I reckon the "auto" skill will evolve to include a party member next!

That last panel, showing a person escaping from this life and the rest of them just walking deeper into the abyss... as if that was already their home... MAN.

I think the fact that they were running from elves, brought a runaway that would not want to go back in a regular setting, and had the runaway clearly treated well, were hints to the people in charge that they were not just making stuff up.

And we can see the wizz girl is quite honest, so they probably know she would not be that great at making ploys.

That is a BIG show of TRUST, damn!

Actually that was explained IN this chapter. He is from a special race, that don't mature (grow) till they get to a very high level, so they can be really strong.

Yes, it is a in-world deal, but the "beast folk grow with age" was something that came very early with the story.

And, in defense on the story... doing it this way, we felt more sympathy for Raphtalia as a sick kid on deaths door. But as having a kid would just be too weird, the author decided to make the change AND... that also helped the "Raphtalia is just a kid" part of the story, when he had such cloudy eyes from the betrayal, that he didn't even notice that the kid had grown till he actually broke down.

...this might be far fetched, but hear me out.

She was about to give birth to her daughter, see? And the father, just like the mom, was a movie-lovin' kinda guy... But, on the day of the birth, a new movie got released... and it was on a time when to get a premier movie you had to actually move to a far away place since not every cinema had them... and instead of accompanying the mother through the hardship, the father decided "no, movie, this is clearly more important".

So... this is just a "good guy get all the girls" story, huh.
....yeah, aight.Will give a few chapters to see but... yeah, it's not my jam.

Not exactly.
Remember, Beast folk age according to their level.So while looking young, their ages might actually vary quite a lot.

Why do the demon has a heart in the forehead tho !!

So precious.

Actually found the fight fun.
Now, unto the resolution!!!

It would be one thing if there was a hint of gods pulling the strings of fate, but leaving it at chance is just... bad.

Ho ho!

There's the first one at the mall, where they took all the glory and this bastard got quite miffed at our MC for taking charge instead of doing what he wanted to.
Those are the events.

But he had a good enough idea that he even went and declared he was sure twas MC to the police.

Of course, our MC had a good alibi.

I ABSOLUTELY recognized that COMMANDO reference.
Gotta love how much of a movie nut is this mangaka.

They've clashed at every interaction.Last one was when, during the auction, this bastard tried to stop MC for stealing and was convinced twas him (but couldn't pin him down)

What a TWIST!!
The original soul owner was in hell all along!!!!

He used the thing! The thing!!

Fair enough.