This chapter was too cliche to really give me any sense of satisfaction. Yes, I'm glad Carol finally got rid of Gran and Kaido and Carol are a couple now, but it didn't feel as good as I expected. I usually quite enjoy isekais and this kind of story about people in rpg-like worlds going around and doing their thing, but this chapter in particular was not as enjoyable as I would have liked.
The final reveal of both their feeling to each other felt rushed. It seemed too easy to break her from Gran's hold through 'I love you'. While we all know they were bound to openly begin their relationship eventually, it would've been nice to see more character development in their journey. Remember Spice & Wolf? That managed to build a relationship gradually over a lengthy journey and its couple is still one of the best couples out there today. Here, Carol and Kaido have been together a few months (iirc, and we've seen next to none of the journey), but it doesn't feel like they've really developed much. They started with showing off Carol's skills, saved a small village from a monster, got teased by Carol's village, and then fought off some apes. 3 out of 4 of those stops were really just showing Carol was better than her E rank suggests. It'd have been nice to see them do things out of love for each other before coming to their conclusion organically.
Kaido's S rank reveal, while totally expected, came pretty suddenly, and I kinda hoped Carol and others would tease Kaido more about his strength before it was ultimately revealed. The fight with Gran's party was just incredibly underwhelming; I get that the 'hero's party' was supposed to be cheating to get by and thus never really honed their skill in combat, but they were really pathetic in that fight. Each went down with a single hit? Gran, the guy who probably deserved it the most, didn't even really get hit! The guy went down with a shove! I was really hoping Carol would boot him in the jaw, but she's too nice to do that. Hell, with him intact, what's stopping him from using his 'breath' on everyone around him? Are they going to seal his mouth shut for the rest of his life? (Unless he escapes and then causes more trouble, likely with the help of some bigger villain, which is my prediction) The entire party should've just been killed in some way or another.
The 'hero's party', while they did get recorded by Kaido for their misdeeds, didn't really get shamed enough. They were all in an empty building with no one, not even a single person outside the door or something, to witness the event. Where are they and why was that building empty? It seemed to me they were still in the city, and you would expect 'heroes' to be followed closely by random people. It just seemed too convenient. What has happened in the city, or indeed the country, now that the 'heroes' have been proven to be villains? Are there no further investigations into adventurer parties across the country to ensure this does not happen again? Are there not riots, or other forms of civil disobedience happening? The 'heroes' and their disgusting actions were swiftly and quietly swept aside and that does not seem right. Their punishment overall seemed far too rushed.
The new villain, presumably a woman, was pretty out of the blue. It was just 'here's the next villain!'. Of course, this is all assuming they are indeed the villain and not some whacko thinking 'E rank... I don't like that... I'll have to help them climb the ranks, and we'll build a wonderful friendship along the way!' (which, in my humble opinion, is very unlikely).
...I'm still gonna read this 🙃