By Fujino Omori and NIRITSU. Released in Japan as “Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka?: Familia Chronicle: Episode Lyu” by Softbank Creative. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Dale DeLucia.
Given that the DanMachi series has, of late, been getting pretty dark, and even Sword Oratoria is going to some dark places when it’s not busy showing Lefiya being jealous, the average reader would not have been surprised to see this new spinoff, focusing on Lyu Leon, to be a description of her tragic past and the horrible deaths of everyone she knew and loved. Fortunately, we don’t get that. While Lyu’s past certainly affects her throughout this book, and the second half delves into the immediate aftermath of her revenge, this is an altogether more lighthearted affair. A tale told in two parts, the first half deals with Lyu and Syr disguising themselves and entering a fabulous casino to try to rescue a young woman gambled away by her father. The second story, as I hinted, deals with how Lyu ended up working at the Benevolent Mistress, as well as giving some backstory for two of the other waitresses. It’s a breezy, fun read.
The first story was my favorite, because come on, CASINO CAPER! Lyu and Syr listen to some schmuck of a dad’s story about his gambling addiction and how he ended up losing his daughter. Because Lyu burns with a sense of righteousness despite herself, she decides to rescue the girl. Because Syr is Syr, she tags along as well. Actually, Syr gets the most awesome moments of the story. I suspect the author had heard about the fan rumors that Syr was secretly Freya in disguise, and while not quite true, Syr certainly has a strong connection to Freya, and seeing her destroy the denizens of the casino in poker is worth the price of the entire book. We also get to see Lyu’s attempt to adopt a cool billionaire disguise, and how quickly it falls by the wayside as soon as she sees something that invokes her fury.
As for the other story, because it’s dealing with the tragic backstories of not only Lyu, who is found by Syr near death after finishing up her revenge against those who slaughtered her Familia, but also two of the other waitresses, Runoa and Chloe, who turn out to have been teenage bounty hunters/assassins in their youth. Both are ready to call it quits, but there’s one last job that has to be done: killing Lyu on behalf of the mysterious group paying them. The moment that you see they’re going to try to do this at the pub late at night, you know you’re in for some fun fights, amazing property damage, and seeing Mia go off on everyone present. Mia, like Syr, is tied in to the Freya family (you get the feeling they started the pub with just the two of them), and the pub itself seems more like a “home for wayward girls” after this story.
For those wondering if this is a Bell-free book, nope, he shows up in the casino, and plays a small role in the chaos that follows. But for the most part this book does exactly what it set out to do: expand on Lyu’s character and have a really good time. I’d like to see more in the series focusing on other supporting characters some day.