Grandpa got picked up by what seems to be Saito's organization that has Chinese leader.
Then Meltina or whatever talked to herself about 10 houses of the north or something.
Then Kevin is with a mercenary group called Azure sky or something.
And this chapter we have this twin or whatever.
Twins? You mean the elf girls? I'm pretty sure it was just expanding the elf village, as the leader is measuring Ryoma. I thought you meant mainly this chapter, with the elves, mercenary group, and the houses in the north. I think they've all been introduced in a fashion, but expanded upon in this chapter (like the northern lord's twin blades or whatnot)
For the skips, I don't mean the jumping to the different plot points, but just in general. I've felt from the beginning that the manga seems to speed run through the novel material to get to the 'good' parts. Which is understandable, no adaptation will cover every little thing from the source, but it feels a bit disjointed.
A good example is when he learned.. Let's just call it magic. He passed out, and the next chapter/scene felt like weeks later. Which is okay, I can guess what happened, it just seemed like a weird place to jump to the next plot.