By Shusui Hazuki and necomi. Released in Japan as “Black Madōgushi Guild o Tsuihō Sareta Watashi, Ōkyū Majutsushi to Shite Hirowareru: White na Kyūtei de, Shiawase na Shinseikatsu o Hajimemasu! ” by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Mari Koch.

I swear that the main villains of this series are not dedicating themselves to evil in order to destroy the royal family and ensure that the nobles have the power to crush commoners whenever they want. The villains are evil for the sole purpose of getting in the way of love confessions. We were so goddamned close! We finally resolved all the things that could possibly stand in the way, Noelle is finally in the frame of mind where she might possibly get it if given a direct confession at point blank range (which is more than I can say for Letitia), and Luke has invited her out to finally pop the question. So you know what happens? Yup, cliffhanger ending, love interest in peril, film at 11. Fortunately, it’s Luke in peril, so maybe Noelle can really kick ass and take names. But gosh darn it, I want my resolved love!

Luke is now the captain of a new Magicians’ Division, and Noelle is his lieutenant! She might even get an office! Well, no, she does not, because Luke is still a little too obsessed with being around her all the time. She does, however, get a bunch of new recruits, which are, surprisingly, not ALL eccentric misfits – just two of them. Fortunately, neither difficult recruit is able to hold up in the face of Noelle’s aggressive goodness and niceness. Unfortunately, the nobility is very angry at this new division. They think it’s a waste of money. They think Luke doesn’t deserve it. And boy, do they hate Noelle. Honestly, the nobility is acting a little TOO aggressively awful. Maybe they’re getting too close to finding out who’s been behind every bad thing that’s happened in the last five books? Time for a stakeout… OK,, that went badly. Time for another stakeout… OK, that went even more badly.

The subtitle of this series hasn’t been relevant since the start of the first book, but I do like how it manages to tie into one of the new recruits, somewhat, who also loves magic but was railroaded into an awful job and abused. Unlike Noelle’s Pollyanna personality, he gets broken down, and is now deliberately half-assing everything as a sort of petty whining. As for the other recruit, she’s the standard genius who’s never been beaten by anyone at anything, and her specialty is… magic! Yeah, you can see where this is going. Getting Noelle to mop the floor with her cures most of this. I also enjoyed how the first half, which was basically “train the new guys”, paid off near the end, which was basically a Police Academy ending only serious, as the new recruits fight for their lives and show they really can protect each other and fight back if they try.

Unfortunately, the author is still writing Volume 6 on the webnovel version, so expect a wait. Still, we get very close to a resolution here… but alas, no.

By Shusui Hazuki and necomi. Released in Japan as “Black Madōgushi Guild o Tsuihō Sareta Watashi, Ōkyū Majutsushi to Shite Hirowareru: White na Kyūtei de, Shiawase na Shinseikatsu o Hajimemasu! ” by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Mari Koch.

So, good news and bad news with this volume. The good news is that, mostly due to Luke being recovering in bed till the climax, there’s very little of the annoying pining going on. We get Noelle resolving the “he told me he loves me” cliffhanger at the start of this book, and she does it in the most Noelle way possible: “Oh, he totally means as a friend”. Unfortunately, in place of the tortured romance we get another one of THOSE nobles. You know, the ones that aren’t just evil but super duper evil with bells on. They murder, they blackmail, they poison, they rape, they’re pedophiles. I bet they also signed up for the Columbia House CD program without paying too. They’re so ludicrously bad it was almost distracting. But that’s the nature of these series, and no worries, once Noelle and Luke reunite, they’re basically unstoppable.

Despite what the cover shows, the subplot with Evangeline becoming Noelle’s bestest friend is only at the start of the book. It’s actually rather sweet, showing Evangeline as sort of a Yunyun type, who has no idea what friends actually do, so Noelle basically takes her out on a typical commoner day, eating, drinking, and having sleepovers. After this we get the more serious plot: the 3rd prince, who is 8 years old and has always been sickly, has been poisoned and is slowly dying. This is because the king is trying to have the nobles pay tax again, and the rich corrupt nobles object. Now Noelle, seconded to yet ANOTHER unit, must not only find a way to save the prince but also has to figure out the mole in their department who has been gathering evidence on the corrupt nobles and is trying to take matters into their own hands. Could it be the most obvious suspect?

Well, yes, it is the most obvious suspect. This is not a mystery, it’s a romantic suspense novel with comedic undertones. As such, Letitia is clearly going to get her tragic backstory now, though that’s less interesting than the fact that the relationship between Letitia and Gawain in school mirrors almost exactly the relationship between Luke and Noelle, and it’s also pretty clear there’s a romantic thing going on as well, which both are avoiding and which likely won’t happen as long as there’s “I need to lie in order to protect them” going on on both sides. Luke and Noelle don’t have that issue, but they may have a new issue carrying into Book 6: Luke’s attempts at getting Noelle by his side for good are upset by the Prince coming in and demanding that she move to HIS side. Everyone Wants Noelle. What can she do? Honestly, possibly continue to study as hard as possible to defeat her rival!

This remains great fun, and had some nice dramatic tension near the end. Just remember the Evil Noble Who Is Really Really Evil lurks within.

By Shusui Hazuki and necomi. Released in Japan as “Black Madōgushi Guild o Tsuihō Sareta Watashi, Ōkyū Majutsushi to Shite Hirowareru: White na Kyūtei de, Shiawase na Shinseikatsu o Hajimemasu! ” by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Mari Koch.

It’s always tricky for romance writers when they introduce other potential partners who might get in the way of the destined couple, because you always worry that the reader will actually like them better than your end pairing and just get annoyed. And while I haven’t really minded Luke in the previous two books, I must admit the longer he’s gone without saying anything, the further down he’s fallen (even his “confession” here is a classic “I’m talking in my sleep” variety). We get a cool new partner for Noelle and Luke, and he bonds immediately with her, also being someone who was hated by everyone but got where he was through hard work and gumption. He’s not the problem – I’m not even sure he was meant to be a rival. No, the problem is the incredibly powerful elf queen who has just discovered Noelle and has decided that they are going to be BEST FRIENDS! Yuri? (no. But I can dream.)

Noelle is now a gold ranked magician, and she’s not going to let any wacky clumsy girl anime fall ruin her moment. Well, she is a bit. Now she and Luke are off to the World Magic Championships, where their country has always struggled. She ends up being paired against powerhouses who will destroy her right from the start. And yet… she keeps winning. She wins by casting faster. She wins by coming up with new magic theory on the fly. And she also wins by punching and headbutting her opponent when all else fails. (We don’t actually see this in detail, which is my biggest complaint with the book.) But it’s when she’s attacked by a group of skilled assassins that she starts to realize: someone wants to stop her getting far in the tournament… even if they have to kill her.

After two books of Noelle having low self-esteem because of her old job from hell and having to get used to everyone thinking she’s the bee’s knees, here we see that there are still plenty of people who hate her. Or rather, they hate that she’s a filthy commoner. Yes, evil nobles are still evil nobles no matter what the light novel is, and these are the usual. How dare they not know their place, if things are decided by merit we’ll lose power and privilege, etc. Fortunately, there are some mages who do still love Noelle, including the most powerful mage in the world, who has spent the past twelve years studying time magic (which Noelle almost duplicates in about two DAYS), and also the aforementioned elf, who has spent a thousand years being raised to lead the elves and never have any fun, and is now rebelling. She thinks Noelle is AMAZING. She’s the best part of the book, and I’m very happy she’s on the cover of the next one.

That said, the love interest is still Luke. Will Noelle finally figure out that he loves her from his saying “I love you, Noelle” in his sleep? Signs point to no. Good stuff regardless.