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.

After a first volume that seemed to take 200 pages to finally get to its point, we finally have a bit of meat to its sequel. There’s a lot going on here, both in terms of more action, more ongoing backstory and plot development, and more of a daughter who loves her father perhaps a bit too much. Note, as I said last volume, that isn’t the way you think it is. Unlike seemingly every other daddy-adopted daughter series out there the past few years, there are no romantic or sexual feelings here at all. But it is true that when Angeline is around her father, she tends to regress several years and act like a spoiled kid. Not to mention that she puts her dad on a massive pedestal. Of course, he does actually seem to deserve some of that. By now the reader realizes that his description of himself as just some guy with a sword is absolute crap. But then, he is living in Backwater Town, USA.

The start of this book is indeed the promised vacation, with Angeline and her two companions staying for a while and enjoying Belgrieve’s hospitality. That said, things can’t stay slow life forever. There’s a young albino girl and her stoic companion who are proselytizing in the big city, and seem to be secretly evil. And when Belgrieve and his daughter’s party arrive in the Bordeaux capital, they find that roads to their remote town are not as easy as they’d like as the local lord is kicking up a fuss. Indeed, the local noble, Count Malta, is actually allying himself with the religious duo, and his goal is simple: kill Helvetica off so that things can go back to how they should be, with nobles having all the power and abusing the common people. Can Angeline and the others save the royals?

Two points to make. First of all, we are getting a harem here, it’s just not the usual one we see in fantasy light novels. Belgrieve isn’t attracting lovers, he’s attracting girls who want a father figure. With the exception of Helvetica (who still really wants to marry him, and has annoyed Angeline by being obvious about it), the girls in this series are the kind who want a pat on the head or a shoulder carry. Even Charlotte, the Ilyasviel von Einzbern clone we meet in this new volume, seems to suddenly realize revenge is wrong after just a brief moment of being treated like a daughter would. Secondly, this book gets quite dark in places, and it works very well. The evil noble is exactly the stereotype you’d expect, but it’s Helvetica’s character who does the heavy lifting here, as she realizes what it truly means to lead for the good of the people and makes some hard, bloody choices. Hope to see more of her.

Angeline returns to the capital at the end of the book, so I assume the third one will be in two different places. Till then, though, this volume improves on the first, and is a great one if you love dads being great dads – to everyone.

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.

There is a certain disconnect in this novel which threw me off for a time till I realized what it was doing. The daughter leaving the nest happens right at the start of the book, and returning an S-Ranked adventurer right at the end, and so there’s a lot of middle to fill. Some of it can be frustrating at first glance, such as the running gag of Angeline starting off on a vacation to see her dad again at long last only to have it cut short because other issues take priority or because she’s the only really strong adventurer in the area. As it turns out, though, it’s more than a running gag, it’s a part of a greater problem that needs fixing. That said, we do get a reunion at the end, and there’s plenty of what I would call the meat of this book: Angeline praising her father to a ridiculous degree, and Belgrieve proving that it’s not just rose-tinted glasses, he really is that good.

Belgrieve left his village to be a top adventurer… but a bit later lost a leg. While still an E-rank. So he went back to the village, put up with the ridicule, and set out to do whatever else he could. In fact, despite his prosthetic leg, he’s managed to become quite strong simply by constant monster hunting and gathering supplies. Then one day he finds an abandoned child in the forest, and raises her as his own. Twelve years later, inspired by the stories her father told her, Angeline goes out to the big city to become an adventurer herself. She has a lot more success than her father did, and five years later is the top adventurer in the city, and possibly even in the top adventurers in the country. Unfortunately, there’s also a larger amount of fiends lately, meaning she has no time at all to return home and see her dad. What can she do to fix this?

As noted when this title was licensed, this is NOT going to be a Bunny Drop or If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat the Demon Lord series. All 10 volumes of S-Ranked Daughter are out in Japan, and from what I hear the relationship remains a normal dad and daughter relationship. This doesn’t mean that she’s not obsessed with her dad – a lot of the comedy comes from hearing just HOW obsessed with her dad she is. But knowing it won’t go “there” means we’re able to enjoy it as a typical spoiled daughter behavior. Plus, honestly, he deserves most of it. Turns out, prosthetic or no, Belgrieve is able to take on C-class monsters with ease, and makes friends with the local gods to boot. Which might come in handy in future books, as we get hints that someone is trying to raise a lot of demons for some sinister purpose.

The cast is more than the two of them, of course. I particularly like the family of nobles we meet, three daughters who can be summed up as “sensible”, “airhead”, and “named after a font”. Still, it’s dad and daughter you’re hear to read about, and I will be looking forward to Book 2.