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.

A few changes from the webnovel I just wanted to note about Clara:

She wasn't missing an arm.

In the lightnovel, her Art Walking Library is single stage. In the webnovel, Walking Library is the third stage of the Reading Art, which allows her to read anything regardless of language or legibility. This function was never even used in the story, so I can see why they simplified it.

But most importantly, the scene of her joining the party was originally an Evangelion reference.

Oh, but that ball fight scene was satisfying.

"I'm not in here surrounded by you. You're in here surrounded by me." - Lynne, probably

I really enjoyed the first half. The last third was like watching a horrific trainwreck (literally). The only thing fuling me to read on was morbid curiosity (literally).

Nala getting left behind is unforgivable. She didn't deserve what she got. She could have at least become a thrall...

I don't think i can forgive the author for that one.

@Zeteni said in Min-Maxing My TRPG Build Vol. 3 Discussion!:

@Leon_97 A lot of us are very sad we will likely never meet the apprentice from this volume's Henderson. We'll never even learn her name. :sob:

This. ;_;

I've said it before, this is my favorite Henderson to date, by far. It's the only one that keeps everything I love about Erich - his whimsy, joy, wanderlust and drive to explore/find new things. Feywolf Erich is unrecognizable; Settled Erich is nice, and he's still recognizably Erich, but he's lost his drive.

@lucaslp5 said in Demon Lord, Retry! Vol. 8 Discussion:

@HarmlessDave On the good side, we most likely will be reading the new volume sometime next year!

I'm really looking forward to it. Especially with that cliffhanger at the end of volume 8.

@tsenglol On the author's twitter, some tweets seem to say they're going to start writing it again while the anime is airing, but I can't read Japanese. Their user is @SameSame_panic. I think they will write more because they are INSANELY excited about their work getting an anime. DeepL translates the tweet to "I'd like you to finish the original story, so I'll write more. ...... #Ikenai-kyo."

So we have to wait for the next volume to see the proper reunion between Asuka and Ryoma. The plot advanced a bit, but again, author could have done the same in three parts without losing any meaningful information. Well, I just hope it won't take five more volumes just to defeat Lupis.

Volume 1 (Premium Edition): High resolution color illustrations

Volume 9 (Premium Edition): 4 Bonus short stories The Water Goddess’s Questions The Queen of Laphraig Princess Sophia and the Crimson Fangs A Day in the Life of the Pegasus Knights' Commander

Volume 4 (Premium Edition): Bonus notes from the translator, Full Wraparound Cover Jacket illustration & High Resolution Color Illustrations

Volume 14 (Premium Edition): 2 Bonus Short Stories Trycen's Defense Parth's Defense

Volume 4 (Premium Edition): A Bonus Short Story I Hope That from This Day Forward

@Leon_97

It usually refers to a minor update in grammar. If the update is something substantial it gets posted about on the forums.

@Leon_97 I assume the tag appeared because there was a small correction made to the map of the peninsula.
The bridge labeled as "Hotto Bridge" was corrected to "Hoto Bridge".

Done reading. My impression is pretty much the same as the previous volume. Fairly well written novel which keeps being engaging despite being mostly about nobles having noble problems, I mean rich people having rich people problems, which I'm normally pretty meh about. Relationship driven and despite that, fairly drama-light. Prone to bouts of "harassment is fun when it's girl on girl".

Often it undercuts itself by how the viewpoint character Misaki doesn't have any personal goals besides "become a good enough maid to be worthy of the privilege of serving my mistress" - after four volumes, that's just too weak. On the other hand, the problems that spring up are personal, just personal for somebody else, and Misaki being always willing to lend a helping hand, whether it's to the ladies or to the maids, is what makes her so endearing.

This is the final volume (in JP too), it ends in a middle of an arc, and I must admit, I didn't expect this when I first started reading it, but I'm genuinely sad I'll never learn how it all ended...

Psst, did you know there's a manga too? Keep an eye out for volume 8 streaming later this year as well!

Volume 5 (Premium Edition): A Bonus Short Story Aura's Anxiety

I'm not sure when this series turned from "these two are exes and have very complicated feelings for each other" to "this bunch of people all have their own unique circumstances that make their lives complicated", but it happened and it's great. The narration is switching viewpoint characters around all the time, between so many different people, to tell their little stories, and it's like so many windows opening and closing that let you see the same situations from different angles and I love that style of narration. All the details people notice! All the details they miss! Lovely.