Title: Reign of the Seven Spellblades Vol. 4
Author: Sakae Esuno, Bokuto Uno (Story), Ruria Miyuki (Characters)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Genre: Fantasy
Publication Date: August 30, 2022
The Story
Reign of the Seven Spellblades volume 4 concludes Oliver’s duel with Darius Grenville. With the outcome, we lead something rather special about Oliver. After this concludes, we shift focus to Pete who has a really weird dream and then wakes up in a completely different state! It’s something that rattles him to his very core and he seeks answers as to why this particular event has transpired.
Meanwhile, we are introduced to a new character named Tullio Rossi. At first, he comes off as a bit friendly but then it quickly breaks down as he proposes a battle royal between the students. Each student will be given a medallion and the entire academy will become the battlefield. Battles can happen anywhere at any time. Defeat your opponent and take their medallion(s). The student with the most medallions at the end will be declared the winner; however, don’t expect this to be a tournament arc because as soon as everything is laid out and agreed upon, we don’t see any mention of it whatsoever. I guess the plan is to sprinkle in the battles throughout the story as it progresses.
In addition, it’s time to learn how to ride a broom! Everyone picks theirs out and this later comes into play with Nanao looking for a club to join. Obviously, since she was a natural when selecting her broom, she chooses a broom-themed sports club. Oliver is goaded into joining but it wasn’t really clear if he accepted the invitation or not. Guess we’ll find out a bit more later on.
The Academy’s council calls an emergency meeting to discuss Darius’ disappearance. Since it is common knowledge that people can wander the labyrinth for great amounts of time, it has been four months since he went absent before they decided to get to the bottom of it. Meanwhile, Oliver is in that very same labyrinth looking for a certain place. After finding it and leaving, he is confronted by Tullio Rossi. Looks like our first battle royal match is about to happen and it’s with the two characters we wanted to see go at it! No beating around the bush!
Characters
LOTS of development here all around; however, it does venture into spoiler territory so I will keep it as vague as possible.
Learning the truth about Oliver offers up a major focal shift for the true purpose of this series. Now we have an end goal set for our main character but he is to keep playing the charade he has been while we achieve that end goal. That makes things a bit more interesting but I will say that this revelation put my ship of Oliver x Nanao in jeopardy until late in the volume when Oliver is made to confess that he likes her after all. This sets up a rather interesting scenario… especially since it was revealed in the last volume that Nanao possesses the seventh spellblade. Given the context of everything with Oliver, a lot of guesses could be made as to WHY he loves Nanao.
Pete also shared the spotlight in terms of development but in a completely different way. After experiencing his… well… experience… Pete is left with a lot of questions. It was nice for Oliver her accompany him when Pete was invited to a gathering for those who went through something similar. I sensed it to be a trap at first, just as Oliver did, but it turned out to be something wholesome that could do Pete a lot of good. All I know is that despite the circumstances, Pete received a nice boost in power thanks to being able to cast magic he had difficulty with previously!
Outside of this, we also learned some things about the Kimberly Academy’s council. They are now the focal point more than ever and with the fact that they are making moves over Darius’ disappearance, it seems as if we have the beginnings of our ultimate confrontation(s). Should be pretty interesting going forward!
Like Oliver, I’m not buying Tullio’s excuse for wanting to fight Oliver. He has an ulterior motive. What that is, I don’t know, but he seems like a temporary throwaway obstacle just to give our main characters some opposition for a bit. Maybe it’ll pan out a bit differently but I don’t really see it happening. Once Oliver beats him (because we just know he will), we’ll get some story and maybe that’ll lead somewhere, maybe it won’t. Right now, it seems like filler content but I’m hoping to be proven wrong.
Final Thoughts
Like every volume before it, there is a lot to unpack here. This still felt like a transition into a new arc. A lot of seeds are being planted but it’s not just all calmness. Between Darius and Tullio, we were treated to some action. Riding brooms isn’t the most exciting thing in the world but it gives Nanao another dimension to her character. I like how she’s a samurai but she’s not being portrayed as your typical serious, uptight, disciplined warrior. She’s lighthearted, carefree, and certainly a little kid inside when riding a broom. She’s breaking the trope barriers and I love it! She’s still my favorite character in the series thus far!
With everything being blown wide open (and this early in the series, no doubt), it makes things interesting and while some might worry about pacing, I don’t think it’s too early. By giving us the end goal at the start of the series, it allows the story to do a long-term build-up to that end goal. As we’ve seen with Tullio, there can be side arcs along the way that help extend that out even further. I think there is plenty of story to tell and there could very well be a lot of twists and turns along the way that will change the trajectory or even the perception of what the true end goal is. After all, the manga is called Reign of the SEVEN Spellblades, and we still have a lot of them to uncover. Just that in and of itself, lends plenty of unexplored content.
With that said, it makes sense to establish things now. With it out of the way, we can breathe without worrying about it and just see the adventure unfold naturally!
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**This item was provided for review by Yen Press
