By KAYA and Naru. Released in Japan as “Tensei Shōjo wa Mazu Ippo kara Hajimetai: Mamono ga Iru toka Kiitenai!” by MF Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Amy Osteraas.
Each volume further a writer gets into a series, the more difficult it gets to write an ending that wraps everything up in a nice, neat bow and resolves all the hanging plot and character points. And since that’s the case, it’s always glorious to see a series that does it. This final volume of Good on Wolves (the series’ unofficial nickname among its fans here) is everything I wanted to see. The series returns to its roots, acknowledges how far it’s come, and settles back down after spending the previous volumes roaming all over the map. There’s also a proposal here, though this series is always going to be fairly mild about romance. The big emotional high for this story wasn’t Allen saying to Sara that they should get married and build a house, but rather the mountain wolves asking everyone to trust them and fighting together with the cast to fend off cockatrices. Good doggos to the end, even as scary wolves.
Sara and her friends are in the capital, living their best life. But they hear that things are a little rough in Rosa right now. They were building a paved road from the city to the Dark Mountain, but work stopped halfway. What’s more, the mayor apparently looks haggard. Who’s the mayor? Why Ted, of course! Despite this, Sara wants to go back to Rosa. She wants to visit the cabin where she started in this world, and she’s made her peace with Ted and his jerk antics. So the whole crew go up there, only to find… things are better than expected? Ted is exhausting himself, but that’s more his personality than anything else. He even has a fiancee! The road project is stalled mostly as they’re out of magic stones. Fortunately, when Sara’s around, monsters are sure to follow, and now there’s a huge number of Cockatrices making life difficult for everyone.
Much of this book, like the previous one, is showing off how Sara has matured and become an adult, much to the surprise of some (she’ll always be short and look pretty young). Her teaching is first rate, and she even helps Ted with his romantic relationship (which is also relatively free of drama). The only dramatic moment is when there’s a crisis with several hunters needing supreme potions, a “either you get all better or it kills you” sort of potion. Sara’s been lucky to this point, but one of the hunters doesn’t survive. That said, Sara briefly castigates herself but recovers quickly. She’s basically a doctor through most of this, when she’s not using her barriers to do virtually anything. If there’s one minor nit I have, it’s that Allen feels a bit left out until the end of the book – I’d like to have seen more with just the two of them.
This is another series that I’ve always loved, going from a small insular mountain (that we don’t even realize is a dangerous dungeon till much later in the series) then expanding outwards from a refugee camp to a city to a bigger city and finally to the capital… then back to the mountain in the end. Bye, Sara. Enjoy your career, your married life, and your many, many pet wolves.
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