This is one of those authors who writes for people who have very advanced brain disease so that they don't remember what they just read 2 sentences ago. It's not the only story with that word-count enhancement feature where the exact same information simply gets repeated a few times. For example, you read "spoken text" where they talk about event A happening. And then you read an explanation that event A is happening. The exact same thing you just read. For example, you read a conversation and then there is... more>> another one or two paragraphs "explaining" the conversation - by repeating what they said, because the author assumes following a written conversation is too hard and you may have missed it? I don't understand the idea behind it, especially since I have found this irritating style in quite a few stories. Is there some writers-guide for newbies that tells them to endlessly repeat everything? The style is to write a few sentences of speech and then to explain what people said. Usually for no reason whatsoever, because you just read the story thus far and also what the people said, so you already are aware of everything. The explanations contain 80% information that you already know if you didn't jump right to that sentence and if you didn't already completely forget what yo read about 10 seconds earlier.

Example:

Spoiler

MC says: <It's a medicinal candy. It's less effective than liquid medicine, but it heals you slowly, so it doesn't place any burden on the body....>

[A few sentences of explanation followed by repeating what MC just said:]

Roa's recovery candies, however, had been made with the objective of slowly healing fatigue and small wounds without burdening the body

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Example:

Spoiler

<When you fail, you must admit it honestly. Think about the cause, make a countermeasure, and reflect about it a little bit!>

[three very short non-speech sentences]

When you fail, admit it honestly think about the cause, make a countermeasure, and reflect about it.

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Often it's worse than that, with even more exact repetition and right away. In the above example there were three sentences in between the MC statement and the repetition, so maybe a few people do need a repetition already? /sarcasm

That is the main issue for my low rating, it's maximum stupid and more than just irritating. That the story already is on an extremely low level of simplicity does not even matter that much - sometimes you just want to watch a movie for children from the age of 3 (such as "Ponyo") even as an adult, nothing wrong with that by itself. Although, this story's "emotion building" for the "poor mistreated MC" is so way over the top that it's comedy instead, like one of those "worst movie of all times". But the endless repeats are unbearable. On the plus side, the reading speed can be increased to about 3-5 times normal because as soon as your eye-brain system notices a repeat you can skip the paragraph - it really is just a repeat. On the negative side, you have to scroll-scroll-scroll-scroll pretty fast to get even a below average amount of information per unit of time that you are used to from even very simple texts. Another reason for too much scrolling is that there are waaayyyyy too many paragraphs even when the sentences belong together. The write seems to have an aversion against more than three. max four lines of text. Often there is a (short) sentence per paragraph without any reason whatsoever - I get it that speech is separate, but you get sentences like this (not to mention that the first sentence is another useless repeat of what was written that some guy thought just two sentences earlier) :

Spoiler

Dietrich looked at the candy he received with mixed feelings.

Roa cannot fight.

That was only because he wasn't taught properly, though.

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There also is a lot of information that does not contribute anything whatsoever to the story. You may count it as "world building" if you like, the problem is that it's like having an adventure movie interrupted every minute for five minutes to have a narrator explain something not relevant to the actual adventure story itself. Some people call this "slow-paced" - but that is mis-applying that label. The author simply has no clue how to tell a story.

Okay, maybe two stars would be warranted, depending on how low you want to go (as I said, sometimes you are fine with a story way below your level) even three, but my vote is for the feeling of great irritation and even anger that reading thus far has caused me to develop.

On the plus side: The translator (s?) did a good job (can't blame them for the quality of the base material).

PS: Having read the two "v1 idle talk 1/2": Even more repetition, this time a "what happened thus far" summary. For a story so simplistic that I have no idea who the target audience is for that summary. It's like getting a narrated summary of what happened in a Bugs Bunny cartoon - after you just watched it. <<less

Overall, this novel is great. It is a little bit slow paced, but with good writting, you can slowly enjoy it.

First, for the world, the author has done good constructing it. It has some cliches here and there but it also has some new and creative parts. I think the author has selected carefully to put into the novel, but is it true or not, I have to read more to know.

Second, for the character, they are, well, cliches. You have the MC is a typical-good-hard-working-Japanese type and the group kicks him out is a typical-bad-people type. However, the execution the author made is quite good. If you focus on the plot, it will not annoy you.

Third, the plot is interesting without plot holes (till now). The author really knows how to combine the world with the characters. The only downside is it is quite slow, so just read this novel carefreely, instead of trying to binge read it.

Last but not least, the execution is quite good. You have a plot A, the MC story and plot B, former hero party (till now) which is well-executed so its not confusing. The tension, atmostphere and interaction builds up really well, which will make you want to read it more. The interaction is also interesting as well, although it doesn not have any comedy.

in conclusion, if you can take times to enjoy a non-comedy novel, this may be the one you look for. I am sure it will worth your time.