Wendelin learns that he has to participate in an upcoming tournament. More importantly, magic is forbidden. Oh no, he won’t be overpowered for once!

— But before we get to the tournament, we learn that yet another Baumeister has gotten married. Sadly, this union is only made possible because people want to be related to Wendelin. Love isn’t really all that important to marriage in this society, and these brothers can’t exactly be choosy beggars.

— Yeah, I can’t eat nori plain like this. Hell, I barely enjoy nori with sushi. I don’t like rolls at all. Just gimme nigiri or sashimi.

— At first, the kids aren’t worried about the tournament, and they shouldn’t be. They’re not even full fledged adventurers. They’re also just 13. Who honestly expects them to make it through the preliminaries? Unfortunately, Brantag decides to make them worry. He even suggests that a poor performance might get them kicked out of Wendelin’s party, and the kids actually fall for this. I mean, c’mon, does Well really seem like a dude who would do such a thing? He sure as hell ain’t ditching his waifus.

— This statement from Erwin, however, is a bit much. I still contend that he and the two girls barely know Wendelin. As far as the anime adaptation is concerned, they haven’t even gone on an actual adventure yet!

— Obviously, there’s an easy solution: just talk to Wendelin. You guys claim to be close friends, right? Hell, Iina and Louise intend to marry this dude once they become adults (in two years har har har). So why not just sit the guy down and ask him directly? “Yo, if I don’t make it far into this tournament, are you gonna kick me off the team?” Simple enough, huh? But no one does this. No one. What’s even more maddening is that this is a lesson that they should’ve learned a long time ago. Remember when they wanted to party up with him, but they kept assuming that they had to prove themselves first? And this led them to being attacked by too many wolves, so in the end, Well had to save them? Remember? Communication would’ve solved everything back then, and guess what? Communication would solve everything now! But we can’t have that! That would make too much sense! Party members don’t talk! They just perform interpretive dances and hope that everyone gets on the same page! Twerk if you need a heal.

— At dinner later that night, our hero announces that Elise will be joining the team. This seems long overdue. After all, if they would ever actually go on an adventure, they would need a healer.

— Physical training begins, and Wendelin looks like a flopping fish outta water. Should he train his body more even after the tournament is said and done? Probably. You might run into a situation where magic can’t be used in a dungeon. Hey, I saw it in a JRPG once!

— The girls aren’t doing much better either. They can’t exactly cast spells like their future husband, but their combat skills are still bolstered by magic. As a result, pure physical training ends up being rather difficult to for them to get used to.

— Meanwhile, Erwin overtrains to the point where he’s bleeding from his hands. Need I remind you that this kid is only 13. Brantag is such an ass for making these kids fret and worry. There’s a difference between doing your best and pushing so hard that you end up hurting yourself.

— Finally, Erwin decides to just talk to Wendelin. Finally. But unfortunately, Well is asleep so he doesn’t hear Erwin’s initial question. And when he does wake up, he starts talking about how Elise has been secretly training as well in order to not let everyone else down. As a result, Erwin doesn’t end up saying what he needs to say. He just runs off to train some more. Good lord.

— So the day of the tournament arrives, and Wendelin goes out before anyone can even blink. Welp, can’t say I didn’t expect that. C’mon, some child mage isn’t gonna pick up a sword and put up a fight against the commander of the Royal Knights.

— His girls aren’t doing much better either. Louise goes out right before the finals. On the other hand, Iina actually makes it to the finals of the spear division, but she loses to silly spear boy of all people. Iina goes, “You can’t just spin to win!!” Then silly spear boy replies, “Haha, spear goes brrrrr.” Ah, I love that meme.

— Wendelin, however, isn’t even paying attention because he’s fast asleep. He had apparently stayed up all night to make custom bento boxes for each of his party members. On the one hand, what a nice gesture. On the other hand, that’s kind of a stupid move, don’t you think? Oh hey, it’s the night before a tournament where I have to prove myself in combat! Better make myself sleep-deprived!

— Erwin also makes it to the finals of his division, but he ends up injuring one of his arms in a prior round. He’s advised to forfeit the upcoming match against that same commander of the Royal Knights, but of course, he stubbornly refuses. The girls finally realize what’s worrying him, so they tell Erwin to look at his bento box. Aww, how corny.

— Well, it didn’t matter, ’cause Erwin rushes out to the battlefield anyway. He tells the girls that he simply can’t run away from danger, which is… just not true. Sometimes, it’s smart to run. I’d rather live to fight another day than die outta pride. What if he seriously injures his arm and can’t ever fight again? He’d have to leave the party. Who’d be the laughingstock then?

— Erwin loses, so as we all predicted, none of the kids make it out of the preliminaries. But like the title of this post suggests, it was much ado about nothing. Nobody embarrassed themselves. Nobody’s getting kicked off the team. The world goes on. In fact, the kids now have mentors to train under.

— Louise even gets the honor of learning directly from a certain muscle-bound mage.