By Hisaya Amagishi and Kei. Released in Japan as “Madougushi Dahlia wa Utsumukanai” by MF Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by A.M. Cola.

After a volume of side stories that focused on other characters, we’re back to Dahlia and Volf. Who, you can be assured, are exactly the same. For better and for worse. Volf, at least, seems to be trying a bit harder to realize what his feelings for Dahlia are. Dahlia KNOWS what her feelings for Volf are, but he can’t possibly love her back, because there’s no way he can possibly get over the massive wall that is her low self-esteem. Fans of seeing Dahlia try to avoid getting credit for anything or paid for anything will be pleased to see that folks are kicking back against that on a regular basis now. Oh well, at least she managed to do well in her debut ball. Indeed, that’s the basic core of Dahlia. She’s beautiful, brilliant, and savvy, but refuses to see herself as anything but plain, basic, and doing the same things anyone could do. I hope a barony will help a bit, but I suspect she may need stronger methods.

It’s time for Dahlia’s debut, and that means learning how to dance. Fortunately, as with everything else she does, she picks up on it really fast – though she’s her own worst critic, as always. Unfortunately, Volf is called away to subdue a wyvern, and then take on giant bears, so may not be able to get there in time to dance with her. Fortunately, Gildo, his wife, and their staff are here to help, and it turns out Dahlia is a natural at making friends with noble wives almost without thinking about it. Later on she helps to invent a new kind of magical weapon just by thinking of the idea of insribing spell circles on both the inside and outside of the wand, and she and Volf go out for dinner at a high-class restaurant that specializes in monster recipes. But it’s not a date. Honest.

I do appreciate that it’s made clear every book that it’s not the readers. Half the cast assume they’re already dating, and the other half desperately want to do everything to make them date. And yes, this includes breaking the noble rules that say it’s too big a jump. Also, for all that Dahlia still occasionally reminds you this is technically an isekai by thinking about Japan, it’s made clear from the way others react that even without her memories from there, she is her father’s daughter, and would have been brilliant regardless. We haven’t seen Tobias for some time now, but it’s clear that his dumping her, along with her father’s death, really is responsible for EVERYTHING in this series, because Dahlia’s lack of desire for anything good to happen to her is painful. Fortunately, sometimes good things happen anyway. The ball is terrific.

Next time we might get a festival, which traditionally you invite a girlfriend or lover to. Volf has invited Dahlia. She’s already rationalized it. So has he, I think. For romantic masochists.

By Hisaya Amagishi and Kei. Released in Japan as “Madougushi Dahlia wa Utsumukanai” by MF Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by A.M. Cola.

I like to think that Dahlia in Bloom is a reasonably popular series. It’s gotten a manga and an anime (let’s not talk about the anime). That said, it’s not ludicrously popular with trivia-loving nerds. This is no Re: Zero or A Certain Magical Index. As such, when it comes to wiki power, Dahlia is lacking. Which makes it unfortunate when you’re reading a volume filled with side stories, only a few of which focus on Dahlia and Volf, and I kept thinking to myself “have I seen this character before? Have they been a minor character in the series I’d simply forgotten as they aren’t plot-relevant, or have they been especially written for this volume?”. This is especially true with all the wives we meet in this volume. The main series, and its spinoff, both run on, primarily, an utter lack of romantic progress. Dahlia is oblivious, Lucia is too job-focused. As such, a lot of this book seems devoted to giv9ing us actual happy romantic ends.

This is a short story volume, so there’s no real plot to speak of. The only stories that connect to each other are one or two “we get this from one perspective, then the other side” twofers, and one story where Volf is convinced to buy fancy, scented stationary to send letters to Dahlia, who keeps every single one in her room. You know, like besties do. Other than that, we see how Grato met his wife (she’s been waiting for him to get a clue), how Gildo met his wife (he fell for her, unthinkingly, when she was six years old… no, not like that), Ivano trying to run away from his future wife (he fails), how craftsman Fermo met his wife (she’s the granddaughter of his master, but they’d never seen each other before), how Irma got her husband (the family had to approve), and how Oswald got to be the silver fox (being bullied is different when you’re in a noble society).

That last one is the longest story in the book, and it reminds you that while a whole hell of a lot of light novels deal with nobles and the different tiers between them, none of them quite drench themselves in the culture quite like Dahlia in Bloom. Dahlia herself is finally getting her barony, so might be able to marry Volf… except his family is also getting elevated. Back to square one. Oswald having a girl date him on a bet ends up with the girl AND the two nobles who forced her to do it all getting punished, while the humiliation forces Oswald to throw off his family’s kid gloves and give himself a makeover. Volf is forced to learn about noble etiquette, and he’s absolutely terrible at it. Yes, the main reason this is the slowest of slow burns is because Dahlia’s lack of self-esteem causes her to throw Volf into the friend zone, but there are also real reasons why nothing has happened just yet.

We’re back to the main series next time, as Dahlia finally meets barony. Will this mean anything new? Probably not. Will she get to dance with Volf, and maybe have some really good alcohol? Most definitely.

By Hisaya Amagishi and Kei. Released in Japan as “Madougushi Dahlia wa Utsumukanai” by MF Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by A.M. Cola.

It’s been a while since we saw the last volume of Dahlia, long enough for me to think that Lucia was the real protagonist and Dahlia was a mysterious side character. But there’s a big difference between Lucia and Dahlia. Lucia may be self-effacing, but she recognizes her own talent and can take an actual compliment. Whereas to Dahlia, taking credit for anything is like being asked to walk over hot coals. We’ve joked about the slow burn between Dahlia and Volf, which at this point may be less slow burn and more a fire that has had water poured over it, but frankly, there’s no way it can go anywhere right now. Not because Dahlia is a commoner – that’s taken care of here – but because Dahlia has no sense of her own worth at all. Which may be partly Tobias’ fault, yes, but could also be due to Carlo, as his desire to protect his daughter seems to have left his daughter thinking she’s TOO ordinary.

As I hinted above, Dahlia’s commoner days will soon be over – she’s getting a barony. As is Jonas, who is equally surprised. This means that she’ll also need to make her noble debut, which will mean… shudder… conversing with others. And dancing. She’d much rather work on magical tools, thanks you, or at least spend her evenings eating delicious food and getting drunk with her bestie Volf, who is so gorgeous but doesn’t see her in a romantic light at all. Right. Dahlia’s lack of perception has never been more annoying. She also gets a tour of the magical tool facility, where she would likely be working if she had enough magic… and the residents of said facility quickly realize that ‘a lot of magic’ is not the be-all and end-all of being brilliant. She’s also helping to bring together different guilds to make better products… really, is there anything Dahlia can’t do? Other than understand her own heart?

There is a genre of Japanese novels where an overworked office worker in a horrible environment dies and ends up in a fantasy world, usually while bemoaning the horrible work standards they have to deal with in modern-day Japan. It’s a typical type of escape. This is its counterpart, where you invent a world where everyone wants to work, work, WORK SO HARD. The heads of the company have to tell their employees to work less. There are literal hypnotic machines designed to force people who have been staying up too much to sleep. What’s more, when you see people that are working incorrectly, or being uncaring or callous, there’s an easy solution. Just add Dahlia, who with a few words and frantic hand waving that it wasn’t anything she did really denials, you can move mountains and get the lions to lie down with the lambs. Or the shoemakers to lie down with the magical tool makers. Honestly, dying and reincarnating as a villainess may be a lot more realistic.

That said, as the “extra” story shows this time around, we may have to do more than just get Dahlia to be noble and somehow hook her up with Volf. She’s special, and it’s only a matter of time before her specialness impacts the plot a lot more than it is now. But till then, please have some nice food, some wonderful alcohol, and for dessert, modesty that is so ridiculous it’s become a literal Tragic Flaw.