By Tsunehiko Watanabe and Jyuu Ayakura. Released in Japan as “Risou no Himo Seikatsu” by Hero Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by MPT.

Ideal Sponger Life continues to do what it does best: spend most of its time making that title a lie. Indeed, Zenjirou straight up admits it here. While he wanted to have a lazy, indolent life to recover from his Japanese work burnout, after a few months the mental turmoil is fixed and… he wants to do things! Fortunately, there are things to do. He can install air conditioners, he can help to better the water wheel, and he can continue to fend off attempts to try to bride, seduce, or flat out trick him into bad ideas. That said, one thing he can’t do is talk to his son – the way languages and magic intertwine in this world, we want to make sure the baby grows up knowing the native tongue, not a mishmash of that and Japanese. This is, believe it or not, more interesting than it sounds. (It would have to be.) And for those of you who are still bored, I have good news: RAPTOR ATTACKS.

As you can see, much like Strike the Blood, the cover art is here to remind you who the heroine is and to ensure there are no other contenders. That said, for once the concubine thing is not a focus, as they have bigger things to worry about. They’re not getting salt from their major supplier, and a battalion is sent to figure out why. They quickly find it’s raptors. A ridiculous amount, with apparently a larger, more intelligent leader at the helm. Meanwhile, Aura is getting back into the swing of things after her pregnancy, seeing about getting her blacksmiths to make glass, her engineers to build the aforementioned water wheels, and lots of political dealings, including deciding who should lead the battalion to investigate the missing salt. And then there’s the neighboring country’s royal family coming to visit… something that is almost unheard of.

The royal family (however remote their succession is) will have to wait till next time, but that still gives us a lot to do. Aura’s chief general is still really hungry for power, and therefore the excuse of fighting off a bunch of raptors is welcome (though THAT may also have to wait till next time… this is not a book to read if you love action sequences, brief raptor attacks aside). No, it’s just deal making and world building, as far as the eye can see. Even those who were reading for the horny parts will be disappointed (again): Aura has given birth and recovered, but Zenjirou didn’t bring condoms with him from Japan, and she doesn’t want to get pregnant immediately after her first, so lovemaking is off the menu for now. Oh yes, and as with the previous book, there is an extended epilogue featuring Zenjirou’s wacky maid trio, and unfortunately, as with previous volumes, the author thinks it’s a lot funner than it really is.

So sponging is off the menu, but we do have lots of other things going on, and the next book should introduce some new supporting cast. In the meantime, this is a good read if you enjoy titles like Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter or other series that promise you a gimmick and then give you sensible good writing instead.

By Tsunehiko Watanabe and Jyuu Ayakura. Released in Japan as “Risou no Himo Seikatsu” by Hero Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by MPT.

I get the sense that the author is well aware that his core audience may not yet be here for the politics. Sure, in a volume or two the readers will be into that, but here in the second volume there’s still a lot of horny guys taken in by the premise and the title. What’s worse, Aura is pregnant throughout most of this book, so we can’t even write in her and Zenjirou making love. As a result, there are, frankly, a heck of a lot of descriptions of Aura’s large breasts, to the point where it gets to be vaguely annoying. Indeed, it’s almost a plot point – to the typical reader of this series, Aura’s tall, red-haired muscular and stacked body is exactly what they like, but in her own country, she’s not considered attractive compared to the more willowy and mild women that Zenjirou gets introduced to here. Even her own trusted aide is amazed how much Zenjirou is attracted to her. It’s hard being the Queen.

Still, while the audience may not be here for the politics, that is what they are going to get. Aura’s position is still very precarious. Zenjirou begins to emerge into actual public appearances, and the moment he does various factions try to manipulate him so they can gain power and influence. Usually this involves offering him women to be his concubine, something which is not only common here but actually expected, which leads to friction in many ways. Zenjirou is not comfortable with taking on another lover, Aura knows it’s necessary but isn’t happy with it, and then there’s the fact that he likely has the blood of two different kingdoms in him, which means their child might also have two different kinds of magic powers – a big deal in this world. Get ready for negotiation madness!

Zenjirou is far more adept and clever at this than he likes to admit to himself, but he does find it exhausting, and I don’t blame him. He’s offered a military bow, which naturally he can’t use, and is able to finagle himself out of it but comes off looking weak. Then there’s all the concubine business, which is off the table for now due to the multiple magics problem, which is ALSO solved by making him look weak and pitiful. Aura is unhappy with this, as she has rapidly come to fall in love with Zenjirou for real, but sadly, politics. that’s almost the motto for this volume, honestly. Fortunately, Zenjirou does have a few aces up his sleeve. Glass marbles, which he brought from Earth, are considered immensely valuable here (though learning how to make glass proves a bit more difficult), and his abilities at contract negotiation help when the Queen has to negotiate with another country regarding the life of their child and how they will be brought up going forward.

Fortunately, at the end of the book the child is born, healthy and hearty. I’m not sure where we go from here, but I will continue to read the light novel series with the biggest dissonance between its title and what actually happens.

By Tsunehiko Watanabe and Jyuu Ayakura. Released in Japan as “Risou no Himo Seikatsu” by Hero Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by MPT.

I had reviewed the first volume of the manga here two years ago, and we’ve had several volumes since then. Reading the light novel shows that the manga compressed quite a bit, probably sensibly. Anyone who is reading this book for the hot woman on the cover and hoping to get some nookie is going to be wildly disappointed by the 20-page discussion of hydroelectric generators, as well as the fact that the book pretty much cuts away whenever there is going to be some loving. That said, when this series first came out as a webnovel, it was SUPER popular, and there’s a hint of why that is here, as there’s some very nice political intrigue and worldbuilding, especially once we realize that our overworked salaryman hero, despite his stated intentions, is going to be proving that title wrong fairly quickly. Indeed, he does so almost immediately, as many of the things he has brought over from Earth are unknown here, ranging from glassworks to Microsoft Excel.

Our hero is Zenjirou, a young man in his mid-20s who works at a very busy Japanese company. On his off day, as he’s biking back home with food, he finds himself in a palace in another world – transported there by the beautiful young Queen, Aura. She’s looking for a husband and father to her children. As it turns out, due to various political reasons, she doesn’t want to marry any of the candidates in her own world. Plus Zenjirou does have royal blood in him, as it turns out his ancestors came from this world in the first place. After some questions and negotiations, he agrees to marry her, and the wedding comes off relatively well. That said, he may not be able to be a layabout for long. His own overly polite and deferential manners are greatly at odds with what people think a royal should act like. And those other marriage candidates aren’t going to stop trying to gain power just because the Queen married someone else.

This first volume is mostly setup, and it does drag a bit in places. There’s a point where Zenjirou returns to Japan for 30 days to settle his affairs (after this, he won’t be able to return for 30 years due to the way magic works), and we see why he would be so willing to cut ties with things, but I would happily have cut most of that to a 3-page montage. The main reason to get this is the worldbuilding and politics, both of which are quite good. Zenjirou manages to bring over a generator and several appliances with him, and so we see this medieval fantasy world getting used to fluorescent lighting and air conditioning. Aura picked an outsider as she wants to actually reign as Queen, and knows that in this patriarchal society anyone who marries her would immediately force her out of power. That said, she and Zenjirou fall in love fairly quickly, and even if he is sharper than she might have liked, I think she’s quite happy.

Zenjirou stays mostly cooped up with the Queen and servants this volume, but that can’t last. I suspect we’ll be seeing lots of ‘lets see how he handles this situation!’ plotlines in the second volume. Till then, this is a decent isekai title, less salacious than the cover and premise might suggest, and definitely worth a read.