By Mizuho Itsuki and fuumi. Released in Japan as “Shinmai Renkinjutsushi no Tenpo Keiei” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

So, a brief word of warning: if you were not fond of Sarasa’s cavalier and lethal attitude towards bandits in earlier books of this series, you’ll want to give this book a wide berth. Thanks to events in the last book, banditry is now prolific in her area, and when it comes to affect those close to her, she is going to be a little pissed off. There’s less actual brutal death than usual, but there’s a lot of violent beatings, and the two wannabe rapists get a somewhat apropos punishment that I will not go into here. She’s a holy terror. That said, for those of you who enjoy “Sarasa is amazingly overpowered at everything she does and also an asexual lesbian”, there’s plenty of that here as well. (OK, Sarasa pushes back when described as homosexual in the book, but she’s clearly now fine with not only Iris as her wife, but Kate as her “mistress”. Sorry, Lorea, you’ve been familyzoned.) There’s a lot of Sarasa being a lot.

Sarasa is headed off to the capital to pay her taxes. While there, she reconnects with her master Ophelia and Ophelia’s… partner, Maria (Sarasa is not sure if they’re married, but does give a toast to their eternal love), and also runs into her underclassman at alchemist school, Misty. Misty is there to become Sarasa’s new apprentice, and will not take no for an answer. What’s more, Sarasa also meets up with the workers at her parents’ old business, which is still going strong, and they want to help her in any way they can. So she heads back home with a new cast member and a new company to work with. Maybe two companies, as Misty is the heir to the Hudson’s Bay Company… erm, a shipping firm… though she’d really rather not be. Oh yes, and the prince appoints Sarasa as a knight and gives her rule over her small domain around the village and city. Provided she stop the bandit problem.

The last third of this book is so filled with revenge that it tends to distract from the goofy first two-thirds. Misty is a great addition to the cast, as she’s able to keep up with Sarasa’s alchemical miracles while also having common sense, and is not as pathetic as Maris is. (She also does not appear to have any designs on Sarasa romance-wise… if anything, she’s a rival to Lorea as the little sister figure.) The running gag of Sarasa not understanding how famous she is, not understanding how powerful she is, or just underreacting to everything in the book is always going to be funny. And I will admit, I don’t mind Sarasa getting really, really mad and going after bandits with bad intentions in mind. They killed her parents, after all. This is not like other LNs where our newly isekai’d hero is just like “oh, bad guy, stab”. She has motive!

There’s a cliffhanger into the next book, which the author put in in order to advertise the anime that was coming out. So we’ll see you next time to see how Sarasa punches out plague.

By Mizuho Itsuki and fuumi. Released in Japan as “Shinmai Renkinjutsushi no Tenpo Keiei” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

This book manages to have the plot that I thought we were going to have in the last book. Actually, this book sort of wraps up all the intertangled plots from the other four, and also tells us that some things that we thought were unrelated, such as the visit from Nord last time, were actually a clever scheme. That said, most importantly, Sarasa and Iris are now married. They go into this a lot in this book, to the point where I’ve stopped finding it baffling and finally get it. There is gay marriage in this world. It’s pretty rare. But Sarasa is, frankly, such a great catch that everyone is fine with Iris marrying her, including her family. Sarasa isn’t romantically interested in Iris (I get the feeling Iris is OK with it being romantic, but she doesn’t push), but this marriage allows her to basically stay with her new “family” forever. And she also gains the cutest little sisters in the world. Who like her more than their actual sister.

Sarasa’s shop has two surprise visitors, one more so than the other. The bigger surprise is Prince Ferrick, who makes everyone nervous as they’re all sensibly concerned with accidentally saying something wrong in front of royalty. He turns out to have a huge bald spot, and wants a hair restorer that will require going into the mountains during winter to get ingredients. Following this visit, Baronet Kahku shows up, and if you’ve ever read any light novel with evil nobles, you know exactly what he’s like. He tries to bully Sarasa, which does not work at all. But it does worry her enough that she takes Lorea with her when they all go hunting for ingredients. Unfortunately, the Baron is not finished trying to get his way, and may even resort to… murder. That said, Sarasa has taken out giant monsters and kicked hellflame grizzlies, so we shouldn’t worry too much.

Not to be a broken record, but the best part of these books for me is the dissonance between Sarasa’s somewhat laid-back, deadpan narrative voice and everything else about her. She tries to insist that she’s just a cute teenage alchemist just starting out, but everything she’s ever done belies this. Indeed, this was true even before the series started. Maris, an alchemist we briefly saw a while ago, is in this book, mostly as a kind of comic relief, but she’s also there to remind us how different Sarasa is from EVERYONE else. Maris calls her a “walking exception”, and it’s a fantastic name. There’s also the dissonance between Sarasa trying to pretend that she’s a cool, uncaring alchemist who only cares about making money and the fact that whenever anything happens when her loved ones can see it, she turns pretty soft. (Bandits will remember, of course, what she’s like when she’s on her own). Sarasa gaining a family is not only the best thing to happen to Iris, but to Sarasa as well. And Kate. And Lorea. Yay for an asexual, aromantic lesbian polycule!

The next volume suggests she’s heading back into the capital, so we may see her master again. That said, I’m sure she won’t stay away long. This is a weird but fun series.

By Mizuho Itsuki and fuumi. Released in Japan as “Shinmai Renkinjutsushi no Tenpo Keiei” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

So remember that angry local lord plot I said would probably happen in this book? Nah. Not even brought up, aside from a brief bit where Sarasa notes that there really should not be as many bandits attacking this village as there are. Instead we get a return to the Salamander plot, and also a return to the marriage subplot. as, even though Lorea says she’s not into girls either, and Sarasa in fact seems to be quite ignorant about most everything sexual (not a surprise given her life), it’s very clear that Sarasa is an amazing catch. A powerful alchemist who is the apprentice of the Master Alchemist, and looks like she’ll surpass her one day. A woman – well, still girl – who can fill the “wife” role in the family and also be Sarasa’a apprentice, who looks to be a very quick study. A powerful knight who’s also pretty and practical. And Zoidberg… erm, and Iris. Who tries very hard. Mostly to seduce Sarasa, which she thinks is the way to get this going. It feels like the author read about yuri in a book once years ago.

A monster researcher, Nordrad, has arrived at the village looking for bodyguards to help him with his latest research project – examining the nest of the Salamander that Sarasa took out last time. Now that the salamander is gone, it’s the perfect time to get a lot more details about it that are otherwise impossible. And he really is offering a lot of gold to just stay with him while he does this, so Iris (happily) and Kate (reluctantly) agree to help him. While they’re gone, Lorea and Sarasa, des;pite both saying they’re not into women that way, propose to each other, Lorea moves in, and Sarasa essentially has a “please be good to my daughter” discussion with her parents. Also, Lorea asks to be her apprentice, but that seems to be secondary to her moving in. And it may just be the two of them, as Iris and Kate are… in trouble.

In a series that already features a very, very eccentric lead character in Sarasa, it would take a lot to top her, and Nord, trust me, is a lot. You want to punch him about eighty times in this book, and I was disappointed that he mostly got what he wanted and then took off, despite trapping himself, along with Iris and Kate, inside a volcanic mountain for over a month because of his research stupidity that said things like “what if I got another salamander to come here, what would happen then?”. That said, there is one benefit, which is that it allows Sarasa to show that, even if she pretends not to be all that interested in them, she will absolutely move heaven and earth to help them if their lives are in danger. She spends a LOT of money and makes a LOT of things in this book, most of which we only hear about in passing, all for the sake of finding her two other not-yet-wives and getting them out of Certain Death Cavern. It’s sweet.

I suspect this book requires a lot more tolerance of weird bullshit than most light novel series, but if you can put up with it, and don’t mind the author avoiding everyone’s barely disguised fetish, it’s quite good.