King Souma can finally take it easy. Almost. The Principality of Amidonia, to the west, is a recurring thorn in his paw, but it goes without saying that after multiple military battles, suppressing a protracted civil war, and cleaning house of a dozen or so corrupt nobles . . . after all of these adventures, Soma deserves some respite. REALIST HERO . . . #4 represents the breath of fresh air the king and his subjects take for themselves as the cool and calm winter season approaches.
This volume is a bit dull and includes a rather protracted flashback. Given the events in the previous entries of this novel series, one may be excused for skipping this volume and settling for a five-page summary elsewhere. One can't help but pine for the amblings of war or the curiously twisted politics of negotiating with the Gran Chaos Empire witnessed in previous volumes.
Roughly speaking, one-third of REALIST HERO . . . #4 is a reflection on Souma's encounter with princess Roroa Amidonia, whom through one or two clever tricks, managed to vend herself and her nation to the ruler of the Kingdom of Elfrieden. Too bad Roroa is a horrible cliché and it's too bad the narrative refuses to free itself from this patch of brambles for several hundred pages. The girl herself is thorn in the book's otherwise merciful dalliance with domesticity. To wit, Roroa speaks with a south-central dialect, eschews general manners and permits her ego to take flight as she pleases; the girl, oddly and obviously, is the most unneeded and out-of-place facet in a novel whose out-of-placeness has long since found its stride.
The book's lone highlight is a somewhat-cheesy but ultimately sweet side story involving a slave trader who falls in love with one of his charges. A young man named Ginger Camus inherits a trading post for human labor. But instead of selling the people on the cheap and splitting up families to make a quick buck, the guy does his utmost to find legitimate housing and work for the people under his care. Camus even goes so far as to properly feed, clothe, and educate the enslaved people. Sandria, a raccoon-person slave, takes to helping Camus through this series of good deeds. And in the end, Camus, Sandria, and the reader are rewarded for wishing and hoping for making the most of a desperate but uniquely dark scenario.
REALIST HERO . . . #4 isn't a particularly good volume because nothing consequential actually occurs. Here and there, some secrets leak out, and there's a hearty conversation between Souma and Maria (Gran Chaos Empire), but all in all, this volume reads like one long side story. Roroa Amidonia comes into the household, furthering the harem subtheme, but this was predictable ages ago. As the next phase of the novel series shifts into gear, a few obvious elements emerge: conflict with the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria, building relations with the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Union, and the ever-crowding of the royal palace with suitable second-wives.