By MOJIKAKIYA and toi8. Released in Japan as “Boukensha ni Naritai to Miyako ni Deteitta Musume ga S-Rank ni Natteta” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Roy Nukia.
This third volume returns to the same structure we saw in the first, moving back and forth between Angelica’s life in the big city and her father’s life back in the sticks. Of course, neither one of them lack for things to do. On Angelica’s end, she runs into Charlotte and Byaku, the child villains from the previous book, who are trying to repent but perhaps going about it the wrong way. On Belgrieve’s end, the forest next to his little village is getting increasingly dangerous, to the point where there has to be something behind it. He goes investigating with the help of Duncan, his battle-hungry new friend, Graham, a legendary elf warrior, and Marguerite, a not-so-legendary elf who’s more of a hothead than anything else. Their paths don’t intersect this book, but rest assured Belgrieve is always on Angelica’s mind: she’s trying to find him a wife!
I compared Charlotte to Ilya from Fate last time, and it’s pretty clear that this is the Ilya from the first route. Not that Charlotte is dying from being a homunculus anytime soon (though hold on to that thought) but more that she needs a stable family life in order to be able to recover from her tragic past and her present misdeeds. Angelica provides that for now, and is a pretty decent big sister, but it’s clear that she’s going to need Belgrieve to step in, as Angelica just can’t be doing this AND taking down the strongest enemies at the same time. I also enjoyed the discussion of how Charlotte is trying to apologize for her past religious scams – giving everyone their money back and saying the amulets are phony – and the others taking the time to explain to her why that’s not working and why people are angry with her, as well as what she can do to actually become a better person.
Now, back to the homunculuses. There is a plot to this book beyond cute daddy-daughter antics, and the villains seem to be creating supervillains, though how villainous they are is a matter for future books. Certainly Byaku is one of them, and they seem to be able to remove his super powers at will, leaving him mostly just a grumpy teen. That said, he can also see what we’ve suspected since the start of the series – Angelica is no normal kid, but more like him. She, of course, doesn’t want to believe this, because her being a foundling doesn’t really matter as all her strength comes from her father. Now, it may be true that her TRAINING comes from her father, but her strength certainly seems to be something more. This should be a very interesting plot going forward.
All this and a cute elf girl, though not the cute elf girl that Belgrieve has been pining for from his past. (Sorry, Angelica, your dad has a lost love that likely needs to be resolved before you can hook him up with anyone.) This remains a very enjoyable fantasy series, with a fun and slightly airheaded lead.
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