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.

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.

As with the previous volume, how much you enjoy this will depend on two things. The first is how much you care about people who are ridiculously the best at everything they do. Noelle especially, but also Luke, are both prodigies, and show it off throughout the story. This means there are multiple scenes of them being praised to the skies. I know this can annoy some readers. The bigger issue may be the romantic tension, which is using a combination of two devastating “put this off as long as possible” moves – she’s oblivious, he’s a coward. These are both also really, really emphasized throughout, and in my opinion grate far more than the OP stuff. If you can get past both of these, this remains a fun series about a woman in her dream job not realizing how incredible and loved she really is.

After the events of the last book, and after reassuring the now recovered wyvern that she doesn’t really need anything right now from him, Noelle returns to the Magical Court, where she remains busy. She gets a new teacher who everyone calls the hardest teacher they’ve ever had, and while she initially struggles, she ends up being fantastic. She is invited to the Royal Invitational Tournament to fight the World’s Greatest Swordsman, a match everyone expects her to lose instantly. And she and Luke are headed off to the worst dungeon in the world, which just had a new level open after 20 years, and they must face off against a last boss. Still, can’t be worse than Noelle’s last boss, amirite?

The romance here is frustrating but understandable. Noelle is firmly in “I am a commoner” mode, helped along at times by various jerkass nobles, and never even considers a romance with Luke as she knows it’s impossible. Luke has been in love with her almost since they met, but a) has the same problem in reverse, and b) worries that he will ruin their friendship forever if he confesses and it goes wrong. and, to be fair to Luke, we even see that a bit here – after being forced by his superiors to take Noelle on a date to the theater, it turns out it’s a theater where an underground drug ring is operating, and he and Noelle are forced to step in and stop the bad guys. As a result, the present he got her joins the dozens of other presents he’s bought her over the years in a room that is basically a shrine to his failure. The only way he can really make this work is for Noelle to get so insanely powerful so fast she gets a title… but before that, she may end up being poached by the Royal Family for their guard. So yes, Luke’s a coward, but I get it.

This has 5 volumes in Japan, so don’t expect it to end soon. Next time we’ll get a tournament arc and an elf queen, so also don’t expect it to be original. But it’s fun, provided you remember my caveats.

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.

As we have seen a large increase in the number of light novels written for women over the last few years, we have also seen that a great deal of them tend to involve an overworked, exhausted office lady escaping the terrible job she has by getting summoned to another world, or rescued by an improbable coincidence, or even simply dying and being reborn elsewhere. The original Japanese title of this book references “black companies”, the workplaces that violate labor standards but are nevertheless there for people who desperately need jobs. That said, I’m not sure we’ve seen a power fantasy quite as blatant as the one in My Magical Career at Court, whose entire plot revolves around our underappreciated heroine getting fired by her mean bosses and then ending up with the perfect job, where she impresses literally everyone around her by being outstanding. It is a cry of freedom from the heart. Or rather, from the page.

The book starts in the first paragraph with the words “you’re fired”. Noelle lives in a backwater town, trying to live her life as a mage, even in a job she’s not really suited for, because she loves magic. Sadly, her boss doesn’t really care – and is, in fact, so sadistic that he makes sure she can never get a job in the town that uses magic. Fortunately for her, she runs into Luke, her old friend and hated rival from magical school, where the two of them were constantly competing for the top spot. He’s now working for the royal court, and is delighted that he can offer her a job. As she moves to the capital and starts her new job, she is stunned at every turn by now nice everyone is, how she gets real time off and normal work hours, and how expectations for her are not ludicrous. That said… what she gives them *is* ludicrous. She’s a bit OP.

Other folks have compared this to The Sorcerer’s Receptionist a bit, and I get it, but Noelle doesn’t seem to be all that similar to Nanalie except in the fact that they both have a boyfriend/rival figure. Indeed, how much you like this book may depend on how much you can tolerate Noelle being another one of THOSE heroines, so beaten down by life that any sign of obvious affection is completely missed, and folks trying to praise her gets constantly brushed off. It’s Japanese modesty taken to an aggravating degree. That said, overall I found her a lot of fun. I was surprised at the subplot, where we see what happens to the “bad guild” after she leaves. I’m so used to the sorts of stories where everyone is so evil they’re disgraced and end up dying a coward’s death, but no… the end goal of this story is that the old bosses see what Noelle is really like and regret that they let her go so easily. That’s it. In the end, this really is an office lady revenge story, it’s just the revenge is “I am happy now, ha ha ha”.

This has a second volume, which I will check out, but also feels pretty complete in one book, despite the romantic subplot slamming against Noelle’s heroic self-deprecation. Recommended for those in a bad job who like to fantasize.