By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

After the events of Vol. 43 (44 being a SS volume), you will not be surprised to hear that this is a very serious affair. There’s almost no humor to be found, and even the romance, with the exception of Elfaria (who joins everyone else in the cast in trying to make it clear, but not TOO clear, that he’s the only one for her) is absent. The reason for this is that after the events of the last book, Koutarou is depressed and uncertain how to go forward. It’s a good reminder how little time this series has taken place in – we’re only about two years later here, and much as the girls are all cognizant of their own feelings and able to support each other, when it comes to the man they love they don’t have the fortitude to kick him in the ass, and have to leave it to Kenji, who of course can baseball it out of him. No one is quite mature enough to confidently be in a polycule revolving around one man just yet. Least of all the man.

We pick up just before the cliffhanger of the last book, as we see Ralgwin’s final moments before his soul is overwritten by Maxfern’s. He seems rather calm and accepting of this, and is apparently assuming that Koutarou will somehow save the day. Unfortunately, that point is not this volume. Koutarou, as I said before, starts off in a big funk, especially once Maxfern goes on live TV to declare war on the royal family and ask allies to join him. Now they need to avoid another war, and in order to do this have to infiltrate the enemy… which is a lot easier given that they’re bringing in a lot of new troops and staff. Unfortunately, they all fail to realize that Maxfern is, unlike every other villain we’ve seen in this book, someone who does not care about ANYONE. And that troops don’t necessarily have to be alive.

So yeah, I hate to break it to you, but once you take zombies out of the box, you really can’t put them back. That said, this is part of a new theme with this book. All our previous villains, be they Ralgwin, or Elexis, or even Darkness Rainbow, have all had someone that they care about and want to protect, in some way, shape or form. Their goals are not 100% genocidal. Maxfern is different. He died swearing vengeance, and he will get vengeance, no matter who dies or is left unhappy. The second half of the book sees our heroes infiltrate the e3nemy for clues, and they barely escape with their lives, because the villain doesn’t care about just throwing death at a problem until it goes away. It’s genuinely scary.

We get a cliffhanger suggesting Maxfern is going to attack the “smart girls” in the group – Clan, Kiriha, and Ruth – next time. Till then, this is still good, but it’s a bit less “fun”, per se.

By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

It has to be said, Rokujouma!? is a very methodical series. We’ve gotten so used to seeing series derived from webnovels where the author is clearly making up each chapter… and sometimes each page… as they go along. So it’s refreshing seeing a series that really feels plotted down to its bones. I suspect the author has outlines and spreadsheets up the wazoo to keep track of all this. A “Pantser” they are not. And sometimes this can be a drawback. There are a few conversations in this short story volume between the heroines where you sort of want one of them to snap and turn evil just for the variety – everyone is polite, pragmatic, and thinks things through – even Theia, who gives the appearance of being impulsive. On the other hand, given what happened in Volume 43, I’m honestly OK with everyone being pleasant and casually discussing their polycule. It’s a lot less sad and downbeat than what I expect the start of the 45th volume will be like.

As with previous short story volumes, this consists of three short stories from HJ Bunko’s online website and a longer story at the end. In the first story, Elfaria, Theia, Ruth, and Ceileshu are ordered to take a day off after the civil war (and despite Ceileshu’s guilt about her part in said civil war), and play various board games from Japan (the Game of Life, etc.). In the second story, with Maki unavailable, Harumi and Shizuka are chosen to try to teach our resident Power Ranger knockoffs how to fight against someone who has magic. In the third story Kotori and Kiriha meet with the student council to discuss how the alien transfer students are fitting in, and then discuss Koutarou’s childhood. In the story written for the book, we see Koutarou going out on dates with all nine of his current polycule… and it becomes clear that it’s going to be expanding to more than nine.

It’s been about fifteen books since the first supposed “ending” of this series, which pretty much cemented that the nine main heroines were all quite friendly with each other and would be happy to share Koutarou in a polyamorous relationship whenever he got over his hangups. He’s mostly done that now, at least in terms of no longer thinking “if I admit I love someone they will die”, but he still feels that choosing just one girl will destroy everything. And, well, he’s not wrong. The second half of this book goes into great detail about how his marriage is now a political decision, and there is no way that he will be allowed to NOT marry someone from Forthorthe. Which… could be Theia. Or Clan. But it could also be Elfaria, who is single, the Empress, still young (for an alien race), and in love with Koutarou, something she is reluctant to admit in front of her daughter. The one thing that none of the heroines are allowed to do in Rokujouma!? is bury their feelings of love. And that’s true if you’re the Empress, or if you’re a god in disguise, or even if you’re the little sister of his best friend, who is starting to realize that maybe he isn’t just a “big brother”.

Of course, that assumes they all survive the next book. The author promises it’s back to the main plot next time. Till then, enjoy a staid and somewhat boring but also warm and comforting light novel volume.

By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

(This talks about the book’s surprise ending, but after the picture.)

If you’re still following a series 45 novels in (counting the two .5 volumes, as always), you’d better have some pretty damn good reasons. Especially given that they’re light novels, which, even with a smaller page count than a lot of other series, simply are not going to be read as fast as a manga would be. And there’s lots of places this story could have ended already. Where the anime did. Right before the arrival of Clan. The 29th volume, which even had a “final volume” style cover. But it’s still ongoing, and I still really enjoy every volume of it, because the writer does things I enjoy well. There’s a ton of likeable, distinct characters, who I mostly don’t have to look at a wiki to remember who they are. (Sorry, Darkness Rainbow, I still only know half of you by name.) There’s some good romance. There’s fantastic action sequences, which take up the 2nd half of this volume. And, yes, still the occasional shocking twist.

We pick up right where we left off. Ralgwin is being held prisoner in a hospital while he heals up from his near-fatal injuries. Fasta is still determined to rescue him, and while everyone sympathizes with her, they actually have to try to stop her doing that. More worryingly, Grevanas and the Gray Knight also are thinking of rescuing him – Grevanas so he can use Ralgwin’s body to resurrect Maxfern, and the Gray Knight for his usual “I’m not evil Koutarou from an alternate universe, I promise” reasons. Every single ally is gathered to help move Ralgwin to a more secure prison to await trials. Heck, even Fasta has brought along allies to help her, allies we really had not expected. Our heroes are stronger now, they can surely take on anything that the bad guys can dish out. Right?

Here’s where those spoilers are. I don’t think the Rokujouma?! series has ever ended an arc quite as viciously as this. This is a full on “the bad guys win” ending, I was surprised, as while I saw that Ralgwin had been captured by the enemy, I was expecting it to swing into another search and rescue arc. But honestly, we had a huge battle in this book, and following it up with one in the next book might risk repeating. (The author has straight up said to expect a short story volume next time, so that will be fun.) But we’ve spent so many volumes humanizing our villains. Hell, we were rooting hard for Fasta to succeed. We brought back Elexis and Maya after like 15 volumes for a surprise visit, and they’re more likeable as well. The villains have their own sensible motivations, and they can also fall in love. So to see the cartoon villain get his wish and parade around a resurrected Maxfern (who is a bit less of a cartoon villain, but only just) really, really feels like the book is punching you in the face.

Even the “Corona Convention” is downbeat this time around. An excellent volume of the series, but it hurts.