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The Condemned Villainess Goes Back in Time and Aims to Become the Ultimate Villain, Vol. 5

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By Bakufu Narayama and Ebisushi. Released in Japan as “Danzaisareta Akuyaku Reijō wa, Gyakkō-shite Kanpekina Akujo o Mezasu” by TO Books. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Alyssa Niioka. Adapted by Lex Reno.

Content warning: this book’s main plot contains, and my review discusses, pedophilia, grooming, and brainwashing people through drugs and gang rape. The last two are implied but not seen, the first two are definitely seen. Reader discretion is advised.

I’ve called these books difficult to read before, but none of them quite hit like the middle of this book, in which Claudia has to deal with a village of people whose “Chieftess” (does that word get gendered?) is easily one of the worst antagonists in the series to date – see above for why. Fortunately, this is what Claudia and Sylvester are here to fix, though both of them castigate themselves that they didn’t even know it was happening till she conveniently got kidnapped. Sometimes being royalty means finding out about problems that people are deliberately keeping from you. Especially when they’re once again a plan of Nigel’s, the series’ overall big bad, who isn’t in this book but whose presence is felt. Corruption turns out to be – literally – an incredible drug.

By now everyone agrees that the running for the fiancee position is over, and Claudia and Sylvester’s engagement party date is set. Unfortunately, before this can happen, Claudia and Helen – out on the town incognito, with Claudia also disguised as a maid – run into a boy who is dressed as a child detective – because he is one, in fact – and he’s on the run from some goons. They quickly hide in a cart… which then drives off to a remote village, and that village turns out to be the one the boy (Kiel) was investigating. (Helen was able to get away and is getting help.) They find the villagers are all very happy and content… a bit TOO happy and content. The whole village feels a bit like The Stepford Wives. What’s more, people seem to occasionally disappear for no reason. What’s really going on?

So yeah, as indicated earlier, things are very screwed up in this book. What started as a discovery of a pain reliever that allows the village to make a bit of extra cash has suddenly become a village-wide “ritual” when the girls in the village have their first period or the boys have their first “nocturnal emission” to drug them with an aphrodisiac and then have the others in the village rape them till they grow happy with it. The girls in the village who have NOT gone through this yet are quick to side with Claudia and Kiel. The chieftess in particular is a hedonist and pedophile, who literally gropes Kiel to see if his balls have dropped, and openly leers at Claudia. The book is well written as always, and help arrives in the nick of time. But I have to ask, was this trip really necessary?

The series is still ongoing in Japan, and a glance at the blurbs of future books suggests things don’t get easier for Claudia even after her engagement. Hopefully, though, they involve a few less things for me to warn the reader about.

A Tale of the Secret Saint, Vol. 8

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By Touya and chibi. Released in Japan as “Tensei Sita Daiseijyo ha, Seijyo Dearuko Towohitakakusu” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Kevin Ishizaka. Adapted by Michelle McGuinness.

I’ve talked before about how Fia has this odd canny intuition and ability to connect the dots combined with an absolute ironclad airheaded dumbassness. This may be the volume where the reader’s tolerance of this is pushed to the absolute limit, though things are not helped by others around her also failing to get a clue either. It’s not quite Airheadception, but I was thinking that. The main plotline in this book revolves around Fia simply not understanding, despite seeing evidence of it for the last seven books before this, that the saint powers are a lot less powerful than they were in the past. (Indeed, we hear in a side story that she was ludicrously more powerful in the past as well, but things HAVE decayed.) This means that all her attempts to brush off what she thinks are minor use of saint powers to heal someone up turn out to be astonishing miracles to everyone around her – including a crowd of commoners. She’s VERY close to finally blowing her cover.

We open with Fia and Charlotte meeting the current frontrunner to be Head Saint, Priscilla, and boy, she has a chip on her shoulder and does not like Fia at ALL. Fia barely notices this, of course. Fia then has a bit more of the world explained for her, but not enough to make much of a difference, as she suddenly decides o put on a show when she hears that Commander Saviz will be marrying a saint soon. And who better to ask for ideas about how to entertain then the jesters we met in the previous book… who are the literal king and the top duke in the country, but Fia barely pays attention to this. They have their own agenda, however, which is to dress Fia like a saint and parade her around. Their goal is to get more info about how she found the rose that supposedly had been extinct since 300 years ago, but everything goes to hell when they run into a noble with a dying daughter – a noble that the two jesters seem to hate.

As ever with this book, I tend to appreciate the moments when it gets a bit more serious. We hear about Duke Alcott’s younger sister, who supposedly died ten years past but in reality is in a coma, and is also the reason that the king has been getting younger by the year. We get a few flashbacks with Colette, and honestly she reminds me a lot of Fia – I bet they’d get along great. Unfortunately, when Colette was dying, an earl opposed them using the powers of a saint to try to heal her. As a result, now that the earl has a dying daughter (who is also a saint) himself, their first thought is petty revenge. Fortunately, Fia may be an airhead but she’s also airhead Jesus, so you know there’s no way she’s going to do anything other than heal her using ridiculously powerful magic and then hem and haw about how she did it. Fia is Big Dumb, but also Big Good.

Things are left a bit cliffhangerey, so it’s not clear if Fia is going to be able to wake up Colette, or if this is finally the straw that breaks the camel’s back and gives away that she’s a reincarnation. Recommended to those who love to see the most powerful tennen boke in the world.

Mercedes and the Waning Moon: The Dungeoneering Feats of a Discarded Vampire Aristocrat, Vol. 2

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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.