By Touya and chibi. Released in Japan as “Tensei Sita Daiseijyo ha, Seijyo Dearuko Towohitakakusu” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Kevin Ishizaka. Adapted by Michelle McGuinness.

I’ve talked before about the series’ biggest draw, which is that Fia is a complete airhead who runs on instinct and misapprehension of everything. The big reveal over the course of these ten books is that it’s not due to her having the memories of someone who lived 300 years ago, but that 300 years ago she was exactly the same – no common sense, head empty. But it’s important to remember the other half of this, because when you have one of those ditzy, strong women protagonists, invariably they amaze everyone around them with their goodness and niceness, and that’s been the case here as well. We meet several new saints, most of whom are either doing the saint gig because they have been forced to, or are trying to use the saint gig to get a good husband. And then they run into Fia, and they’re reminded no, wait. I forgot what I felt when I first gained powers. I forgot that healing people and making them happy is wonderful. That’s Fia’s greatest strength.

We pick up where we left off, with the Evil Queen Hyacinthe being told that Fia will be entering the next Saint Competition. Hyacinthe is against this, but Cerulean is determined to have Fia put Hyacinthe in her place. He does this without bothering to ask Fia, who keeps insisting she’s a knight, and has very good reasons why she does not want to be recognized as the next great saint. (Her backstory of her first death, mentioned in the first book and then quietly dropped, is alluded to here, mostly as to why she’s still viscerally afraid of meeting another demon.) Plus for some reason Fia still can’t really think of Hyacinthe as evil, even after we get backstory of Colette, who is of course sweet as pie and tragically ill. As for the Saint Competition itself… well, that’s where we get back to the funny part of the series.

It is a sign of how desperate everyone is in regards to Colette that they decide the answer is simply to let Fia do her Saint stuff and just tell her to be careful, which is sort of like pulling the pin off a grenade and telling it not to explode. They give Fia a veil to hide herself… except her red hair is immediately recognizable, and in any case she takes it off almost immediately. She realizes that some folks may regard her as Fia the knight, so she decides to skip instead of walk. During the saint ceremony. In front of everyone. She skips. I laughed till I cried. She explains that she’s dropping out as she doesn’t have a lot of mana, but she heals people almost instantly and never feels tired. The only time I was surprised is when she met the guy who lost both legs and didn’t magic them back, and I then realized the only reason she didn’t do that is it’s probably being saved for Book 11. She is an adorable, sweet, all-loving menace to society.

Unfortunately for Fia, I think she is going to attract attention, and that demons will show up again. That said, this is the slowest light novel series out there in terms of dribbling out its plot, so it could be Book 20 by the time that happens. In any case, this is fun.