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Brunhild the Dragonslayer

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By Yuiko Agarizaki and Aoaso. Released in Japan as “Ryugoroshi no Brunhild” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jennifer Ward.

About a month ago I gave a rather savage review to a villainess-style novel about a lady getting her revenge because the revenge she got was beyond all possible reason. It made her loathsome. It defied the genre. That’s why I really hated it. That is not, though, to say that I inherently dislike tragedies with the death of innocents. They just need to be set up correctly. Everything about Brunhild the Dragonslayer, from the quote on the frontispiece of the book to the afterword, tells you that this is not going to be a happy book. But the genre is, essentially, opera. It’s Wagnerian, and everything about it, from the start to the end, tells you this will end in blood and gore. When a villainess “gets revenge”, at most it ends in a heroine having to be shut away in a hospital or a prince being exiled. When Brunhild gets revenge, the heavens cry and the city weeps. It’s that kind of book. It’s also really excellent.

A powerful silver dragon lives on an island of Eden, where everything is… well, much like the Garden of Eden. The dragon occasionally has to massacre the humans who come to the island to try to kill him and get the treasures and knowledge from the garden, a somewhat fruitless endeavor given that the moment the dragon dies the garden burns up. But one day a 3-year-old girl, mortally wounded, is found on the island, and she’s covered in the dragon’s blood, which is lethal to humans. Well, mostly. 1 out of 10,l000 humans survive. Guess what, the girl is one of those. For the next several years, the girl grows on the island, and eats the fruit of the island, is friends with the fauna, and loves her dragon dad. Then humans finally invent tanks and poison gas, and the dragon is killed. His final request of his daughter is not to seek revenge. Erm. Bad news there.

Getting the bad out of the way here, there is some weird incest subtext in this that I felt was unneeded, and it comes up a couple more times as the book goes on. IMO, it’s unneeded. (Probably down to the Wagner motifs.) The rest of the book, once we get to the girl (now called Brunhild) and her life in the human world, is riveting. Every time that she asks an innocent character who seems to like her where her father is (her human father, that is), you can hear the metaphorical tolling of a bell. It’s also terrifying how quickly she is able to manipulate the human heart, playing on the same emotions that other see in her in order to try to achieve her goals. There is one case where she actually seems to bond with someone – her human father’s other son, Sigurd, who is dealing with a bad case of parental disinterest and jealousy, genuinely bonds with her. But that bond is not enough. Revenge has to win.

After finishing the book, you will no doubt be as surprised as I am that there’s a second volume coming out soon. Judging by the synopsis, it features the same themes but a different cast. As a standalone, though, this is gloriously bleak, tragic, and upsetting. Recommended.

The Princess of Convenient Plot Devices, Vol. 5

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By Mamecyoro and Mitsuya Fuji. Released in Japan as “Watashi wa Gotsugou Shugi na Kaiketsu Tantou no Oujo de aru” by B’s-LOG Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Sarah Moon.

As the afterword says, this is very much a “wrapping up the arc stuff that began in the previous book” type of story. Romance, for the most part, takes a back seat till the end, with the one exception (and possibly the funniest part of the book) where Octavia asks, in a written note, if Guy wants to be her fake boyfriend. Guy, who seems to be the only person who can obviously see how jealous Klifford gets of anyone who gets near Octavia, is understandably terrified at the suggestion, and makes the obvious suggestion as to who the perfect fake boyfriend would be. But Octavia cannot bring herself to do that – for some reason she can’t quite work out. It’s fitting, therefore, that at the end of the book Klifford also decides that he has no idea how he feels about Octavia except she’s like a weapon. These two broken dumbasses are going to take 15 more books to kiss.

The book features Octavia’s brilliant plan to smoke out the traitor, which involves going on a jaunt around the city and leaving really obvious openings for a traitor to attack, then relying on the prince’s well-trained bodyguards and her own (suspected traitor) Klifford to solve the problem. Astute readers who read the fourth volume will see the flaw in this plan. On the bright side, she gets to have a nice lunch with her friends, only slightly marred by someone dosing it with truth serum, and she also has a slight detour in order to meet her grandparents (who are *very* unhappy to see her) and ask some pointed questions… though it’s the answers to what she doesn’t ask that may be more important. Why is there a sibling no one wants to talk about? And does it tie into Sirius’ busted memories?

Last time I complained we didn’t really learn as much about Sirius as I wanted, but we’re definitely getting there. He seems to be fighting both deliberate brainwashing and a traumatic event in his past, and the dichotomy between the old Sirius and new Sirius is what actually ends up being the driving force behind the traitor, as well as the arc question “if you were given two conflicting orders, which would you obey?”. It’s pretty clear that the “good” Sirius is definitely on Octavia’s side, and would no doubt help her try to stop the way this kingdom runs, but the “bad” Sirius is being railroaded into the game plot, and Octavia interfering means that he distrusts and suspects her and everyone close to her. The scene at the very end between him and Klifford is the best scene in the book that isn’t funny, and really makes you want to read Book 6.

Fortunately, that book is out in a few months. This remains an entertaining thriller.

The Apothecary Diaries, Vol. 11

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By Natsu Hyuuga and Touko Shino. Released in Japan as “Kusuriya no Hitorigoto” by Hero Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

Every once in a while on television you get a season where a character doesn’t appear for a while, or only appears on a couch, because the actress is pregnant or the actor has broken a leg. Or in Doctor Who, you get “Doctor-lite” episodes where he’s busy filming something else, so you write something where he’s absent most of the time. Obviously a book does not need to do that, but you might be forgiven for thinking that this volume had to have Maomao and Jinshi be fairly sedentary for a while, and not involved in the action all that much. Instead, the entire climax to the book is one of the big payoffs we’ve been waiting for, but Maomao is completely absent from it. In her place, we get confirmation about a character”s true agenda (which we all guessed), and get another character’s tragic backstory, which turns out to be very, very relevant.

We’re still dealing with the aftermath of the grasshopper invasion, not helped by the occasional aftershock of grasshoppers passing through. They’re low on food, low on fuel, and low on medicines. Maomao is helping to make “not quite as good” medicine with the next best thing, while also taking the time to save the life of a little girl who finds that hair and persimmons don’t mix. That said, the Western Capital is doing it’s best,. and it’s all thanks to… no, not Jinshi. Well, yes, Jinshi, however, someone else is taking all the credit, and that someone is Gyoku-ou, who has an agenda, and it involves the rumors that he thinks he has completely figured out about Jinshi’s parentage and a fierce desire to go to war with another country. Can he be stopped from dragging Jinshi into a war he doesn’t want any part of? And what does coal have to do with all of this?

Having worried you all, fear not, Maomao is in the majority of this volume. She’s separated from Jinshi most of the time, which means he spends much of the book in a bad mood. This is not helped by the fact that Chue squealed to Jinshi about the fact that Rikuson asked if Maomao would marry him last volume. This leads to some amusing scenes of Jinshi being jealous and angry and Maomao mostly being annoyed, but as it turns out there’s a very good reason behind what both of those characters did. They know who the important people are in the Western Capital, and the most important is not Gyoku-ou. That said, I wished he’d be a good antagonist, and he absolutely is that, coming across as clever, brutal, and with grand ambitions that sadly are a bit beyond his means. He’s also deeply tied up with the backstory we’ve been chasing about the Yi Clan, and I’d love to talk about that, but it really is a good spoiler.

All this plus a brief cameo from Yao and En’en, and even more Chue. Still one of the top light novel series coming out over here.

Taking My Reincarnation One Step at a Time: No One Told Me There Would Be Monsters!, Vol. 5

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By KAYA and Naru. Released in Japan as “Tensei Shōjo wa Mazu Ippo kara Hajimetai: Mamono ga Iru toka Kiitenai!” by MF Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Amy Osteraas.

It’s always interesting reading a final volume that isn’t. This is NOT the final volume in this series – the 6th book is running on the JNC chapter release schedule as we speak – but if you didn’t know that, and you finished this volume, which does not even have an afterword, I think you’d be pretty convinced that this was the ending. It wraps up almost all the plot points from the previous books – though I still say Sara is a monster attractor. She finally goes to the capital, she accepts the fact that she’s a celebrity and will have to deal with it, she, Allen, Nelly and Chris realize they’re all a family, and she not only gets the prime minister to reject Liam’s marriage proposal but rejects him personally. It does everything but say “our fight has only just begun”. Still, I’m glad there’s more of this, as I like the cast, and I like Sara. She’s just fun to head when she’s snarking.

Everyone is getting invited to the capital, it would seem. Sara has to go for multiple reasons – not only does she have to introduce herself to the King (and deal with Liam’s annoying marriage proposal), but the capital is asking for extra apothecaries due to the dragon migration currently going on – the same thing that tore Nelly away from Sara in the second book. Unfortunately, once Sara gets there she discovers similar problems to previous books – she’s only 14, and looks about 12, and she’s only been an apothecary for two months, though she’s already a prodigy. As such, she’s disregarded and belittled once she’s there, and paired off with the other rookie commoners. Fortunately, Sara is the heroine, so the plot comes to find her anyway.

Sara admits in this book that she is very happy to be an apothecary, but honestly I think her true talents may lie in management. When they wrap things up in the capital, and Sara realizes they’re just going to do the same thing with the same problems next year, she gets very angry. And then it’s explained to her that none of the guilds collaborate with each other at all, or even help out unless asked, and thus no one has given any thought to anything but the immediate problem of that month. Long-term thinking doesn’t happen here, mostly as everyone’s competing for power and prestige. Fortunately, Sara is an Invited, and has some of the most powerful people in the company as her found family, so she is able to call everyone around to the royal table and cut through the bullshit. Though admittedly, she doesn’t recognize the King. As for marriage… there’s a minor hint that Allen is thinking about marriage, but for the most part this book is content on the two of them having a sibling bond, and for now that’s absolutely fine.

So, NOT the end, I guess. I look forward to seeing what happens in the next arc.

Manga the Week of 5/29/24

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SEAN: May comes to a close in a quiet, peaceful way… mostly.

We start with Yen Press, which has some stray manga that got delayed from this week. The debut is Bungo Stray Dogs: The Official Comic Anthology, which should speak for itself.

ASH: I’ve not been keeping up with Bungo Stray Dogs like I should, but I do like these sorts of anthology projects.

SEAN: And we have Elden Ring: The Road to the Erdtree 3, Stray Cat & Wolf 3, and Teasing Master Takagi-san 19.

Viz Media has JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 6–Stone Ocean 4 and Pokémon: The Complete Pokémon Pocket Guide 2 (the final volume).

ASH: I have some catching up to do with JoJo, too.

SEAN: Udon Entertainment has a 5th volume of Daigo The Beast: Umehara Fighting Gamers!.

The debut from Tokyopop is a one-shot BL title from the magazine & Emo. The Genius Puppeteer Loves the Holy Knight Fiercely (Ningyou Yuugi Roku) is about a knight who, on the verge of execution, is rescued by a sadistic genius who wants to use the knight to create the perfect puppet. For “dark yaoi” fans.

Tokyopop also has the 13th volume of Konohana Kitan.

Square Enix has a 5th volume of the Wandering Witch manga.

Seven Seas also has a one-shot BL title, this one from Rutile. Only the Stars Know (Hoshi Dake ga Shitteru) is about a man who’s lost his job and his girlfriend ends up in the local park, bonding with a stranger… who then kisses him?

ASH: As one does.

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: Breakfast with My Two-Tailed Cat 2, The Country Without Humans 5 (the final volume), Dungeon Builder: The Demon King’s Labyrinth is a Modern City! 9, I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire! 4, The NPCs in this Village Sim Game Must Be Real! 6 (the final volume), Otaku Elf 7, and She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man 11.

One Peace Books has the 7th volume of Usotoki Rhetoric.

ASH: Yay!

SEAN: The debut for Kodansha Manga in print is Turns Out My Online Friend is My Real-Life Boss! (Online Game Nakama to Sashi Off shitara Shokuba no Onijoushi ga Kita), a BL title that was originally digital-only back in 2021. It’s from Ichijinsha’s Gateau, about a guy who tries to destress after days dealing with his evil boss by talking with a gaming friend online. Then they meet up in real life and… yeah, you guessed it.

ASH: Drama!

SEAN: Also in print: The Blue Wolves of Mibu 2, The Great Cleric 9, Magus of the Library 7, ORIGIN 4, Tsugumi Project 5, Vampire Dormitory 11, Wandance 9, and What Did You Eat Yesterday? 21.

MICHELLE: How on Earth did Wandance get up to volume nine already?! I also gotta catch up with What Did You Eat Yesterday?.

ANNA: Those are both titles I feel like I would be reading if I was better at keeping up on things.

ASH: It feels like it’s been awhile since we’ve seen a new volume of Magus of the Library, too.

SEAN: Digitally we get A Couple of Cuckoos 17, DAYS 41, Gamaran: Shura 20, My Home Hero 16, Teppu 7, and With You and the Rain 6.

J-Novel Club has a debut, as we see A Surprisingly Happy Engagement for the Slime Duke and the Fallen Noble Lady (Slime Taikō to Botsuraku Reijō no Angai Shiawase na Konyaku). Our heroine does not get her engagement broken – her sister’s engagement is the one that is broken. And soon after, a disaster leaves her family penniless. Selling pastries in the slums, she meets a slime, who introduces her to the Slime Duke, and suddenly she’s married? This had better be better than it sounds.

ASH: Dare I ask what a Slime Duke is?

ANNA: I’m afraid to know.

SEAN: Also from J-Novel Club: The 4th manga volume of The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects, A Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-Back Life 10, the 2nd manga volume of A Livid Lady’s Guide to Getting Even: How I Crushed My Homeland with My Mighty Grimoires, Only I Know That This World Is a Game 4, and Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I’m Not the Demon Lord 5.

Hanashi Media has The Dark Guild Master’s Smile Would Fit Best 2 and The Fruit of Evolution: Before I Knew It, My Life Had It Made!.

Four titles from Cross Infinite World, including one debut. By a Twist of Fate, I’m Attending the Royal Academy in Disguise (Wake Atte, Hensou Shite Gakuen ni Sennyuu Shiteimasu) stars a servant who spends her school days pretending to be a noble’s daughter, as she’ll get enough money to live freely when she graduates. Then they go back on her word. Can she get revenge?

Also from Cross Infinite World: The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor 4, The Invisible Wallflower Marries an Upstart Aristocrat After Getting Dumped for Her Sister! 2 (the final volume), and Third Loop: The Nameless Princess and the Cruel Emperor 2.

In print, Airship has Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! 18 (along with the not-early digital) and Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling 6.

And digital-only (no print) is Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation – Recollections, a short story/artbook/interview collection for the famous (infamous?) series.

OK, kind of relaxing? What interests you?

I Don’t Want To Be the Dragon Duke’s Maid! Serving My Ex-Fiancé From My Past Life, Vol. 2

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By Mashimesa Emoto and Masami. Released in Japan as “Ryū Taikō no Senzoku Jijo wa Goenryō Shitai! Tensei Saki no Okyūji Aite wa Zense no Moto Konyakusha Deshita” by Arian Rose. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Amanogawa Tenri.

I had assumed that this was going to be one of those artifact title type of books, sort of how The Ideal Sponger Life never actually manages to do anything remotely connected to that title after the first half of Book 1. But credit to the author, we actually do get a reasonable excuse for having Mille-Feuille once again disguise herself as the dragon duke’s maid and serving the ex-fiance from her past life. The problem, of course, is that just because she and Van are married does not mean that everyone automatically approved of the pairing. There was an assassination attempt on her last book, and there’s another one near the start of this book, to the point where she’s using body doubles most of the time. Fortunately, we have something that can take her mind off of things: tourism. Now that she’s solved the “donating mana puts women in a coma” issue, folks can actually see the sights. Erm… what sights do they have?

Mille-Feuille and Van are wracking their brains to try to come up with a way to stop having the one vacation destination be “the lake”, if only as the lake is starting to feel the effect of all those tourists. Mille-Feuille then draws on her memories as Charlotte and recalls that up north, in the snowy mountains of the kingdom, there are places where you could have a natural hot spring! And since Van and Mille-Feuille have not had their honeymoon yet, they decide to pay the place a visit, accompanied by his sister and knights and her best friend, battle maid, and squirrels. Unfortunately, when they get there they run into Fenetra, Van’s cousin and one of his fiance candidates from before. And she does not seem to like any of the woman in Van’s party. At all.

Not to spoil too much, but this series comes to a close with this volume, so we can’t exactly bring in too many subplots. Things are both helped and hindered by Mille-Feuille herself, whose dry, matter-of-fact narration works well in some places, but in others you can tell why they need to include a literal “she barely shows any emotion, she’s always been like this” hand wave. Opera, Van’s sister, turns out to be a lot more fun now that she’s no longer a jealous little sister, and the pairing up of her with Van’s chief bodyguard was so blatant and shoehorned in – both in universe and out of it – that I ended up laughing. There’s some nice near death experiences, a few mass brainwashings, and a villainess who turns out to tie back to our heroine’s previous life. Nothing is stunning, but like the first book, it reads well.

The volume (and series) ends with Mille-Feuille announcing she’s pregnant and then giving birth to a son, which might surprise folks who assumed they just never had sex ever. I liked this. And good news, the author has a new series out from J-Novel Club next week.

Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter: The Promised Garden

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By Riku Nanano and cura. Released in Japan as “Koujo Denka no Kateikyoushi” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by William Varteresian.

While it’s a light novel series, and therefore technically above genre distinctions, I don’t think anyone would argue with me if I said Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter falls under the shonen umbrella. As such, it feels inevitable that it would eventually fall prey to one of the big dangers of shonen battle series, “shonen creep”. You start off with a powerful villain, and our heroes hold on to defeat them. Then you get an even more powerful villain. And then, of course, an even MORE powerful villain. And this series just features a very exciting civil war arc with multiple antagonists, backstabbing, and lots of really cool battles. As such, this volume, ending the arc after it, can’t help but be a bit disappointing, as not only are the villains in this arc ludicrously powerful compared to the previous ones, but they all live to fight another day. We’ve hit the actual series villains, rather than arc villains. Which is great news for the series, but makes this book feel like a letdown.

Of course, just because there’s a desperate battle in which everyone might be horribly killed doesn’t mean that this series is not also a harem romcom. As such, the first half of this book has Allen and Lydia gradually getting back into fighting shape and coming up with plans, while all the while new Allen-lovers show up one on top of the other. This even happens during and *after* the battle itself, which actually makes it funnier. They tried to stop the war, but the Church really, really wants war, to the point where they’re murdering all the peace-loving leaders. And the main warmonger is being kept in place by his comatose wife, who they’re promising a cure for. Any day now. Really. And then there’s our bevy of villains, including the vampire who beat Allen and Lydia so badly last time, who’s pretending to be someone she’s not.

This is the end of the “Allen and Lydia Love Love” arc, though I’m sure nothing is genuinely resolved till we see a wedding. It’s got some really great payoff if you’re a fan of the couple, though, which I think most readers of this series are. (Seriously, if you ship, say, Tina, I assume you moved on long ago.) Indeed, there’s so much payoff that Lydia is starting to regard all the other love interests – including her own sister *and* her own cousin – flying around Allen like bees to be more cute and amusing rather than sparking jealousy. Well, to a point. Lily still makes her a little annoyed. And Alice doesn’t count, she’s evil. As for the climax of the book, not only do the villains get away, but it also undercuts some of the danger. The kidnapped victims turn out to be fine, and the badass who valiantly sacrificed her life in the prologue turns out to also not be dead. Given the villains got away, I suppose killing off anyone we care about would have felt mean, but again, disappointing.

Next time we get a new arc, and I look forward to seeing how Allen once again does not get a title and gets to avoid getting engaged. Till then, OK but not great book in the series.

From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman: My Hotshot Disciples Are All Grown Up Now, and They Won’t Leave Me Alone, Vol. 3

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By Shigeru Sagazaki and Tetsuhiro Nabeshima. Released in Japan as “Katainaka no Ossan, Kensei ni Naru: Tada no Inaka no Kenjutsu Shihan Datta noni, Taisei Shita Deshitachi ga Ore o Hōttekurenai Ken” by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

This series leans a little lighter on it than some others I can think of, but it has to be said that this is a harem series that adds new girls every volume. As such, sometimes it feels like the new character acts the way she does not because of their backstory or because of how they’ll fit into the overall story, but because of which “anime girl stereotype” boxes they tick. We have the blond, quick-to-jealousy but cool knight commander, the “I am Yotsuba Nakano with the serial numbers filed off” strong knight, the fiery redhead adventurer, the cool magic users, the adopted daughter, and the “I look ten but I’m really a hundred years old” character, who in this particular case is not a vampire but a mage. And now we have the “ara ara” girl, and I admit I like that type, but I feel she really doesn’t fit her character arc.

Beryl is recovering from the events of the second book, doing things like having a duel with Allusia (which he wins, though he has to cheat) and enrolling Mui in the local magic academy (and meeting her teacher, who, like most other women in this series, seems to fall for Beryl at first sight). That said, there’s trouble on the horizon. The prince of Sphenedyardvania is visiting, a yearly tradition, and will be touring the city with Liberis’ third princess, and Allusia – and, of course, Beryl – are being asked to guard them. And it’s a good thing, too, as assassins are out to ruin things. Fortunately, they have help in the form of guards from Sphenedyardvania, including Rose, who is – you guessed it – another old student of Beryl’s with a crush on him.

A bit of a spoiler for the end of this book, but only a bit, as the identity of the “traitor” is pretty obvious from the get go. Given the sheer number of former students meeting up with Beryl in this series, it was inevitable that one of them would turn out to be an antagonist. That said, we’re not reading the sort of series that would genuinely have a woman Beryl taught using her talents for evil, so of course we get a backstory to show that this is being forced on her and it’s really desperate idealism rather than a desire for power or chaos. I suppose the fact that Rose is an “ara ara” personality ties in with her attachment to children, as they tend to be the motherly sort – she has a long side braid, and does nearly die, so the stereotype fits, I guess. It just feels odd to me. That said, the main draw of this harem series is that I couldn’t care less about the harem, and I think the author agrees with me. The politics is proving more interesting, along with “will Beryl ever accept praise?”.

This continues to be “mid”, but it’s a very pleasant mid, and I think fans of harems who don’t mind an “old dude” as the lead will enjoy it, even with its cliches.

Pick of the Week: Picks These Days

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MICHELLE: Of this week’s offerings, HIrayasumi looks the most interesting to me, but I’m also pleased to see another volume of Tokyo These Days coming out. Now if I could only find time to read it!

SEAN: My eyes, as always, are drawn to a Harta title. As such, my pick this week is Friday at the Atelier, which looks more interesting than the synopsis I gave it.

ANNA: I gotta go with Nina the Starry Bride due to my general love of fantasy shoujo. Also it is very pretty.

ASH: It’s a novel rather than a manga, but this week I’m most curious about The God of Nishi-Yuigahama Station. Seeing as it deals with death and grief, I don’t anticipate it being a light read; the premise sounds like the book could be rather compelling, though.

KATE: You know me: my pick of the week is almost always (a) animal-oriented (b) old-school and slightly trashy or (c) Eisner bait. Tokyo These Days falls squarely into the third category, but don’t let that deter you from picking it up. It’s haunting, funny, weird, and joyful, offering a glimpse of what it’s like to work in the manga industry behind the scenes. Oh, and it has some of the best artwork in any Japanese comic being translated for the US market. And if I *still* haven’t persuaded you to buy it, I have one more ace up my sleeve: at three volumes, it’s easy to jump on the Tokyo train right now and be fully caught up by the time the final installment is published later this year.

The Condemned Villainess Goes Back in Time and Aims to Become the Ultimate Villain, Vol. 2

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By Bakufu Narayama and Ebisushi. Released in Japan as “Danzaisareta Akuyaku Reijō wa, Gyakkō-shite Kanpekina Akujo o Mezasu” by TO Books. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Alyssa Niioka. Adapted by Vida Cruz-Borja.

Sometimes you know that the worst case scenario is not going to happen. Not because this series wouldn’t kill anyone off – there are one or two deaths in this book, and I expect that trend to continue – but more because sometimes the author hits on a new character who is so good that they cannot bear to pull the trigger and have them die, even if they happen to be the evil mastermind. Yes, that’s right, the major weakness of the first book was the “heroine” being a terrible character, and the author has gone above and beyond to fix it, to the point where, when Claudia manages to save the day, I went “thank God”. Sometimes you just want people to stick around. Well, OK, I mostly want them to stick around. More on that later. But it does make this volume stronger than the previous one.

Claudia has successfully managed to avoid her fate from her previous life, and her younger sister has been quietly sent off (and, thankfully, does not reappear here). Now she’s free to welcome a delegation from the nearby nation of Bari, which is having a bit of political upheaval at the moment, and has exiled the King’s younger brother, Raul, to Harland for the duration. Unfortunately, the political intrigue has gone away from Bari and come to Harland – Sylvester has to leave for several weeks to deal with a situation in a remote part of their nation, Raul’s faction are plotting to put him on the throne despite his own wishes, and his handsome and clever aide is clearly plotting something clever and dreadful. Worst of all, Claudia recognizes Raul from her past life, when he came to her brothel.

I really hate using the word “yuribait”, which these days has been loosely defined as anything that doesn’t end with a confession and a kiss. But if I *did* use it, this series would probably fall under the category. Claudia and Sylvester are still both in love, and the series, which has several opportunities to do so, never even comes close to admitting that lesbians exist. But in addition to the close relationship between Claudia and Helen, her maid, and her rival and best friend Louise, we also get Charlotte, a timid and large-breasted young woman whose parents are trying to get her to use her boobs to get her man, when this is the last thing she wants to do. By giving her incredibly good advice and also being, well, beautiful and cool, Charlotte falls deeply for Claudia, calling her “oneesama” (OK, yes, it’s translated). And then there’s Lestea, who goes from “evil lesbian stereotype” to “obsessive lesbian stereotype” over the course of the book. That was the one part of her arc I was unhappy with. Oh yes, and Claudia also dresses in a suit to secretly visit her old brothel, and manages to not only seduce all her old sex worker friends within thirty seconds but also agrees to fund it. This isn’t going to be yuri, but boy howdy it is an Akogare Festival.

Still, on the whole this was better than the first volume, and I look forward to seeing what happens next, and also hope it is shorter than 406 pages.