Well this is BS. Decided to try and help and I innocently thought, "Well if the chapter isn't free anymore then I'll just buy it then. Clearly if it's not free anymore then you just need to pay?" That makes too much sense, right!?
NOPE
Kadokawa be like, "Sorry, if the chapter expires nobody gets to read it!"
First step of confusion is that if you go to BookWalker, Kobo, or other JP eBook stores, and try to buy individual chapters, for some reason they use different chapter numbering, where each part is a whole number. So Chapter 1.1 is 1, and 1.2 is 2, etc. Then you see chapter 27 is the latest chapter they list. I finally found a way to preview the chapters, and turns out chapter 27 is just the equivalent of around chapter 14, which is the end of volume 3.
So where's the rest of the chapters?
Nowhere!
I checked comic apps like Niconico Comics, and they all are missing chapters 15, 16, and 17. They go straight from chapter 14 to chapter 18. You literally can't read those chapters legally in JP right now as far as I can tell.
I'm guessing they're gonna release compiled volume 4 soon, but taking the chapters down while you're doing that is so stupid. Do they hate money? Screw readers, am I right?
"Whoops, you missed reading chapter 17 when it was free? Well sucks to be you! Guess you'll have to wait for whenever we decide to put it for sale! Oh, but if you wait too long, 18 won't be free anymore either!"
PS: Sorry for the rant, I thought it'd be something simple I could do before bed and ended up getting really frustrated while sleep deprived.