Title: The King’s Beast Vol. 11
Author: Rei Toma
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 169
Genre: Romance, Fantasy
Publication Date: October 3, 2023
The Story
The eleventh volume of The King’s Beast took a completely different direction with the story than I expected it to. This section will be a bit short because the story in and of itself is pretty straightforward.
Rangetsu makes a wild decision to have Prince Tenyou retake Sougetsu as his beast servant and announces that she is going to leave the imperial palace after being granted permission to do so by Tenyou’s mother. Even though Tenyou wishes that she would reconsider, this is Rangetsu’s decision and she’s not backing down from it. On the bright side, Tenyou’s mother did appoint Rangetsu a plot of land by her hometown so that she wouldn’t have to return to a life of prostitution.
On the way out, Rangetsu discovers that she is being followed. It ends up being Teiga doing the following. He was ordered to escort her safely but the path back home isn’t linear. Rangetsu says that she wants to tour the country and take things in for herself. They visit several brothels and discover that the further you get away from the capital, the more seedy and underhanded the lords of the land are with the brothers. Teiga makes a report back to the palace about it but soon, their journey comes to an end.
Rangetsu returns home and things are going well until she’s paid a visit by a certain someone.
Characters
The big focus here was on Rangetsu and her decision to leave Tenyou behind. In the end, she states that the whole reason why she wanted to tour the country was to witness first-hand the way Ajin is treated and if Prince Tenyou truly could make a difference. Despite that, I was expecting her to realize that she needed Tenyou and would return but she didn’t.
Her decision to leave was very abrupt and came from left field; however, a lot of the things she’s done as a character throughout the series have been the same way so I guess it is kind of fitting, even if it made the story take a hard left turn seemingly at random.
Teiga did get some development here. Being Rangetsu’s bodyguard made him realize a few things… things that he ended up thanking her for before they went their separate ways. Teiga also changed a bit since we first met him. He seems more open and relaxed although there were times during their trip when he became quite annoyed with Rangetsu. Still, he’s become a great friend to her.
Final Thoughts
I remember making the joke that the selection games would be coming in this volume. Again, all attention was diverted away from them so, I guess I’ll remake the joke and say that the selection game…. They’re coming next volume! For real, this time! I swear! (they probably won’t.)
Honestly, I love using this section to predict where the story is going to go but after Rangetsu just decided to up and leave, I can’t even be certain of my own calculations anymore. I didn’t see this twist coming and while I truly believe that it’s temporary, it does throw a monkey wrench into what could or could not be coming in the next volume; however, with [redacted]’s appearance at the very end, I would assume that Rangetsu isn’t going to be staying home for very long. She could return to Tenyou’s side as soon as the next volume; however, there are some things that make me think otherwise.
First off, Tenyou’s mother went out of her way to grant Rangetsu her freedom. Release from the imperial capital for an Ajin is almost unheard of and yet, here we are. Plus, she has her own land and can live out her life in peace. Returning and negating all of that kindness could have some serious backlash. Plus, what about Sougetsu? Wouldn’t he lose his position or would Rangetsu just live with Tenyou as a guest? It will still make things a bit awkward after everything that was done to assure her safe passage back home.
The other radical shift would be that Tenyou gives up his goals and goes to live with Rangetsu… but he is so committed to changing the world that I just can’t see that happening. In a way, this chapter almost feels like the setup for an epilogue where Tenyou wins the emperor’s seat and we do a time skip where he visits Rangetsu on her farm and invites her to see the changes he’s made. Going into a scenario like that at this point seems unlikely since the manga hasn’t concluded in Japan yet.
In short, I’m just not sure where things will go but I am certain of one thing. We’re not getting those selection games anytime soon!
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media.
