The Water Magician: Arc 1 Volume 3 [LN3]

This volume was more focused than previous ones; while the last two volumes had smaller arcs strung together to tell the overall story, this book is mostly one big arc that follows Ryo’s travels. 

Ryo is recruited for a caravan escort mission that will lead him out of the country, to the neighboring Principality of Inverey, into Aberdeen city (are these a reference to Scotland?).  Therefore, he’s on the road for the majority of the time, and we see a little bit more of the Kingdom of Knightley. 

The volume shows Ryo doing what he does best, which is stagger through situations using his ridiculous knowledge of light novel tropes, and somehow coming out on top. While he ultimately takes his job seriously, that doesn’t mean he can’t enjoy the journey! Also, this volume starts to show the cracks in his knowledge, of both the world and his place in it, and how it affects his ability to plan and fight.

Ryo’s unusual feats with water magic are starting to get noticed. A good example of this are the water magicians in the caravan, who are mostly only there to provide drinking water (useful, but certainly not combat-ready). Ryo happily obliges and gives them whatever pointers he can about his methods. In these small ways, you can see the gears start to turn on the overall plot. I imagine there will be some kind of domino effect, as there are multiple water magicians that Ryo mentors in this volume. 

He also has a chance to partner up with Abel on a mission, which leads to a very amusing set of circumstances which I won’t spoil here. Of course, any scenes with Ryo and Abel make for nice shipping material, and it’s funny to see Abel’s own party comment on it. Rihya is well aware that Ryo is her rival. 

I also enjoyed learning more about the world (including how reincarnators are sent to Phi) and the general politics of the different countries. This is looking to be a long series (already more than 15 volumes), so I’m hoping that there are interesting answers as to why Dominus even exist. 

The anime is currently airing, and looks like it will probably adapt the first two volumes of the series. I imagine that will bring more fans to the light novels, and I hope the series will continue to be successful. I’ve been enjoying the series a lot, and I appreciate that while it does play with many isekai tropes, it also does some original things, such as building up the supporting cast and giving them their own arcs and scenes, all while not taking itself too seriously. 

It seems that this aspect of the series has been noticed by anime fans, and that it’s become somewhat of a hidden gem. I’m just happy to see The Water Magician getting the attention it deserves!