After two volumes of the heroine as a child, this is a transition volume as the story jumps several years and establishes a new status quo for Asahi. She is now a begrudgingly respected priestess of the water god, feared and hated by many in her own village and coveted by other villages. She has placed her human protector, Subaru, firmly in the friend zone while she overanalyzes her every interaction with the remote-yet-perhaps-reachable water dragon god. Power struggles with forces inside and outside the village and incremental cracks in the water dragon god's facade seem to be the future of this series. I'm not sure how I feel about that. ( )