By Toryuu and hamm. Released in Japan as “Kimo Ota Mob Yōhei wa, Mi no Hodo o Wakimaeru” by Overlap Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Josh DM.

The highlight of each volume of this series continues to be John vs. the plot. The plot has John involved in major battles, John being highly desired by everyone around him, both professionally and personally, John being colleagues with most of the movers and shakers in the galaxy, John is the star of this book. John, meanwhile, considers himself “just a guy”, makes sure to be one of the nameless mercs involved in battles, avoids interaction with other women as much as he possibly can, with the exception of his friend Gonzalez, who is a man in a woman’s body. John resolutely regards getting recruited as being a huge hassle and a mistake. And, as we see at the end of this volume, John is right. I wish that it didn’t come down to “I hate him because he is fat” as much as it does, but it’s also because, while the Empire is trying its best, nobles still think commoners are there to get glory for the nobles and then be sacrificed. No thanks.

What was implied in the last book becomes reality here: the Empire is at war with another Kingdom, who are very much on the “nobles rule, commoners drool” side of things. As such, John and most of the cast are corralled up to be part of the army fighting them, which mostly goes well until the kingdom shows off that they have a literal planet destroying weapon. John eventually does have to subtly ask for help there. The rest of the book involves the aftershocks of this war, as John’s “mind the store” mission goes south due to a sandstorm and robot dogs, and escorting a corporate group goes very badly as the group ends up killed, which leaves a bad taste in John’s mouth – he may be an NPC but he hates failure. Heck, even seemingly kind old men turn out to secretly be watching him very closely. As are the many women in this series.

Last time I avoided mentioning it, but I will briefly discuss the elephant in the room here, which is Scuna’s subplot. She’d been seen the least of the main girls, mostly as it’s just harder to find excuses to get her in John’s orbit. This works very well. It will probably also have repercussions down the line, and I’d worry about her chances of surviving if this weren’t a series with cover art like what we have. I also liked Shiora, and the fact that she was straightforward and earnest because, as the author says in the afterword, he already had a tsundere in the group with Fialka. John’s advice on how to be a great pilot like him amounts to “do it over and over and over again”, and I hope we see more of her. I also liked the Mei Hatsume addition to the cast. Every light novel seems to get its own Mei Hatsume these days.

The next volume in the series came out in Japan literally two days ago, so we’ll be waiting a bit. Till then, assuming you don’t mind a harem that goes nowhere due to the lead’s total lack of interest, this is great fun.