By Mamecyoro and Mitsuya Fuji. Released in Japan as “Watashi wa Gotsugou Shugi na Kaiketsu Tantou no Oujo de aru” by B’s-LOG Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Sarah Moon.

Since it’s been over a year and a half since the last volume of this series, a series where I had a tendency to forget about the plot and characters already. I decided to review my old reviews to see if they jogged any memories. And they did! As with the bulk of this series, the plot involves Octavia stubbornly trying to fix her broken country and also score a man, which she is currently doing by having her bodyguard and obvious future love interest pose as her fake boyfriend. Unfortunately, every time she tries to break the story, the story keeps coming back. It turns out that I forgot all about the Tanya the Evil aspect of this series… she’s fighting with a pissed-off God! Who threw her into this world of BL tropes and wanted to watch her suffer. Job well done, God. That said, Octavia’s still got a few more tricks up her sleeve, despite more and more hot men getting mind controlled.

At last, Octavia has an official fake boyfriend. Sure, it’s Klifford, which is not at all what she planned, but it’s working out, and he seems strangely OK with it! Honestly, perhaps a little too OK with it. That said, there are other issues. Prince Yarsh is now in the castle as a royal guest and official suspicious person. Rust Byrne, who Octavia had been desperately avoiding, is not only at the castle but is now her second bodyguard (as Klifford is also her lover, he’s thought to not be objective enough). Alec has been desperately avoiding HER. Derek has also been avoiding her, and doesn’t even seem to like her anymore. And the Council of Feudal Lords is coming up. In the original game there was a drink spiked with aphrodisiac. But Octavia has already dealt with that plot, so surely it won’t happen anyway. Right?

There are quite a few good scenes here, so it’s been worth the wait. As the author notes in an afterword, several parts of the book are from POVs other than Octavia. The biggest being Edgar’s, as we finally get the full missing backstory that explains why he’s married to Enoch but seems to despise him. I like how his rage can’t really go to far as he knows this was his sister’s choice, and also how his revenge is also hampered by sympathy with what’s been going on with the king lately. We get more close examination of how utterly screwed up a world run on BL really is, and how there’s a lot more straight people in it than you’d expect. And we get a few more sexy scenes between Octavia and Klifford. The last of which may be aphrodisiac-induced, but come on, if we have to wait for Octavia to actually get a clue about her own feelings, we’ll be waiting as long as readers are going to be waiting for Book 8.

Which isn’t out in Japan yet, so here we go again. See you in 2028. Good, though, isn’t it?