The Labyrinth of Marielle Clarac

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By Haruka Momo and Maro. Released in Japan as “Marielle Clarac no Yakusoku” by Ichijinsha Bunko Iris NEO. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Jasmin Thairintr.

We’re going to Italy! Or at least its fantasy equivalent, as Marielle is finally leaving her home country and traveling to another one. Unfortunately, her fame precedes her, and by now everyone simply assumes that if she breathes out she will stumble upon a fresh new adventure, similar to Jessica Fletcher. This made me worry that Marielle might have to spend the entire book sidelined, forced by those around her to not go gallivanting around stumbling over sinister plots. I mean, she doesn’t even dress up in a disguise this book! Not to worry, though, because I assure you that she will still be accused of murder here, and there’s at least one kidnapping as well. Because where Marielle goes, trouble follows, and I think even Simeon has learned that if he can’t stop that from happening, the least that he can do is to weaponize it.

It’s time for the wedding of Liberto and Henriette, and the wedding party has arrived in the country of Lavia for that purpose. Unfortunately, the prince’s mother has a huge hate on for him marrying anyone from Lagrange, and has decided to emotionally abuse everyone in the party. Even worse, she and a Viscount are assisting the country’s mafia in destabilizing things, which Liberto is trying hard to stop. All this means that Henriette and Marielle have to put up with poor accommodations, grumpy servants, and a mother-in-law who borders on cartoonishly evil. But worst of all, Liberto really doesn’t seem to care enough about what this is doing to his future wife – this is all part of one of his schemes, of course, and he’s got it in the bag, but whether he’ll be able to show the rest of the cast that he’s a normal person is another matter.

This series has always swung between thriller and comedic scenes, and I appreciated that it combined them towards the end, as a tense confrontation with guns where Marielle and the young Prince Luigi are about to be killed has Marielle break the mood in the best Spy Classroom style by asking how long she has to put up with this farce before she’s rescued. The actual intrigue part of the book goes down pretty well, to be honest. More interesting is the character work, as always. Prince Luigi has to deal with a mother who’s always angry and a brother who has no idea how to show affection to anyone, and worst of all, he’s a teenager, so you can imagine how all this is affecting him. I did appreciate that there was no big, dramatic scene where the prince suddenly realizes that he can be outwardly demonstrative towards his wife after all and he starts to be honest with her, because nope, that’s not how people word. Luigi and Henriette are going to have to try hard to turn this guy into a real human being. I hope they manage it.

It appears this series is going to continue as long as there are fresh new mysteries. I’ll keep going. Oh, right, Lutin’s in this as well. Hi, Lutin!

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, Vol. 19

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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.

There are certain long-running light novel series that I review that I consider “grandfathered in”. What that means is I’ve been reading them for years, and I know that they’re not really all that good any more, but I set a lower bar just because… well, I’ve been reading them for years. Now, obviously, sometimes a series doesn’t even clear that low bar, and I drop it some 15-20 volumes in. In Another World with My Smartphone was blessed with an obvious “please stop reading here” volume, whereas The Irregular at Magic High School decided to shove its homophobic right-wing protagonist in my face one too many times. Realist Hero has not hit that low bar. It’s still readable, I feel no desire to stop one volume before the end. That said,. there is a moment here where our heroes are fighting the villain, and get mad at him for still being single and not having married like everyone else in this series, where I wondered if this was written by the ghost of Shinzo Abe.

We left off with Souma having revealed that there’s a whole new world of adventure to be had in the North, thus impacting the morale of all of Fuuga’s troops, as well as Fuuga himself. Unfortunately, that’s not quite enough to stop the battle that’s going to be happening today, and now Fuuga knows he has to deal with everything right now or he’ll lose. What follows is a lot of battle, and Fuuga loses. (I don’t regard this as a spoiler because you have read the previous 18 volumes. Did you think Souma would be killed?) Souma manages to swing the battle in such a way that Fuuga is able to retreat with honor (persuaded to do so by, you guessed it, a pregnant wife), but his dreams are dashed. Unfortunately, he is smarter than some of his generals, who have a “war or nothing” mentality. The fragile peace can’t last forever…

This series, for the most part, does not kill people off, something I joked about last time, when it killed off the two oldest men in the cast who had already lived full lives and didn’t have young wives and children. This penultimate volume can’t QUITE do that, but it does manage to avoid killing off any of the named supporting cast on Souma’s side. The same cannot be said of the enemy, and I spent most of the book wondering if the author actually had the moxie to legitimately kill Fuuga off. (The answer is that they leave it vague, but I’m pretty sure the 20th volume will answer “no, he did not”). That said, Yuriga’s family definitely suffers some deaths, as they’re divided between two warring states, and some of them are simply battle hungry. Of all the “it’s better to have a family” hammers that get dropped on our head by the book, the best is Aisha’s fight with Nata, where she declares him boring because his battle style has nothing he cares about behind it but his own bloodlust. She kills him as an afterthought. That was some actual good writing.

Most of this, though, is Realist Hero writing. It’s ending in the next volume, which the author already says will be “epilogues” about all the characters. It’s long overdue, but I’ll read it when we get it. (And hopefully it won’t come back with After stories. Looking at you, Arifureta.)

Otherside Picnic, Vol. 9

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By Iori Miyazawa and shirakaba. Released in Japan as “Urasekai Picnic” by Hayakawa Bunko JA. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

It’s been about nineteen months since THAT volume of Otherside Picnic came out over here, and let’s be honest, the wait was excruciating. We all wanted to know what would happen next? What we got, as usual with the series, was three interconnected chapters tat also function as short stories. The “horror” part comes at the start and near the end, and it does a pretty good job, even though I’m never going to be one of those folks reading this series for the horror. The actual plot comes in the second half, where we bring Runa back into the series as more than just a cameo, and reintroduce the eccentric Tsuji, who I am suspecting might be the next major antagonist but I could be wrong. The rest of the volume is very strong. But yeah, I’m going to be talking about the middle chapter, which left me grinning like an idiot and jumping up and down in happiness.

But first, a recap. In the first chapter of this volume, Toriko and Sorawo go to the Otherside (its only appearance in this volume) to check on Todate and Hana, as after Sorawo’s Toriko-infested Otherside experience from the last book she’s worried about them. She’s right to be worried – this is the really scary part of the book, though not without its heartwarming, in a weird way. I the second story, Sorawo and Toriko head over to Kozakura’s mansion to inform her that they’re now a couple, and Sorawo struggles with the fact that everyone wants her relationship to be more romantic than she’s comfortable with. In the final, longest chapter, Migawa asks Sorawo and Toriko to help instruct soldiers from their facility on how to deal with Otherside terror, and they bring along Runa (who they are trying to figure out what to do with) and Tsuji (who is now Runa’s minder). Runa has a knack for interior decorating that is kind of cute, and then less cute.

So, let’s talk about that second story. First of all, everyone who enjoyed watching Sorawo struggle with what her relationship with Toriko is will be happy to note that even after they defined it together, Sorawo still hates talking about it with anyone else, as she always senses them making it more normal and ordinary. This fits in really well with Sorawo’s mindset. (The funniest parts of the book are where folks have to explain to Sorawo when she’s seducing people, and Sorawo’s “wut?” reaction to this.) The best part of the book for me, though, was Kozakura. They arrive at her mansion and find it brightly lit, and this worries them. But what it actually means is that she’s moved on and is now in control of her life again. She’s adopted Kasumi which is why the house is bright), and she’s using her degree to make the Otherside safer to think about and study. I wanted to shout “woo hoo!” when I saw this. I’m so happy for her.

Now, is Runa going to be able to have the same journey? Can Sorawo come to terms with the fact that everyone is going to interpret her relationship with Toriko differently? And can Toriko stop all these thirsty women macking on her nue so that she can get in some quality cuddling time? That will have to wait for Book 10, in all likelihood. I loved this book, though.