The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic (Web Novel)

Title: The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic

Link: https://www.novelupdates.com/series/chiyu-mahou-no-machigatta-tsukaikata-senjou-wo-kakeru-kaifuku-youin

Usato was never meant to be summoned to another world, but when a chance encounter with two perfect people from his school means he’s standing on top of their summoning circle, he ends up there anyway. Unlike them, he has no aptitude for great feats of magic. He’s a healer. But in this kingdom, healers are under the thumb of a tyrant named Rose . . .

This was awesome. Usato basically gets kidnapped twice: once into the fantasy world, and once into Rose’s squadron. Technically, she’s running the kingdom’s Red Cross. Their job is to run out into the battlefield, “kidnap” injured fighters, and bring them back to the healer’s base for treatment.

In Rose’s perspective, that means her subordinates need strength, endurance, stamina, and the ability to take a lot of pain. So she trains them with the most hellish boot camp imaginable, because after all, they can just heal themselves . . .

“I push myself to my very limits and use healing magic. Then I push my healing magic itself to its very limit, until I can no longer use it. I repeat this over and over.”

This leads to one of his friends commenting later on a fight he had:

“It was all hand-to-hand combat without any magic… I don’t blame you for being surprised. After all, Usato is a healing magician that’s all brawn.”

One joke is that Rose’s whole squadron is basically ogres, as anyone who actually makes it through her training comes out mentally twisted and physically buffed past the point of being human. Usato, as Rose’s favorite, ends up as her second-in-command.

Overall this was so much fun I’m going back to read it again now that I’ve caught up to the last released chapter. Highly Recommended.

Breakthrough with the Forbidden Master (Web Novel)

Title: Breakthrough with the Forbidden Master

Link: https://www.novelupdates.com/series/breakthrough-with-the-forbidden-master/

Earth Lagann is tired of being the son of the hero who slew the Demon Lord. He’s never been able to live up to the lofty expectations society has for him. No matter how well he does, he’s never as good as his father. Earth has gradually been losing his motivation for everything—until the day he inadvertently discovers the spirit of the Demon Lord and ends up as his student. Now that he’s got a path to become stronger, Earth is ready to tackle the future . . .

I really liked this story. The first arc is the first 43 chapters (with 2 chapter side story) and functions as a complete story, although it’s basically the prologue to whatever Earth’s real adventures will be.

This is a story about a man who saved the world but couldn’t make time for his own family, and the son that ended up crushed under his father’s neglect and accomplishments. Earth is famous—but not for himself. Unlike the other children of the heroic seven, he hasn’t embraced his destiny as “the new generation” who will carry on their legacies.

Ironically, the Demon Lord proves to be everything his father isn’t. The Demon Lord pays attention to him, recognizes his strengths and weaknesses, trains him, and works to motivate him to dream for his own future. And despite the claims that this is all for boredom, or a form of revenge, it’s obvious that he doesn’t have to go this far for Earth.

And in the end, when Earth is trying to debut his new strength, the Demon Lord is the only one actually recognizing his efforts and accomplishments.

I do hate the princess with a burning passion. Her assumption that because she’s in love with Earth he must feel the same about her—and that it gives her the license to treat him terribly—makes me hope she finally got the message at the end. Earth hates her. He can’t stand how much she belittles him and cuts off any chance he has to make friends. But actually TELLING her this is tricky, because she’s not only the princess, but she’s strong enough to beat him into the ground (which she regularly does).

The only thing I don’t care for as much in this story is how much of a pervert Earth can be (although his maid is also partially at fault for egging him on… which also disturbs me for a different reason, since she’s literally been taking care of him since he was an infant and is basically a mom to him). Although this is played up a lot, most of this is only taking place inside his own head.

Overall this is a good story that tackles more of the aftermath of saving the world than the actual event. Given where this first arc ends, I’m really looking forward to seeing where it goes from here on out. Recommended.

Reincarnated Prince (Web Novels)

Title: Reincarnated Prince Series

Link: https://www.novelupdates.com/series/prince-herscherik-and-the-kingdom-of-sorrow/

Ryouko was a 34 year old woman who reincarnated into a fantasy world as the seventh prince of the line. Her former life was an internal auditor, and despite her royal heritage, her new life lacks any great powers. In fact, in her new country the corruption runs rampart and the king is mostly powerless to stop it. As Herscherik, as someone who feels his position now comes with both benefits and responsibilities, he aims to root out all the corruption he can find.

The gender-bender aspect, while interesting, is in the end more of a footnote. The one place that it’s had a somewhat significant (and extremely funny) impact is how Herscherik breaks out of an illusion in one of the later books—via a method the caster undoubtedly never guessed.

These are slower paced novels with some political maneuvering and a fair amount of slice of life. Herscherik, due to his memories of his previous life, is quite a precocious child—but what he can actually do is quite limited. Each book so far follows him as he tracks down one larger mystery and inadvertently draws some excellent subordinate to his side.

I like the various friendships he forms. Kuro, the man he meets as they’re both sneaking around the castle at night, can’t figure out the leniency this prince displays towards his intrusions. Oran ends up in the very last place he wanted to be, but that gradually becomes the most important place for him. Shiro is an oddball and an outcast, but Herscherik’s gentleness gradually draws him in.

Herscherik can be a little too perfect in these books, but at the same time his lack of personal ability helps to keep him tolerable. It’s bizarre to me that his instructors in swordsmanship and riding give up on him at three years old, as a certain level of proficiency will come with practice, but this in some ways gets redeemed later by years of repeated practice having little effect.

Overall I liked this enough to muddle through a machine translation for the un-translated volumes, and very much look forward to the fan translators making even more of this understandable. This is another one I hope gets licensed. Highly Recommended.

Villainous Daughter Aims for the Last Boss (Web Novel)

Title: Villainous Daughter Aims for the Last Boss

Link: https://www.novelupdates.com/series/akuyaku-reijo-nanode-rasubosu-o-katte-mimashita/

Irene wakes up to the reality of having been reborn into an otome game* as she’s being dumped by her fiance in front of everyone– the villainess’s ending. Given her former fiance was the crown prince, this leaves her in a precarious position, but she’s nothing if not proactive. Determining her best option is to marry into power, she immediately sets her sights on the outcast first prince, who is the prophesied demon lord with power over all monsters . . .

Irene is such a blast. Her very first words to Claude are a proposal (she doesn’t even bother with hello), as she knows she’s on a three-month-countdown to her death or exile if she can’t shake things up before then. She’s unconventional and aggressive at going for what she wants, but she never quite crosses over into being really annoying. Claude himself (the man she’s supposedly seducing) points out she’s really bad at being a seductress.

I love Claude to bits. Claude takes taciturn to the extreme, because he has so much power his mere emotions will rock the weather around him—and Irene is someone who regularly provokes those reactions out of him (it takes her a bit to realize she’s the one causing him to rain down lightning). He is fully aware of his own superior power, and does his best to keep the world safe from what he could do to it—and the world reciprocates by doing their very best to avoid him.

I especially like their first exchange, where Claude is trying to figure out why Irene wants to marry him, and asks if she actually likes him. Irene says no. But she points out that love is a feeling that can be nurtured between two people, and she intends to do just that.

And when Claude does come out of his shell more and start interacting with people, his enormous power makes this just as funny as her single-minded pursuit of him. He has no concept how actual human beings deal with each other. The side story in the second volume with his new guards (aka toys) is especially good. When asked if Claude would be angry if he were betrayed, Claude instead replies he would be sorry for them—“What are you going to do against me?”

I really want this one to get licensed ASAP so I can buy the novels in a language I can read. Highly recommended.

*Otome games are novel-styled games where the protagonist is a young girl aiming to romance one (or multiple) possible partners.