, Desha chooses to pass over these swords.

Why would he do that? Well, Desha is the first king to rightly see that these are cursed swords. Or, maybe other kings recognized that fact but didn’t care. How are they cursed, though? As Desha says, they have a very strong bloodlust. These swords require a blood sacrifice.

What that means is that the kings who chose these swords were compelled to fight. They always needed to be going to war in order to give the swords more blood. But, why would they do that? Do the swords force them to do this? Not quite.

You see, when exposed to sunlight, the swords begin disintegrating. And the only way to prevent this is to give them blood. So, the reason the kings had to keep going to war was to keep the swords from disappearing. If their sword disappears, they can’t have their wish granted by deciphering its text.

Prince Ouken Returns

After passing up on the cursed swords, Desha goes deeper into the vault. On his way, he passes what appears to be the corpse of a slain king. Nobody knows who he was. But, due to the location of his corpse, I’m going to guess he was the first king.

Beyond the corpse is where the real treasure lies. There are cells housing demons. One has a mature, dried-up demon within it. But, another has a child demon, ripe for granting wishes. And this is the treasure Desha selects. He’s going to make a deal with a devil.

And, it turns out that Desha’s wish came true. The contract was a success and Ouken regained his mortality (and humanity). But, this is a contract with a demon. At first, I forgot about that. I was thinking that he got a wish granted at the expense of the demon child.

So, what did Desha give the demon in exchange for Ouken’s humanity? He gave up himself. Desha traded his memories for Ouken’s mortality. And that’s why we saw him disheveled on the side of the road at the start of the episode.

He’s forgotten who he is.

Of course, it doesn’t take long for Despa and Ouken to realize something is wrong. Desha stops responding to Despa’s messages. So, Ouken heads to the vault to find out what happened to his older brother. And, he was able to make his way in with little resistance.

Throughout the first season of Ranking of Kings, it was Desha and Despa who were trying to save Ouken. But now, it’s Ouken and Despa who are trying to save Desha. Does this mean something’s going to happen to Despa next? Will Desha and Ouken have to save him?

The Truth of the Ranking of Kings

There are many mysteries surrounding the ranking of kings. For starters, why does it exist at all? Why does the #1 ranked king get to choose an item from the vault? Who’s in charge of the whole process?

Even the ranker doesn’t seem to have the answers. When Desha opts not to choose one of the cursed swords, the ranker thinks he may be the “chosen one.” He thinks Desha may be the one who can unravel the mystery of the ranking of kings.

There are more mysteries than just those, though. Whose corpse is in the vault? Why are there demons caged in the vault? And, who are the shadowy figures who appear to preside over the vault? We don’t have answers to any of these questions. But, I have a bit of a theory about that last one.

After meeting with the shadowy figures in the vault, Ouken changes his tune. He went there ready to fight. But, something he saw in there changed him. That’s when he learned that Desha lost his memories. So, who are those figures?

My guess is that they’re the #1 ranked kings.

One of the shadowy figures looks a lot like Desha. And it’s after leaving that room that Ouken fights a god king. During this fight, he thinks back to something Desha once told him. He should avoid fighting gods unless there’s something he needs to protect.

So, what was it that Ouken needed to protect here? His brother. But, how could Desha be in the vault? We already saw him out on the side of the road. I’m predicting that the shadowy figure in the vault is what used to be Desha. It’s the memories he lost to the demon.

Conclusion

What do you think of Ranking of Kings: The Treasure Chest of Courage Episode 10? Would you have picked one of the cursed swords? Did you expect to see Ouken’s humanity return in this episode? And, what do you think the truth behind the ranking of kings is? Let me know in the comments.

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