Lout of Count's Family Vol. 7

Another action-packed volume from start to finish. Most of this volume focuses on the aftermath of the battle at Death Canyon, including Raon's developmental fever and Cale's brush with death regarding his Ancient Powers.

Even though it was a bit of a fake-out (plus Cale is always giving everyone around him heart attacks), the author used this moment to really flesh out some of the side characters emotionally. Cale's crew is a true family, and it hurts them to see Cale sacrifice himself for the greater good, even though that's definitely not what he's doing (according to him). This will probably serve as a catalyst for everyone to get even stronger than before, so that they can protect their leader.

The most notable thing in this book (for me) other than the ongoing political movements and wartime strategies are that this is the first book where I think it's made really clear to the audience that Kim Roksu's previous life in Korea was not as ordinary as we may think. I appreciated getting these previous glimpses, because honestly I had the wrong perception of what kind of person he is.

Maybe it's due to the influence of Japanese Isekai, but the main protagonists of those stories tend to fit into a certain stereotype: unassuming, unassertive, mob-characters, etc. I had the misconception that Kim Roksu's life was basically similar to other isekai protags, but with the added tragedy of being an orphan, hence why he read quite a few webnovels. I was honestly thinking that he was similar to Kim Dokja from Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint (though I've only read 2 volumes of that so far).

Yeah, I was definitely wrong, and it makes sense in hindsight that someone this competent would obviously have real-world experience in managing an organization. That and other details about the Korea that Kim Roksu left behind only bring up more questions than answers, and I hope that this series will answer those eventually.