By Rinrin Yuki and Suzaku. Released in Japan as “Olivia Maseki Houshokuten e Youkoso: Ka to Mise wo Oida Sareta no de, Outou ni Mise wo Kamaetara, Naze ka Moto Konyakusha to Gimai no Kekkonshiki ni Dero to Iwaremashita” by Mag Garden Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Jordan Taylor.
It’s always hard, when you’re dealing with light novel series that have been adapted from webnovels, to tell whether a series is finished, on hiatus due to the author’s life getting in the way, dropped as the author started to write something else and got bored, or cancelled by the publisher. This seems to be mostly the third version: the author is certainly writing plenty of other series, while the webnovel of this series ends with the events of the second book (though confusingly the webnovel is split into three books) and various short stories. I wasn’t able to find the contents of this volume at the Narou site. And the author definitely says the series is finished in the afterword. As for why I’m filled with doubt? It resolves nothing. Not even an engagement or wedding. Just “meh”.
We open with a relatively content Olivia dividing hwer time between her successful jewelry shop in the capital and her family home and business a ways in the country. However, Olivia’s Magic Jewelers relies on Olivia’s anxiety as a plot mover, so we can’t have that. As a result, she’s asked to become a temporary researcher for the Magic Institute, which had been researching how to fly airships but recently had a Hindenburg-esque disaster, albeit with no loss of life, so they’re searching for an alternative. As Olivia has been in a creative rut recently owing to her desperate attempts to be as good as her genius father, she agrees, and finds herself paired off with easygoing Daisy and anxious but nice guy Robin. Despite the odd sneering from the obligatory noble girl, she’s doing well, and her magic powers seem to be fantastic – though not at her father’s level. So… what’s the catch?
I’m grumpy because this book doesn’t resolve anything, but I’m also grumpy as it makes use of one of my least favorite romantic plotlines, the “who are you going to believe, your loving boyfriend or the guy you work with who’s telling you your loving boyfriend is an elitist jerk?”. Now, this does make some sense in context – class remains built into this series, which is probably why Olivia and Elliot are still just going out here, and her “daughter of a baron, i.e. basically a commoner” status makes her susceptible to this sort of thing. And she’s always been a sad sack because of her abusive upbringing after her father died. Still: EURGH. The other issue is that the series seems to be shifting away from its premise, trying to turn Olivia into a genius scientist/inventor sort, and while there’s part of that in the previous two books, I miss the jewelry shop. I’m glad she said no. I did, however, really like Daisy, her co-worker and friend in the Institute, who is exactly the sort of girl to leap out of a plane to test if the magic “don’t crash” things work.
If you’ve read the first two books and want to know what happens, you can read this. But it’s not essential, and lacks the feel of a final volume. Alas.
