Tags: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Comedy, Romance, Harem, Shounen

A Tale of Heroes, Jealousy and Snakes, Lots of Snakes!

(This review will contain spoilers)

Picking up a little while after the events of the first book, the second volume sees Makoto in a rut. Continuously mastering his skills and becoming iron rank, whilst Lucy has learnt some strong skills of her own, leaves the two with little challenge in Macallan. Thus, Makoto’s Goddess throws him a helpful hint suggesting they travel to one of the world’s great dungeons, Labyrinthos, where more than a few surprises lay in wait.

Whilst the first volume was more contained, this volume does a lot in order to expand the readers view of the world and how others interact with it. The author, Isle Osaki, does this through the introduction of some of Makoto’s former classmates, Aya Sasaki and Takatsuki, The Hero of Light.

Following up on one of the more major plot threads from the first volume, we finally get one possible answer to what happened to the classmates who weren’t revived in the water temple, reincarnated as one of the world’s many monster species. This is Aya’s fate. She is heavily hinted at returning throughout the start of the volume, we get a really nice introduction to the character and her connection to Makoto. Aya was one of Makoto’s only friends from back in Japan and they often spent their time playing games together. Within this fantasy world, she has been reincarnated as a Lamia and I really love how the author goes into detail describing the biology and lifecycle of these creatures. It’s almost as if they’d created a David Attenborough documentary, showcasing the social hierarchy of the nest, hunting skills and how they manage to entrap adventurers. It is through this segment that we get to see Aya not only become connected to her former human world but also to her new Lamia family. This then adds weight to her arc throughout this volume where she intends to take revenge on the Harpy Queen and her older sister after she strikes a scheme to kill her family’s nest. After being “killed” and using her nine lives skill she ends up running into Makoto in the labyrinth sparking an emotional reunion. Makoto finally gets a third member of his party, whilst Aya has help in getting her revenge.

The introduction of Aya into Makoto’s team leads to some great dynamics between her and Lucy. The jealousy certainly is strong with these two, both seem to have recognised that they have feelings for Makoto. These feelings are only intensified as Aya gets ample alone time with Makoto when they do recognisance together and end up digging up the past. All’s well that ends well though, as their rivalry for Makoto’s love moves their respective relationships forwards and Lucy and Aya end up becoming really good friends because of it all.

Makoto’s classmate, Takatsuki is also reintroduced in this volume. Having become the Hero of Light, he has come alongside some officials in order to solve a serious case of Blight Dragon that’s been going on in Labyrinthos. As a pleasant surprise when compared to some of the other fantasy and isekai series that have been releasing lately, the Hero is actually a good person. He does generally seem to respect Makoto’s ability and views his abilities as useful for fighting against the Blight Dragons. He also seems to have many problems of his own especially when it comes to royalty and high society and it is this point that gives us multiple plot threads for further volumes. After defeating the dragons, Makoto and his gang end up having an audience with the White Sorcerer, a very powerful mage who seems to know a lot about Noah and what happened with the Hero killer of the past. Makoto also gets to meet back up with the people who denied him his first blessing. It looks like in the upcoming volumes we’ll likely end up having to solve the problems with their home country and the problems facing the princess.

The volume ends with a conversation between Makoto and his Goddess as she’s finally forced to reveal the Hero killers’ past and some of her shadier actions across the past two volumes. Whilst Makoto continues to agree to help her, I can only hope that he remains cautious about her true end goals.

Overall, a really good follow up volume that helps in expanding the world and introducing some nice characters that’ll hopefully stay with us throughout the next couple of volumes.