Title: The King’s Beast Vol. 13
Author: Rei Toma
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 169
Genre: Romance, Fantasy
Publication Date: June 4, 2024
The Story
Trouble between lands is brewing but before we get to all of that, it’s time to pay a visit to Princess Ririn. She has summoned Rangetsu, Prince Kougai, and Boku to her place. There, they meet her husband Keiei who seems a bit suspicious of Rangetsu, especially after Ririn clings to him. That night, Rangetsu overhears them having, what she perceives to be, an argument; however, when she steps in to break it up, she discovers something more… provocative… happening. Ririn has no choice but to reveal Rangetsu’s secret; however, Keiei doesn’t seem to care about it all that much.
On the way back, their carriage breaks so Boku goes out to get a replacement. There, they are attacked by bandits but before Rangetsu can do anything to protect him, Kougai comes out and cleans the house all by himself! In addition to the attack, we learn that Prince Tenyou hasn’t fully made his move when it comes to marrying Rangetsu!
Shortly after, Tenyou informs Rangetsu that war is going to break out. Other nations are not fond of their new policy, granting equality to Ajins. They hope to attack their land and force their policies to fail. Rangetsu and Sougetsu are called to action but before the battle starts, Tenyou takes Rangetsu to a midsummer festival as a way of one last piece of enjoyment before the bloodshed begins. Now that peace is over, preparations must be made.
A special squad of Ajin is missing their leader. The volume ends with a mission… to get the former Emperor’s bodyguard and the Ajin who tortured Sougetsu to return!
Characters
Hmm… not much happened in the way of character development. Rangetsu and Tenyou are still in love with each other but because of the story events happening, there wasn’t much time for them to progress in their relationship; however, Tenyou is trying to get things to change when it comes to marriage between a human and an Ajin so he’s not giving up just yet! With the upcoming battle, I don’t expect there to be much in the way of progression on the romance front.
Sougetsu has a bit of a playful side to him and we see that again in this volume… especially when Rangetsu thinks that a certain part of her has gotten bigger and Sougetsu wastes no time seeing it if’s true!
Our only new character is Keiei. He seems mild-mannered at first; however, once he suspects that Ririn and Rangetsu (who he thinks is a guy) are fooling around, he becomes quite the jealous husband! I guess that’s normal for any man to be wary of other men around their wives; however, once he learns that Rangetsu is a girl, he backs off and acts as if nothing ever happened. In fact, he’s not even that surprised by the reveal. Things with him go back to normal pretty quickly which tells us he’s a little more carefree once things are in order.
Final Thoughts
There are some roadblocks to our happy ending with Tenyou and Rangetsu; however, with this new war beginning, I suspect that there are going to be many more. As with more arcs like this, there are only two ways it can go. The first is a hard-fought battle where everyone comes out okay on the other side or it’s a hard-fought battle where there are some casualties but they still make it through. For some reason, I can see the former playing out more than the latter.
If any character were to die, it would be Sougetsu. There would be no way that they would kill off Rangetsu or Prince Tenyou. I could see them getting injured to add some drama to the arc but nothing as severe as death. With Sougetsu dying, it would enrage Rangetsu and drive a wedge between her and Tenyou since he’s the commander of the Ajin forces and could have prevented it by not sending him. This would drag out their relationship story and extend the series a bit but I see that as a bit too extreme. I can’t rule it out but I think it’s unlikely to happen.
So, that just leaves with the “we defended our land and policies! Time to celebrate! To the brothels!”
…or something like that. Most likely, this will be the case with talk of how there may be other nations who try to fight as well, thus accepting a turbulent time during this transition of thinking about how Ajin are perceived. Either way, we have a certain former beast servant to convince before we get to anything having to do with war and that’s what will explore next time around!
You can also check out other The Outerhaven reviews on your favorite social media networks:
Subscribe to us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theouterhaven
Subscribe to us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheOuterHaven
Subscribe to us on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/theouterhavennet
This item was provided for review by VIZ Media
