By Washiro Fujiki and Heiro. Released in Japan as “Eiyū to Kenja no Tensei Kon: Katsute no Kōtekishu to Konyaku Shite Saikyō Fūfu ni Narimashita” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Joey Antonio.

I will admit, I was a little irritated by the end of this volume. The whole series has been building to an obvious climax, and we get it here. I’ve talked before about how absolutely nothing challenges our main couple in any fight… except, of course, when they are fighting each other. As such, it makes perfect sense who the final boss is going to be, and it also makes sense that for once Raid does almost die. I wish Eluria also got to do cool fight stuff, but the nature of the battle means that she has to take care of the “journey to the center of the mind” stuff, which is also well handled, with a discussion of magic that genuinely says “murder is OK”, like the meme… provided, of course, you are the murderer and the people being killed are proven to be bad. It’s a really good ending to the series. BUT. Grr.

Raid and Eluria are finally ready to take care of fixing the First World’s polluted mana problem, mostly as we’ve finally figured out how to teach Raid to use magic. It will come as a surprise to no one that the way Raid uses magic is basically just “punch and sword things, but with magic”. They then go to the Divine Realm, which is basically Heaven, to meet up with elderly Raid, who is a Sage, and the one who set the stage for Raid the Hero. Sadly, Raid the Sage spent much of his life either stealing other people’s ideas using his future sight so he got the credit, or watching a young girl invent magic, despair as people used it for war, and destroy the world. He’s tried to find the timeline where he can change her fate, but was unable to. Now he needs Raid and Eluria to do it, which should be easier than expected, as the young girl is Eluria herself.

Again, most of this is great. The love gossip part was very amusing, featuring a ton of women who are very bad at realizing they’re in love, and Eluria, who also used to be that but got better. Raid’s mom is a stitch, and I like how her reaction to “I’m going to near-certain death and may not come back” is basically “OK, but come back anyway”. The engagement party would be a wedding, were this a final volume, and Eluria’s letter is adorable, as well as Raid’s proposal. The way the conflict is resolved works thematically, and we get to see Raid actually struggle for once, as well as fall into a month-long coma. Unfortunately… the series isn’t over. Now there’s a demon lord. For Chrissakes. You had a great ending! Why keep going?

So yeah, we’ll be back with Book 8, though it’s not out in Japan yet, so get ready to wait. Or pretend the book ended here with a wedding instead.