Holy s*** what a pull.

I don't think he explained it the most completely but, I think he was more or less trying to say he respects the man because he respects the ideal the man represented to him, it's like how there are people that respect Michael Jordan as a person despite the fact that they know he was a degenerate gambler, kind of an asshole, a bit arrogant (or in other words flawed), simply because of what he represents as a Target to them, because at the end of the day that is part of idolization, you make them an idol - an object - a thing to be desired less so than a person, then even if the person isn't perfect, the idol can take their place and enable you to see them as who you want them to be as you continue to stubbornly reject who they are.

In Mikhail's case it let him hold on to the respect he had for this man when he was more decent, despite the fact that he long stopped being that man.

He said it was envy and yearning, maybe she was possessed by a deep desire to have something instead of jealousy for the lack of what she has. I do hope we get an answer at some point because they went out of their way to point out what color her thing was and that he didn't know it.

Oh hey isn't that what Vegeta did with SSB vs. Goku black.

I'm up to chapter 29, It's a pretty solid series, the world building is strange but not inconsistent (the architecture screams Old world Europe but they have a lot of modern technology, though so far that can be somewhat explained by the fact that we were apparently in the two poorest parts of the world, there are 48 better parts that apparently get bigger - nicer -and more advanced the farther up you go, magic is available, and the technology that flowed down to the poorer areas, is the technology that flowed down to the poorer areas in the real world too: weapons and vehicles.)
The main character is un-emotive - but not flat. Unlike a lot of deadpan protagonists he actually very clearly has goals that he strives for and things he desires that drive his actions as well as a very direct response to things that are happening to him and around him, additionally there is a continuous acknowledgment of the fact that he is like this, it's not just a trait they added to make him cooler, the main character genuinely can't really feel emotion properly- it has to be explained to him and even then he has to further contextualize it through lived experience to process any emotions physiologically. Additionally The supporting cast, while limited, aren't completely flat or annoying and while in some places are cliche it's never to the point that it seemed like the author didn't care.(They feel less like isekai supporting cast and more like Skyrim supporting cast -where it's clear that for some reason they gave some of these characters weirdly complete backstories despite the fact that we are for sure only going to see them for like a chapter or two)

The magic system is pretty straightforward, the setting is grim but not hopeless, and the writing - though simple and straightforward - is clean cut, somewhat emotionally complex, andis paced and flows well enough to never get boring or (at least up to chapter 29) stupid. And despite how much of a bummer the first few chapters are, this is a surprisingly light read - I'd give it a 7/10 as of now, it's definitely above mid but I wouldn't really call it gold or peak or top tier, just really solidly done.

TLDR: IT'S GOOD, NOT GREAT, BUT GOOD. GIVE IT A TRY. IT'S PRETTY ENDEARING.

To defend this series just a little, the main character has been shown previously to just have single-minded focus and somewhat skewed priorities, if anyone's going to stop in the middle of a fire to ask a random question like that it would be this guy, in regards to the magic: he couldn't use water magic to put out all the fire, which is what he explained to Philip, what he could do after understanding what this emotion Philip has is (the emotion he now knows is the foundation for healing magic among others) is use his magic defensively in a limited space long enough for the fire to burn out this s***** ramshackle wooden structure, which is an easier task than making enough water to put out a large fire, like how sometimes in real life it's very much easier just to make a firebreak and let whatever fire that is burning finish burning then it is to try to get enough water to put out an active fire

It actually makes more sense for the area that is slightly better off to have only children in the gangs. In Worse off areas everyone has to get in the gangs, there's no real choice, very few people can just make a living otherwise. this area is much better off so most adults have jobs, but there's no compulsory education so any kids that are there are either working or have nothing but free time, and considering the death rate for the adults that also means a lot of orphans, and while kids can take over some jobs there's just some they physically can't. So the demand for kids is never going to meet the supply of kids, So you have a lot of kids that need food- money- shelter but can't get stable legal ways of attaining that meaning they now form gangs.

Oh God it would be so funny if they just lit them the fuck up the moment they enter the room like that one part of hellsing.

It may be cringe, but sir I respect the commitment.

Boy do I have a little thing to tell you about youth street gangs.
http://www.faqs.org/childhood/Wh-Z-and-other-topics/Youth-Gangs.html

https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh176/files/jjbulletin/9808/history.html

https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/35409/chapter-abstract/346438275?redirectedFrom=fulltext

https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/social-sciences-and-humanities/youth-gangs

Like not only is this a thing that can happen this is a thing that historically used to happen all the f****** time. Like all those stories that use pickpocketing orphans that roam from place to place or sell newspapers are based on actual gangs of kids that very much pickpocketed people, would jump people in the street, regularly had gang fights in the street, raped, stole, prostituted, and very much ran small scale rackets in poor highly urban areas.
The only reason it's not nearly as much of a problem now is because systemized education has given us a place for even poor people to put their children in for most of the day so they can't, you know, start getting ideas... (And even then most gangs with the exception of maybe the mafia either began as youth protecting their community, or use wanting to make money in places where that's hard to do, and in the youth just sort of grew up and kept doing what they were doing and boom you have an adult gang now)

I was wondering what about him felt so familiar.

I'm just saying this man has had enough trouble from just encountering regular people and martial artists. I think it's fair of him to be fairly cautious in regards to a person that may have a similar knowledge base and potentially a similar strength to him as a result of that, especially in a setting we're standing out this kind of just purely negative. Playing dumb just kind of makes him look like the average person. Revealing his knowledge outlines him as fairly exceptional, and worst case may have the inventor thinking he's some kind of thief or spy, which would be bad if his goal is to get into the man's good graces so he can find out more about him subtly.

Like generally speaking I do agree with your initial point about needless secrecy in this genre, it's just that in this specific case they've done enough throughout this series for me to understand why he's being dishonest.

In this case it was him feeling the guy out to see if he was reincarnated without outright saying "hey I know how this works! are you reincarnated." He's officially playing dumb to see how much the other guy knows.

90!?

If it was just something he kept to himself that he had a full knowledge about the whole time - that would be one thing, but adding in the suppressed memories angle really did give it that Chuni "dragon in my left eye" energy, because then it goes from "violent past that he tries not to think about" straight to "dark and tragic backstory that is the secret of my ferocious power"

In his case he doesn't seem to actually know the mechanisms behind these things more than their basic elements, which wouldn't really help the inventor that has to make them, and as far as the secrecy goes that's more so because there's no real way to convince anybody you reincarnated without them just thinking you're crazy or possessed or any number of negative things, hell how many times has he been ran up on in this series just for being a guy from a different place, or just looking like he might be a guy that knows imperial martial arts, if he was just flagrant with his secrets he probably would have been kidnapped by the empire a long time ago, especially considering that the reason so many people went to the new continent was because of how thoroughly the empire was crushing martial arts families, if you have a guy that suddenly shows up and can just use and learn dozens of advanced martial arts because he said he "read it in books in his past life" you better believe the empire or the cult is just going to take him, because he goes from a curiosity or a thorn in their side to a wellspring of knowledge they can now monopolize.

My favorite thing is when they have a setting where multiple people just reincarnate randomly at different times, because there's always the poor bastard that gets put in way earlier than everyone else, the teacher might be a reincarnation in this case which would be funny.

My point was that because it's so fast paced it doesn't even really spend time on a lot of the murder. Compare it something like myst might mayhem, where he definitely gets stronger as that series progresses but they also spend a pretty decent amount of time with him in the lower tier of strength and methodically using cunning, tricks, traps and methods that no one else would be willing to use to get stronger, I find seeing the lower level problem solving way more entertaining than just "flat murder by a super strong guy with a sword" which is what most of these series tend to do, so making the main character a psychopath doesn't really add much more to that unless you're going to take an approach you can't really take with a non-psychopathic character. Like having a more methodical approach to killing, or willingness to hurt innocents, or a more warped view on the world in general.

It's just the series has so little fanfare for the stuff that's not murder, and it also kind of has little fanfare for some of the murders like just a little too fast-paced for my liking.