By Fire head and KeG. Released in Japan as “Kaketa Tsuki no Mercedes: Kyūketsuki no Kizoku ni Tensei Shita kedo Suteraresō nanode Dungeon wo Seiha suru” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Maddy Willette.

This series has a tendency to do things that I find very interesting but also do things that annoy me a great deal, and this third volume does not break that tradition. Last time I said that I wished Mercedes had more friends, as without them she might get a bit too up in her own head and/or sociopathic. Clearly the author heard me and thought “I cannot give you a friend, but would you accept a predatory lesbian who lives in one of those “country ruled by women who treat men like scum worlds?”. The answer to that question is no, I don’t really want to accept that, though I suppose it could have been worse. But then we also get a lot more detail as to what this world really is, as well as what Mercedes’ goal needs to be, and while that reads very much as “exposition ho!”, it’s also a lot more interesting than seeing Mercedes murder a bunch of prisoners because she doesn’t really care about them.

It’s time for an exam at school, but the exam itself barely starts before Felix and Sieglinde are kidnapped by mysterious men in white uniforms and taken to the kingdom next door. That said, it’s not REALLY Sieglinde, as they had thought that something like this would happen. After finding out who was the traitor in their midst that helped it to happen (no surprise there), Mercedes heads over to the Beatrix Empire, named after its Empress. There, men are treated like dirt, while women are rich and arrogant. Even the men sent out to capture Sieglinde end up being degraded when they return. Fortunately, Felix is able to avoid being horribly executed by… erm, dressing up as a woman, but stronger steps are needed. Like overthrowing the Empress.

Leaving aside the bits I did not like (misandry country and its residents, including the obligatory woman who enjoys having rape fantasies), there are some interesting bits of writing here. Frederick being the traitor is such a non-surprise that I don’t even care I’m revealing it here, but I did like his ironic hell, a case of “let’s pretend that you’ve gone back in time to make things better, only you fail every time and all it shows is that you are bad and pathetic”. It was chilling but also very apt, given what a horrible person he was. Speaking of chilling things that are not really given much gravitas, the fact that Mercedes keeps the Empress Beatrix locked in her dungeon while a clone rules the throne… and that Beatrix is surrounded mostly by monsters who don’t like her much… is given very little examination. Particularly by Beatrix herself, who not only suggested it but doesn’t seem to mind? Admittedly, she fell for Mercedes once defeated, so this could be due to that, but it’s still kind of disturbing.

So, a mixed bag again. Fortunately, after a three-year-gap, a 4th volume of this just came out in Japan, so I get to have mixed feeling about it once more in a few months. For fans of stoic sociopathic loli vampires, and I wish I could say there aren’t many of those, but…

By Fire head and KeG. Released in Japan as “Kaketa Tsuki no Mercedes: Kyūketsuki no Kizoku ni Tensei Shita kedo Suteraresō nanode Dungeon wo Seiha suru” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Maddy Willette.

This series, I think, knows that it has to work harder to make me really enjoy it. Normally, if I’m reading something about two extremely unlikable assholes competing to see who can outdo the other, I’m likely to wander off the reservation before long. Mercedes at least knows that she lacks any empathy (and was much the same in her prior life), but does not seem to care enough to actually fix it – well, consciously, at least. But in this volume we get the character this series has desperately needed, which is a big shiny ball of honesty and “why can’t everyone just get along” that is in awe of our protagonist and determined to befriend the hell out of her. It’s not going anywhere, but I ship them. Secondly, this author has just the right amount of sass in their narration. If you name a character Hannah Burger, you’d better follow through, and they do.

Mercedes knows the secrets of this world, and also knows that it runs on RPG cliches to an extent, so she and the reader should not be surprised at where we’re headed next: yup, it’s off to the academy to have to deal with arrogant nobles and … well, more arrogant nobles. That said, “quiet school life while I learn more about how this country actually functions” is exactly Mercedes’ goal, so she’s quick to agree. On the way there, she casually saves the fifth prince of the country from certain death, and it turns out he’s the only other student in her grade that might hold a candle to her. She even has a goody roommate whose name sounds delicious. (See above.) Unfortunately, her father has Big Plans for her, and those big plans do not involve the first son Felix, who knows he’s lost but doesn’t know what to do about it yet. Will he follow the same path as his brother did in the first book?

No, thankfully, and it might be the best scene in the book that doesn’t involve Mercedes or the prince. Felix is confronted with a “aren’t you a bit jealous, don’t you want to show them all?” decision. Even better, the villains even know he’s not going to accept so outright tell him they’re going to mind control him to do it. I like when everyone lays out not just their evil plans but also their backup evil plans. That said, Felix is NOT his brother, and while right now I have no idea how he’s going to prevail in this battle, at least he doesn’t fold like a card table. As fr the rest of the book… honestly, Mercedes reminds me of Mile from MMAA if Mile were a stoic sociopath. They’re even both nerdy about weird things and have weird naming sense. I wonder if the author has read FUNA?

I agree with the main premise of this volume, which is that rather than “get stronger grr”, Mercedes needs friends in order to survive in this world. Unfortunately, so far she only has the one. we’ll see what happens next time.

By Fire head and KeG. Released in Japan as “Kaketa Tsuki no Mercedes: Kyūketsuki no Kizoku ni Tensei Shita kedo Suteraresō nanode Dungeon wo Seiha suru” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Maddy Willette.

Let’s face it. At its heart, this is a story about a girl who starts off ludicrously OP and just gets even more so. She’s of the stoic variety, but otherwise she fits the stereotype perfectly. She defeats monsters who “swear eternal loyalty” to her, though of course the word slave is not used. If you dislike this sort of book, then this is absolutely not a book that is going to change your mind. I kinda liked it, though. It has a gimmick that took me a while to figure out, which I’ll get to below. It has a few people other than our somewhat sociopathic heroine who have actual heart and soul, though honestly this is not a world for nice people to be nice in. And honestly, I just kinda got on with Mercedes. It’s the sort of power fantasy I don’t mind reading.

Our heroine is Mercedes, a young vampire who has (yes, I’m sorry) memories of her past life in Japan. (Yes, she invents chocolate. Sorry.) She’s the daughter of a concubine, and she and her mother live in a run-down decaying mansion, abandoned by her father. So she decides to become an adventurer. She trains hard to make herself strong, though because she never sees anyone other than her mother and maid, she has no idea how strong she is compared to others. And then she heads off to take on a dungeon and do quests. Which… turns out pretty easy, actually. She even tames an ogre and a dangerous wolf to act as her companions. Could she actually be really strong? Nah. But she’ll soon find out, as her older half-brother is holding a party where he plans to beat up the rest of his family to prove he’s best.

At first I wondered if this series was a satire, as Mercedes continually points out the cliches and weird things about her world. It’s medieval in tone, but has some 21st century amenities. It combines a tourist’s idea of Germany with Japanese writing. It is, in fact, exactly like you’d expect an isekai written by a writer who’s just taking a standard RPG setting and doesn’t care much to be. But, as it turns out, there may be more to it than that, as when she conquers the dungeon (which features a slew of cliches, including her confronting her also sociopathic past self) she learns that this world was created in the past, and records of its past then excised. I hope we come back to this. As for the rest of the book, I liked Mercedes’ interaction with Margaret, which is possibly the only point in the book she shows that she’s not simply exactly the same as her father. Just… mostly the same.

That plotline will play out in the second volume, I assume. Provided you don’t mind everything about its genre, this is quite enjoyable.