Honey Trap Shared House Vol 3,4 - Hyouka story was good. Rumi?!
Volumes 3 and 4 of Honey Trap Shared House continue, as expected, focusing on the new heroine Hyouka Wang, codename Ashen Girl, as she tries to win over Hayato and obtain information for her country. She's the first character who doesn't have a direct relationship with Hayato's past, and that makes her more interesting.
Of course, she goes with the premise "we've known each other since our previous life," but nobody really believes that, and everyone thinks she's weird. She's the much-needed "reasonable" person in the house because she realizes that everyone is a spy and is aware of the interconnections between people.
You might say, "but that's obvious," but apparently it isn't for the characters, as they all line up to ask her not to reveal their identities because "the others don't know." This, together with the cosplay angle of her character, allowed her to settle nicely within the group by the end of the two volumes.
Her story is pretty standard: she comes from a poor background and has someone to care for, so she can't defy her home country. An agent tries to use that against her, but Hayato defeats him, causing her to fall in love for real. I know it's cliché, but when things work, they work, and this one was amazing to read.
I loved how the villain was like, "Oh, but I have reinforcements on the incoming ship," but on the ship there's only Seraphy (and a lot of corpses), ruining his plan. And yes, Hayato still doesn't realize that happened and thinks Seraphy was just taking a sea trip all alone on the ship. Talk about dense.
As for the rest, we got a few cute scenes between the heroines, but nothing huge that changed the dynamics much. Seraphy is still the cutest, Maria is still the hottest, Emily is still a child throwing a tantrum, and so on. I'm curious to see how many more heroines will join the house, as four heroines seems to be about right, though it could use one more...
We got two new character introductions in these volumes: one is Seraphy's contact in the city, Yulia Tarkovsky, who is the source of all the hilarious information that leads to the many fanservice scenes. She's an agent from the Russian faction, but she's really mostly interested in playing dress-up with Seraphy. I can understand that feeling, believe me.
The second character added to the mix is Hayato's senpai in the Japanese organization, named Saiga Rumi. She's the quintessential Japanese heroine with long black hair, black eyes, and a cold, professional look. She's stunning, and apparently she's going to have a bigger role in the fifth volume.
Hayato is working on trying to honey-trap some criminals, and she's supporting him on the mission. I don't think she'll outright become a heroine in the shared house, but it's nice to see there's more than just the main heroines in the world. I'm curious to see how she reacts to the situation with the girls...