young lady albert is courting disaster!

By Saki and Haduki Futaba. Released in Japan as “Albert-ke no Reijō wa Botsuraku o Goshomō Desu” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Ray Krycki.

Usually when I say that a final volume of a series is doing what I call a “victory lap”, I don’t mean it literally. And yet that’s exactly what happens here, as we join the main cast as they take a tour of every major character we’ve met before, every major place we’ve visited, and have all the possibly comedy antics you could want. Honestly, probably more than you’d want. It’s been so long since the first volume that I’d forgotten how particularly thick-headed Mary can be when she wants to ignore things that troubled her, A lot of the humor near the start of this book is her having to be reminded of all the bad things that happened to her in previous books, and her having completely forgotten everything about them entirely. That said, she and Adi at least have an excuse: Their lovely daughter, who is the spitting image of her mother both in appearance and attitude and is ready to take the world by storm.

This volume takes place six years after the previous one. Roxanne, Mary and Adi’s daughter, has a mission. She’s written invitations for a big party where her mother has an important announcement, and now she plans to deliver them all by hand in person – by herself. Needless to say, this requires strategy, so Mary and Adi seemingly agree while also secretly tailing her. She starts off visiting the royal palace, where we meet Patrick and Alicia’s son Felix, who if nothing else proves that Alicia does actually seem to love Patrick more than Mary – romantically, at least. Felix joins Roxanne in her solo (?) jaunt, and Patrick and Alicia join Mary and Adi in tailing them. We then get to see most of the major characters from previous books, including Parfette and Gainas’ newborn twins (it makes sense they’d take six years to get around to this). But what *is* Mary’s big news at the party?

This is pretty much one of those “everyone is going to be in male/female pairings by the end of it” series, so it’s rather surprising that the most interesting parts for me was when it went outside that bubble. Helene, the single mother from the last book, has moved to Albert Country, and is being courted by BOTH of Mary’s brothers, as well as their attendant. What’s more, it’s made clear from discussions about the brothers that they function as a unit far better than they ever would when competing. It’s no wonder this is the one romance left up in the air – a woman marrying three men would likely be one bridge too far for most readers of this genre. Then there’s Mary and Alicia, who manage to reaffirm their relationship and also admit that they love each other – and that they are NOT the villainess and heroine in an otome game, something Alicia has to sort of pound into Mary’s head. They’re still my favorite part of the series.

The ending twist promises that otome game villainesses may continue into the next generation, but we’re not going to be seeing that. Let’s be content with Mary Albert, drill-less, happily married, with a lovely daughter and another child on the way. She failed spectacularly in trying to engineer her doom. But then, so did Katarina Claes, who I remind everyone debuted only one month before this series in Japan.

By Saki and Haduki Futaba. Released in Japan as “Albert-ke no Reijō wa Botsuraku o Goshomō Desu” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Ray Krycki.

Sometimes tropes are so omnipresent that I automatically assume they’ll be there, and I get tripped up when they don’t actually happen. This volume kicks off its plot when a young girl shows up, with red hair the color of Adi’s, and says that he’s her father. Naturally, my first thought was: girl from the future. This is despite the fact that she clearly doesn’t recognize Mary, Alicia, o the rest of the cast. But no, there is no time travel here. Instead we are once again dealing with a more common light novel subtrope, which is the idea that if you’re going to be a noble, you’d damn well better be a GOOD noble who cares about others. The actual backstory for this girl is more down to earth – she’s from a country that doesn’t give a crap about its poor, and it broke her family apart. This infuriates Mary and Alicia, who by their nature are shiny, honest people and can’t stand the idea of abusing power. Even if it’s justified in their head.

The other major plotline in this volume is that Mary Albert is pregnant. This is a happy surprise for her and Adi, but it’s also something they want to keep under wraps for the time being, as there are certain people who will make far too big a deal out of it. Like, new national holiday big. Fortunately, this strange little girl arrives and proceeds to distract everyone as they try to figure out whose child she is (I appreciate the fact that everyone knows Adi is so in love with mary that there’s no way it’s his secret child). Unfortunately, when they find out her exact circumstances, a field trip is in order. Which also consists of her brothers. And Patrick and Alicia. And Parfette and Gainas. And they all converge on one unfortunate lord who believes wholeheartedly that breeding is everything and poor people deserve to be abused. The odd thing is that he believes it to an extreme degree, rather than just being plain old evil about everything.

One thing I really appreciate about Mary Albert is that, despite being reincarnated in an otome game, etcetc., and being generally a very nice person, she is allowed to *behave* like an arrogant villainess, snikping and grumbling at people and acting like she’s going to let out with an OHOHOHOHOHO any moment – though she never does so. In a world with ditzy villainesses, acting villainesses, villainesses with PTSD, it’s nice to see one who doesn’t have a complete personality change even as she plots her doom. Actually, the plotting her doom thing seems to have gone well and truly tits up in this book, as her brothers renounce their claim to the head of the family, leaving it for her. This is unsurprising, but I think she’ll do a good job. I do appreciate how, even now that we’re close to the end, she still cares a lot about what happens to her fantasy fried chicken restaurants, and worries now that she’s given it to twisted friend 31 and twisted friend #2. (I worry as well.)

The next book is the last. I’ll miss this series, one of the first villainess books to come out in Japan. It was overshadowed by Bakarina, but Mary Albert accomplished a lot more. I wish her and her husband and her second and third wives well. What, they’re not her wives? I feel evidence suggests otherwise.

By Saki and Haduki Futaba. Released in Japan as “Albert-ke no Reijō wa Botsuraku o Goshomō Desu” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Ray Krycki.

Over the course of this series, we’ve had the original book, with the plot of the otome game, where Mary has to try to avoid… pardon me, create… her own doom. Then we had the second book which brings in the plot of the sequel, where she has to figure out how to interfere in a plotline that never involved her at all. And of course there is the anime adaptation, which ended up bringing in a THIRD woman trying to change things who runs up against the force of nature that is Mary. But most of those have been along the same lines. The heroine (really the antagonist) is defeated, and ends up, mostly, being won over by Mary. But what if we had a guy end up in the world of the game? A guy who is a minor son of a minor house in another country, not interacting with the plot at all. And he sees Mary defying her fate, and gets really pissed. Is the world of this otome game tough for a mob?

Mary is suspicious. Supposedly her brothers have revealed to her a necessary part of becoming the next head of the family, which involves touring other countries and showing that you have the right stuff to be a leader of the nobility. She’s suspicious because their supposed book looks an awful lot like a sweet and fun “take a vacation with our beloved sister” plan instead. Still, whatever. She’s happy to go to the nation of Feydella and meet her aunt and uncle. That said, she’s slightly less happy with the customs of the country, which is fine with men and women having multiple lovers, and thus everyone is hitting on her. Constantly. Worst of all, a minor noble accosts her and says that he knows her secret – she remembers this is a game and has been using her prior knowledge to manipulate things for her benefit.

The climax of this book is not unexpected, but it is rather clever, as it relies on something that I’d forgotten about this series. In general, for “I remembered my past life” sort of books, either characters remember almost from birth or at a very young age, or they remember right before the plot of whatever main plot they’re the villainess for has begun. And Mary is the latter – she only remembered her past life right before Alicia started school. She’s been worried about what everyone might think of her if she tells them the truth about her past life, mostly as the mob guy knows how to prey on insecurities. But, as Patrick points out, if she got her memories when she met Alicia, that means that all the time before that she was the ‘real” Mary Albert… and she’s always been like this. There was no change of personality whatsoever. Past life or no, Mary is ultimately a kind and clever (if daffy) heroine who attracts good people to her like flies. Which also means the antagonists of the other game and anime. But does NOT mean mob boy, who I suspect we won’t see again unless it’s in a comedy stinger.

So yes, good book, very satisfying. I think we have two more to go in the series, and there’s a limit to what new plots we can come up with. We’ll see what’s next.

By Saki and Haduki Futaba. Released in Japan as “Albert-ke no Reijō wa Botsuraku o Goshomō Desu” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Ray Krycki.

I am pleased to say that the antagonist of this new volume is not a new heroine or villainess fro yet another spinoff of the original game this world is based around. No, we’re going back to first principles here. Remember how this series began in the first place? With Mary Albert trying to cause her own doom because she knew that her family becoming too powerful would lead to bad things within the kingdom? Well, um, she failed, if you recall. And thus, well, her family, as well as Patrick’s, have gotten so insanely powerful, at least in the minds of some of the lesser nobles, that the worry is that soon there be be no need for those lesser nobles. And since attacking Mary Albert has, well, worked very badly for the last four books, it’s time to try to do the next best thing: go after Alicia, who even Mary says lacks any behavior at all that makes her a royal.

I appreciate that this series knows how to have the broadest possible caricatures of characters and yet also use them seriously for plot purposes. One of the best things about Alicia has been that she’s basically a bullheaded puppy who only cares about Mary (and Patrick, if she’s forced to admit it), but now it’s come back to bite her, and seeing her cowed and doing her best to learn manners (even if she’s quickly distracted) is something new. Likewise, Mary’s desires to exile herself and start her own fried migratory bird stand are all very well and good, but there’s a reason that her brothers have been absent from the last four books. We finally meet them… and they’re exactly what you’d expect from a couple of opposite personality twins who are also siscons. If I told you just that sentence, you could write all their dialogue. Marty may not want to be, but this book makes clear she NEEDS to be the next family head.

And she manages to win the day without ever really changing at all. Sure, she does end up giving in and throwing her hat into the succession ring, mostly to save Alicia, but the rousing speech that she gives at the climax amounts to one giant tsundere hair flip, thrown at the (increasingly pathetic) oppositional lords. And there’s even room for the sensible straight men of the series as well. OK, Adi is not always sensible, but he does the detective work here, which involves Mary’s old drill hair, believe it or not. And Patrick and Gainas help to remind everyone WHY Mary is so powerful and influential – every family and house that tries to go up against her becomes an ally, and they all (remotely) rally to her here.

So yes, no worries, Alicia is the princess, and she’s allowed to tackle hug Mary again. And Mary might be the next head of the family, but she’s still far more interested in croquettes and etiquette. Still a very fun series.

By Saki and Haduki Futaba. Released in Japan as “Albert-ke no Reijō wa Botsuraku o Goshomō Desu” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Ray Krycki.

I’m starting to feel really bad for Patrick. The most obvious reason being that it’s not entirely clear, at least until the end of this volume, that Alicia would actually choose him over Lady Mary. The relationship between Alicia and Mary has not been yuri per se, but certainly Mary is the most important person in her life, and she has a tendency to tackle hug, and fondle, and adore her. Meanwhile, Patrick has to actually run a country, so is not as free for snuggles. More worrying for Patrick is that he is now the only fully, 100% sensible one in the cast. He didn’t think this was the case. He was sure it was him and Adi against the eccentrics and airheads of this world. But when push comes to shove, Adi has been around Mary far too long and thinks far too much like her for this to be true. Sorry, Patrick. Everyone is bananas except you. Someone has to do the nasty work.

Things are looking up for Mary Albert. She’s survived the first game (despite her best efforts to be exiled), and the second game has come and gone with only mild sadism and shotacon friends as the result. Unfortunately, the game also had an anime adaptation. Which introduced a friend character for Alicia, consoling her when Mary was being too much of an evil villainess. And now we get Veltina, a new arrival to Mary’s group due to a school exchange program. Veltina clearly has memories of the anime from a previous life, great hatred for Mary Albert, and a huge crush on Adi. On the bright side, she makes an absolutely terrible villainess herself, and taking care of her is ludicrously easy. On the down side, Mary is starting to get this odd heartburn when people get too close to Adi…

Everyone knows that if you write a villainess book where the heroine came from an otome game, and the plot resolves, then you need to have the otome game sequel, or spinoff media, or side story… anything to keep the series going. Here it’s the anime, but it’s amusing how little it actually matters. The author just says “oh, there was an anime, she must remember it” a few times and then proceeds to forget about it. So does Mary, who occasionally tries to find a good time to ask her but it never comes up. Which is fine, as in the end it doesn’t matter. We’re not here to see how Mary Albert can escape the terrible fate of whatever new plot hits her life – she’s not Katarina, or Aileen. We’re here for the comedy, as not only is Mary unable to tell that she’s feeling jealousy, but Adi is ALSO unable to realize this. You’d think that, having been married for some time now, the self-doubt would have disappeared, but that’s not how it works. Their resolution of it is sweet. Also, Alicia turns out to be the best gardener ever, which may be my favorite joke.

There’s four more volumes, and I’m not sure how many more antagonists we can reasonably introduce at this point. But the books remain a hoot, and always put a smile on my face.

By Saki and Haduki Futaba. Released in Japan as “Albert-ke no Reijō wa Botsuraku o Goshomō Desu” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Ray Krycki.

Theoretically a short story volume, this reads more like an interquel between the series as originally conceived by the author and the “this was stupid popular, write more” sequel that we will no doubt get in the next volume. It’s meant to wrap up all the loose ends that weren’t wrapped up in the second book, which is an awful lot of loose ends. It’s also meant to show how this is a series driven by its women, and they are all awesome in different ways. Now, the men are awesome too… well, some of the men. Patrick and Adi, pretty much. And Gainas once he’s let out of the doghouse. But frankly, this is a comedy, and the comedy comes from seeing the women in the book not only be awesome, but be awesome in ways that are funny. Mary Albert is best at that, of course, but everyone gets a look in as we go along.

As Mary plots something secret in the background, which everyone except Adi believes is going to be her announcing that she will be the next head of the family, the other cast members all have their own short stories. Margaret has abandoned her old boyfriend and is trying to get a hottie by hook or by crook… even if that hottie may not quite be old enough yet. Parfette is still reluctant to forgive the penitent Gainas, so sets him a task, that will hopefully go well given it’s meant to take an entire year. Carina is still finding new ways to beat up and torture her old boyfriend, and is (unconsciously, perhaps) really starting to get into it. Alicia and Adi go around to deliver invitations to her wedding with Patrick to all her friends, which neatly connects the other stories in the book we’ve had to date. Finally, Mary unveils her grand idea to the public, though she has to destroy an evil noble family first to do so.

A lot of this book relies on the reader being OK with the cliches of “noble society set in the sort-of Victorian age” novels, so if the idea of Margaret trying to entice a ten-year-old to be her future husband is icky, be warned. That said, she pretty much knows how far is too far, so it doesn’t get too weird. I also really enjoy the running gags of Alicia greeting Mary with a flying tackle every time they meet each other (which is every day, so Mary is understandably annoyed by it. Alicia is one of those rare otome game heroines who’s enthusiastic and brash rather than meek and polite, and it’s nice to see. As for Carina… look, anytime her and her ex are on the screen, the book becomes a treatise on the joys of BDSM, and discovering you have a new kink. Like the other parts of this book, it doesn’t go too far (the only sex in the book is between Mary and Adi, and it’s really sweet) but let the buyer beware.

I’m not sure what the fourth book will bring… perhaps the opening of Mary’s Chicken Palace… but I’m definitely going to read more. This is fun.

By Saki and Haduki Futaba. Released in Japan as “Albert-ke no Reijō wa Botsuraku o Goshomō Desu” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Ray Krycki.

Most of the time, when you hear about a light novel protagonist who is described as “no one has any idea what they’re thinking”, there’s a fairly obvious reason for it. usually it’s because they were reincarnated from Japan, or (as in Mary Albert, theoretically) a villainess in an otome game. But we, the reader usually know why they’re thinking what they’re thinking. it’s just the poor supporting cast who have it rough. That’s not the case in this series, and I have to hand it to the author: there are many times in this volume when I *really* have no idea what Mary Albert is thinking. It’s not even a case of “trying to sabotage my future” like the first book in the series – she did that (well, OK, the opposite, but you know what I mean) and has moved on. But in the case of Mary Albert and her feelings for Adi, even she has no idea what she’s thinking. Until WELL after you might expect.

Everything’s coming up roses for Mary Albert at the start of this book. Despite attempting to be a villainess, she actually managed to work things out in a different way, so the ending of the otome game is not going to happen. She’s going off to a foreign land to study management skills. Hell, even her trademark drills, previously unable to be tamed, are now gone thanks to the power of the game being over. But there is a second game, the sequel to Heart High, that takes place at the school in that foreign country. One with a “heroine” and a ‘villainess”. That said, Mary’s not in that game at all, so she can simply sit back, watch the enfolding disaster, make good friends with a wet blanket of a noble, and also get married to Adi. Wait, what? What was that last part?

I admit that I *was* expecting the events of this book to some degree, but the author really threw me off by the order in which they happened. Mary is not yet finished dealing with/watching for villainess pointers at her new school when she’s called back to her country to get married, something that she does unconsciously and without think9ing about it, to the amazement of everyone. It’s only after she and Adi are already married that she’s forced to confront the fact that it happened, and why she was so blase about it. Mary Albert is a rare “villainess” who’s retained very little of her Japanese self, and simply associated marriage with “political move”. Marrying for love never was a thing she expected. As such, when she realizes it happened, her freakout is possibly the best part of the book. As for the second game and its resolution, it’s yet another example of why “harem” endings are good in a funny way when you’re a gamer, but terrible if you try to consider them seriously – see also Endo and Kobayashi Live.

And so, we’ve reached the end of the series. Um. There are HOW many books left? Let me guess, short story volume? (checks) Yup. We’ll be back next time for the obligatory short story volume! Till then, this is much more fun than I expected, with a great heroine.

By Saki and Haduki Futaba. Released in Japan as “Albert-ke no Reijō wa Botsuraku o Goshomō Desu” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Ray Krycki.

As everyone knows, we are at the height of a villainess boom right now, with seemingly every single new villainess title getting picked up for publication. That said… are they really new? I looked to see when Young Lady Albert Is Courting Disaster! began as a webnovel, and it debuted in late July, 2014. For comparison, My Next Life As a Villainess debuted in EARLY July, 2014. And the light novel itself had its first volume published in 2015. That said, unfortunately, its translation is being published in 2023, and therefore the reader may have to stop themselves from sighing and saying “total ripoff”. It’s not, really. What’s more, the plot of this is almost the inverse of My Next Life As a Villainess. Katarina Claes does wacky things to avoid getting killed/exiled, and despite these she wins the hearts of everyone. Lady Mary Albert does villainous things to deliberately try to get exiled… and despite these she wins the hearts of everyone. Because at heart, they’re both great people.

Mary Albert is the daughter of a powerful noble house… and she’s just regained her past memories from Japan. She immediately tells her beleaguered manservant that Mary was the villainess in an otome game, doomed to be exiled to northern lands at the end after bullying the heroine for the entire game. Mary’s reaction to these memories is to say “Welp, guess it’s time to be a villainess” and break out her ojou-sama laugh and cruelest remarks. She quickly targets Alicia, the heroine, and verbally abuses her sense of direction… while directing her to the correct place. She viciously mocks her tables manners… by showing her the correct way to eat. Adi, her servant, is getting very frustrated. What the heck is Mary actually trying to achieve? Is there method to this madness?

Actually, yes, there is. I was suckered in a bit. The first third or so of the book is Mary Albert’s increasingly silly attempts to bully the heroine, and those same attempts failing miserably, because at heart Mary is a nice girl. It’s hilarious. Then Adi asks why she’s REALLY doing this, and things get a lot more serious. Mary turns out to be a lot more on the ball than I was expecting, and can see how her family’s political power, as the nation now is, is a massive liability for the future. Her goal, to achieve her ruin, is meant to sacrifice herself to save everyone else, which is impressive… if it were not for the fact that she’s STILL terrible at it. In reality, Alicia becomes her best friend, much to her horror. Oh yes, and there’s also the relationship between her and Adi. He’s clearly in love with her. She’s in love with him too, but as yet unaware. It’s a very solid romance.

This could have been a one-shot, but there’s more to go. Still, it’s a good old-school villainess book, for a good reason: it is old-school, being written long before most other pretenders to the throne. But, most importantly, Mary Albert is a hoot.