Plot starts cooking!!! I loved the little interactions we got from Conrad and Wolfram, their relationship takes a while to warm up but it's so sweet to see the brothers getting along.
Okay, here's were we get into the GOOD novels. At this point, the author had her act together and she doesn't retcon or change plot points moving forward. Can't say that at all for the first two books.
Now at this point, the anime was still following the novel plot so this is basically the desert episodes. However, we really start to see a divergence in specific content here. Like for example, Nicola is only a year older than Yuuri if even. We also see the ugly side of the labor camp in more detail. The anime painted a happier, goofier picture all around. Although, Wolfram does sit on a cactus so I'm not saying this is devoid of humor XD