By Milli-gram and Yuki Kana. Released in Japan as “Nidoto ie ni wa Kaerimasen!” by Overlap Novels f. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Emily Hemphill.
Reading this immediately after The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent was probably a mistake, as the two series share much in common. At least the Saint is in her thirties, though. Chelsea’s age and emotional innocence are still front and center in this book, and it can sometimes be discomfiting. The complains once or twice about being treated like a child, but, well, she’s twelve, and honestly acts like she’s six much of the time. What matters most to her are Glen and delicious food, possibly not in that order. And, of course, she has a heart as big as the world and wants to save everyone. In a non-fantasy world she’d be a perfect magical girl candidate – heck, she even looks a bit like Madoka – but here it’s easy for her to be coddled. She’s protected at all times by Glen, ends up getting a new head chef, and a new set of bodyguards once Glen – who is a good 8-10 years older than she is – proposes. So yeah. Anyway, about the rest of the book…
Most of the book involves a journey to a neighboring kingdom, which is definitely having a miasma problem, apparently due to the fact that their new ruler has been cutting down sacred trees and other terrible things. Glen, Chelsea and company decide to see how the former ruler is doing – he’s still around, he just has a terrible mana-draining illness – and Chelsea being essentially a walking plot device, this is soon resolved and he returns to the throne. That said, there are a few hints that there are greater things going on here – the horrible ruler turns out to have been slightly brainwashed by a mysterious fortune teller, who turns out to be working for someone who really, really hates Chelsea – no one is quite sure why. Is this going to be the end of her slow, pampered lifestyle? I mean, no, probably not.
I won’t begrudge Chelsea having a pleasant experience with one the occasional “I did too much and passed out” to worry about, she’s had a rough life and deserves happiness after so long, but it does make the book a bit dull at times. I was amused at her grandparents’ description of Chelsea’s mother – they’re polar opposites – as well as Chelsea’s poleaxed reaction to it. The book also continues to make very light usage of its big clever idea – that Glen is an isekai’d from Japan prince – and we find the former ruler of the other kingdom, a dragon man, is also a forner Japanese person now in a fantasy world body, which leads to some amusing discussion of – as always – how to get miso in a fantasy world. That said, this also means that when Glen proposes to Chelsea he’s called a lolicon… which, well, she’s twelve. At least it doesn’t appear they’ll actually get married till she comes of age.
So yeah, like the first book, this is hit or miss for me – a bit more miss this time – but it’s still warm and fluffy at heart. Also like the first book, I assumed this second volume would be the end of the series, but there’s apparently a third volume out in Japan next month. Recommended for those who love waifs – no, not waifus, waifs.
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