By Sarasa Nagase and Mai Murasaki. Released in Japan as “Akuyaku Reijo Nanode Rasubosu o Katte Mimashita” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Taylor Engel.

One of the conceits of many villainess novels is that the heroine is not aware that she’s already achieved the goal almost from the start. The love interests in the game who shun her are besotted with her, the commoners and servants all adore her, and she’s got this in the bag, even though she insists that one false step and she’s toast. That is not a problem that Aileen has to worry about here. She is reminded over and over that one false step and she is indeed toast. The threat of execution hangs over her head for this entire volume, her demonic allies are on the run and trying to avoid the kingdom performing a mass murder, and the Queen Mother is literally plotting against her. But that’s OK, because she has Claude and his incredible powers, not to mention his love for her. Except… Claude’s lost his memories. And his powers. Um… uh-oh?

The book starts in medias res, with Aileen and her allies trying to infiltrate a secret high society auction of Bad Things… where she’s surprised to see Serena, the villainess of the second game. She also meets Elefas, one of the love interests from the Fan Disc (which means Aileen barely knows him, as she skipped things that weren’t the main route), who asks her to ask Claude if he can ally himself with the demons, as his village of mages is being persecuted. Unfortunately, that night Claude is stabbed, and ends up as I said above. Now Aileen is in trouble – the crown does not want him remembering his Demon Lord powers, so wants her away from him even if they have to kill her – and they’ll find any excuse to do so, because they also have Lilia, the “heroine” of the games, in their corner.

Probably the most interesting part of this volume is what it does with Cedric. He’s not remorseful over the end of his relationship with Aileen, who he knows very well but does not seem to actually like,l and the feeling is mutual. But he’s come to realize that Lilia, who he DOES love, sees him as… well, as a character rather than a person. And that bothers him a lot. To the point where, throughout the book, he winds up helping Aileen surreptitiously, much to her annoyance. Aileen herself is emotionally all over the map here, at first headstrong and brash, then sulking and trying to forget about Claude (which doesn’t work for even five seconds), then cheerfully sadistic, which is our favorite side of her. the actual fear she’s truly feeling throughout the book only comes out near the end.

The book ends with a wedding, and it would make a very good ending to the series itself if I didn’t know there were 5+ more volumes. And once again, the illustrator has failed us in terms of duck drawings. That said, this is in my Top 5 Villainess series, and I can’t recommend it enough. The anime is coming soon as well.

By Sarasa Nagase and Mai Murasaki. Released in Japan as “Akuyaku Reijo Nanode Rasubosu o Katte Mimashita” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Taylor Engel.

Given the sheer number of villainess novels and other similar “this is the same world as the game I played!” scenarios, it’s surprising that we’ve had so many of the protagonists accept that this is their new reality. Admittedly, VR technology has not gotten to the point where this sort of thing could be faked well, but “I’m dreaming” is probably a valid response. Of course, the main reason that we don’t see this too often is that if you think that you’re just inside some game world, you start to think of the world as not having real people but ‘target characters’, and that death is irrelevant because you can restart and they’ll all be alive again. That’s not true in these books, and the villainesses usually know it. But this is one of those ‘good villainess = evil heroine’ books, so it should come as no surprise that, when the heroine gets her OWN memories of Japan back at the start of this volume, she decides to send things off the rails.

Having successfully avoided her doom, Aileen is safe within the demon lord’s domain. Unfortunately, the game she played back in Japan had a sequel, which she also played. New heroine, new love interests, new bad guy. And now it seems someone is trying to make events in that game happen, which will be very bad news for the demons in this world. To try to prevent this, Claude is going to the duchy of Mirchetta to investigate. Aileen is told to stay behind. A ha. A ha ha ha. Disguising herself as a boy, she infiltrates the academy where the second game took place, then inveigles herself onto the student council and establish a guard unit to protect the students (mostly from each other). But investigating is going to be a little hard when her fiancee is the school principal. A clever disguise is needed. Or, failing that, the most bizarre disguise ever.

This book is more well-written than a lot of the villainess novels I’ve seen, and you really find yourself drawn in – I can see why an anime is coming. Aileen is a combination of clever and too-clever-by-half, and she gets a new cast of characters in the student council, who are all fun types. Given that the second game had a different heroine and a different villainess (though it takes place in the same world), it’s no surprise that Aileen quickly makes friends with said villainess, who turns out to be a sweetie pie with poor self-esteem, as you’d expect. This doesn’t really break new ground – mind controlling drugs as the main threat has been seen before, and the evil church being behind it surprises no one – but it’s fun to read, and Aileen is a hoot. If I had a complaint it’s that we only see one picture of her in her masterful disguise. More art was needed.

The end of this book established that we’re going to be seeing evil heroine vs. good villainess for some time to come, so it’s a good thing this is ongoing. Even if you’re tired of villainess books, this is worth the read.

By Sarasa Nagase and Mai Murasaki. Released in Japan as “Akuyaku Reijo Nanode Rasubosu o Katte Mimashita” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Taylor Engel.

Generally speaking, the best types of isekai stories (and villainess stories) are the ones that actually try to do something with the format beyond “I have memories from Japan”. In particular, villainess stories that examine what exactly it means to be that sort of character I’ve found to be a cut above, and this book definitely falls into that category. For all that we hear about girls constantly playing otome games with villainesses who sneer and plot at the heroine, the game never gets into how they grew up to be that sort of person. Why would it? The villainess is an obstacle to be overcome. But villainess light novels do have that opportunity. What’s more, as with male-driven isekai novels that show the hero amassing a loving harem and having amazing OP powers, the villainess books are also fantasy-driven… but the fantasy tends to be “have men actually respect me” and “start my own successful business”. It knows its core audience.

The start of this book may seem a bit familiar to readers of this genre. Aileen suddenly realizes she has memories of her past life from Japan, where she played an otome game called Regalia of Saints, Demons and Maidens. Unfortunately, this comes back to her while she’s being publicly dumped and shamed by her fiancee. And now she recalls that the next steps are getting disowned and dying in the slums. PASS! Trying to figure out a way out of this mess, and with her sadistic father being of very little help, she decides to confront her fiancee’s older brother, the titular final boss and also the demon lord. It takes a while to win him over, and she often has to rely on pure moxie, but she does it. Unfortunately, bad things keep happening. The business she started has been taken from her. Everyone insists she’s trying to kill Lilia, the heroine. And most annoyingly, her otome game memories are faint, and only come up after the bad end has begun. can she manage to survive?

Aileen definitely falls on the ‘smart and savvy’ end of the villainess scale, though as with ALL entries in this genre she tends to be somewhat oblivious about men falling for her and their being jealous of other men. There’s very little downtime in this book, as she realizes that if she doesn’t fix everything FAST, she’s going to die. I really enjoyed the scenes with her father, which help to explain a lot of her personality. He’s twisted and enjoys seeing her suffer – mostly to see the look on her face. Actually, that’s a running theme in this book – the demon lord also says he wants to see her cry, probably because she’s normally so together and adept at everything. She also has a lot of allies who stick around even after her public shaming… though for once this does NOT include the heroine, who… well, let’s just say she’s no Maria Campbell.

This series is 8 volumes long so far in Japan, which is worrying as this also suffers from another issue common to villainess novels: it feels complete in one book. That said, we do know that most of the events here take place on the first “route” of the game. Will she have to deal with other bad boys? Honestly, she can probably take them. In the meantime, enjoy a strong entry in the Villainess sweepstakes – it’s even getting an anime soon.