Her Royal Highness Seems to Be Angry, Vol. 3

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By Kou Yatsuhashi and Mito Nagashiro. Released in Japan as “Ojou Denka wa Ookari no You desu” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by Tokyopop. Translated by Katie Kimura.

Generally speaking, it must be fun to be a petty noble in a world like most of these otome game-esque magic academy worlds. The protagonist being a little too perfect, a little too attention-grabbing, reinventing all of modern magic to replace it with the powerful ways of old? Just do your best to discredit and ruin her. What’s that? Didn’t work? Her fiancee the prince is now seemingly a vegetable? Not a problem. She has friends. You just have to show them what a bad idea it is to be friends with her. Make it really clear that being tight with her can destroy not only your life but that of your entire town. Hrm? That didn’t work either? It’s OK, there’s a school festival. You can show up to belittle and crush her with your sneering, mocking ways… hrm? Is that the third Queen? Going gaga over what they’re selling? Talking with the protagonist about her health and inviting her to the palace soon? Maybe it’s NOT fun to be a petty noble…

Leticiel has a lot on her plate. Despite doing well in nearly everything at school, she’s struggling in liberal arts. She’s still getting the odd nightmare flashback to Drossel’s memories, including time spent with the mysterious Alec. Her older sister is trying to manipulate her twin sister into hating her even more, which… honestly does not really need that much of a push. The two spirit kids she made friends with last time have spirit parents who are very angry that they deigned to talk with a human. Heck, even the book she really wanted to buy from a mysterious merchant who totally doesn’t have a secret identity isn’t for sale. Oh, and innocent people are being kidnapped and shipped to another country to be sold as slaves. With all this going on, it’s no wonder that she’s behind in black cloud investigation.

The big climax of this book, in addition to allowing for a really cool sorcery battle (and showing off alchemy, which apparently also exists, and I’d love to see the final volume somehow combine magic, sorcery AND alchemy), Leticiel discovers that it’s not just Drossel’s past that she needs to worry about but her own. The bad guys are using some very familiar sorcery, and that means that someone else has returned from the dead like she has. As for the Drossel side, that’s also getting harder, as it’s becoming more and more clear that this is not simply a case of “if I just pretend everything’s fine, no one will notice I am a blank slate”. The Third Queen I mentioned before has been ill, and apparently she and Drossel used to be “sick buddies”, so it’s hard to just say “yeah, I totally know who you are” and nod politely. Especially when you may be asked to heal said Queen later on.

Basically, this series has a LOT of balls in the air, and whenever the fourth volume comes out, I hope I remember what they are. Also, I still would not describe her as angry. Peeved? Vexed?

The Brooding Duke’s Guide to the Lie-Detecting Lady

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By Mayo Momoyo and Wan Hachipisu. Released in Japan as “Fukigen na Koushaku-sama wa Uso Hakkenki Tsuki Reijou no Torisetsu wo Goshomou desu: Ophelia ni wa Uso wa Tsukenai” by Maple Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Victoria Kasahara.

I saw the premise for this and I thought it would just be another one of those “girl has an ability that no one understands except the guy who is perfect for her” books, sort of the distaff equivalent of “everyone says my power is useless but it’s the strongest power”. But the author does not go down that road, mostly as Ophelia’s power is literally crippling. Being able to tell someone is lying is bad enough given how the world functions around lies, but her body literally shakes the longer and worse the person is lying, to the point where she falls over just because her limbs are vibrating too hard. This is not a cute power, it’s actually a bit horrifying. Fortunately, the girl with the power is cute enough on her own, though it’s unsurprising that she has a bit of an anxiety problem, and she’s now found the perfect job… maybe?

Ophelia is an earl’s daughter, but unfortunately she’s rarely left the domain since she was a child, because… well, see the previous paragraph. In a world where divorce is almost unheard of because cheating is considered socially acceptable, she’s simply unable to cope… and her parents are one of the few couples who have ever had to divorce, for that very reason. All she has is her very overprotective brother and a job cleaning at the Architectural Institute. However, she is a young woman, and as such has wants and needs. She wants to see the Duke, who is very, very handsome, and that means forcing herself to go to a party. Unfortunately, when she’s near the duke and his fiancée Stella, she has a bad reaction and has to leave. Unfortunately for her, the duke eventually figures out what she can do, and requests she change jobs, as he’s in charge of interrogating lying nobles. And boy does he hate liars.

Despite its premise being a bit more focused on how much Ophelia’s ability affects her, this isn’t as dark as I expected. Claudio turns out to be an awkward guy who doesn’t like admitting things straight out, and boy has he fallen for the wrong girl in that regard. After hearing about Ophelia’s childhood I was worried that her family was torn apart by it, but as it turns out her mother still meets regularly with her and her brother, and seems very happy married to her lover. Indeed, this turns out to be an important plot point, as it turns out she’s not the only one dealing with wanting to marry someone else. Oh yes, there’s also a lot of talk of religious symbols and how important they are, and a different duke with a big secret. Actually, the other duke may be my favorite character, and I’m glad Ophelia and Gian ended up bonding.

This is complete in one, though if you like the author you may want to watch the Always a Catch! anime, based on another LN of theirs. If you like cute, awkward people falling in love despite a disability this is a good one.

Loner Life in Another World, Vol. 14

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By Shoji Goji and Saku Enomaru. Released in Japan as “Hitoribocchi no Isekai Kouryaku” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Andrew Schubauer. Adapted by Zubonjin.

This is the second volume in a row that can be described as “nothing happens except dungeons and fanservice”, with one exception, but even that exception stays pretty local. Haruka even remarks on the fact that the Empire, who you’d expect would be very angry about everything that’s been happening in the four months (!) since the arrival of our main cast, are instead being ominously silent. So instead Haruka concentrates on improving himself so that he can run dungeons without everyone being terrified he’s going to die, which he manages to make… some progress on. And he also manages to have a lot of sexy encounters with all the women in the cast, culminating in a scene I suspect I’ll have to simply not talk about in this review. Throughout this, though, we’re never allowed to forget how Haruka feels guilty over every bad thing that happens in this world, even things he can’t control, and that all the girls adore him, much as they might yell.

The one bit that’s not dungeon crawling or fanservice involves a ceremony to honor the dead. The dungeon crawls at the start of the book are less wacky than usual, and we’re reminded that all of these dungeons were, until the arrival of Haruka & Co., handled by the people of Omui, who fought to save their city and often died horribly. And that doesn’t even get into folks like that village that was destroyed by monsters, the one that Haruka continues to agonize over. So they decide to do a Shinto-esque ceremony, complete with a shrine on top of the hill (there is no hill, so Haruka built one expressly to have a hill for a shrine to be on top of), and the girls are all dressed as Shrine Maidens. Including Angelica, which is a bit awkward, as this shrine is dedicated in her name, and there’s a statue of her at the center of it. Should she really be eating yakitori next to it?

Moving on to the other 4/5 of the book, the dungeon sections are more interesting than usual as it shows, over the course of the book, that Haruka’s current style of “react so fast that he never dies” is not going to be sustainable. Eventually he is going to get hit – and indeed we see his HP rapidly go down. So he actually listens to what the dungeon emperors are saying, sits back and watches as they kill all the monsters, and takes notes. He’s got to be fast AND clever, not just instinctual. As for the fanservice, it continues to be the reason why, as much as I love this series, I cannot recommend it to anyone except people who are already reading it. There’s another round of underwear making (the series continues to imply that Haruka and the girls are gradually getting a bit less than human, as the girls’ bodies are basically “evolving” a bit too rapidly), and the girls’ attempts to flirt with/get a rise out of Haruka, in the hope that he’ll stop avoiding the very concept of being with anyone other than dead monster girls, ends up getting very… messy. This was the scene that, having read a Japanese wiki about the webnovel, I was waiting for to see if the light novel would cut it. It did not.

The next volume promises a new girl, if the cover is any indication. Until then, enjoy a book that uses the phrase “and stuff?” a lot, only the stuff is more like what you get in Oreo cookies. Also, another MariMite reference, the 2nd in the series!