By Riku Nanano and cura. Released in Japan as “Koujo Denka no Kateikyoushi” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by William Varteresian.

I really do appreciate that this series is finding multiple reasons to keep the harem antics going beyond just “he ignores it all” (which admittedly is better than “he doesn’t notice any of it” in other series). It’s made clear multiple times in this book that the issue is that Allen is a commoner, with no last name, and a questionable reputation, and all of his love interests are various kinds of nobility. The Leinsters have been trying to find ways to have him perform a feat that would get him a title and allow Lydia to marry him, but every time it happens, it turns out to be a state secret that can never be talked about, or it turns out he gives everyone else all the credit. Or both. Fortunately, the series seems to have figured out a way to take care of these problems once and for all, which is to kill Allen off.

Allen and Caren finally manage to get the rest of the cast on a train back to their respective homes. This means the book is divided up. Half of it is spent with the other love interests, as we see Tina, Ellie and Stella plot to try to figure out how to get Allen’s attention while also humblebragging about what they’ve done already; and we see Lydia get completely dragged by her whole family for not simply grabbing Allen, declaring her love, and running away (which is apparently how her mother got married). The other half of the book is Caren, as we see some flashbacks showing why she’s so devoted to him, and a few other cute festival scenes. Unfortunately, the rebellion no one thought was going to happen is happening. And now most of Allen’s hometown is on fire.

No, I don’t think the series is killing Allen off, but his absence from the next book might be a good idea, as the one main problem with his harem is that they’re too dependent on him. We see this with Lydia, the classic tsundere, who nevertheless falls completely to bits on hearing he may have been killed. We don’t see the reaction of the others, but I expect it will be similar. As for Caren, well, she does kick a lot of ass here, but sadly she too has to be sent away at the last minute so that Allen can go on a suicide mission and not return from it. I’m fairly confident the war will not last long – the author drops several not-so-subtle hints that the nobility in charge of it are bad planners – but that’s not really helping things now. And I also wonder if the chieftains of the beast people may decide to go after Allen when this is over for disobeying pretty much every order they gave.

So yes, Allen’s dead, o noes. Please enjoy Book 6, which focuses on Lydia, despite the author stating that he was going to balance out the harem antics by sending Lydia away. I’m beginning to suspect we can’t trust a word the author says…

By Riku Nanano and cura. Released in Japan as “Koujo Denka no Kateikyoushi” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by William Varteresian.

I appreciate that the author, in the afterword to this volume, acknowledges the main issue with this as a modern “harem” genre series, which is that Lydia is such an obvious winner that it’s irrelevant to read about the others. The only other one with any chance at all is Tina, and that’s because she’s in the title. That said, I don’t think that “write Lydia out of the story for a while” is really going to help much, mostly as I’m pretty sure Lydia is simply not going to ALLOW herself to be written out for any length of time. This volume does wrap up one plotline while continuing another, and it’s looking very likely that impending civil war might be a good reason to stop having cute harem antics… or it would if this series didn’t run on harem antics half the time. You need to balance your cool battles and attempted murders with headpats and snuggles, after all.

Exams are finished, and the girls have finished terrorizing their teachers with their raw power. Tina and Lynne are the top scorers, but Ellie wins Allen’s challenge as she improved the most. Now everyone is off to Allen’s home, where he has to finally confess to his parents that he failed his Court Sorcerer exam. Now, given that he only failed because the examiner insulted his parents, I think they understand. His parents are exactly as you’d expect. Lydia not so much, as she spends much of this book in “prim and proper” mode, to the horror of everyone else but Allen. Unfortunately, capturing that rogue Prince has not gone as well as hoped. Worse, they’ve finally finished decoding the book Allen gave them, and it’s clear there’s multiple great spells involved. A big fight is needed.

The main draw and also main flaw of this series is that most of the really amazing stuff I want to read about happened already, and we only hear about it tangentially. Allen and Lydia’s school days, whatever tragedy befell them in Allen’s hometown, etc… these are dangled in front of us and then whisked away, to be replaced with scenes of who gets to be the one to sit next to Allen at the table that meal. The harem is somewhat unbalanced, as noted above, but not just because Lydia is so obvious. The other girls simply act far too young to really be thought of as competitors. They’re all little sisters, not romantic partners. This does make things awkward in the final battle, as it’s one of those series where a kiss-powerup is sometimes needed, and Allen gets one from both Tina and Lydia. Tina’s is very “I’m sorry about this”, Lydia is the aggressor, and loves it. Also, it’s nice to see Allen struggle in a battle and get seriously injured. He’s seemed a bit too impervious lately.

So, the next book promises no Lydia. And apparently no Tina, Ellie, or Lynne as well. That leaves the actual little sister, so I’m not sure how much hareming we will get – I expect more of the “the kingdom is in danger” plotline. Till then, still enjoying this harem fantasy series, despite its awkward harem.

By Riku Nanano and cura. Released in Japan as “Koujo Denka no Kateikyoushi” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by William Varteresian.

It can be difficult to know when to step in. You see your friend is having issues and struggling. You want to help them. But they insist that they’re fine and they can handle it. You want to trust them… but then it’s too late and they’ve started to break. And you’ve got to play catch up. That’s basically what we see here, as Stella, whose lack of self-confidence was forecast in the previous volume, completely implodes in this one, running away from the school and collapsing in self-loathing. It’s not hard to see why – she’s surrounded by once-in-a-lifetime prodigies, and even her one other normal friend is now leaving the school for a cushy management job. Meanwhile, Stella works hard… but in series like these, hard work does not necessarily mean success. Allen knows how she feels… and honestly suffers from many of the same issues, though he hides it better. Can he help her recover?

This series continues to build on previous volumes nicely. They’re still trying to decode the encrypted diary, and have managed to work out all the love love romance entries, but not the ones that are actually relevant to them. We get to know Allen’s hapless friend Gil, who is involved in a battle for the Dukedom that he really doesn’t want. We also meet Gil’s bodyguard, who I have a sneaking suspicion will either be dying or needing to be rescued soon. Being unable to say anything because of magical contracts never works well. And of course we have people underestimating Allen… not least of whom is Allen himself. He regards the fact that he’s not a noble as an insurmountable mountain that he can’t cross, and that seems to be the main reason why he’s so cool with Lydia, who clearly is ready to marry him at the drop of a hat otherwise.

Allen’s a good teacher as well, which comes as a horrific surprise the the rather conservative teachers of the school, who find that the students who took his classes are already leagues ahead of what they should be learning. I really liked that he framed the big battle with Stella vs. Caren, Ellie and Tina as a learning experience, and we see how everyone – including Stella – has become just that much stronger afterwards. Of course, it’s not all training, as he also gets the chance to take Stella out for a date, which amuses him as the entire town is clearly enchanted with her and she notices this not at all. The subplot with Felicia was also good, though it did have a bit of the “let’s mention her breasts as often as possible” crap that comes with so many other light novels. She seems to have a good head on her shoulders – and she’s also joined the Allen harem.

I know there are folks who are annoyed at the harem aspect of this, given that Lydia and Allen clearly have a “inevitable” thing going on, but I doubt it’s going away anytime soon. This is quite a fun little series regardless.