By Touya and chibi. Released in Japan as “Tensei Sita Daiseijyo ha, Seijyo Dearuko Towohitakakusu ZERO” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Sarah Burch. Adapted by Melanie Kardas.

I sometimes feel that I’m the only one who tries to keep bringing back the dark beginnings to these series that suddenly turn out sweet and fluffy. Kuma Bear is not going to be reminding us of the darker side of its world much anymore. Likewise, A Tale of the Secret Saint is probably going to continue to gloss over the events that occurred after Serafina’s capture and before her murder. But it does sometimes make this prequel, featuring the adorable six-year-old Serafina and the knights and royalty who love her, a bit darker than it necessarily wants to be. A chunk of this book is dedicated to trying to get Serafina to live the life of a normal child… or at least a royal child. But that’s not who she is. She’s the one who will grow up to the the Greatest Saint, and is barreling towards that future full speed. And we, the reader, know where that future ends. (Yes, reincarnation, but let put that aside for now.)

We pick up where we left off, with Serafina’s terrible brothers in danger. As it turns out, this is a plot by the King to try and make them be a bit less lazy and take things more seriously. That said, there are an awful lot of monsters here, and with Serafina watching it all there’s no way she won’t leap in and help. Then it’s time for the other outstanding plot point from last time, the Galle Gold Leaf, which has been impossible to find for the last twenty years, but once Serafina is involved all the issues proceed to fall over like a stack of dominoes, and we even get all the past conflict with the village (and conflict within the knights) resolved. And then we have the third plot point from the last book – Serafina got a key from Oligor to Luntia’s secret room. Which turns out to be astonishing to absolutely everyone, but also promises this series may get darker in the future, tying back into its origins.

The other dissonance in this series is that between Serafina and every other saint. Fia, in the main series, is astonished at how little power the saints have, and that certainly seems to be true, the saints in her past incarnation seem to be more powerful. But even they pale in comparison to a girl who is beloved by the spirits, who is the descendant of spirit lords, and whose power is off the charts when she tries to do anything. In the main series that’s mostly used for comedy, because of course she’s the SECRET Saint, but even here where everyone knows who she is… mostly… it’s ridiculous. And I should also acknowledge the elephant in the room, which is that most of this prequel involves knowing that a grown man and a six-year-old girl are made for each other and destined. It’s not helped here by two other underage girls in the village grabbing one of the knights and saying he’s their chosen one. As always, reading light novels requires tripping over the whole “it’s not sexual it’s just moe” annoyances, and we don’t even get the usual “she’s really 900 years old” excuse here.

That said, this remains a sweet and fun prequel, free of “fanservice”, and does not appear to be in any hurry to get to Serafina’s teenage years, so I think things should remain that way.

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.

There are many examples in the light novel genre of “slow life” books, where the main character seemingly spends the entire book farming, or running a store, or petting fluffy animals, and not much of substance happens. After reading nine volumes of Secret Saint, I’m starting to wonder if the writer of this series is actually from another world, and was reincarnated in this one to live the slow life putting out the plot one drip at a time. The author actually anticipates this, writing defensively in the afterword about how we all have to be patient. But come on. It helps even less that, as usual, this book is 60% main plot and 40% side stories. We get one major plot beat here, which actually functions as a cliffhanger into the next book. Little sister is still in a coma. Fia’s cover is still not quite blown. Everything is moving forward very, very, very slowly. Fortunately, Fia is an airheaded savant, so it’s all very readable.

After the events of the last book, Fia is spending part of her days in the royal garden, trying to get the roses to have the magical power to wake Colette from her coma. She’s also meeting the other saints, who are… well, in a power struggle with each other, as the position of saint these days is very political and those whose powers don’t measure up find themselves sent to the remote countryside very quickly. Meanwhile, the Queen Dowager is returning to the capital. She’s the head saint, and she has chosen a woman who is sure to be the next head saint. This comes as a surprise to Fia, who was expecting the grumpy but good deep down Priscilla to get the job. That said, Fia is even more surprised by who the king reveals will be his candidate. (Fia is the only one surprised by this.)

The side stories in this book are based on the 2nd character poll, with the top 6 getting a story of their own. It includes the ZERO spinoff, so no surprises, Sirius is in first place. It actually feels a bit odd to see the younger, Serafina-focused stories in the main series now that she has her own spinoff to play around in. As for the book itself, it’s mostly fun, aside from the Queen Dowager, who has “end of level Boss” vibes to her, does not seem to like either of her sons, and I suspect will really not like Fia once she sees what Fia can do. There’s a ton of humor here, especially when Fia decides, for no good reason, that walking around with her pet dragon on her shoulder will be fine after all. Fia is all heart and no head, and that can be a bit frustrating, both for the reader (if she figured things out this series would be over by now) and for the romantic leads (she doesn’t recognize a date even when told “this is a date” and she’s given presents).

If you’ve been following this series, well, don’t expect huge plot and character development. But it’s fun.

By Touya and chibi. Released in Japan as “Tensei Sita Daiseijyo ha, Seijyo Dearuko Towohitakakusu ZERO” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Sarah Burch. Adapted by Melanie Kardas.

I should be used to this by now from this series, as well as its parent. Both have a very bad habit of only being half a book and then padding it out with side stories. This volume is 244 pages digitally, but only 141 of them are the main storyline. And that’s not even getting into the fact that the main storyline is also a bit of a short story collection that’s interconnected somewhat. It makes it hard to review, as the side stories after the main content tend to be of the “free when you buy at this bookstore” variety, i.e. not all that impactful. This volume also has a character poll, and the results should not surprise anyone. (It’s a poll of both this and the main series.) Serafina/Fia may be the star, but this is a series written for women, and as such the handsome men are going to grab most of the votes. Which means they get stories from their POV. Which take up more pages.

Serafina and her knights are ready to return from their seaside adventure, but ideally they’d like to fix the climate problem that have plagued the region… unless, as it turns out, Serafina has fixed the problem by accidentally befriending the spirit whose grief was causing the problem in the first place. On their return, Serafina’s father is delighted to see her, but we’re reminded of her general reputation… as well as her knights’… when we meet her older three brothers, all of whom seem to despise and belittle her. Indeed, other knight brigades fight it out with Serafina’s, as no one knows the extent of her powers except a scant few. She then goes with her knight Mirach to his village, which turns out to grow its own medicinal herbs… and does not trust saints, which is why it’s likely good that she’s incognito. Well, as incognito as Serafina ever gets.

This is a prequel to the main series, and I’m not sure how much you’re meant to compare the characters in the past with the ones from the main series, except for the ones who are obvious reincarnations. Most of the knight herd tend to be a bit similar to the knight captains Fia knows, but that’s less because of potential reincarnation and mostly because they’re all soldiers, and thus tend to act the same way. It is interesting comparing Serafina here to the Fia in the main series. In the main series proper, Fia is definitely written as an “airhead” character, unthinking, reacting on instinct a lot, and missing connections a lot while also picking out connections others don’t catch. Serafina in this series is the same, but it’s not written as “airhead” but as “I am six years old”. As such, those who find Fia a but, shall we say, dumb as a bag of hammers might be better off just reading the prequel, which otherwise offers the same amount of fun.

If you don’t mind the fact that you’re only getting half a book’s worth of plot every book, this series remains a lot of fun.