Delicious in Dungeon vol. 12
The dungeon has a new master. It’s not Laios, though. Marcille has taken the position all to further her grand goal: Adjusting the lifespans of all the races so that one doesn’t live longer than the other. Her hand may have been forced in this matter by the Canaries, but when we catch up with her in this volume she’s fully onboard with using the Winged Lion’s help to achieve her goal. The catch being that the Winged Lion is just using his ability to grant the dungeon master’s wishes as a way to further his own goal of granting the wishes of all sentient beings everywhere. While they’re in his belly.
Fortunately all of the sentient races – well, the Elves, Dwarves, and Gnomes at least – are trying to find a way to put a stop to this. The problem is that all of their agents on the island have settled on one specific solution: Kill Marcille. It may be the easiest way, but it’s the one that her friends are definitely not going to go along with. Laios, Senshi, Chilchuck, and Izutsumi are determined to find a way to bring Marcille back to her senses and they’re going to do it the only way they know how: By cooking!
“Delicious in Dungeon” has been building towards its climax and it has all but arrived with this volume. That’s a roundabout way of saying that, barring some last-minute publication surprise, this is the penultimate volume with the final chapter set to be published in Japan on September 15th. It’s been a long, strange, thoroughly enjoyable road following this series from the start, and in case anyone was worried that mangaka Ryoko Kui was going to flub the landing in the end, I can tell you right now that’s not going to happen. I mean, ANYTHING could happen in that final chapter, but she’d really have to do some work to foul up the ending she’s been building towards after all this time.
As for this volume in particular, it continues the title’s latter-day shift away from actual dungeon dining towards the fate of the dungeon itself. We do get one quality recipe here as the cast tries to recreate a dish from Marcille’s home region in hopes of getting through to her, and it’s cute to see how they completely fail at the former while ultimately succeeding at the latter. There’s also a full-circle moment where Laios, Chilchuck, and Senshi reiterate the core tenets of good nutrition in a dungeon, yet vol. 12 is all about advancing that main plot.
Said advancement is handled quite well because Kui has shown herself to be a storyteller par excellence throughout the series. She clearly knows how to set things up and pace events to keep our interest, and most importantly she never lets the story stop being fun even as things get progressively more serious. This is, after all, a series where the people on the losing side in a fight against the dungeon’s monsters are rescued by some conspicuous-looking living mushroom people at the last minute. The fate of the world may hang in the balance, but the silliness will continue.
Kui also packs in some late-in-the-game development for Marcille’s character. While her goal has only been recently revealed, her anxiety over the different lifespans of the races has been brought up before. Remember, she’s a half-elf with a human father and we get to see that backstory elaborated on here. It’s subtly heartbreaking to hear about how she grew up slowly and had to watch her father die of old age while she was still a child. Throw in some arguably misplaced words of wisdom from her mother about this and you can understand why she’d be so set on this particular goal. The Winged Lion, of course, loves nothing more than to feast on such strong desires, which is why he’s such a willing enabler in this scenario.
Even if this volume isn’t packed with meals that brim with creativity, or showcase clever uses of plot logic, what we get instead is still quite satisfying. We’re served up a series that’s heading towards its finale with everything set up for a great battle of wits between our protagonists and the Winged Lion. Yes, I’ve already read 90% of that finale and I can tell you right now that it’s not going to disappoint. So read this volume and savor it because there’s not much more left of this series to enjoy.