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Lady Bumpkin and Her Lord Villain, Vol. 5

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By Ageha Sakura and Kurodeko. Released in Japan as “Imokusa Reijou desu ga Akuyaku Reisoku wo Tasuketara Kiniiraremashita” by Overlap Novels f. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Vasileios Mousikidis.

I’ve talked before about artifact titles, when you have a series with a title that was accurate for the first volume but proves increasingly wrong as the series goes on. Lady Bumpkin and Her Lord Villain is proving to be one of these, and not just because she’s now Madam Bumpkin. This series started with Agnes dressed in 80-year-old fashion and pancake makeup getting thrown to the wolves for the lulz by the “heroine”. Now, four books after that first one, Agnes is making everyone who meets her fall in love with her, much to the jealous annoyance of her husband, she’s able to use her powers to help the crops, throw yams that can take out an enemy, and still find time to research the legendary saint. Which she absolutely is not. Why, they have totally different names for their very similar sounding powers! There’s no way Agnes would be a saint! (cough)

Agnes is about four months pregnant, and is having to deal with everyone around her treating her like an invalid. Fortunately, her brother Paul will be graduating soon from school, so she and Nazel get to visit Polypstan… where they also plan to research some information about the saint, just in case. Unfortunately, Polypstan has been having trouble growing crops as well, so they are very interested in the sunchoke potatoes that Sutrena has been working on, which are able to grow without the help of Agnes and Nazel’s magic. Unfortunately, there are a few hiccups. Both a duke and the prince of Polypstan seem to have fallen for Agnes, and this is a nation that allows polyamorous relationships… even if all the parties don’t approve. More dangerously, Paul’s graduation test is interrupted by a swarm of what amount to very giant locusts who can punch people, and they’re possibly the ones responsible for the crop failure.

There’s a lot of cute stuff here, which is good given that I think that’s why most folks read this series. It’s nice to see Agnes meet several women and get along with all of them, even going so far as to make potato chips with the duchess. Nazel may spend most of the book being jealous, and trying to have Agnes sit and take it easy constantly, but it always feels fun rather than forced, and her flustered reaction whenever he gets too loving is adorable. That said, there are ominous rumblings for future books. Robin may escape soon, which is not great news for everyone who didn’t like his “mind control my way to power” ways. Moreover, I think it’s pretty clear Agnes *is* the saint, and they’re not going to be able to keep that secret forever, no matter how much they want to ignore it. Nazel needs to figure out a way to make it so Agnes cannot be taken away from him for the good of all mankind.

That said, escaped jerkass will likely come first. This is cute and fun, if not lights out.

Management of a Novice Alchemist, Vol. 6

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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.

In Another World with Household Spells, Vol. 2

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By Rika and HIROKAZU. Released in Japan as “Isekai ni Kita kedo, Seikatsu Mahou shika Tsukaemasen” by Mag Garden Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by sachi salehi.

I try to give authors the benefit of the doubt, but sometimes it’s a little easier to tell that their hot new series is not “I have a brilliant idea for a story that just won’t go away” and more “what’s hot and trending that I can whip up fast?”. The first volume of this already had a noble girl at a magical academy where she’s more OP than most everyone around her, but was mostly content to stay in that lane. While this second volume also hangs around in that genre, there are signs that it wants to branch out. The moment that Patience asked who those people were and was told they were from The Adventurer’s Guild, I groaned a bit. Then there was monster hunting. Did you know monster meat is delicious, milady? Would you like me to pass it to you? That said, while that may impact future volumes, here we’re just content to do genre-related things like inventing sea salt and pound cake.

Patience is spending a large chunk of her summer with Princess Margaret and the royal family, mostly as the Queen has figured out that Patience is the only one who can actually motivate Princess Margaret. She gets to see the sea, and as I noted before, she and Prince Richard come up with ways to get sea salt, which will stop the kingdom being so dependent on rock salt. After this it’s back to school, and coming up with more songs that she has “written” for everyone to play, as well as fending off Albert, who is not into 11-year-olds but wants her creativity around him his whole life. She’s also trying to figure out what happened with her father losing his job, and near the end of the book, we finally get that answer, and it proves to be the best part of the book as well.

I find it amusing that while the series frames Patience’s dad as being the one noble willing to stand up for the common man, even to the point of sacrificing nearly everything, in reality he’s kind of weedy and pathetic, and you get the sense that a lot of his arguments with his sisters are less “they are horrible and overbearing” and more about him being non-confrontational to a ridiculous degree. Now, they are confrontational and overbearing, but mostly for Patience that proves to be a good thing. She also proves to be a fantastic teacher, as when blackmailed into teaching her cousin, who has many issues with studying, she’s able to find ways to get him interested, identify the problem, and set him up for future success. No wonder everyone wants her, Right now she’s still a lady’s maid, but in future…

She’s off to “college” in the next volume, and I expect, given the foreshadowing, this series to branch out a bit. Hopefully no dungeon diving. This remains “pretty good”.