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

Sub-Tags: Misunderstandings, Tsundere, OP

Kanata Takes On Dragon Trials!

The first review of the week and I’m once again returning to Kanata’s misadventures in Locklore!

As Disciple of the Lich reaches its fourth volume, this latest volume finds Kanata in even deeper trouble. Making an enemy of the Five Fingers, one of their members, The Ruler of the Skies, has taken it upon themselves to take Kanata down.

Now with The Ruler’s dragons on his case, things go from bad to worse as he’s visited by Ramiel, a dragon girl, who’s come with information that the Garden of Dragons is in danger and that the whole world is at stake!

Volume four continues Kanata and his gang’s unbeaten streak as their overpowered abilities take on new (supposedly) strong enemies in the form of The Ruler of the Skies and their acolytes. As part of this new threat, the main body of the story takes place within the Dragonkin’s Garden of Dragons under the pleas made by Ramiel as to the vortex’s imminent destruction.

Unlike my problems with the previous volume, this plot works really well and brings back some of the better humorous elements of the series’ first two entries.

To warn the Dragon King of the vortex’s possible destruction, the gang have to take part in three dragon trials to be granted an audience. Of course, for Kanata, Philia and Pomera, these types of things never quite go to plan, often getting a chuckle out of me as the three of them unwittingly destroy these challenges much to the Dragonkin’s horror.

To complicate things further, Kanata isn’t the only otherworlder in the garden. Mitsuru and his crushed pride are one of my favourite sub-plots of the series so far. Viewing Kanata and everyone else as an NPC, he’s put in his place repeatedly, constantly severely injuring himself trying to replicate what Kanata is doing.

After completing all the trials, Kanata’s finally able to speak to the king and access the vortex, upon which the full extent of The Ruler of the Skies plan is revealed.

Kanata has once again been tricked. As it turns out, Ramiel is the Ruler and she wishes to use the vortex to kill him. Although her plan is promptly defeated, the damage to the vortex has already been done and requires a magical sacrifice. This would normally require some sort of strife, however, true to fashion for this series, the protagonists’ op abilities and access to the demon mirror saves the day.

For those of you who have already been reading this series, you might’ve noticed that I’ve failed to mention Lunaere, and that’s because she’s barely in this volume. This is this volume’s weakest aspect, she’s the main attraction of the series and she’s barely present here.

What little we get of Lunaere, though, is excellent. Now clearly in love with Kanata, the Ruler of Knowledge, also one of the Five Fingers, gets the shock of their life when she visits asking about Kanata. She just about manages to escape, though at what cost as not only is Kanata after her but now the Five Fingers.

Overall, the Disciple of the Lich’s fourth volume is a return to form, with a series of hilarious misunderstandings as Kanata rampages through the Garden of Dragons. Hopefully, the next volume will feature more of Lunaere and move towards integrating her as part of the team.