By Mizue Tani and Asako Takaboshi. Released in Japan as “Hakushaku to Yōsei” by Shueisha Cobalt Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Alexandra Owen-Burns.

After the short story volume form last time, this book storms back with a vengeance, as if it’s determined to start actually resolving things. Are we getting near the end of Earl and Fairy? Hardly – we’re just over a quarter of the way – but we are at last allowed to actually resolve a few plot points and move forward others that have been simmering in the background since the first book. If you’ve been waiting for Raven to do more than be Edgar’s sounding board and occasionally attack random minor villains, I have some good news for you, as Raven and Ermine’s past is explored a lot more thoroughly here. The bad news is that this means that Raven spends a lot of the book as the damsel in distress, with a healthy dash of mind control as well. Now, you might think that it’s better that this happen to the relatively strong Raven rather than Lydia again. That’s the bad news. She’s damseled again, and it’s mostly her own fault.

There’s a serial killer murdering people around London Bridge, and Edgar is investigating, especially after a piece of green stone is found in the mouth of one of the victims. Meanwhile, I’m sorry to tell you, but everyone’s favorite revolving door traitor, Ermine, has run off again, after Raven confronts her about a green diopside stone that she seems determined to keep away from him, and which is tied to their past. Meanwhile, a student of Lydia’s father, Ulya, has appeared, telling her that her father is ill. Lydia accepts this and runs off to see him… and is captured, leading to her needing to be rescued, which leads to Raven being captured. Oh, and she’s abducted by Kelpie. Again. Twice. She’s really having a bad day.

This is a book with very little humor in it. Ulysses appears briefly, but we also see The Prince (or one of his body doubles), and if he’s meant to be a sort of evil Bertie (later Edward VII), it works pretty well. We get a fuller description of Raven and Ermine’s past with Edgar, which also means we hear about her being raped in front of Edgar just to upset him. As for Lydia and Edgar’s romance, things get off to a rocky start, but for once the “being an idiot about things” is tilted more towards the Lydia end of the scales, as Edgar is on good behavior here, having realized that he genuinely does have to treat Lydia differently if he wants to marry her. As for Lydia, she admits that she’s in love with Edgar, and while she won’t say this out loud to him yet, she at least agrees to marry him. Sort of. It’s a cliffhanger ending of sorts, after she’s abducted for the THIRD time in the book. Those kooky kids…

By now I hope everyone knows this is a series with a small but dedicated fanbase, and this volume hits all the right notes if you are in that fanbase.