By Shoji Goji and Saku Enomaru. Released in Japan as “Hitoribocchi no Isekai Kouryaku” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Andrew Schubauer.
This is, for the most part, a “rest” book after the main plot that we just went through with the Church (which Haruka has re-invented as a sort of healing disco that plays Vocaloid tracks). There’s lots of dungeon crawling, of course, and leveling up our latest Dungeon Emperor. There’s lots of sex that’s written for comedic rather than erotic effect, so the book just about gets away with it. The sex, of course, only involves the three dungeon emperors, much to the frustration of the girls, who are trying to get across their attraction to h8im while also sort of admitting none of them are ready to take the next step yet (certainly not Class Rep, who gets an internal illustration of her rearing back in shock after seeing Haruka has “grown”, so to speak). Basically, this book is about hijinks. Yes, there is a hint of what is to come – there’s apparently a couple more really deep dungeons out there – but right now, let’s just watch Haruka run wild.
This cover is meant to mirror the first one (complete with the alternate cover featuring Haruka, though in this volume he has his back turned to the reader), and I suppose it feels appropriate. We’re back in the frontier, we’re back to dungeon crawling, and we even got back to the forest for a bit, to see Haruka testing his new body movin’ on some goblins. See, Haruka had most of his skills, which he spent months perfecting (a reminder that we’re still only four months since they arrived in this world), because they got folded up into other skill trees that he has most decidedly NOT mastered. As a result, he can barely move without falling all over himself, and has to learn how to walk, run, and fight while controlling his body like a puppet. Which, again, reminds us a lot of the start of the series.
I don’t have to tell you that there’s tons of unreliable narration here, but we’re at least getting to the point where the narrators are allowed to admit they know they’re full of it. The first 50 pages or so of the book are all from Class Rep’s POV, and while she tries to frame things as “oh, that wacky Haruka, how can we control him?”, there’s also moments of sheer fury when she sees the disrespect he’s getting from the locals (disrespect which he himself has engineered) to the point where the other girls have to hold her back. Even the locals are allowed to wade in the waters of overly dramatic obfuscation, as we see the guild master agonize for page after page about having to send poor innocent Haruka and his low levels into the most horrible of dungeons… all while his second-in-command says “yes, yes, we know he’ll just go there anyway, so sign the paper”. This world is terrible (as we see several times here), and Haruka and the girls are dead set on improving it while protecting each other (the girls admit here all their lecturing attacks on him by now are them testing to make sure he’s still unable to lose to them). At the same time, this world is overdramatic and loopy, and adding Haruka and the girls does not change that in the least.
The next book seems to have a festival, judging by the cover. Knowing Haruka, it may be more of a carnival. Recommended to those who know what they’re getting.
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