Having received his latest appointment as vice minister of tourism, Satou uses his newfound station to aid refugees, explore waterways, and indulge in travel as usual. But along his travels, he and his party make an unexpected discovery… As it turns out, the mage who first enslaved Arisa and Lulu has been hiding in the labyrinth beneath the Kuvork Kingdom!
Satou's business in the capital is finally finished. It is time to resume his travels. First stop: getting rid of the geis on Lulu and Arisa. Finding the wizard responsible is not as easy as running a search, and getting him to remove his magic is even more problematic. What follows is an entertaining story in which the MC does not face any serious conflict, but with entertaining characters and an at times rather dark world, which is nothing new for the series. It feels like dealing with the curse comes a bit late, but credit where credit is due: none of that slavery is kind of good that is relatively common trope in the LN isekai genre. So, a good and fun read with some progress for the main character's team members.
This is a pretty standard volume all things considered. Your enjoyment will largely depend on whether you care about Arisa's fallen kingdom and their fight to reestablish it which I sadly did not. Hard to get invested in new characters so quickly (Arisa's older brother) though I think we are supposed to be invested in Arisa's feelings on the situation but it just never clicked with me since they were acting separately and pretty distant overall.
At least the Geist curse is finally broken so we can check that plot line off and everything unrelated to the Kuvork war is still the same chill fun. So overall a good volume. 3.5
The story continues lightly filling in the side stories left hanging. Satau doesn't escape the PM's plan's completely. The extra stories are worth the price of this book. The author is setting up Satau for a fall at 1-3 years down the storyline. Now I have to wait another 3-4 months for the next translation book.
I would absolutely club a baby seal in front of a P.E.T.A. member if it would hurry the next volume along. I wait Anxiously For each volume And check everyday So I can get that pre order the day it is Available.
Glad to see the many plot lines that began on the trip to the Capitol coming to interesting ends and a launch into the next great adventure for the Pendragon family.