Aaaaand I’m now done with volume 8.
Actually, thinking back about what I told @morteasd and @Belthazar, I actually noticed that there’s at least one “new” character per volume (“new” because on a few occasions that character appeared in a previous book but simply didn’t do anything of interest up to that point).
Anyway. The current volume focuses on world building! Woohoo! We now get to know about five countries: Sorcier where the story takes place, Le-Sable where キース almost got sold into slavery, Eternel which is across the sea and the other two. No, they apparently do not deserve a name yet. They are very important, though, as the former queen comes from one of them. We are trading a lot of things with them. Like, stuff.
Some (inadvertent of course) romance with a new character, some action (which was nice!). I was slightly annoyed that during the fight scene Pochi did not just appear and straight up eat the assailants. I was more pleased to learn later that it was because (MAJOR SPOILER) he was just too busy making セラ (the last boss) have a bad day. With no buff from カタリナ. Pochi just rules. It was interesting to learn that having a (dark) familiar should basically eat your soul and leave you an empty husk (as hinted at in volume 6) but カタリナ seems to just be immune. Well, she is the chosen one (of darkness) after all. (End of major spoiler)
On the romance side, that was a busy book, with basically every major targets having an “event” with her. I still feel like ジオルド is the best, though, and I really don’t see the story ending with anyone else marrying her. At this point, I’m starting to feel more interested in seeing their relationship develop rather than getting more of the eternal will-they-wont-they.
That’s a lot of spoilers 
I felt great I could mostly control myself last volume… I guess I reached my limits.
On to volume 9