By Kuroakawa Hitsugi and Kushiro Kuki. Released in Japan as “Repeat Vice: Akuyaku Kizoku wa Shinitakunai node Shitennou ni Naru no wo Yamemashita” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by piyo.

I do enjoy this series, but it seems every book has something there to tick me off specifically. Last time it was the rape victim recovering by basically being told “get over yourself”. The issue with this book is not one unique to this series alone… in fact it’s in a large number of light novels… but it’s made more annoying because Lofus is in a constant state of rage, and thus it’s handled even worse. This series focuses on a noble kid with lots of power trying to escape his fate. He has met a few commoners, and he does not like them at all. “Know your place” is literally said at one point. And lest we think it’s just Lofus, the love interest from the first book is told that if she wants to get anywhere with Lofus, she’s got to be a noble, and perform great deeds to get there. I get that this genre invites this sort of thing, but don’t make it sound like a goal.

Picking up from where we left off at the end of the last book, Warm has been arrested for trying to save his father, who was arrested for pointing out the corruption of the corrupt but vital to the nobles merchant. Oh yes, and the captain of the sky pirates we met last time? Also arrested. So Lofus has to go rescue everyone, despite the fact that you sense he’d rather chew glass. He’s being egged on by Warm’s little sister, who is a cutie pie; by the mysterious white-haired girl from last time, who remains mysterious and white haired till suddenly she isn’t; and by the rest of the pirates, particularly Lilka, who has started acting very weird… and not in the “I am madly in love with Lofus” way that she was before. With all this going on, will Lofus still find the free time to do what he does best, be an asshole?

No fear there. I’m going to skip the flashy battles that are about half the book, because we know already I don’t care about those. There were some very effective scenes in this book. Most of Lilka’s subplot plays out here. As it turned out, she was indeed playing dumb in the second book, and is in a similar situation to Lofus. But while he’s a “I was reincarnated into this game” sort, she’s the “I am redoing my past life” sort. As such, a lot of her “I’m absolutely smitten with you” bullshit is a false front… though you get the sense not all of it is. I also likes the scenes with Lofus and Warm once he got over his annoying “why are you so weak I kill you” routine. Sometimes keeping an animal alive when they’re hurting is more painful than letting them go, and that’s a lesson Warm needs to learn. It’s done very well.

So will Lofus and his merry band really manage to cure Iz? Or will they get drawn into some other plot instead? If Iz dies, does she reincarnated into the Bofuri LNs? For fans of “villain” novels who like their villain extra pissed off.