In these two volumes of High School Prodigies Have it Easy Even in Another World!, the following manages to occur:
- We get a side story of basically all the ladies — this includes Roo — in the hot springs to start Volume 3.
- We got a truck created in a fantasy world.
- A cool lady knight appears and gets little page time!
- A petulant man-child throws a flaming spear from his domain to where the high school prodigies are.
- Lyrule possibly has within her a spirit that can inform her of impending danger (???)
- Oh right, petulant man-child literally learns of the high school prodigies still living and throws a flaming spear from his domain to where those prodigies are!
So yeah, the major story for these two volumes is while the prodigies, also known as the Seven Luminaries, attempt their efforts to revolutionize this world, Duke Oslo El Gustav is a threat solely because he’s unhinged.
Like as overpowered as each of the seven are in their field, none of them could predict that Duke Gustav would be unpredictable enough that, ultimately, they had to heed Lyrule’s warning that the spear would actually end not just them, but the Findolph domain. Rare to say, but they actually had precautions in place. Shinobu the ninja journalist was on the way to learn more about the Duke and see if they could take action. But upon learning from one of his servants that the Seven Luminaries were still around, he literally wasted no time in throwing from his domain one of his most destructive spells, and thanks to a noble’s pettiness, the prodigies in Findolph had to deal with more trouble than expected.
But despite all of that, and as you can expect, the two volumes continue to show off just how proficient the prodigies are at their craft. Like, we need to move around efficiently to spread the word about how good we are compared to the status quo — let’s get Ringo to build a truck! Tsukasa ends up roping a few political leaders to his side, and they are blown away that he created a book specifically preparing for any potential incident that could happen. Oh, and let’s just say Aoi proves why she’s a genius swords master in volume 4. So between that and the advancement of the tech they could use, you can argue they still are too overpowered in this world.
That said, while what Duke Gustav did was quite moronic, he also showed that because it’s still a fantasy world, the seven still have limits on what they can do all together. It took a mysterious spirit that resides in Lyrule to warn them of the spear’s true powers, so as great as they are, there’s much they can’t perceive. And whether or not it happens, the businessman prodigy Masato begins seeding into the narrative that eventually, he will want to break apart from Tsukasa and move in a different direction due to what they each personally want. I’m not sure I’m onboard with that personally (look, this series is at its best when it’s being ridiculous), but I’ll take his comment to mean it might not just be him that chooses to leave the group. Whether it’ll happen soon I don’t know, but if we were wondering what type of challenges will occur in this series, having the prodigies face each other would be it.
Aside from that, while the action was unreasonable as usual, I do wish these two volumes did have more of a focus on Jeanne Du Leblanc, who acts as a Silver Knight of the Empire (who Duke Gustav serves) in public, but she also has been building a resistance army to eventually take the Duke on. In public she’s had to grit her teeth and uphold the Empire’s inhuman rules (like maintain cleanliness and smiles all the time or you’re punished; having to accept a village resort to cannibalism to live), but in meeting (and then capturing) Shinobu, she can finally begin bringing real change. Yet the only time we see her after she reveals her true intentions to Shinobu, she’s in a battle. I can only hope she can appear more…
Anywho, while there’s doubt thrown into the story, once that doubt’s been squashed the prodigies face very little challenges as they start rolling over their enemies. The next volume promises romantic escapades involving Tsukasa and a few of the girls, but we’ll see what other potential threats occur moving forward. And see just how much more fanservice can be introduced at the same time…