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”.

The Hero and the Sage, Reincarnated and Engaged, Vol. 5

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By Washiro Fujiki and Heiro. Released in Japan as “Eiyū to Kenja no Tensei Kon: Katsute no Kōtekishu to Konyaku Shite Saikyō Fūfu ni Narimashita” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Joey Antonio.

All I ask is for this book to be relaxing good fun, and this volume delivers in spades. It helps that we get a heaping helping of Millis, who I adore. She manages to be a ditz, a tsukkomi, and a savant all at the same time. Here we discover that her inscribing skills are self-taught, and that with proper training she could be legendary. We discover that, in the alternate universe that our cast go to in order to beat up the bad guys, her making friends with alternate-universe Eluria may have saved the world. And we also discover that she apparently has negative abilities when it comes to sensing her own love life, as even when the answer is handed to her about who her alternate self marries she still doesn’t figure it out. She’s goofy in the best ways, and I hope we get more of her in the next volume.

Raid and Eluria are now ready to go to the other world in order to take care of the Emperor whose fault this all is, Raid’s old boss. They’re taking Millis, Wisel and Alma, but that’s it – this is not an invasion, but a small force. Which is fine, because honestly Raid and Eluria are pretty much good enough to beat anything on its own. That said, the other world is on its last legs, poisoned by the mana left by Eluria’s alternate self, who was feeling really disillusioned. Fortunately, there’s a haven in the middle of this, called Paradise, which turns out to be Millis’ hometown. Her alternate self befriended the demon lord, and now years and years later her descendants help to keep this little slice of normal land active. Honestly, they’re better than the current regime. Why not switch the two?

There’s some attention paid to motivations here which I liked. One of the heroes in the alternate world is the daughter of the guy who betrayed and killed Eluria, and she’s trying to make up for being a family of traitors. That said, when talking with Eluria, it’s pointed out that defending your family honor is not going to mean much if the world ends, while betraying her superior AGAIN would actually be the better moral decision. Especially because this series is not really big on moral greyness. Most everyone in it is either good, or following the orders of a very bad guy of pain of death. Raid and Eluria are trying their damnedest NOT to have a lot of casualties – apart from the emperor, of course, who is scum. And for those who worried there would not be a lot of flirting in this book, fear not, these two are still adorable, in love, and planning to have seven kids. Which appalls the innocent Millis.

I suspect the next book may be the last, but who knows? I do feel we’re not getting back to magical academy days anytime soon, though. This is fun.

The Apothecary Diaries, Vol. 15

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By Natsu Hyuuga and Touko Shino. Released in Japan as “Kusuriya no Hitorigoto” by Hero Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

One of the things that comes up both in this latest light novel volume and in the recent anime season is that this is one of those “sort of ancient China emperor, inner court with consorts” series. There are more of them than you’d expect. And a subplot in a lot of them is that, if someone does something that attacks the country or the Emperor, not only are they killed, but everyone in their family, and their servants, and everyone even remotely connected to them is also killed. This seems a bit excessive to some people. Someone asked what happened to all Loulan’s servants after Jinshi interrogated them, and well, sorry, they were all killed by the state. This is because the Emperor is not merely a head of state in this genre, he is a divine being of sorts. He is not meant to be human like everyone else, and trying to make him human is a hideous crime. Even if, say, that crime involves trying to save his life.

Maomao is one of several physicians given a medical exam to show how good they are at their job, with the winners being assigned to various seemingly unrelated places. Maomao is assigned to help with testing out a new drug, meant to deal with intestinal disorders. They also have to research better and safer ways to give anesthesia, which requires Maomao to go to Ah-Duo’s residence and talk with a dead woman who is, of course, not so dead – Suirei. All of this turns out to be for a very good reason – it’s the Emperor who has the intestinal disease, and it may kill him. What’s even more annoying, there’s no guarantee it’s that – it could also be appendicitis, which would be better… unless it bursts. Basically, surgery needs to be done. Unfortunately, Luomen serves as an example of what happens to doctors who do surgery on imperial family, and everyone worries the reward will be execution even if they do succeed.

For those concerned that JinMao is not a factor in this book, fear not. Even though Jinshi doesn’t appear till about halfway through, the crux of the book is still the fact that he’s in love with Maomao. (And she with him, though that’s so understated one could argue it’s nonexistent… which has led to arguments on social media.) There’s a lot of people who would rather have Jinshi be Emperor after the current Emperor dies. But that would mean he’d have to have consorts, and visit them. And that brand he gave himself back in Book 8 (which dwells on Maomao’s mind constantly in this volume, which should reassure folks who saw my earlier statement that understated is NOT nonexistent) is vital to showing how much he does NOT want the job. If he gets it, he would rather give Maomao up forever than order her to be his consort, which she would have to acquiesce to. This gets back to discussions the series had back at the very start about the relationship between Maomao and Jinshi, and its evolution is important to them both. (Fortunately, the success of the surgery means this can be put off a while.)

All this plus Tianyu at his most irritating. Who could ask for anything more?