In the Afterword, author kiki explains that the story for this novel is a mishmash of their main interests: “fantasy, lesbian romance, horror, and fight scenes.” kiki indicates no greater purpose for the story than for it to be about a girl fighting to be able to lead an ordinary life. However, if a deeper meaning is to be read into the story, then it might be a twisting of the classic bit of wisdom about a chain being only as strong as the weakest link: when the chain is pulled taut, even the weakest link still serves a vital role.

“A chain pulled taut” is a good descriptor for the status of the Hero's party as they struggle through their mission despite the six members besides Flum being among the most powerful humans in the land. The first part of the novel details that struggle and how Flum winds up being sold off as a slave, then two later Intermissions return to the group to show how things are falling apart without Flum. The others were so fixated on her (lack of) combat effectiveness and how she seemed to slow them down that they did not properly appreciate how vital her role was both as a supporter and the emotional glue holding the group together. Given what Flum's magical affinity turns out to do, that probably was not the main reason why Origin chose her for the mission, but the party doing worse without her suggests that it was a factor in the god's decision. The two Intermissions also ironically reveal that one of the most dastardly individuals in the story is actually in the Hero's party, though he probably would not acknowledge himself as such. Still, learning that character's real motivation adds another layer of complexity to the situation.

What the Hero's party is doing is only a small part of the story, however; the rest of it focuses on Flum. While breaking free from being enslaved, Flum makes two important discoveries. One is how her unusual magic affinity, Reversal, works. (People normally have an elemental affinity and/or a light or dark affinity.) Since it reverses effects on her, it presumably was countering any attempts – magical or not – to raise her stats, but trying to lower them empowers her instead. Since cursed items which do that are a naturally-occurring phenomenon in this setting, that's a potent hidden ability. A cursed sword that melts flesh instead restores flesh for her, which means that Flum can reconstitute herself even from dismemberment. On the downside, healing magic also has a reverse effect on her, which raises the question of what else her affinity can reverse.

The other discovery is the slave girl Milkit. In this setting an individual can end up as a slave via common non-racially-based historical methods: by being a prisoner of war or criminal offender, through being illegally sold on the black market (Flum's fate), or by being born to slaves. Milkit is the latter case. She meets Flum at the bottom of the slave heap because she has been afflicted with a disfiguring toxin, hence her bandaged face. Because she has never known freedom and given up even wishing for it, Milkit is locked into the mindset of being a slave and interprets everything that way.

Light novels have a notoriously bad reputation for handling slavery too nonchalantly, and this one initially looks like it is also headed in a problematic direction with its very graphic description of Flum being branded with a slave mark. However, the story takes a higher road by focusing on Flum's efforts to break Milkit free of her fatalistic mindset about being a slave. While other events progress, Flum devotes considerable time and effort to essentially attempting to deprogram Milkit, so that she looks at Flum as a friend rather than master. The writing recognizes that this will not be a swift process – years of conditioning, lack of self-worth, and defenses built up against mistreatment are not reversed so easily – so this is still a work in progress at the end of the volume, but convincing progress is made. In the process Flum also finds external motivation in Milkit; her life does not have to be about just surviving. Naturally, this means that their relationship is trending in a yuri direction by the end of the story, but while that may be a stronger element going forward, it is not a big component of this volume.

The slave branding is not the only part which gets graphic. kiki was aiming for intense action and horror elements in the story, and the novel certainly offers both. Fights can get very messy (especially with Flum's recovery ability) and never lack for tension, and the horror elements appear when a quest to retrieve forbidden magical herbs (herbalism has been outlawed in favor of Church-affiliated magical healing) leads to encounters with terrifying spiral-themed creatures. Things can get disgusting on other fronts as well; this would be one of the more graphic fantasy titles out there if animated. While content that would be fanservice if animated is limited, there is one attempted rape scene and some other crude sexual references.

The writing and storytelling quality of the novel is a decided step above the normal for a recent light novel. It is also told mostly in third person narrative, with only a short part at the end in first person. The artistic quality is also at the highest end of the scale as light novel illustrations go; the color cover art is good but the interior black-and-white illustrations may be even better. Seven Seas' release of the title has the standard glossy color pages at the beginning, the aforementioned black-and-white illustrations throughout, and a bonus set of black-and-white character illustrations at the end. The novel clocks in at 428 pages in digital form, which makes it among the longest of recent light novels, though it is a relatively fast read for that size.

In addition to establishing the main characters and situations, the volume dangles numerous potential plot threads, including unresolved trouble with an adventurer who's basically a crime lord, the troubled efforts of the Hero's party, the strange reluctance of the Demon Chiefs to kill humans, the suspicious motivations behind the suppression of herbalists, and the whole business with what Flum discovers while searching for the herbs. What role Flum was really meant to play in the mission by the Hero is also left unresolved. That leaves a lot of potential for future story developments. The one negative is that this is still a game mechanics-based setting, but this is one of the strongest of recent fantasy light novels.