By Mamecyoro and Mitsuya Fuji. Released in Japan as “Watashi wa Gotsugou Shugi na Kaiketsu Tantou no Oujo de aru” by B’s-LOG Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Sarah Moon.

Since it’s been over a year and a half since the last volume of this series, a series where I had a tendency to forget about the plot and characters already. I decided to review my old reviews to see if they jogged any memories. And they did! As with the bulk of this series, the plot involves Octavia stubbornly trying to fix her broken country and also score a man, which she is currently doing by having her bodyguard and obvious future love interest pose as her fake boyfriend. Unfortunately, every time she tries to break the story, the story keeps coming back. It turns out that I forgot all about the Tanya the Evil aspect of this series… she’s fighting with a pissed-off God! Who threw her into this world of BL tropes and wanted to watch her suffer. Job well done, God. That said, Octavia’s still got a few more tricks up her sleeve, despite more and more hot men getting mind controlled.

At last, Octavia has an official fake boyfriend. Sure, it’s Klifford, which is not at all what she planned, but it’s working out, and he seems strangely OK with it! Honestly, perhaps a little too OK with it. That said, there are other issues. Prince Yarsh is now in the castle as a royal guest and official suspicious person. Rust Byrne, who Octavia had been desperately avoiding, is not only at the castle but is now her second bodyguard (as Klifford is also her lover, he’s thought to not be objective enough). Alec has been desperately avoiding HER. Derek has also been avoiding her, and doesn’t even seem to like her anymore. And the Council of Feudal Lords is coming up. In the original game there was a drink spiked with aphrodisiac. But Octavia has already dealt with that plot, so surely it won’t happen anyway. Right?

There are quite a few good scenes here, so it’s been worth the wait. As the author notes in an afterword, several parts of the book are from POVs other than Octavia. The biggest being Edgar’s, as we finally get the full missing backstory that explains why he’s married to Enoch but seems to despise him. I like how his rage can’t really go to far as he knows this was his sister’s choice, and also how his revenge is also hampered by sympathy with what’s been going on with the king lately. We get more close examination of how utterly screwed up a world run on BL really is, and how there’s a lot more straight people in it than you’d expect. And we get a few more sexy scenes between Octavia and Klifford. The last of which may be aphrodisiac-induced, but come on, if we have to wait for Octavia to actually get a clue about her own feelings, we’ll be waiting as long as readers are going to be waiting for Book 8.

Which isn’t out in Japan yet, so here we go again. See you in 2028. Good, though, isn’t it?

By Mamecyoro and Mitsuya Fuji. Released in Japan as “Watashi wa Gotsugou Shugi na Kaiketsu Tantou no Oujo de aru” by B’s-LOG Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Sarah Moon.

I find it amusing how the author goes on in the afterword about the fun romcom parts of the book. Now, to be fair, there is a bit of that, but I… am I reading this book wrong? Are the bulk of the readers less interested in the intrigue than in seeing if Octavia and Klifford will realize they’re in love with each other?” Is this Earl and Fairy? Well, no, probably not, but it has to be said that the far more interesting part of the book is Octavia trying to discover the real past of previous generations while the narrative literally tries to sabotage her. The two plotlines converge when she finally decides on her fake boyfriend, and everything is ready for her to introduce him to her parents and finally get a clue as to how to resolve this and make everyone happy. Boy, sure hope that no one is trying to destroy her schemes! That would suck!

After a brief prologue showing us who our “villain” might be, though like half the cast they’re dealing with past memories and evil manipulation, we see Octavia trying to meet up with Hugh… only to find he’s been moved too a secret location. Unfortunately, Sirius is back to being brainwashed, so he’s no help. Her father the king knows where Hugh is and will tell her, but under one condition: she has to introduce her boyfriend to everyone in a week. You know, the fake boyfriend she still hasn’t nailed down. After briefly doing some boyfriend math, she settles on Derek, and he seems amenable to it. She also discovers a lot more about the relationship between Derek’s father and her own, and finds that her father may not be as happily married as she’d thought. Turns out just because a couple is hot and BL, it doesn’t mean they can’t be torn apart by… well, that’s still a secret.

Let’s get back to that romance. I think by now both Octavia and Klifford are very, very, unconsciously aware that they’re in love with each other. It’s the unconsciously that’s the problem. Octavia is held back by the whole “I will obey every order you give, please give me an order” thing coming from Klifford, and the climax of the book features him dragging her kicking and screaming into finally giving him a real order rather than one of her requests. And Klifford, as is pointed out by the king, is supposed to be unable to feel love like a real human being, though anyone who has read the previous six books might be snorting at that. It helps that immediately after this we get Klifford’s perspective briefly, where he wonders what these strange feelings are? The rest of the book was the usual excellent intrigue, though I am annoyed that the only way to get our leads to step up was the brainwash the opposition. If nothing else, that means one less ally, and Octavia needs allies, as the world is out to get her.

And now the words everyone dreads: we’re caught up with Japan, and Book 7 is not out there yet. So get ready to wait. But till then, yay, they’re fake lovers! Yay? Maybe?

By Mamecyoro and Mitsuya Fuji. Released in Japan as “Watashi wa Gotsugou Shugi na Kaiketsu Tantou no Oujo de aru” by B’s-LOG Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Sarah Moon.

As the afterword says, this is very much a “wrapping up the arc stuff that began in the previous book” type of story. Romance, for the most part, takes a back seat till the end, with the one exception (and possibly the funniest part of the book) where Octavia asks, in a written note, if Guy wants to be her fake boyfriend. Guy, who seems to be the only person who can obviously see how jealous Klifford gets of anyone who gets near Octavia, is understandably terrified at the suggestion, and makes the obvious suggestion as to who the perfect fake boyfriend would be. But Octavia cannot bring herself to do that – for some reason she can’t quite work out. It’s fitting, therefore, that at the end of the book Klifford also decides that he has no idea how he feels about Octavia except she’s like a weapon. These two broken dumbasses are going to take 15 more books to kiss.

The book features Octavia’s brilliant plan to smoke out the traitor, which involves going on a jaunt around the city and leaving really obvious openings for a traitor to attack, then relying on the prince’s well-trained bodyguards and her own (suspected traitor) Klifford to solve the problem. Astute readers who read the fourth volume will see the flaw in this plan. On the bright side, she gets to have a nice lunch with her friends, only slightly marred by someone dosing it with truth serum, and she also has a slight detour in order to meet her grandparents (who are *very* unhappy to see her) and ask some pointed questions… though it’s the answers to what she doesn’t ask that may be more important. Why is there a sibling no one wants to talk about? And does it tie into Sirius’ busted memories?

Last time I complained we didn’t really learn as much about Sirius as I wanted, but we’re definitely getting there. He seems to be fighting both deliberate brainwashing and a traumatic event in his past, and the dichotomy between the old Sirius and new Sirius is what actually ends up being the driving force behind the traitor, as well as the arc question “if you were given two conflicting orders, which would you obey?”. It’s pretty clear that the “good” Sirius is definitely on Octavia’s side, and would no doubt help her try to stop the way this kingdom runs, but the “bad” Sirius is being railroaded into the game plot, and Octavia interfering means that he distrusts and suspects her and everyone close to her. The scene at the very end between him and Klifford is the best scene in the book that isn’t funny, and really makes you want to read Book 6.

Fortunately, that book is out in a few months. This remains an entertaining thriller.