Hmm first time author? I have definitely read much worse, the balance isn't bad most of his special powers come from just having 40 years of life experience above his age group and seeing the world though different eyes yeah volume 2 seems worth a shot, also is it just me or did it read like Dio was his maternal grandfather?

Next volume should be the final one.

@Makine Can't say for certain, but at a brief glance I only see Volume 1 floating around in webnovel format. So if nothing else, it had its origins in that arena. And yes, I was surprised there was no wrap-up as well!

@HarmlessDave J novel is as deep as I go man this is literally the first time I have ever heard of this book and probably wouldn't even have found this site if I hadn't gotten board out of my skull during covid and watched the bookworm anime.

Not so much prop up a weak challenger as the boy was to be discarded anyway perhaps really challenge his heir apparent or kill so he had clear reason to start over more of a final test before he discarded this batch.

Coulda punched Nord in the face, but I'm mostly sated.

@Hylebos so, not done at all then. This felt like an ending what with the lack of a see you next time in the author note, but guess not.

@Hylebos bwahahahahahaha, this was a good story, and I like that it didnt overstay its welcome.

@elkensteyin You are correct that he lacks common sense regarding marriage.
I think that his character is what the author intended.
Because he is such a character, he was so adamant about his engagement to her.

@Planguy same, i was sure volume 8 was the ending.
tbf 9 feels more like an epilogue/start of a new part of the story, so it's possible we're either beyond the original WN now and this is new LN only content.

@Zerio One of the reasons we chose General is because of who Kongming was in real life, rather than just because it was a replacement for -san. Cat lovers love to give their cats strange names, and I would say using an honorific like -san is about as strange as calling them General. Additionally, they don't always call her General Kongming -- they tend to just go with Kongming or the General as well!

We chose not to use honorifics for most circumstances in this light novel because they're mostly in a pseudo-European fantasy setting, where using honorifics would be quite odd. However, there are instances where we kept honorifics (such as "Mina-nee" for Minato) since it's only used by the Stewarts/Tanakas amongst each other - and in a setting like that, it would be normal to have honorifics. Since they introduce Kongming to other people in the pseudo-European setting as -san on occasion, we needed to find a way to make that balance out as well.

There are some plot related reasons later on that we chose to do it this way, so I hope you'll continue reading to find out what those are as well!

@saidahgilbert yeah I mean, I have similar guess. I just wished it was officially explained.

The Marionette spell almost killed this series for me. The volumes are short and easy to read, but it's quite clear it's not going in the direction I was hoping for.

@Rahul-Balaggan thanks for the quick reply. I'll have to keep watching out for it now.

@Hylebos Gotcha, been a while since I last reported errors so got that wrong. My bad and thanks for the clarification.

After having read through volume 4 I can say that it should have never been written. Write out the ghost witch blob thing and let the main character stay dead.

One of the better volumes among the recent ones. Still wish there were less inner monologues and more action, but this time the digressions weren't unbearable as before. I hope it's not a fluke but a sign that the writing is improving.

In a parallel universe, Maomao leads a research lab at Monst... It is pesticide, not a poison at all!

@Jon-Mitchell apparently I missed a v9 coming out, because I've just seen that v10 has been announced and seemingly marked as the final volume.

@Lex Well the main issue with Ikaruga is that it outstrips the rest of the units mechs leaving it with no real support.

So rather than upgrading it a better option woukd be to provide similar powerful mechs to his closest friends/allies so they can keep up and support him.

And woth this volume, I've caught up with what I previously saw for this series on manga and anime form. The Seven Stars tournament has been hyped a lot, but we gotba glimpse of the fact that it's just the tip of the iceberg and a much longer and harder road awaits for Ikki.