The Trials and Tribulations of My Next Life As a Noblewoman: A Ray of Hope, Part 2

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By Kamihara and Shiro46. Released in Japan as “Tensei Reijo to Sūki na Jinsei o” by Hayakawa Shobo. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Hengtee Lim.

I like Karen, I really do, but there are times when she does things that annoy me. Or rather, that she doesn’t do things. This book doubles down on its Lubeck, and makes it very clear that a) he is a terrible person and obsessive to a disturbing degree, and b) it will be very, very hard to escape having to marry him unless she does something drastic. I had assumed, once Lubeck made this clear, that she would finally bite the bullet and see if Reinald can help out by, say, getting engaged to her again. But no, she still doesn’t want to involve him in that way, still thinks her feelings are one-sided, and still tends to regard herself as “that plain nobody” even as she now has magically white hair and everyone in the world wants to have her on their side. As a result of this, I’m fairly sure we’ll get more Lubeck in the next book… assuming Karen survives.

No, Ern has not been resurrected, not really. The girl on the cover is Luca, who essentially starts acting like a familiar for Karen. Which is sorely needed, as it turns out that the best way to free Six from the box is to sort of connect him to Karen via a magic funnel. The trouble with this is Karen’s magical power is absolutely minimal, so everyone expects it might be a bit difficult. Actually, the opposite. It’s super easy. Which ends up being even more terrible, as suddenly Karen can use magic, but it gives her nosebleeds and the usual “I am overloading my brain” symptoms. Elsewhere, she meets up with Wilhelmina, who admits that she and Arno are an item, and also asks Karen to join her side, pointing out Reinald is the Napoleon type who won’t stop till he conquers the world. Little realizing that Karen not only knows that, but is helping him along.

The series started, in case folks have forgotten, with Karen trying to figure out the best way to escape from all her trials and tribulations so that she can live the life she wants, able to go from country to country and free from restraints. In this book, she officially admits that will never happen, and that like it or not, she is tied too tightly to the issues of the Empire and its people. No slow life for you, young lady! Unfortunately, this does mean that she probably needs to do something about Reinald, who is being sent off to another country to solve an impossible to solve problem at the same time that the Emperor has decided which child he’s aligning with, and it’s not Reinald. I think Karen knows instinctively she’s chosen the “wrong” side, or at least the more difficult side, but she’s going to have to be a lot less passive in future if she wants to get what she needs… or just survive. Fortunately, Six is sending her on a journey that will surely be safe and fun!

Two more books to go, which means four more book in this release. Will Karen and Reinald manage to unite the Empire? Will Karen manage to implement gun control? Will Karen immediately get captured the moment the fifth book starts? One of those is more likely than the others.

A Tale of the Secret Saint ZERO, Vol. 5

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By Touya and chibi. Released in Japan as “Tensei Sita Daiseijyo ha, Seijyo Dearuko Towohitakakusu ZERO” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Sarah Burch. Adapted by Melanie Kardas.

Well, here we are back in the past again, with six-year-old Serafina. We’re still quite a few years away from her death, but the series has been teasing that it’s going to get dark, and this book continues that trend… though in an odd way. We open with an ominous scene of a demon waking and finding someone who smells “quite delicious”. No prizes for guessing who that is… and then we have the entire rest of the book, with the demon’s actual meeting with Serafina coming right at the end, in order to provide the cliffhanger ending. In between that… well, in between that is a typical Secret Saint ZERO volume. Serafina is cute and ludicrously powerful. The knights are all weirdos. Sirius is deeply in love with a six-year-old girl but in a pure, non-sexual way. The same old “this is good but Japan, why you gotta do this?” sort of stuff.

A meteor has fallen, and thus everyone is predicting terrible things. Serafina wonders why portents always have to be bad, and wishes we’d have dire portents of cake and meat raising from the sky. (The portents, unfortunately, are correct in this case – but not immediately). She then finds out that the knights have opened a “knight cafe” for the month… which is basically a butler cafe, with the hunky knights catering to young women. And at night it becomes a knight bar, which is basically the same only sexier, as they open up a swimming pool and the knights dive into it for fruit and other ingredients. Serafina wants to see them… so Sirius comes along. In disguise. That’ll go well. Elsewhere, she goes to a show and accidentally gets proposed to, she plays a game of straw millionaire which reminds us she has no concept of what is normal, and Ludo rescues a child who I’m sure will be more relevant in the next volume, as they sure aren’t here.

There’s an interesting bit near the end of the book, where Serafina meets the spirit of wind, who has come to see her after he found out she speaks spirit languages. This leads to a bit of conflict with Seven, who we’ve always seen as a cute, child-like spirit… and it’s now very clear that Seven is staying that way deliberately, and does not want to grow up. Serafina brushes off Seven’s worries, saying she only wants to be contracted with him no matter his apparent age, but to the reader, choosing not to grow up makes me immediately think of Peter Pan. It’s not really a good thing. It also reminds me that, unlike the main series, this spinoff has, theoretically, a shorter shelf life. How many cute mini-stories can the author wring out before they’re forced to have Serafina grow to her teenage years and face her cruel destiny?

As ever, for fans of the series, but it does remind me, kind of like Kuma Bear does, what a juggling act it can be balancing “adorable children” and “this world is kinda dark”.

Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools, Vol. 12

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By Hisaya Amagishi and Hachi Komada. Released in Japan as “Madougushi Dahlia wa Utsumukanai” by MF Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by A.M. Cola.

It has not escaped my attention that the Lucia and the Loom spinoff series to Dahlia in Bloom has not had a volume out in Japan for the last three years. I was reminded of it with the plot for this book, 2/3 of which revolved around Jonas, Guido’s attendant and one of the many suitors in the Lucia partner sweepstakes. You’d assume that, with a much larger role for Lucia than actually happens here, this should be something happening in that series. And yet, here we are, Lucia is back to being a minor character, and every man in the series is though to be in love with Dahlia or actually *is* in love with Dahlia. Sorry, Lucia. Still, good news for Dahlia, who gets something to do other than work at her company and have delicious food and drink with Volf, her platonic bestie. Unfortunately, some of the things that happen in this book end up being things Dahlia really doesn’t WANT to experience. At least not again.

Dahlia and Jonas are still not QUITE barons yet, as they need to visit the Castle first. Dahlia has fewer issues, as she merely has to deal with stress about the visit and her own dreadful self-confidence (she’s back to calling herself plain and dull again, and I dearly want to slam her head into a heated table till it fills with confidence). Jonas has far more problems. He wants to remain Guido’s attendant and bodyguard, but Guido’s family is also getting elevated, so guess what? Class issues are happening again. What’s more, he needs to be adopted by a noble family for this to work, and for some strange reason, no one seems to want to do it. And then there’s the matter of his actual mother, who is back in Israna, and his stepfather, who is here, who really want to mend fences that Jonas is still very reluctant to mend.

Aside from the usual frustrating “just bang already!” romantic antics, the highlight of this book is undoubtedly Jonas’ stepfather, Yusef having a stroke, and Dahlia recognizing the signs because of what happened to her father. It’s wonderful that because of her quick thinking she’s able to help save Yusef’s life, but it does end up stirring up a whole host of grief-stricken memories. As you may recall, the “extra story” that’s been at the end of each volume reached an end last time with Dahlia’s father’s death (it turns out that tragic backstory is still on the menu, fear not, we merely get Volf’s mother before HER death), and she’s still trying to come to terms with it. This is another reason why, much as they understand his reasons for not wanting to, everyone wants Jonas to reconcile with Yusef. Fortunately, it’s not all downers: watching Dahlia and company twist themselves into pretzels to try to avoid taking huge rewards for things and feeling that it’s overkill takes on even more hilarious proportions.

The next volume is also not getting near Dahlia finally getting her barony, so instead we’ll see more monsters, more Volf and Dahlia drinking, and meeting more really powerful women. Till then… again, Lucia, hang in there.