Youta’s the new saviour in town and he’s got his sights set on a friendly young woman. Unfortunately, that’s Tsukina and she’s trying to let him down easily, but he’s young and dumb so that doesn’t really happen. When Youta doesn’t beware of anybody bearing gifts, will Tsukina’s power be enough to save the day?
This might be the best isekai I’m reading right now, even though it’s admittedly a mighty short list at the the best of times. It’s not hard to figure out why though - Tsukina is allowed to live her own best life and the story doesn’t judge it.
Tsukina clearly gets exhausted in social situations. She loves books as much as anything. When Il gets a little too possessive, she is quick to put the boots to that way of thinking. She’s such a, well, such an adult character that she’s a real breath of fresh air.
Minus Il being a bit too “macho posturing” at times, I chalk that up to his being a knight, frankly, the two of them are peas in a pod and I love the way their relationship forms around their shared interest rather than overwhelms it.
Then there’s Youta. Hoo boy. As predicted, he goes about his saviour work entirely the wrong way and his low self-esteem confined with the knowledge that he is super powerful proves to make him incredibly easy to manipulate, as is the way with the naive.
As a study in the road to hell being paved with good intentions, he gets the job done, and if the resolution to his mess relies a little too much on isekai tropes, it’s still a great opportunity for Tsukina to step up and show that she’s the real saviour around here.
This volume is pretty straightforward, but not in a bad way. It balances the problem at hand with some sweet moments for the romance angle and then leaves on yet another brutally effective cliffhanger that makes me glad I was wrong when I was saying that this didn’t need more than two volumes.
4 stars - do what you do well and I’ll be hard pressed to complain much.