Really interesting volume, finally getting to see the Prince and some more meaningful progress in Lydia and Edgar's relationship.

@Tahu https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/3478/future-volume-release-schedule/1

@strangeattractor
You might like Sister Light, Sister Dark by Jane Yolen. It's very meta with introductions to each chapter that refer to it as, for example, a far future anthropologist correctly surmises what happened, then is smacked down by another anthropologist as loony.

I've read Jo Walton's book about Regency dragons (Red in Tooth and Claw maybe?). It was a lot of fun since I like Regency romance too and she plays such fine commentary on them.

Looks like Alec's close friends helped him come to terms with some of his biggest demons. We should all be so lucky to have friends like tbat in our lives.

I can only hope that it will be a peaceful trip.

Ha, ha, ha - the author has a keen sense of humor...

The vice captain...actually had a sense of smell that rivaled a dog.

Well that explains everything especially his adoration of Marielle.

@SalmonJones For those people who only read this series and don't know what SalmonJones means about the mean-spiritedness of the other series, I remind you of this bit in Volume 2:

@kuali said in Management of a Novice Alchemist Vol. 2 Discussion!:

I was initially quite confused why Lorea suddenly turned into such a blunt, snarky bitch when reunited with her less composed childhood friend - given that he'd apparently done nothing particularly wrong, hadn't hurt Lorea in any way, was being entirely reasonable during his appearance, etc...
Then I remembered this series has the same author as To Another World With Landmines, and the dynamic between Lorea and Gretz was suspiciously similar to the one between Haruka and Touya.

Except over in Land Mines, 'Lorea' has (at least) two accomplices, Gretz is one of the main characters, and its been growing more egregious over time in a series that just translated its 10th volume. On the master list of things you will not commonly catch me doing, defending the girls' treatment of Touya ranks pretty highly.

@SalmonJones said in Management of a Novice Alchemist Vol. 3 Discussion!:

I guess I'm saying land mines is weirdly chaste because I made it eight issues in and everyone is acting like romance is an icky thing that's worth belittling people for being interested in and in this series I'm 3 issues in and it's just a background thing that isn't super relevant to anything.

Honestly, they're more acting like romance involving Touya is an icky thing that's worth belittling Touya for being interested in. There are so many characters interested in romance with Nao that I ended up writing the Harem Guy Song about it...

Novice Alchemist is definitely the more fun (and funny) of the two series, no argument there. But at the start, Land Mines felt like it had some tension and some stakes to it every time the party went into the wilderness (something Alchemist has pretty much only managed once - during the fight against the Hellflame Grizzlies at the end of the first book). Very different tones, and its perfectly valid to prefer one over the other.

Then Land Mines began the slide to Op Harem Comedy, and while it doesn't get significantly funnier, it does lose the stakes and the tension... and grow significantly more annoying...

...I know those aren't really positives, but then, late series Land Mines doesn't have many of those for me to pick from...

@whyohwhy1 said in Altina the Sword Princess Vol. 14 Discussion!:

still no nre volume released in jp?

Unfortunately I've not heard anything about progress for a while now.

At JNC's last announcement stream Sam mentioned it as one of the series he most wanted to come out of hiatus alongside How Not To Summon a Demon Lord, so at least JNC has not forgotten about it!

I have to agree that the otome game part felt a bit weird, either it should've been expanded more or just scrapped.
I'm also of the opinion that Laura was the worst character (well, excluding the villains) and I would've liked her to suffer more.
In the afterwords the author mentioned this series turned out yo be atypical for a female targeted work, and in my case it turned out to be a positive, although I have to wonder how Japanese readers who were probably expecting a more shoujo like story reacted to this much focus on the male protagonist.
The length felt appropriate, I certainly wouldn't have liked 10 volumes of the main couple being unable to be honest with their feelings.

@Lily-Garden welp. We shall see as we shall see.

(Part 1) Alright but Margret be spitting truth about the noblewomen. I like that she's not an entitled bitch. I don't really have anything against her, but I don't think she's realized that being queen doesn't suit her personality at all, and she wouldn't be happy with that life (though, she'd probably make for a better monarch than Elliot). She's an energetic firecracker; she should be brightening up the life of some second son or a lower noble without a big territory, not holing up in a castle.

Others have already said it but damn I need to join the bandwagon because I'm so pissed at Sieg. He's a lot worse than I thought. I wouldn't say that took my by surprise but so far it seemed to me that his actions bordered between malice and idiocy.

But when he even tried to take Ellie back to that shithole of a country just so he could use her as a sacrifical pawn again, that went beyond stupidity. And he feels zero remorse for what he did to his own daughter, while apparently letting his son do whatever he wanted. Self-centered biased pigheaded asshole, he deserved what he got.

It was mentioned during the fight that Sieg was only serving that shitty royal family and not the country... Eiwass seems like a less straightforward (and less of an idiot) guy and when he says that he serves the country, he really means it. And right now the country's best interest is to get rid of the incompetent royal family, especially the trash prince. I wonder if he thinks the same.

So for the upcoming volume we have that prick who disguised himself as the elf top merchant and whatever Eiwass is cooking and the trash prince falling into another trap of that dodgy organization. And Ellie needs to select her next target.

Wow… that was one heck of an after-after-afterward to (most-likely-but-not-definitely) end the series. The look at how the story was written and changed, where the characters and their names came from, and even a glance at some of the characters post-story (as written) was quite interesting. We even got some details about the author’s past.

I’d love to see more written about Angeline, her friends and their travels, and more about those who stayed behind in Turnera, Orphen, and Bordeaux. I’m also quite happy with what we’ve had and how it ended. Anything more would be a nice bonus. This book was an interesting way to conclude things. Thanks, JNC, the author, and artist. It was great. :)

TO THE PRE-HONEYMOON TRIAL RUN!!

And now I finished reading the volume...too bad we didn't get the revenge on Diablo, but on the plus this might bring the chance for Ligh's brother to be rescued.

I'm a bit conflicted on the Wicked Witch. As others said, it works perfectly for the plot, but I'd love to read more of the other SUR summons too. Truth is, I like almost all the characters in this series, and it's hard to always give them enough focus.

Volume 9 is on the calendar, and a forum topic is open

https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/8735/dahlia-in-bloom-vol-9-discussion

@marin-0 JNC does have a great selection of romance titles 💝

@Jason-Maranto I thought I was going crazy! I didn't realize it right away, but the repeated appearances of L'Arc made me look up the author, haha!

It felt like the weakest volume so far. Only relevant character outside of Liam was Lardon, and while I don't mind her being and advisor, I'm not a fan of Liam acting like a upper controlled by her. We also got another overpowered loli dragon which felt unnecessary and risks overshadowing everyone else.
Maybe the novelty of the series is wearing off and I'm starting to lose interest, but this time I was a bit disappointed.

thought plot was thin, 'beams' were crutches, and character development weak. it was almost entirely without substance (like chewing bubblegum instead of eating)

sometimes bubblegum is ok .

this ain't fine literature, but it was ok for what it was

@LightningLeaf Going by the afterword, next volume's plot was supposed to be this volume's plot, but the Beth plotline expanded into a greater explanation of her charitable organizations as well as a way to restore Opal's reputation, and it took up the whole volume.