The saga begins to plod along in book 3 but the most glaring fault line in the story is how absolutely inept Akira is as a leader. First, he knowingly allowed a ruthless and brutal general to ride roughshod over his people, then he falls into a trap and is forced to surrender to Tanak. Then, through Tanak’s death due to his own brand ineptitude, Akira becomes king of the two kingdoms.
Good enough so far but then after realizing that the Azirians would still overwhelm the 2 kingdom’s combined forces he decides to surrender to Sen, lord of the 3rd kingdom, and through the kindness of Sen, he is handed over control of all 3 kingdoms.
He then launches a guerilla campaign against the divided Azirian clans to keep them in check but then decides to personally infiltrate a known enemy monk monastery with only a single soldier and against the sage advise of his advisor, Capt. Young, and as predictable as market bubbles, he gets caught and … wait for it … surrenders again!
While there are other story arcs playing out in this book, Ryuu, Moriko, Nameless, &c. they all pale when compared to Akira follies so, I’ll leave it at that.