By Touko Amekawa and Kuroyuki. Released in Japan as “Shiitagerareta Tsuihou Oujo wa, Tenseishita Densetsu no Majo deshita: Mukae ni Koraretemo Komarumasu. Juuboku to no Ohirune wo Jamashinaide Kudasai” by Overlap Novels f. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Jeremy Browning.

I always enjoy mysteries with multiple twists, even if I figure out some of them. This series has been very good about giving us those twists, which is good, as despite the final scene this series is a lot less action packed than the author’s other book, 7th Time Loop. Claudia is ten now, and even more than the other two books she mostly acts like a ten-year-old… well, OK, a 6-year-old. Claudia likes to weaponize being an adorable child, and I think she overdoes it a bit. She’s a magical powerhouse, but that is, again, used mostly subtly till the very end. Mostly, Claudia enjoys being doted upon as a new girl at the academy, does quiet investigations, and tries to get Noah to meet his half-brother, which Noah, frankly, has no desire to do. And honestly, given events in this book, I can’t blame him. Claudia and Noah may be codependent, but they’re also what’s best for each other.

Claudia and Noah have entered an academy for nobles to learn magic, mostly as there’s another curse going on there. Ships have been disappearing, and since this school is under the sea, and exactly where the ships vanish, it’s a good guess that’s where the cause is. As it turns out, this school was created by Adelheid, 500 years ago, to promote equality. Which it, well, isn’t really pulling off. We meet a gorgeous 18-year-old who is the belle of the school, beloved by all. We also meet her 11-year-old sister, whose lack of control over her magic terrified everyone, and who now mostly holes up in her room. They both sing, and the thought is that it’s a song that’s the cause of the missing ships. Also, how does Sieghart, Noah’s brother, figure into this? And are all these curse cases tying together?

It’s hard to talk about the climax of the book without spoiling it, and I already discussed Claudia’s childishness, but it’s interesting to see that she still appears to be pushing Noah to try to understand the greater world around him, presumably so that one day, when she is gone, he can go on to greater things. This is despite the fact that, multiple times a day, he tells her how devoted to her he is and that leaving her side even for a moment makes him upset. The adult Adelheid wants to push Noah away, but the child Claudia, I think, wants him to be there and dote on her – or have her dote on him. It ties in nicely to the story of this volume, which features a curse set off by people desperately reaching out to family because, in the end, they’re not as mature and put together as they might actually pretend. Even the villain of this book is also pretending to be mature and in control but, well, isn’t.

Claudia looks grown up on the cover of the 4th book, but I don’t think we’ll jump that many years. In any case, this remains a fun and intriguing mystery with age-up and age-down shenanigans galore.