By Riku Nanano and cura. Released in Japan as “Koujo Denka no Kateikyoushi” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by William Varteresian.
This review will contain a lot of spoilers, so let’s start with the synopsis. The book is pretty much balanced between checking in on the bad guys, who are bemoaning the fact that our heroes are so good at what they do but still also clearly taking the lead in the “who wins” race. As for Allen and company, they’re in the home stretch, but still need to get lots of vital bits of information, such as more details of what happened generations ago and who was involved, and – most importantly – who Allen really is. Was he really found by his adopted parents the way they say? As for the current generation, well, they’re all concerned with the most important thing: getting Allen that last name, that title, and that nobility so that they can finally write off “but he’s a commoner!” on the reasons no one will accept every single powerful woman in the kingdom being in love with him. Of course, this assumes that the ceremony actually happens…
This series has been hammering home for over ten volumes the fact that Allen’s achievements in this current time are comparable to Allen the Shooting Star, the legendary man from the past whose name he shares. It hasn’t remotely been subtle. As a result, the fact that “Allen’s backstory is more than it seems” is not exactly a spoiler. What’s more, given that we’ve seen any number of formerly good people turned to the forces of evil in this series, including Allen’s best friend, it’s also not that much of a surprise who Allen faces off with near the end of this volume, even if they seen to be an amalgamation with a traitorous noble. Allen the Shooting Star was always destined to meet his Successor, Allen the Head Patter. Unfortunately, the meeting is not really all that much, mostly as it’s a fight because we’re at the point in the book where extended backstory is cut short, but also because another blast from the past shows up.
Leaving aside surprise evil dead sisters, the big surprise here is that Lydia takes a near-fatal wound, and appears to be at death’s door as the volume ends. I’ve always been fairly cynical about this author, so I don’t think there’s any question that Lydia is not going to die from this, but if she did, well, it’s pretty much exactly the way that everyone in the cast worried that she – or any of the other girls in love with Allen – would go, sacrificing herself to save his life. I expect she’ll be sitting the next book or two out, and while I’d love to see Allen go completely feral like she did when she thought he was dead, we know that’s not happening. The author likes to keep the harem balanced, but Tina throws the scales off too much, so sometimes she’s just written out for a bit. With that, let’s see, who’s on the cover of Book 20…
Yeah, there we go. Tina is, alas, still acting pretty immaturely, which may be one reason why she’s not only not #1 in the rankings (Lydia), but not even #2 (Stella). Now she has a book to do something about that. Let’s see what happens. Or maybe… maybe Lydia really IS dead!
(Nah.)