Prince Wein doesn’t really want to be king. But, with his father in poor health and no other family except his younger sister, he’s taken over more and more of the management of the small kingdom of Natra. What Wein really wants to happen however is a nice, peaceful annexation by the powerful Earthworld Empire and a fat check to live the rest of his life out of.
Alas, things are not stable in the Earthworld Empire right now. So while the Empire is focusing on settling internal affairs (ie, not conquering new lands), some of Natra’s neighbors are getting frisky and it looks like Wein and his closest advisor Ninym will have their hands full trying to keep their country peaceful without breaking the royal budget!
I’m not going to lie, I expected far more treason than the measly amount we got in this volume. Truly the closest we get is “Prince Wein has treasonous thoughts about collaborating with the Empire” and since he isn’t able to act on them in even the smallest manner frankly I’m not sure they even count. This being a work of fiction, and Wein possessing an uncanny ability to make things go his way (well, everything but the annexation plan), I doubt that he will ever get the quiet life he wants. Heck, after some unexpected military successes in this volume he may be on his way to being the one who ends up ruling an empire of nations!
While Wein has a bratty temper in private, in public nearly everything seems to go his way gracefully. Truthfully this makes him a bit of a boring main character since his moments of whining to Ninym aren’t enough to make him feel like a “balanced” character for my taste.
In fact, while this is a non-isekai fantasy, the way that Wein is able to successfully direct his first battle, and some other more accidental occurrences also working out in his favor, certainly makes Wein feel like an isekai protagonist; he often ends up feeling like the kind of “power fantasy” protagonist who arrives in another world with never-before-seen military tactics and all of the brief, side-character points of view sections are just other people marveling at Wein’s talent.
How About Treason once again tries to “balance” this out by having Ninym being Wein’s sounding board, but since she’s also a rather flat character (a genius, secretly excelled in a foreign military school, “unattractive” in a way that the viewer would find very stunning, etc) it doesn’t really help as much as Toru Toba seemed to think it would.
For a power fantasy, How About Treason is entertaining enough but it’s also not a series I would wait with bated breath for between volumes. It’s the kind of fluffy series I would read if I was waiting on my library to get my holds in or if I wanted something fun but not overly engrossing to read before bed. I can only hope that the next volume has far more treason in it however (and also a map, trying to keep track of all of these countries without a map was nearly impossible!).