Another all-in-one reader here.
This volume was surprisingly light on action, inventing magic and meeting new monsters compared to the first one. It was more, I don't know, social? Political? With a bit of city slow life and a heap of misunderstanding thrown in. I found it overall a bit weaker than the first volume. I didn't even think that the misunderstandings dragged on for too long, just that it would be better if more interesting stuff happened while it went on. It did have its share of great moments though. The relationship between Sara and Allen was always great, and I really liked Nelly's parts, and the ending too.
The story was very on the nose with the sudden policy switch instituted by the mayor to "get rid of the undesirables", meaning poor adventurers, and how horrible that is. Policies against the homeless, anybody? With the "totally unexpected" outcome of making things worse for everybody else too, of course, by disrupting the services the "undesirable" were actually providing to the town, and driving away the people who'd one day become experienced adventurers too. It was a little weird how this plotline suddenly disappeared about 3/4th through the book, though. Wonder if we'll get back to it. Confrontation with the mayor, with Ted having a tsk-to-face turn, perhaps?
And overall, I hope we're gearing for a "these nobles suck, time for a confrontation" plot, not "these nobles suck, but what can you do" one.
Of all the things I didn't expect to happen, Ted being revealed as a tsundere was pretty high on the list. Though Liam being a very kind, considerate, total piece of sh*t was a close second. This sort of people who are totally sure they're a good guy but actually only ever listen to themselves are the worst, aren't they?
I'm glad we finally saw Sara and Nelly reunited - the two are absolutely adorable together. Nelly actually more than Sara, because of how awkward she is on most situations that are not hunting. The way she would brute force her way through social encounters, like, what do you mean people don't usually pay by holding out the highest denomination coin and having the people around take care of the rest? :D Their banter when they're together reads so naturally, and it's so funny, I really missed them as a pair.
Favourite moment: Nelly saying "barrier" as she knocked the bottle out of the knight's hand even though she didn't use a barrier, she just wanted to try saying that once. She's really showing her inner child sometimes...
Growl.