By Saka and Chorefuji. Released in Japan as “Aru Majo ga Shinu Made: Hateshinai Monogatari no Maku ga Agaru” by DENGEKI no Shin Bungei. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Megan Turner.
I guess I should start with something of a content warning. If you are deeply religious… well, you’re likely not reading Japanese light novels. But it did not escape my attention that a large chunk of this book gives the word “messianic” a whole new meaning. To be fair, Meg Raspberry being the greatest thing since sliced bread is not new to this series. However, she’s taking her act on the road now, and there’s a section in the Middle East where we learn about an all-loving savior who used prayer to heal the world. Named Asura, so we’re mixing and matching mythology here, and I guess I should be grateful he wasn’t explicitly called Jesus. Suffice it to say, though, Meg manages to do everything he did and even more, and saves the world to an even greater extent. It is a bit ridiculous, to be frank, and my “folks who hate OP don’t read this” warning should now be extended to “folks who hate literal miracle working.”
(See, even the cover is religious-tinged.) After the events of the last book, Meg is something of a celebrity among the Witch community. Back home, though, she’s not having a good time, being plagued by prophetic nightmares that are interrupting her sleep. Also, Faust invites Eldora to their home, and Meg discovers that Eldora was once Faust’s apprentice and daughter surrogate as well… and also learns much darker secrets. Now she and Faust are all awkward around each other so it’s great timing that she’s asked by Bennett, the Head Witch, to go on a tour of war-torn battlefields to use the emotional magic that she showed off in order to help save lives and heal the land. She agrees, mostly as this tour will end in Orloff, the country she was born in, laid waste and destroyed by… the witch Eldora.
Lest you worry this is all drama and tragedy, there is still a heaping helping of Meg being incredibly bubbly and annoying, and hitting on women while she continues to talk about a harem of hot guys. That said, the bulk of this book is to expand Meg’s world. She visits places where you have to prioritize which lives to save, and it’s no surprise that “the poor” is lowest on the list. She goes to places where a tree, much like the one she dealt with in the second book, has leeched all life and hope from the land, and the country’s religion is reduced to thievery. And she goes to Orloff, filled with the crystallized corpses of the country’s people, including Meg’s mother (who she finds a bit ridiculously easily, but hey, I’ll handwave it.) This is all well and good, but there’s also ominous foreshadowing. She’s got about 100 tears of joy to collect with 50 days to go, but I think the reader pretty much has figured out that there’s one witch who won’t survive the next book, and it’s not Meg. What is Faust planning, besides trying to assuage her guilt by any means necessary?
I’m really enjoying this series, and the next volume will be the finale. For those who like witches who are full of themselves but absolutely can back up their talk.
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