This short story collection was released just after volume 4 of the main Spy Classroom novels. Those 4 volumes already do a great job of giving each of the girls their own time in the spotlight but some characters do get more page time and development than certain others. This short story collection gives fans of the series stories starring some of the girls' who have yet to be the titular lead of a volume of the main line of books.
The first 2 stories(Sybilla&Sara's) were written rather strangely. Both stories did short introductions of the main leads despite the fact that the prologue of this book had already done introductions of the main characters which made the subsequent character introductions pointless.
According to the afterword of the book most of the short stories in it were originally separate stories that were published in a certain magazine which I assume is why 2 stories that are published in the same book with the same characters kept repeating it's character introductions. The openings of those stories could have been reworked but I also do see the value of keeping the stories as is from how they were published in the magazine.
Out of the 4 stories that were from the magazine I liked the 2 in the back half of the book(Monika and especially Grete's). I'm not sure when Monika's story here was published for the first time in the magazine but it did a good job of giving some background on her character arc and speech from volume 4 that felt like it really came out of nowhere. Almost makes me wish I read this first but that's more of a complain on volume 4 of the main series rather than on this book.
The final and only original short story of this volume was quite thrilling. There were no real stakes of course as this is just a short story collection that's focused more on the slice-of-life aspect of the series but it was still cool to see
I also really appreciate that Klaus the only male main cast member of this series and their teacher unlike so many other light novel/manga protagonists always establishes proper boundaries with the other characters. He always makes it clear that he isn't interested in romance or sex in general(kinda of an ace aro icon tbh) especially since he's their 'teacher'(technically I don't really consider Klaus their teacher in the traditional sense of the word).
Ideally there wouldn't be any scenes of the girls(mostly Grete or Thea) hitting on their teacher though they are both eighteen and he's only twenty. If this series absolutely must have scenes like that I'm glad that Klaus is the type of character that he is because typically with light novel/manga protagonists(not that Klaus is the protagonist) they'll always give noncommittal answers or vague shy responses without addressing the situation so that it'll continue happening within the series.
According to the epilogue the author wrote these to be more slice of life and focus on the girls while saving the main volumes for the story although these stories fit in between the first two books. The anime adapted episodes 6 (Sybilla) 7 (Sara), 12 (Grete), 17 (Monika). Was a blast to read and there are several of these volumes coming for English readers.
Spoiler memo to self: Sybilla was the one married to Klaus and Lily won the royale.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.