Menou and Akari make their way through the wilderness in search of a way to kill Akari (not that she’s aware). Upon reaching a quiet port town that is nothing of the sort, our leads end up embroiled in a serious incident. And while Akari may have a growing mastery of time, it turns out that this in no way means that it’s on her side…
I wasn’t even sure that I was going to give this title the second book chance, but once more I am reminded of why I try and maintain that policy if a story is even halfway interesting.
Make no mistake - this story is still full of nonsense and a sense that the rules are being jotted down at the exact moment the author comes up with them and silly tropes (I still hate Ashuna’s costume) and goofy humour abound.
However, there’s more than enough course correction and good ideas here to warrant a second look and to haul me back to this series when book 3 shows up. It actually takes the isekai concept and does something with it, simply by asking, “what if stakes?”
Most isekai are nothing but intentional self-insert power fantasies that exist to help the reader allegedly feel good and are consequently boring as hell. Simply by figuring out that power has consequences and presenting some staggering levels of evil, this book breathes fresh life into even its own stale moments.
As for the course correction, well, Menou has that whole ‘kill Akari’ thing going on and that was kind of miserable. Now we get the expected thawing of her blackened heart, but a further complication is thrown into this by, of all people, Akari herself, who turns out to have motivations that genuinely shocked me.
Akari is given a ton to do here - she ends up being connected to a lot of what’s going on in ways I won’t spoil and her affection for Menou still doesn’t quite make sense, I know the time travel is part of it obviously, but I suspect there’s more to her being bullied in Japan than we’ve yet been told.
Plus, despite her abilities with time being crazy powerful, they cleverly write away some of her edge with that and then erode it even further to make it a total double-edged sword by the end of the book. So many interesting repercussions.
Heck, even Ashuna and Momo, two characters who I absolutely cannot stand, ended up really working for me when they were paired together. They have a great back-and-forth that really makes them far, far more tolerable than they ever are separately.
And even though the power basis for this world is kind of nuts, I do love the way they quote a fictional scripture during spell casting and it feels believable (even after I complained about this last time - sigh). It’s down to a good translation, enough that I can nearly forgive the super huge error they make right at the end that makes things crazy confusing.
Toss in a massive throw down at the end that features a climax that is surprisingly bleak on several levels and promises that things are getting a lot worse and I can’t say I’m not interested. I was certain I knew where this book was heading and now I don’t (minus the big picture) and that’s great, far as I’m concerned.
3 stars, actually, maybe even closer to 3.5 at several points. If I had a ‘most improved’ award (or any awards, technically), I would have to hand it to this second instalment, which either makes a real case for a writer finding their groove, or, possibly, Stockholm Syndrome.