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A Tale of the Secret Saint, Vol. 6

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By Touya and chibi. Released in Japan as “Tensei Sita Daiseijyo ha, Seijyo Dearuko Towohitakakusu” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Kevin Ishizaka. Adapted by Matthew Birkenhauer.

This is not the first time I’ve seen this happening, but I am noticing that, having established the fact that Serafina was raped for weeks before she was murdered in the past, and that this is really the main source of the PTSD she still suffers, the novels are doing their best to dial that back so that they don’t have to make the reader think of it again. It’s become a sort of general demon trauma, but it’s also become specifically “that one guy”, who we (but not Fia) already know is not the “demon lord’s right hand man” at all. The front half of this book actually deals with that trauma, giving us an actual demon, and is quite good. Unfortunately, I think we have hot a new record, as the main part of the book ends just before the halfway point. We now have more side stories than regular plot.

Fia is still on vacation with Green, Blue, and Kurtis, and, since it came up when she returned to her childhood home, she goes into greater detail with them about her fear of demons. And it’s just in time, as while they’re up on the mountain they happen to run into a young woman with black hair and black eyes, who is clearly a demon but enjoys toying with them, calling herself a poor defenseless human. Unfortunately, she *is* a demon, “The Bird Cryer”, and much as they’d like to tell a panicked Fia to stay back and let them handle it, she’s more than the three others can handle. Fortunately, this is not the one demon Fia is traumatized by, so she’s able to pitch in. The rest of the book is, well, Fia being Fia. Which let’s be fair, might be why people are reading this book more than folks who are here for the plot.

So yeah, Fia is a giant silly person, who doesn’t get that she is obvious and unsubtle and super powerful. She hands out potions that can restore someone’s health from a coma without thinking about it. She hands Blue and Green (and yes, despite them giving it away several times, she still doesn’t know they’re royalty) a curse-destroying hairband for their sister, not thinking anything of it that she’s basically given her peace of mind and stopped the trauma. She gets her commanding officer one of the most powerful griffons in the land. Accidentally. She rediscovers magical hearing restoration potions as she didn’t realize that in the 300 years since she made them, they became unknown. If she put her mind to it, she could easily take over the world. Everyone but her knows this. Fortunately, she is 100% avoiding this. She’s just a knight, after all!

I really wish we had more main story and less side stories, but this remains funny and cute.

RVing My Way into Exile with My Beloved Cat: This Villainess Is Trippin’, Vol. 2

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By Punichan and Canarinu. Released in Japan as “Akuyaku Reijō wa Camping Car de Tabi ni Deru: Aibyō to Mankitsu Suru Self Kokugai Tsuihō ” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by sachi salehi.

When this series is playing to its strengths, it really works. Mizarie has a camper van, and it is basically her OP Sword or her “my magic defeats everything” item. We may one day find a monster that her camper van cannot defeat by simply running it over, but that moment dies not occur in this book. And that’s not really a spoiler, because this sort of series has no plot you have to care about. The only real dramatic thing from the last book, which is Raoul’s injured arm, is basically the “what drives me” plot here, but otherwise there’s no real danger or worry here. The camping is great. The cooking and eating is also great. The bits that are not camper van or cooking are not as great, but that’s the trouble with writing a series which revolves around one gimmick. Fortunately, there aren’t many points where that’s the case.

Mizarie wants to find an elixir that can heal Raoul’s damaged left arm, and for that they’ll have to go into a dungeon. So they head towards Labyrinth City, which is exactly what you’d expect, and we get the usual guild stuff. Mizarie also learns how to fight monsters, which worries her at first. But in this book, slimes really are ludicrously weak, so she’s fine with them. As for anything else… well, turns out the main dungeon they end up going to is, especially as they get lower down, wide enough for her camper van to pass through. So, good news: monsters are not an issue. (Admittedly, going back for drop items can be a pain.) When they finally reach the bottom of this dungeon, they’re met with a great spirit, who is pretty ticked off that they’re invading her home.

Again, the camper van remains the reason to read this, though there are many things here that will appeal to foodie isekai readers, such as Mizarie and Raoul selling filet-o-fish burgers to hungry adventurers for marked up “I’m at the airport” prices”. She levels up quite a bit in this book, mostly as, well, she runs all the monsters over. As a result, she gets things like an extra bedroom, a bathtub, a microwave and a dishwasher put into this magic storage space. Honestly, though, the best part of the van, aside from its sturdiness against orcs and goblins, its its GPS, which allows them to map the entire dungeon, locate monsters and other adventurers, and also solve the final puzzle that the Great Spirit has for them. No wonder the elf they’re traveling with decides to stay behind – she’s too jealous.

The third book is coming out in Japan in a month or so, and shows them going to the fantasy equivalent of Japan (boy, remember the villainess part of this book? The author doesn’t). To my surprise, it does not say it’s the final volume from the “three is enough” company Drecom. I’ll be reading it regardless. This remains the fluffiest sort of fun.

Like a Butterfly, Vols 1-3

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Like a Butterfly, Volumes 1-3 by Suu Morishita

Suu Morishita series are an automatic buy for me, after Shortcake Cake, I went against my self-imposed ban on buying digital first series to get A Sign of Affection (one of my favorites of all time), so I was delighted to have a chance to read an earlier series, Like a Butterfly. It deals with communication issues in a different way than Sign of Affection but is extremely compelling.

Like a Butterfly

Suiren is incredibly beautiful, but her beauty is actually a burden. People have an oversized reaction to her outward appearance, and she chose to go to an all girls middle school because of the unwanted attention. Unfortunately she received just as much attention there, but did have the benefit of some fierce female defenders who would fend off boys at the school gates. Over time, she began to develop a self-defense mechanism of speaking very little and having almost no self expression in order to not provoke any type of unwanted attention. She thus has the nickname “the mysterious flower”. Suiren’s old friend Aya is her main companion, and helpful social navigator. Suiren notices Kawasumi, a quiet boy with glasses who is consumed by karate a couple times at school. He comes to her rescue when an upperclassman takes her bag and announces that he’s going to walk her home. His method is to use some karate moves but expertly pull his punches so his opponent knows full well that Kawasumi could absolutely destroy him. With Kawasumi, Suiren has found someone that she wishes would notice her, but he’s not really able to talk to girls either, even though he notices her back.

An additional complication is introduced in the form of Koharu, a forthright girl who has developed a crush on Kwasumi and starts asking him out. She comments to Suiren that she doesn’t want to be a passive flower but a butterfly who will fly towards whatever she wants. Suiren is struck by the contrast in their personalities and also wants to go after what she wants. Like a Butterfly develops at a glacial pace, but due to the nature of Suiren and Kawasumi’s communication difficulties any interaction between them is charged with meaning. Their friends serve as both cheerleaders and sources of running commentary when they aren’t really able to express their feelings. Suiren gradually makes some overtures, but Kawasumi’s radar for dealing with attention for girls is so broken that he isn’t able to understand what’s happening very well. By the third volume, the not-quite-a-couple has been to a festival and Suiren has actually cheered Kawasumi on at a Karate tournament. The art for this series is great, I was continually amused by the many variations of Suiren’s expressionless face that end up actually telegraphing her feelings. I was predisposed to like this series and the first three volumes did not disappoint.

Loner Life in Another World, Vol. 9

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By Shoji Goji and Saku Enomaru. Released in Japan as “Hitoribocchi no Isekai Kouryaku” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Eric Margolis. Adapted by Lorin Christie.

Good news, we’re back to a normal page count for Loner Life. Which is still over 400 pages, but at least it doesn’t break the 500-page barrier like last time. As for the content, honestly, a lot of this is set up for a battle we haven’t gotten to yet. It’s clear that we will eventually be fighting the Evil Church, and the way that Haruka is stressing about it, in his own bananas way, suggests that he’s sure they have a secret weapon similar to Nefertiri. As such, everyone in the cast takes turns attempting to go and fight the battle, while keeping the others safe. Haruka wants to go alone. The girls all want to go. Angelica and Nefertiri want to protect Haruka. It’s a vicious circle of self-loathing and love. I appreciated Merielle lecturing Haruka towards the end of this book, telling him that women are stronger than he thinks, and eventually they are going to have to (as Marielle has) kill people. Stubborn Haruka still wants to avoid this.

On the cover is Arianna, the cleric who arrived at the end of the last book. She’s from an offshoot of the Church that isn’t evil, and has come to the group to ask for help. If you look at the “inner cover” all these volumes have, you’ll see her looking crazed and holding a sword, but I think that’s a deliberate deception – she’s not secretly a bad guy, she’s just being put through Haruka’s Training from Hell (the funniest part of the book, as he grabs her and the other folks in her party and literally swings them like swords (they are also holding swords) until they level up enough). And then the Church holds the royal family hostage, so something has to be done. And that something is… MORE leveling up, as Haruka is still trying to learn how to fight normally, and the girls are all still one step behind when it comes to being strong enough to go fight a major enemy on their own.

As with previous volumes in this series, it requires the reader to have a lot of recall about all the books books and who all the characters are, even when you haven’t seen them in a while. I appreciated the plot twist with the merchants (and it helps to set up future arcs), but I could have used a quick reminder about where we were with the elves, as I forgot they came back with Haruka and everyone else. I did really enjoy one moment near the end as Haruka struggles because his body is moving faster than his brain, where he appreciates how, unlike himself (who has to level up the weird way) or the nerds (who are gamers and think like gamers) and meatheads (who are strong enough to simply punch things till they win), the girls are having to deal every day with leveling up and their body being slightly different, having to learn how to move slightly differently, not being able to trust footwork… he really does see how they’re struggling and improving vastly. Even if he won’t say it to their face.

I left out all the sex stuff, but be assured it’s still there, and this book drips with horniness. As always, though, the interest lies in the other stuff. Next time, the church battle? Nope, judging by the cover, Beastmen are next.

Manga the Week of 7/3/24

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SEAN: Is the year really half over? Years aren’t what they used to be.

ASH: They really aren’t.

SEAN: Airship has one print title, the 6th volume of Raven from the Inner Palace.

ASH: I really need to catch up on this series before I get any further behind.

SEAN: Debuting digitally – the same week as its anime adaptation – is Too Many Losing Heroines! (Make Heroine ga Oosugiru!), a romcom about (sigh) a plain, boring guy who suddenly finds that all the hot, popular girls in his class are confessing to the guys they like… and being shot down! What’s going on here?

Also in early digital: Classroom of the Elite: Year 2 9 and Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling 7.

Cross Infinite World debuts Soup Forest: The Story of the Woman Who Speaks with Animals and the Former Mercenary (Soup no Mori: Doubutsu to Kaiwa Suru Olivia to Moto Youhei Arthur no Monogatari). A woman who can hear the inner thoughts of humans and animals has spent her life either shunned or avoiding people, but then she meets a young man while working at her restaurant in the forest…

ASH: Okay, I’ll admit, that premise does check quite a few boxes for me, though not necessarily in a combination I was expecting.

ANNA: Does her forest restaurant also have jam? This is what I want to know.

SEAN: Cross Infinite World also have The Inconvenient Life of an Arousing Priestess 2 and Lovestruck Prince! I’ll Fight the Heroine for My Villainess Fiancée! 3 (the final volume).

Per retailers, Denpa Books has a 3rd volume of Baby Bear’s Bakery.

From Ghost Ship, we get Booty Royale: Never Go Down Without a Fight! 13-14 and Creature Girls: A Hands-On Field Journal in Another World 10.

J-Novel Club has one digital debut (actually, no more print for JNC, as they finished moving all their print titles over to Yen Press to distribute). To Another World… with Land Mines! (Isekai teni, Jirai-tsuki) is a manga adaptation of the light novel they’ve been releasing for a while, as a sensible guy gets isekai’d with his classmates, and tries to stop them accidentally being really stupid. It runs in Shonen Ace Plus.

ASH: Oh, I had missed that bit of news, though I’m glad the partnership with Yen Press is going well.

SEAN: Also from JNC, The Banished Former Hero Lives as He Pleases 2, the 2nd manga volume of The Banished Former Hero Lives as He Pleases, I’m a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might as Well Try Mastering Magic 2, In Another World With My Smartphone 29, and When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace 11.

No debuts for Kodansha Manga, but we see, in print, A-DO 3, Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You 3, Bless 2, A Brief Moment of Ichika 2, Medalist 3, Rent-A-Girlfriend 25 (it got bumped), and To Your Eternity 20.

And digitally we see Blue Lock 26, How to Grill Our Love 9, LIFE 16, Matcha Made in Heaven 9, Those Snow White Notes 19, and Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister 14.

One Peace Books has I Hear the Sunspot: Four Seasons 2.

MICHELLE: I really want to read this. Someday. Sigh.

ASH: I have been greatly enjoying I Hear the Sunspot.

ANNA: I need to get caught up too!

SEAN: No debuts for Seven Seas either, but we see Berserk of Gluttony 10, Dragon Goes House-Hunting 10 (the final volume), The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter 11, Homunculus 9-10 (also a final volume), Malevolent Spirits: Mononogatari 7, Modern Dungeon Capture Starting with Broken Skills 2, My New Life as a Cat 6, The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent: The Other Saint 4 (also also a final volume), and Servamp 20.

ASH: This would be a good time for me to actually give Homunculus a try, then.

SEAN: Square Enix has The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten 2 and Victoria’s Electric Coffin 2.

Viz Media continues the trend of no debuts. But we see Blue Box 11, Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You: Soulmate 2, Like a Butterfly 7, Marriage Toxin 3, Moriarty the Patriot 16, One Piece 106, Tamon’s B-Side 4, Wolf Girl and Black Prince 8, and World Trigger 26.

MICHELLE: I’m looking forward to more Soulmate (though perhaps I’m in the minority there) and eager to catch up on Tamon’s B-Side, as well.

ANNA: Oooh, more Like a Butterfly!!

SEAN: And that’s it! Has there been a shorter week lately? I don’t think so.

My Magical Career at Court: Living the Dream After My Nightmare Boss Fired Me from the Mages’ Guild!, Vol. 4

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By Shusui Hazuki and necomi. Released in Japan as “Black Madōgushi Guild o Tsuihō Sareta Watashi, Ōkyū Majutsushi to Shite Hirowareru: White na Kyūtei de, Shiawase na Shinseikatsu o Hajimemasu! ” by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Mari Koch.

So, good news and bad news with this volume. The good news is that, mostly due to Luke being recovering in bed till the climax, there’s very little of the annoying pining going on. We get Noelle resolving the “he told me he loves me” cliffhanger at the start of this book, and she does it in the most Noelle way possible: “Oh, he totally means as a friend”. Unfortunately, in place of the tortured romance we get another one of THOSE nobles. You know, the ones that aren’t just evil but super duper evil with bells on. They murder, they blackmail, they poison, they rape, they’re pedophiles. I bet they also signed up for the Columbia House CD program without paying too. They’re so ludicrously bad it was almost distracting. But that’s the nature of these series, and no worries, once Noelle and Luke reunite, they’re basically unstoppable.

Despite what the cover shows, the subplot with Evangeline becoming Noelle’s bestest friend is only at the start of the book. It’s actually rather sweet, showing Evangeline as sort of a Yunyun type, who has no idea what friends actually do, so Noelle basically takes her out on a typical commoner day, eating, drinking, and having sleepovers. After this we get the more serious plot: the 3rd prince, who is 8 years old and has always been sickly, has been poisoned and is slowly dying. This is because the king is trying to have the nobles pay tax again, and the rich corrupt nobles object. Now Noelle, seconded to yet ANOTHER unit, must not only find a way to save the prince but also has to figure out the mole in their department who has been gathering evidence on the corrupt nobles and is trying to take matters into their own hands. Could it be the most obvious suspect?

Well, yes, it is the most obvious suspect. This is not a mystery, it’s a romantic suspense novel with comedic undertones. As such, Letitia is clearly going to get her tragic backstory now, though that’s less interesting than the fact that the relationship between Letitia and Gawain in school mirrors almost exactly the relationship between Luke and Noelle, and it’s also pretty clear there’s a romantic thing going on as well, which both are avoiding and which likely won’t happen as long as there’s “I need to lie in order to protect them” going on on both sides. Luke and Noelle don’t have that issue, but they may have a new issue carrying into Book 6: Luke’s attempts at getting Noelle by his side for good are upset by the Prince coming in and demanding that she move to HIS side. Everyone Wants Noelle. What can she do? Honestly, possibly continue to study as hard as possible to defeat her rival!

This remains great fun, and had some nice dramatic tension near the end. Just remember the Evil Noble Who Is Really Really Evil lurks within.

Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table, Vol. 1

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By Yushi Ukai and Nekometaru. Released in Japan as “Shibō Yūgi de Meshi o Kuu” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Yuan.

It’s my own fault, really. I get lured in by people assuring me, no, this one is really good, it’s different from those other ones. And don’t get me wrong, it is! This is a good book. It’s got really nice twists, the few characters who last more than five pages are interesting, and the heroine is a fascinating headcase. I can see why fans of death game books will really enjoy this. But I don’t dislike the death game genre because they all tend to be generic and cynical, or because they’re badly written. I dislike the death game genre because it involves people playing a game where they die. And I mean, spoilers, that happens here. Not counting our heroine, there are only a few other characters who survive these games. That said, if you’re not me, this is really good, and does have enough twists and turns to make it a quite interesting book even if you’re not a death game fan.

Yuki wakes up on a bed, dressed in a maid uniform. But it’s OK. She’s done this sort of thing before. She gets up and moves to the main room, where she meets five other girls, also in maid outfits. They’re here to play a death game, which is known to some of them but a total surprise to others. Yuki has done this 27 times before this, so is an old hand at knowing what to do and how to survive, and tries to guide the others through it. Unfortunately, the game is filled with deadly traps that require deadly choices, and it won’t let them go without at least a couple of deaths. Can Yuki manage to take all the experience she has and keep the others safe?… not really. That’s not what this book is about at all. Yuki is here to survive. And to do that, well, sometimes you need to do bad things.

The book starts off saying this takes place in a “deranged world”, and it’s not wrong. This is a world where constant death games are the entertainment, with contestants coming back over and over for various reasons if they survive. Oh yes, this may change in future books, but all the guests are young women or teenage girls. I get the feeling I know the exact audience this world is aiming for. The book also does a clever thing where the first half shows us Yuki in her 28th game, blase about everything, and the second half shows us Yuki in her 9th game, still with a bit of soul left in her. Yuki is, not to put too fine a point on it, a mess. Far from being there to put food on the table, it feels like she plays death games as she’s unable to really cope with any other kind of life. That said, she’s not an actual killer, like some of the other contestants. She’s just sort of broken.

Again, this was good, and I can see why it won awards (though I can’t really see why they had the judges do two of the three afterwords). But, again. Death games. I’ll stick with Higurashi and Umineko, but leave the Dangan Ronpa generation (which gets mocked in this first book) to its own.

You Are My Regret, Vol. 2

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By Shimesaba and Ui Shigure. Released in Japan as “Kimi wa Boku no Regret” by Dash X Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andria McKnight.

It’s a good thing these books are relatively short, because wow, I really cannot stay too long in the depths of the teenage drama we get with these books. When the funniest joke in the book involves taking a box cutter away from a girl clearly using it on herself, saying he’s borrowing it and to ask for it later, you know you’re not on the light and fluffy end of the romcom scale. I mean, we all knew that Kaoru was in love with Yuzuru, and that he was unaware of this, but trust me when I say that solving that little problem turns out to be the easy part of this book. Because Kaoru also has her own life to deal with, and it’s one that Yuzuru is unaware of… but that will soon change. I suppose the good thing about being a teenager is you’re allowed to make mistakes while you’re young, but man, I really wanted to punch him about 3/4 through this book.

That cover image sort of sums up the entire book, but let me try my best anyway. Kaoru is coming to club a lot more erratically after the events of the first book, mostly as she sees that Yuzuru and Ai have made up, and clearly they’re a couple again. (That’s not quite true, something that allows the climax of this book to happen.) But Kaoru is also dealing with a lot of home trauma, some of which Yuzuru has heard about before. Her mother has had a string of bad men in the house, and apparently thinks little of having sex with them anywhere and everywhere in the house, which Kaoru has walked in on more than once. Worse, the new guy *seems* like a more respectable dude, but clearly isn’t. The stress of this combined with her first love being shattered leads her to try to push Yuzuru away as hard as possible. Unfortunately for her, he’s figured out how he screwed up with Ai, and is now over-correcting too hard in the other direction.

I am glad that Yuzuru’s mother emphasized how dumb he was when he intervened with Kaoru and her mother, as I dearly wanted to throttle him. I get it, the last time he didn’t talk things through and pulled away, it all went to shit, so there’s no way he’ll do that again. But here, not only does he get into physical danger thanks to a guy who (surprise) does turn out to be a piece of shit, he also manages to be Kaoru’s hero, which means there is absolutely no way she’s not confessing to him now. Fortunately, the girl whose problem will take up the third (and final?) volume does not appear to be in love with Yuzuru. Yet. I also felt that the resolution between Kaoru and her mother happened WAY too fast. I could say the same about Kaoru and Ai, but Ai has been presented to us as “flaky” since the start of the series, so I’ll give it a pass here.

So, if you like the Higehir author, or teen angst, this is still worth your time. Just.

Pick of the Week: Beating the Heat

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SEAN: Lots of BL and beloved authors to choose from this week, but I’m going to go with the latest of one of my favorite light novel series, Though I Am an Inept Villainess. This is supposed to be a “lighter” volume, we’ll see if that’s true.

MICHELLE: I am torn between Terano-kun and Kumazaki-kun and My Noisy Roommate, so maybe I can get away with picking both.

KATE: I’m intrigued by Kaina of the Great Snow Sea, not least because Tsutomu Nihei is credited as the author, so I’ll make that my POTW.

ANNA: I’m going to go with Mermaid Prince, just because I’m always curious about Kaori Ozaki series.

ASH: All strong choices, for sure, but I’ll be joining Anna this week in picking Mermaid Prince; I’ve really enjoyed Kaori Ozaki’s past work and so look forward to reading more.

Babel: A Girl Embarks on a Journey of Words

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By Kuji Furumiya and Haruyuki Morisawa. Released in Japan as “Babel I: Shoujo wa Kotoba no Tabi ni Deru” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Amelia Imogen Mason.

I will admit this review is slightly harder now that the Spring Anime season is al;most over. “From the creator of Unnamed Memory, the hot new anime, a semi-sequel!” would be a much bigger deal if the anime had not been a lifeless mediocre adaptation determined to get through the story as fast as possible. Which is a problem when you have an author that writes books as long as Furumiya does. This one is 460 pages, a good 300 pages longer than the average KonoSuba. It doesn’t lend itself well to a speedrun. So, I will amend: if you enjoyed READING Unnamed Memory, and also enjoyed the author’s series A Pale Moon Reverie, this is more of the same, with good character writing and some exciting action scenes. And yes, it is a sequel, but it takes place 300 years after the first series, and you don’t need to have read it to get a lot out of it.

Shizuku is a young college student dealing with a massive case of middle child syndrome when one day she is confronted with a mysterious hole in space, which transports her to another world. She is lucky to survive landing in the middle of a desert, and ends up in a town that is clearly nothing like the Japan she knows. Fortunately, she comes across a stoic but kind mage, Erik, who promises to help her try to find a way back home, if she will teach him about her mystery books. As, while Shizuku can speak the same language as everyone else in this world, that does not extend to reading or writing, so she just has her college textbooks, which are in Japanese. And English, and German, which she’s also studying. Can she get home without getting involved in plot stuff? And can she learn to read and write from the handsome but remote young man with a mystery past?

Shizuku is easily my favorite part of the book, yet another heroine with massively low self-esteem who doesn’t understand how fantastic she is. Her older sister had extroversion and charm, her younger sister had focus and anger, and Shizuku seems to have seen herself as someone who wasn’t really much of anything, floating through life. That said, she’s able to stand up to a lot of situations in this book that would give most people the screaming heebie jeebies. The isekai part of this book (which was rewritten and expanded from a version that came out in 2016) is new to this author, whose Unnamed Memory was known for avoiding the standard light novel cliche. But it’s handled well here – Shizuku only has her college freshman education, which means that she struggles to explain things she learned through cultural osmosis, and she will not be inventing mayonnaise anytime soon. That said, the fact that she isn’t of this world allows her to save the day at the end of this book, and I expect this to continue.

This has already ended in Japan, and so we know there’s 3 more books, no doubt as big as this one. I’m here for them. I really love this author.