Hai to Gensou no Grimgar 8

Hai to Gensou no Grimgar level.8 Soshite Bokura wa Asu wo Matsu (灰と幻想のグリムガル level.8 そして僕らは明日を待つ)

Author: Jyumonji Ao

Illustration: Shirai Eiri

Label: Overlap Bunko

Release Date: 25/03/2016

Volumes: 08~

Abbreviation: Grimgar

The first few pages of this volume show Team Haruhiro finally getting back to Grimgar. They entered a region filled with a dense mist which is around 500~700 km from Altana (according to Haruhiro) which is their main objective. Before getting into the main events of this volume I’ll cover a bit about the history around this place and a bit about the new characters:

This was already mentioned volumes ago but the Clan Day Breakers has the objective of dealing with the revival of the No Life King. It is said that he appearead and his curse created a huge army composed of undead of different races (humans, goblins, orcs, etc.). This army ended up destroying and occuping the territory of the Kingdoms of Nananka and Ishmar. Besides that the Kingdom of Arabakia ended up going south. This happened 150 years ago and there are hints leading to his revival. Meanwhile the other and possibly the real objective of the Day Breakers is to find a way to go back to their original world. Haruhiro’s party is right in the middle of the region occupied by the No Life King years ago. That’s why they are really, really far from Altana.

Another important thing is about the hidden village, a village composed that has six main families. People from this village know this region (Southern Valley, サウザンバレー) as if it’s their own garden. There are three main characters from this village:

• Arara: She is supposed to turn into the future leader of her family. She fell in love with Tatsuru who got killed by Arnold, a strong undead monster and now seeks revenge.
• Katsuharu: Arara’s “uncle”. Not related by blood and former member of the Reserve Forces.
• Setora: Another girl from one of the main families albeit she isn’t in the line of sucｃession because she has 2 (?) older sisters.

More details about them coming later. Now for the group called Forgan (フォルガン). It’s a group formed by different races and the leader is an orc called Jambo. They are strong and feared by the hidden village. Main characters:

• Jambo: A “small” (~180cm) orc who grew up with a human. His knowledge and personality were molded by this human (no details about him) and that’s why he can talk with humans. Everybody at Forgan respects him.
• Arnold: Undead with four arms. One of, if not the strongest member of Forgan.
• Takasagi: Human. Doesn’t have his right arm and his left eye.
• Onsa: Goblin who can control a lot of animals (Wolves, nyaas, small dragons?).
• Godo Akasha: A huge orc. Respects and tries to be like Jambo.

Nyaas are well, something like big cats I guess. If Grimgar were written in english then their name would be Meow. They are bigger when compared to the cats we know and are really fast. They can be used to obtain informations (telling the position/place of an enemy for example). They seem to be cute. Mary really liked their appearance.

Now for the party from Day Breakers known as the Typhoon Rocks. They are at this place because of Souma’s orders but are now moving because they are crazy. Their main style is to fight by themselves. The complete opposite of Haruhiro’s party. Members:

• Rock: Leader of the party. Small, but fast and strong as fuck.
• Moyugi: Self proclaimed “strongest Dread Knight”. Strategist. Uses the female? demon Moria.
• Kajita: Warrior. Quiet guy. Big. Strong.
• Tsuga: Priest.
• Sakanami: Crazy, really crazy thief.
• Kurou/Crow: Former hunter. Warrior. But most of the stuff he does is what a hunter does. Seriously.

Going back to Team Haruhiro. After they finally reached Grimgar, Haruhiro and Yume left the party to find some information that could confirm the direction they wanted to take (south).

• Haruhiro & Yume

We see once more how Yume is really pure or should I say the “iyashi” of the party. Haruhiro starts to “confirm” his suspicions that Ranta has something more for Yume. Then they meet Kurou. As members of the same clan Kurou says that it would be for the best to follow him. It does happen that by following him they end up fighting against some members of Forgan and meeting with Moyugi and Kajita, looking at Sakanami and Tsuga doing some “casual killing” from far away until they met Rock and Arara.

Kajita big guy, Kurou at the back and Moyugi glasses guy

By then we have Haruhiro, Yume, Kurou, Rock and Arara at the same place. There they find Arnold and a first battle happens. Arnold ends up “winning”, i.e. Haruhiro and company ran away. Arara got badly hurt. Haruhiro started to consider Moyugi’s advice of always thinking ahead. Also we get to see about the (cliche and boring) subplot related to Arara. The classic story of a boy and a girl falling in love with each other, meeting the contrary opinions of their own families (the ones which lead the village) and the (normal) guy trying to prove his worth by trying to defeat the biggest treat to the village… The undead Arnold. He died and Arara wanted revenge. (from here on it’s not that cliche anymore I guess) She met the Typhoon Rocks and Rock fell in love at first sight so he decided to help her (he doesn’t give a damn about what happens later). The other members are full of themselves or just crazy so their reaction was also positive. It also seemed “fun” to go against one of the strongest member of Forgan.

Arara left, Rock right

Anyway, after a break they decided to move on and ended up finding Katsuharu, Kuzaku and Shihoru fighting against members of Forgan. They saved the three of them and Haruhiro saw Ranta at the enemy’s side. Haruhiro (and Shihoru/Kuzaku) asked for Mary. Ranta answered to Haruhiro with something like “if you want my woman back, come and defeat me”. Haruhiro couldn’t believe that Ranta betrayed them.

• Shihoru & Kuzaku

Some time passed after Haruhiro and Yume went away. Ranta got worried? and so they decided to separate into two pairs. Ranta and Mary went to search for them while Kuzaku and Shihoru stayed waiting for them. Development time: Shihoru gets worried about Kuzaku trying to do “too hard” in order to catch up with the other members of the party. After all Mogzo did too much and that happened. Shihoru and Kuzaku also agreed that Haruhiro was having to do too much on his own. Shihoru started to wonder if she couldn’t do something in order to help him. Guess the last important point is Shihoru’s answer to Kuzaku’s “The women in our party don’t see us guys as possible romantic partners”. Shihoru said that wasn’t true. Hmm… Well, Yume certainly doesn’t see anyone like that because she is really pure. Impossible to confirm anything about Mary so hmm… Kuzaku ended up telling him about his confession to Shihoru and a small flag was triggered between them. Kind of I guess (Shihoru saying Kuzaku looked like a dog, than saying she liked dogs more than cats).

Anyway, after some time they were found by Katsuharu. Just like Haruhiro they decided to go with him until they found a place where some kind of battle had taken place. Later they were running away from Nyaas but ended up having to fight against some wolves. In the end they end up meeting with Takasagi and Ranta from Forgan. Ranta and Kuzaku fought a bit and Ranta was serious. If Haruhiro and company didn’t appear Ranta could actually have killed Kuzaku.

• Ranta & Mary

Ranta being Ranta. Mary being Mary. This actually pretty much summarizes most of what happened. Ranta and Mary were searching for Haruhiro and Yume when suddenly the mist started to dissipate. Then they found some Nyaas (from Forgan most likely) and some time later they were completely surrounded. At this time Ranta got to understand how much Haruhiro was important, i.e. it’s much easier to fight by himself when compared to having to fighting while protecting Mary or thinking about the others. Even so Ranta is still Ranta. When he saw there was no way they could get alive from there he activated his skill “dogeza”. They were captured by the goblin Onsa and taken into the “headquarter” of Forgan.

At this place they first met with the old man Takasagi. He asked if they were members of the village and about how he wouldn’t mind killing Ranta and using Mary for you know what. That kind of typical fantasy nukige development. He only didn’t that because he was waiting for the leader. Obviously Mary got scared and even wanted to die before the worst happened. Ranta still tried to cheer? her up saying he wasn’t giving up no matter what.

Then the charismatic leader Jambo appeared. He was accompanied by the huge orc Godo Akasha. Ranta provoked Takasagi saying that he could defeat everyone here (just like always) and Jambo for some reason accepted his proposal of a duel. So Ranta managed to get free and even got his weapons back. Mary thought that maybe, just maybe Ranta did all of that in order to get a chance to run away. But well, Ranta is Ranta and he really decided to have a fight against Takasagi. The difference in ability was obvious but Ranta didn’t give up. Mary was cheering for him and even if he got defeated she was happy enough to see that he was still trying his best. So happy that she almost felt like crying. Soon after his defeat Ranta used his skill one more time. Dogeza. He also asked to be a disciple of Takasagi. Mary wanted to cry for other reasons. In the end Takasagi said everything was up to Jambo. The leader said he doesn’t like to kill for no reason so he accepted Ranta into Forgan. When asked if Mary wanted to enter Forgan, her answer was negative. A negative answer also meant the worst for her. Before anything more could happen Ranta said that he always wanted to make her his woman so he asked for some time. If she didn’t obey him then he would give up on her. Jambo also accepted this.

• Night before the last battle (of this volume) – Ranta’s side

Ranta’s last proposal was certainly a lie. We get to see some things about his PoV before and it’s pretty obvious that he knows the position he is in the party. The same for his “weakness” to Yume and not to Mary. At that night the members of Forgan were drinking, talking and having some fun. Goblins, orcs, kobolds, undeads, all at the same place. Ranta saw that from far away. Mary was ignoring him and he didn’t feel like being the usual “idiot” and trying to get into one of those groups. Then he saw Jambo alone… Well, he was actually with Arnold. Ranta asked why Jambo wouldn’t go to the place where the others were. Jambo was respected by everyone else so there was nothing that could go wrong. But Jambo’s answer was a simple one. He just didn’t think he was the type to enjoy things like them. Same for Arnold. Same for Ranta. That’s why they were friends. Jambo and Arnold offered some of their drinks to Ranta and this led to…

(Easily my favorite scene of the volume. Very simple scene but the emotional impact was devastating imo)

• And then we wait for tomorrow (damn, this subtitle)

At the same time Team Haruhiro, Typhoon Rocks and Arara/Katsuharu reached the hidden village. Arara was going to receive some kind of punishment (by putting the village at danger) but they would only get to know about the details on the next day. Meanwhile Team Haruhiro stayed at Katsuharu’s place and decided to define their new objective. Ranta’s “betrayal” hit them really hard but Ranta’s words indicated that Mary was still alive so it was decided that they would help the Typhoon Rocks (defeat Arnold from Forgan) and in return they would find some way to rescue Mary. Haruhiro still doubted that Ranta would really betray them though. Small thing but Shihoru got more “active” in giving opinions in this “meeting”.

The next morning Haruhiro was taken by some members of Typhoon Rocks to meet Setora. Setora can control Nyaas so they asked for her help (she is also a childhood friend of Arara). She declined at first but Haruhiro asked if they couldn’t give her something in return for her help. She does some research about artificial lives so she asked for an eye. “Naturally” Haruhiro accepted this condition for his left eye. In the end Setora decided to get his eye later. Btw, this natural reaction shows once more about Haruhiro’s personality. It may be because he loves Mary as a woman, but more than that I get the feeling he would that for anyone of the party. And it’s not even like having Setora’s help would be a trump card. It would be positive yes, but there was no guarantee for that. He still decided to give up on his eye as if it was the most natural thing to do in order to increase, even if slightly, the chances of success. Seriously Haruhiro, you keep saying the other guys are crazy but you’re not a normal guy either.

Then we go to the climax of this volume. Pretty much a direct confront between the Typhoon Rocks + Arara, Katsuharu + Team Haruhiro against the Forgan. Lots of action, Kajita and Godo Akasha having plenty of fun going against each other, Rocks being pretty damn cool and awesome declaring his will to everyone there. Rocks 1×1 battle with Arnold was being pretty nice too. The conclusion is unknown because Haruhiro used this chance (everyone concentrated on watching that fight) in order to find Mary. Sakanami substituted him (also a disciple of Barbara). When Haruhiro was going out he saw Shihoru waving her right hand as the only other member of the party that actually realized he was leaving. Once more Shihoru showing signs that she is paying more attention to Haruhiro than the others. She is also slowly turning into a “sub-leader”.

Haruhiro managed to find the place where Mary was being held with the help of a Nyaa controlled by Setora. He saved her without making the same mistake as in the volume 7 (to kill or not to kill the “guardian”).

Everything was going well until Ranta, Takasagi and a few orcs appeared. Here we have the classic development of Haruhiro fighting Ranta on 1×1. Ranta was serious so Haruhiro had no other choice to fight as trying to kill him. Both knew about each other just too well. The only difference was that Haruhiro surpassed his limits in the last volume (1×1 battle against a stronger opponent) and that was what sealed the deal. When Haruhiro was about to give the last blow, to actually kill Ranta, Mary called his name and Kurou used this chance to cause some confusion.

Then Haruhiro used this chance to run away with Mary. Their destination was the “exit” from the other world, the same place they were one? day ago. That’s how the volume ends. Haruhiro having to accept Ranta’s betrayal… And even if he were to come back, would he be able to form a party with him anymore? After all he really did try to kill Ranta even if there was no other choice.

Oh well, wrote a lot more than I wanted to… Anyway, pretty nice volume. Stuff about the No Life King’s revival and a group formed by different races already show a side of Grimgar we didn’t know before. Being able to see other characters’ PoV was great too (mainly Ranta, a bit of Kuzaku and Mary). No matter what, this arc is still not over for a lot of reasons. Jambo still didn’t get some real spotlight, same for Tsuga and Sakanami. It’s still uncertain if Rock really defeated Arnold and if Shihoru, Yume and Kuzaku will be able to reach the “exit” from the other world.

We also have Shihoru’s growth as a character. I’m really looking forward to see how she’ll turn out in the next few volumes. Same for Haruhiro. Not so obvious at first but Haruhiro is trying to change in a good way after his mistake in the last volume. Relying more on other people, be it on battles, be it on making decisions. Also always thinking ahead. Can’t wait to see Moyugi’s “advice” giving some fruits. Haruhiro is also starting to rely on Shihoru a lot more than before so hmm…

There is Haruhiro’s promise in giving his left eye to Setora and obviously Ranta. I really do wonder what he really wants to do right now. His decisions back there certainly saved Mary for the worst. But that scene with Jambo and Arnold may have really changed him. It’s also funny how everyone in the party hates but “loves” him. It’s pretty much the same for everyone and it’s even more of a delicate matter to Haruhiro. Fumu. Maybe Yume will be the key character next volume after the foreshadowing about Ranta’s love? for her. Dunno. All I can say is that the next volume couldn’t come sooner… Damn you Jyumonji and all these cliffhangers.