Main Character, Rio (Haruto Amakawa), wanted to kill the man that murdered his parents and sexually abused his mom. That was the main plot arc to this isekai-fantasy novel series (teleported/reincarnated into another world). This world, thanks to the author, is a dystopia, where the humans, especially the nobles are depraved, corrupted and evil. While Amakawa, main character is awol, missing, K.O. (Knocked-Out), Lucci, Reiss, Lucius and the rest of the evil mercenaries from the Empire, are wounding, torturing, abducting Haruto's retinue of princesses, nobles and Beast-Spirit-Girls. It's not really a Harem-like retinue, because Haruto has refused to fulfill his role as a man, 19 volumes into the light novel series. This series is an adaptation from a web novel series that was finished a few years ago. Everything going on with this light novel series now, is just filling, fluff and fat, of a story that is not going anywhere. Not going anywhere almost from Volume 12 (7 Volumes ago). Because Haruto has not dealt with Reiss, Lucci, Lucius, while they are dealing and putting the pressure on his all girl retinue. All the while, the rest of the Kingdoms, rest of the territories do not lift a finger. With 160 pages, illustrations, cover page, informational pages by the publisher, this volume 19, has 7 chapters. Volume 20 is to be launched by the publisher on September 9th, 2022. Publisher is also launching Omnibus (dual volume) editions. If the author would have made a main character that had mettle (character), poise, and perseverance, I do not think this light novel series would have lasted more than 12 volumes. The problem with making a non-commital, zero-compromise main character has been, that there is no story compass, no real clear path for this story anymore. Author created another reincarnated Queen, Apostle about 4-5 volumes back, just to have other things to write about. But concrete objectives, and plot arcs are completely missing in this fantasy-isekai-novel series...
A wonderful story, where the ladies time to shine came finally. Delivering action non stop from the beginning to the end, all the ladies and companions surrounding Rio brought all their character and personalities in a fierce battle against opponents stronger than ever. The battles were written brilliantly and keep the reader engaged. The author did a brilliant work keeping the main character out, while taking advantage of all the character develop,ent from precious volumes. Despite all the characters present, this book doesn’t feel hard to follow or understand. A volume on the short side, easy to read and with a plot that keeps going. Will be waiting for the next volume for sure.
The story is one long battle but was well handled, it never felt like it was drawing on for too long. There was also a lot of back and forth, so you were constantly worried about the lives of the characters and the success of the attack right up until the end. Overall I was impressed with the volume considering the protagonist of the series was absent.