Me at the end of chapter 6: "Well, if the childhood friend doesn't care about getting stuck as a girl forever, that's going to drain a lot of the dramatic tension out of the series."
Me today, seeing the new volume cover: "Huh, don't recognize her... new character?"
Me reading chapter 7, upon seeing the "prince-like" foreigner: "Ahhh, now I see where this is going. Well played, well played indeed."
Also, for all the people complaining about how the girl from Iowa who resembles Iowa isn't cosplaying as Iowa: