I dont know how people slept on one of the best novels Ive read. Up there with Jobless Reincarnation and Re:Zero Faraway Paladin succeeds in creating one of the most interesting and beautifully tiedtogether story. With a oneofakind high fantasy setting rarely found in light novels. Chances are youll love this: 9/10. Plot: Layered onion that builds on top of itself The premise of the story is the main character died and was reincarnated as a baby he wasted his life away and wants to make the most of his second chance. Hes reborn in a seemingly empty city with a Skeleton as a fatherfigure a Mummy as his motherfigure and a Ghost as the closest thing to a grandparent. In the beginning volume of the series it focuses on the growth of William in his ability to fight take care of himselfmenial tasks such as laundry and whatnot his sense of purpose and what lies beyond the city that he was born in. Rarely do I find stories that do as immaculate of a job at building intrigue and tension around little plot points that will receive pay off in later pages while also staying logically consistent with everything. Every little detail thats emphasized ends up being addressed and connects beautifully into the conclusion of Williams stay at this city. How the world came to be the origin of magic how William ended up in this city why Gus/Mary/Blood are undeads their reasoning behind withholding information all of these questions are answered within the first 170 pages of a 220240 long volume not a single page was a wasted time. Friends or older folk related to the main characters conspiring against them is a common trope often with poor execution. Fortunately the characters arguments werent contrived for the sake of keeping the readers flipping through pages on the edge of their it was genuine and satisfying. Second to Third Volumes With all of the intrigue built up in the first volume the second and third volumes test Williams learning and show us the world that wed only heard about in hearsay. While the first volume is the strongest in terms of pay off and precision the second volumes serve to stretch William to his emotional limits and grants the readers one of the strongest climaxes in Vol 3.2 despite coming off as generic hero does cool thing I genuinely believe the execution more than made up for the limited premise of the third volume. Conclusion The characters are all phenomenal the plots presentation does an incredible job at selling a plot thats already really good that culminates into one of the greatest fantasy stories that Ive ever read. The only reason why this isnt a 10/10 is because it doesnt have enough content for me to definitively say that its a masterpiece. 5 volumes in1 2 3.1 3.2 and 4 I dont think I will ever forget this story. I didnt include the character writing or the emotional impact in my review. I guarantee you that it has strong emotional pay off with wellwritten characters if youre interested give it a shot. Thankfully theres news on its continuation it was on hiatus due to health problems that the author seems to have overcome.