Overall a great volume with a real cliffhanger ending. My main gripe is that the whole story was setup with the premise of the skanda attacking the party based on misinformation. But she didn't even show up until the very end.
I also read somewhere that the first volume was misleading and the story ended up going very dark. At the time, I really felt the opposite was true. But based on the background events of this volume and the lack of faith in humanity instilled in me by this series, I could see it starting to get dark moving forward with a lot of innocents being slaughtered in the pursuit of power.
Not relevant or interesting. Side stories having to do with the main characters. There is no point to Volume 5. The main character is a monster tamer. He is asked to escort and accompany the commander and the survivors of the monster stampedes caused by the treacherous "saviours". There is no purpose to this for the main character and his retinue. This author explores the feelings and emotions of the tamed monsters and supporting characters in excess. This volume 5 barely has any action, nor does it have a main plot, or secondary plots. The misunderstanding by the "saviors" is illogical, nonsensical and senseless. Iino could have asked any of the 300+ survivors of the monster stampede but she asks people who weren't there and have serious ulterior motives. It doesn't make sense that the main character and his retinue were responsible when everybody involved saw what really happened. It doesn't make any sense that they need to take both elf sisters home after every knight including the commander was jailed. The monster tamer and his retinue should have just stayed in the freaking forest. What is the point of going to the city? What is the point to this light novel? It's not to go back to Earth, it's not to get stronger, it's not to protect the locals from the monsters. This volume is 60% point of views of his tamed beasts and their feelings and emotions. The rest 30% is a rescue of a wounded and escaping knight and then escaping from the other "saviors". I do not recommend this volume.