The Asterisk War, Vol. 3 (manga) (The Asterisk War Manga)

I'm actually really liking this manga more and more, the more volumes I read! I love the bright and colourful pages that grace the beginning of each volume....I'm a sucker for bright colours! (That's totally why I ended up watching Nanbaka, not going to lie). The little sketches give me life, they're so cute! And the plot is moving at a nice pace, and in this volume we get a new character! You can see her right there on the cover, Kirin Toudou. I'm curious about her. We meet her for like a minute and then she runs off, but she's on the cover of this volume so I'm assuming/hoping that means we're going to see her again because I'm definitely intrigued!Also in this volume, as you can tell from the synopsis, the mystery is solved! We have our culprit and it's not at all who I was expecting! Although as expected, said culprit was working with one of the other academies, which makes the ending of the book all the more intriguing as I wouldn't be trusting Ernesta and Camilla all that much. I'm guessing Claudia's going with the 'friends close, enemies closer' way of life.Speaking of Claudia, we totally get to see her in action this volume, and learn about the shadowy organisation Shadowstar. I actually didn't mean to pun...my fingers typed before my brain caught up! I'm intrigued by what and who they are, and their role in everything, and I'm assuming we'll get to see more of them in the future! It's another part of the world of the book that's been uncovered! We also get to venture in to the world a smidge more in this volume too!Guys....now...I'm actually starting to quite like Lester. He really surprised me this volume, and he's kinda becoming part of our little group! I'm excited to get to know him better and see more of his power. Speaking of surprises, Eishirou is more than he seems too. I'm not going to lie...I'd kind of dismissed him a little bit in the other volumes, which was probably the point, but I'm eager to know what the fudge he's up to!The thing we've all been expecting to happen finally happens and Julis finally takes on Ayato as a partner as they enter training for the Festa. I'm getting quite excited for the Festa, I love competitions like this in manga, when we get to see a tonne of new characters and everyones power/magic! We also got a sneak peek at some potential opponents in the Festa which has me even more excited! Although I'm totally rooting for Julis, how could you not after that backstory!?I have to say, at the end of this volume, Saya's called out as being the daughter of the professor, and we get a close up of her and she has kind of a strange look on her face....I'm intrigued to see what that's all about in the next volume, and I'm hoping we might get some backstory on her and her family!All in all, volume 3 brings one arc to a swift close while sprinkling some intrigue around, and is starting to gear up for another and I'm assuming bigger, arc...the Festa! Which I'm really excited for, like I've said many, many times! I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm actually finding this to be a lot of fun!