Can Someone Please Explain What’s Going On?! ~The Contract Couple’s Happily Ever After~, Vol. 8

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By Tsuredurebana and Rin Hagiwara. Released in Japan as “Dareka Kono Joukyou wo Setsumei Shite Kudasai! ~Keiyaku Kara Hajimaru Wedding~” by ArianRose. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Tara Quinn.

At long last, one volume until its finale, I think this series has finally learned what is fun to read and what is not fun. This feels like a normal romance novel, and does not contain any of the numerous red flags that previous volumes were infamous for containing. The downside of this is that… well, the book’s a bit boring? That’s to be expected, honestly. The main story has wrapped up. There aren’t many side couples to pair up either, though we do see that Rohtas has, in fact, been in a relationship for some time… but it hasn’t gone further because Cersis keeps him so busy. In fact, the story itself is a flashback of sorts, as Cercis and Viola’s adorable daughter is asking how she was born. Readers may be wondering that as well, given that Viola frequently seems to think of Cercis as an afterthought, and I’m still rather surprised the marriage has even been consummated. Oh well.

Viola’s pregnancy is not the main thrust of this book, which instead deals with what happened just before. She and Cercis are going to a party held by her friend Verbana’s family, which turns out to be another in a string of “please marry my grumpy and willful daughter” parties. It goes about as well as the previous ones have – Verbana doesn’t want to be married right now, especially since her one true love is, in fact, married to Viola, and radiates this from her entire body. But still, they get to see her family’s new estate, have a lot of tea parties, and go to a lot of evening ballroom dances. Unfortunately, this leads to the back half of the plot – at some point between arriving at the estate and that evening’s dance, Viola’s huge sapphire has been swapped out for a fake! Now she and Cercis have to play detective to catch the criminal.

I am pleased that this volume is back to being entirely narrated by Viola’s so we get her amusing and skewed observations about everyone else. Sadly, this also includes her poor self-image, which really takes a starring role here. No matter what, no one can seem to convince Viola that she has the looks of a tall runway model – she’s always going to be the plain stringbean in her own mind. (The funniest part of the book is towards the end, when Viola is about six months pregnant, and she cheers about having “bazongas” at last.) She also does not seem to understand why all the other women of the kingdom flock to her and hang on her every word. Oh well, better that than the alternative. The mystery itself is basically a string of “which family desperately in need of cash would do this?”, but I am quite grateful that for once all the potential bad guys are in fact rich nobles. This is a rarity in a series that tends to praise rich nobility.

The next volume is the last, and will no doubt have Viola giving birth. Till then, it’s nice to see a volume of the series that does what I hoped it would and does not feature evil foreigners or “LOL GAY” jokes.

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, Vol. 15

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By Dojyomaru and Fuyuyuki. Released in Japan as “Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

This feels like a volume we’ve been waiting for a long time. Fuuga is still in it, but for once he is not the entire focus of the series. Souma gets to play a large, active role. We even get to see the Empire again, and get a sense that Maria is unhappy but very good at hiding it. All of this leads up to one of the better volumes in some time, even as it takes on an issue that the author was a bit wary of doing when they were writing the webnovel. Yes, it’s a pandemic, though this is not a viral infection like COVID-19 and is more parasite oriented. And of course there’s the revelations we get about Souma’s summoning, which feels like it’s been a long time coming. It makes a lot of sense given what we’ve known about this world, and also explains why some of Souma’s reforms have gone so smoothly. Oh yes, and in case you were worried, MORE BABIES!

The story starts with us getting a look at one of the few nations we haven’t dwelt on yet, the Spirit Kingdom of Garland. They have not made a good impression in the series so far, being high-elf supremacists and also driving out their reformer Merula. That said, they have a more pressing problem: the demons have overtaken one of their two islands, and they want Souma’s help to get it back. Unfortunately, the negotiations go badly. They go badly with Maria as well. Fortunately… or not… Fuuga can see an opportunity to conquer more lands, and agrees, planning to overthrow the current kingdom and install a puppet state (something that gets a big boost when the royal princess of the Spirit Kingdom falls head over heels for one of Fuuga’s aides). Unfortunately… there’s a sickness going around the spirit kingdom.

Realist Hero has never been known for its subtlety, and this book in particular is a bit on the nose with its insistence that all countries must put aside differences and unite when there is a pandemic that could kill us all. Fortunately, unlike Machiavelli’s teachings (which do come up here a lot as well, no fear), I am 100% behind this. I also appreciated Souma lecturing on the danger of making ideas too simple and that it might lead to people accepting conspiracy theories. (*cough*) That said, my favorite part of the book was the big summit which unites the three main powers in the world. This gives Maria a chance to talk with Liscia, and drop several unsubtle hints that Liscia nevertheless completely fails to pick up on. “Gosh, I wish someone else was ruling the Empire! Oh hey, Souma even has rulers from other countries as his wives! Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.” I don’t think Souma is going to take over the Empire anytime soon, but I also don’t think it will be long before Maria becomes part of the polycule, somehow.

By now everyone knows the kind of series Realist Hero is, and those who don’t are certainly arguing about it on anime forums, as the second season is currently running. But for novel readers, this should give you a lot of what you want.

So I’m a Spider, So What?, Vol. 13

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By Okina Baba and Tsukasa Kiryu. Released in Japan as “Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

This volume might be frustrating for some fans, as it is in many ways a recap of what happened in Books 3-5, only from the POV of the other side. I do not have this problem. For me, the recap is greatly appreciated as I can barely remember what happened in Book 12, much less nine books ago. More importantly is the fact that this is from the other side’s POV means we get a lot of White in this book, and she’s just as funny/terrifying (don’t delete where applicable, she’s both) as ever. She doesn’t care at all about many things that we cared a lot about, but she’s also very interested in things that had appeared minor or unimportant. Here we see her and Ariel finally making their plans to kill Potimas. Yeah, I know, I’ll believe it when I see it. Still, they’re even getting help from the Church! We also get a lot more insight into exactly how she and Ariel are trying to save the world, and how it’s still a gamble.

To no one’s surprise, White turns out to be the mastermind behind most of the baffling things that happened in the previous books, such as the downfall of Shun’s kingdom and his becoming Public Enemy Number One. Her matter-of-fact reasons for doing this are cool and logical and make you a bit ill, to be honest. That said, she is not without emotion… I was particularly amused at her observance of Katia literally blowing herself up to escape the brainwashing, and then Shun bringing her back from the dead. It was a combination of “Holy shit, he can do that!?” combined with “just fuck already!” that left me laughing. We do also get a look at White from other people’s point of view, particularly the Pope, who is well aware that Ariel may be the Demon Lord but White is the one who is changing the entire world.

As for the rest of the cast, it was nice seeing the humans again, if only from a distance – because this is mostly White’s POV, we barely get to talk to them. I liked the contrast between Shun’s “this is all I can do right now, why am I not as powerful as my brother” and White’s “HE’S GOT TOO MANY CHEATS CHRIST”, and indeed a lot of the plotting and scheming that she does is to try to plan for all the extra special hero stuff he can pull out of his ass. We also finally get a good look at Sariel, the goddess currently wired into the system and giving out all those game bonus stats. Not a pretty site, but at least it leads to the one big battle in the book, as White fights what are basically security robots and is actually challenged for once… mostly as if she goes all out it would destroy the system, which is what she wants but not like this.

So, a lot of setup, but it does promise that the next volume will finally catch us up to where the two sides left off in book… 5, was it? Till then, congratulations, there’s a lot of spider in this book.