Title: The King’s Beast Vol. 2
Author: Rei Toma
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 168
Genre: Romance, Fantasy
Publication Date: May 4, 2021
The Story
The third volume of The King’s Beast was a little bit on the slow side but it did have some dramatic implications to it. Rangetsu and Touya are invited out to eat by Oushin and Teiga. They end up going to a brothel which ends up with Rangetsu getting a bit drunk and having a duel with Teiga to which she loses. After Rangetsu sleeps it off, Taihaku informs her that there is a tea ceremony coming up and it’s an important tradition as it may help determine who the next emperor is.
With the emperor having thirteen offspring… filtering out the one who will succeed him is going to be an important occasion. Rangetsu tries and fails miserably at making tea so she has to do quite a bit of practicing for the ceremony; however, when the ceremony comes, Rangetsu notices a particular scent about the leaves and realizes that it’s a form of poison. She drinks the tea and feels pretty dizzy. Touya tends to her and realizes what happened.
After recovering, Rangetsu talks to Taikahu about the incident and while he doesn’t have any concrete proof, he does have his suspicions about who would pull such a stunt. During the discussion, it is mentioned that there will be another event… this time a game that is very similar to polo except that they eliminated the horse aspect of it.
As they are preparing, Touya and Rangetsu end up coming face-to-face with the person suspected of the attempted poisoning of Prince Touya to end the volume!
Characters
Rangetsu seems to still be in conflict with Prince Touya. On the one hand, she’s becoming more and more trusting of him. She’s putting her full faith and belief in him and this is even further solidified when Touya surprises her by bringing her to Sougetsu’s grave. Once she sees how lavish his grave is, her feelings are pretty much solidified; however, she still warns Touya that if he turns his back on her, she will kill him. This warning carries a different weight this time around. The first time, it was meant as a serious threat. This time, she means it as if to say “please to betray my feelings.” On the surface, it seems like the same threat but the difference in meaning shows how much Rangetsu is growing.
Teiga was pretty fun in this volume. Showing his special ability to Rangetsu made her realize that as strong as she is… she could always be (and needs to be) stronger. This makes her start carrying sandbags around for strength training and going above and beyond with her routines in an effort to sharpen her skills. So even though Teiga himself didn’t grow as a character, he indirectly helped with Rangetsu’s development as any good supporting character should.
Also, props to Taihaku for still being a condescending prick but also caring enough to still keep Rangetsu’s secret. He could have easily told anyone about her being a girl by now but he’s opting to keep it to himself… just so long as Touya remains protected. Another piece of motivation for Rangetsu to get stronger.
Final Thoughts
The third volume of The King’s Beast did slow things down a little bit but most third volumes typically do this to allow the story to breathe. With the introduction of someone attempting to poison Touya and then coming face-to-face with them at the conclusion of the volume, it still added that much-needed element to hook the reader.
I will say that reveal of the suspect was a bit flat. You would expect it to be someone such as that and it also serves as a bit of a trope when it comes to any story with a royal bloodline aspect to it. Especially when there is a selection for a person to be put into a position of power, you’d almost expect the culprit to be who they revealed it to be. Well, I shouldn’t say culprit because nothing is proven so I still have that shred of hope to cling to that there is a potential swerve here and it ends up being someone else.
If they do go with a swerve, I’m betting it’s going to be an Ajin, and Rangetsu will, once again, have to find a way to free them as we know she can’t stand the mistreatment of her people… even if they are guilty. I could see this all boiling down to a decision that holds great moral weight as well as political impact as it could easily affect the selection of the next emperor. At least, that’s how I would write it. For all we know, it could be the person everyone suspects and we go down the generic road of corruption in the royal family.
We’ll find out in Volume 4!
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
