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The Trials and Tribulations of My Next Life As a Noblewoman: The Price of Glory, Part 2

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By Kamihara and Shiro46. Released in Japan as “Tensei Reijo to Sūki na Jinsei o” by Hayakawa Shobo. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Hengtee Lim.

(This review contains spoilers, though I will try to confine them till after the synopsis.)

Well, that went about the way I thought. Not that I knew what was going to happen precisely, but because “Great googley moogley, everything’s gone to shit” is the way that this series operates, and I had a feeling we were due for everything going wrong very rapidly, and that’s exactly what I got… eventually. Honestly, the first two-thirds or so of this volume feel like a typical “villainess” book, with just a bit more politics than usual. There’s even a big dance where Karen (who has been trying harder and harder to not be The Worst Dancer Ever) ends up needing to be literally dragged around in order to manage not to humiliate herself. And the Emperor even snubs her, which is a surprise given he invited her, but hey, good news! Then we get the last third of the book, and everything once again becomes a horror novel *and* a tragedy.

Karen is trying to make up with Ern, but unfortunately that involves running into Lubeck, the knight who really, really wants to seduce her and cannot understand why she seems to find him a massive creep. (The reason is that he’s a massive creep.) Fortunately, they do make up, and then Karen is off to the ball(s). She thinks that it doesn’t go well because after all this fuss, when she introdeuces herself to the Emperor he barely acknowledges her. To me, it read like she had significant conversations with every single powerful person in the Empire, all of whom are trying to curry her favor. But then, I’m not the one desperately trying to pretend I’m just a plain side character. (Un)Fortunately for Karen, the Emperor decides to invite her back for a meal. Breakfast. The next day. When she arrives, along with six other people the Emperor is “honoring”, we get to see just what he’s really like. It’s not great.

I admit I was not all that shocked at the window thing, as it was heavily telegraphed, but I was far more shocked at the Emperor essentially saying “rejoice, we’re going to make sure we have good Aryan stock by breeding my knights to you folks, so get ready”. Usually light novels aren’t quite this blatant, but this is Trials and Tribulations, and when has it ever held back before? To be frank, I’m amazed Karen escaped, and she even rescued a young noble who made me think of Galinda from Wicked but who quickly gets a nasty surprise. Then there’s the finale with Ern. Honestly, I suspected Ern would not survive this book, so again her death in and of itself is not what shocked me. What shocked me was HOW she chose to die, and the fact that Karen ended up, with gritted teeth and a callback to something that now seems far less funny, going along with it. On the bright side, this may make it harder for the Emperor to simply marry her off as breeding stock. On the less bright side, EVERYTHING ELSE. (Oh yes, bonus points for actually hearing the rumors about Karen explicitly, which frame her as the most evil woman in the universe.)

The cover to the next volume also seems to have a spoiler literally on it, suggesting that the events of this book affect Karen far more than we’d expected. I realize this is not for everyone, but I really do highly recommend it. It’s the best car crash being published right now.

The Dragon and the Blade Saint: This Isn’t Where We End, Vol. 1

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By garry and Taiga. Released in North America by J-Novel Club.

This is another of the winners of the Original J-Novel Club light novel contest, getting a runner-up prize. That feels about right, as while I enjoyed this book I felt it wasn’t quite as good as some of the others I’ve read. This is one of those titles where we go back and forth between the two protagonists. Unfortunately, it makes the book awkwardly balanced, as the author does not want to introduce the Blade Saint until nearly halfway through the book. This definitely makes me appreciate the dragon, as she’s a lot of fun, being a fish out of water sort, as well as an arrogant girl who can also back it up when she wants to. I was reasonably sure I knew where her story was going, but it was fun seeing her get there. As for the Blade Saint, most of his half of the book shows us his Tragic Backstory, and you can hear the capital letters as you read. Fortunately, the cause of said tragedy is dealt with here, so I’m hoping future volumes give him something to move forward with. (Like a dragon.)

Some time in the future, a dragon faces off against the human who’s about to kill her, the deadly Blade Saint. However, she uses a magical device to go back in time so that she can destroy him before he gets this powerful. She ends up at the ubiquitous magical academy that so many light novels have, where she’s quickly captured and collared – literally – by short but powerful mage Karen, who, after consulting with the student council president (a vampire who is more than she seems) and the headmaster, helps Mitaelshuroxa (now going by “El”) to attend school, provided that she can defeat enough people in the combat course she wants to join. This includes a beastgirl who’s fighting to give status to her family, an arrogant guy who wants to use SCIENCE!, and of course the Blade Saint, who is a teenager at this point, and who she dearly wants to kill.

El is fun. She’s annoyed that she can’t just fly everywhere, her lunch consists almost entirely of parfaits, and she has the brains and brawn to back up her attitude, though all three of her opponents give her trouble. Karen is also a lot of fun, and I wish that she’d been the other protagonist, to be honest. Ca’al is dealing with a lot. He’s a young man from a noble house on the decline, whose parents, when they aren’t screaming at each other, abuse him horribly. His sole happiness is going out to play with Soreya, a girl who unfortunately I found it hard to really like as I haven’t seen someone this destined to be a tragic backstory since Bridge to Terabithia. She’s fun, spunky, and “deserved” to be the next Blade Saint, but her death allows our hero to, after years of pain and nightmares, avenge her. There wasn’t anything wrong with this sequence, I just found it much less fun than El’s side.

This is a decent book, and I can see why it got a prize. I’d read some of the other contest winners first, though.

The Reincarnated Princess Spends Another Day Skipping Story Routes, Vol. 10

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By Bisu and Yukiko. Released in Japan as “Tensei Oujo wa Kyou mo Hata o Tatakioru” by Arian Rose. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Esther Sun.

It’s been so long with everyone in the cast adoring Rosemary that it’s sometimes a surprise to remember that there are those who don’t love Rosemary, and part of this is because she’s been kept in bubble wrap for most of her life. It’s only now that she’s married to Leonhart and has a few world-changing innovations under her belt that she can afford to move on to the really, really impossible tasks of shoujo light novels: the grand ball with catty nobility all present and correct. Fortunately, Rosemary is still so utterly gorgeous that almost everyone who sees her either falls in love or gives up. Oh sure, there’s the King’s annoying cousin, who fragrantly tries to get Leonhart to take his daughter as a mistress in front of Rosemary. But clearly he’s too stupid to love, so there’s no way that he’d actually be part of the main plot, right?

Now that Rosemary has used her protagonist powers to not be evil and executed, and to make sure that her family all love each other (well, mostly, the King and Queen still mostly exist as a political marriage), she has to deal with the fact that that family wants to protect her and see her safe, especially now that she’s pregnant.This means her mother wants to help her choose the proper dress for the ball, while her brothers, who want to help but can’t see her change, are left to fume outside. Even her father, who has lived his entire life under the rule of “it doesn’t matter if I’m an asshole as long as the end result is good” spots her exhaustion at the ball and deliberately screws up her hair to force her to leave early and not get sick. This is not even mentioning her husband, or bodyguard, or any of the 80,000 others. Boy, you’d have to be REALLY DUMB to try to go after her!

The bulk of this book is Rosemary setting up a harvest festival for her nearby village. They used to have a big one, but it gradually petered out, and she wants to peter it up again. This is helped by her actually caring about the wives and grandmothers of the village and wanting to see what their traditional foods and crafts are. Speaking of crafts, we also see her interacting with her autistic jewelry designer Ayame (I usually try not to diagnose fictional characters, but sometimes it’s impossible not to) and Ayame’s childhood friend/minder Hiiragi, who would probably be married to her if she weren’t in love with Rosemary and making delicate jewelry pieces, in that order. Oh yes, and there’s even the son of Duke Evil, who is trying his best to save his family and domain from dear old dad’s plotting, and he ALSO falls in love with Rosemary while also seeing she already has the perfect husband.

With all this going on, it’s no wonder she doesn’t give birth in this. There’s no sign of Book 11 in Japan, either. Oh well, we’ve got enough adoration of Rosemary here for three new books. I do enjoy this, but hope you don’t hate perfect characters.