I never read most of this volume, so my thoughts this time will be outside spoiler tags:

Part 1:
Oh, boy. Lydia and Allen had to fight the headmaster for the Royal Academy entrance practical.
Huh. Seems Lydia grew out her hair for Allen.
“I’ll never dress up like a butler again!” Why do I get the feeling that’s one wish that won’t come true?
Wow. That’s quite a spiky hair ornament.
Uh oh. Lydia knows about the mana linking.
I wonder what would happen if Allen didn’t avoid one of Lydia’s attacks. Most of them would have been immediately lethal, but that knifehand seems like it could have been survivable. Maybe Lydia would stop doing it?
I just know Lydia said “baka” in that line near the end of the prologue in the original Japanese.
Lydia still seems to be mostly incapable of showing Allen affection, but at least I’m seeing bits here and there now.
Wow. That determination to never dress like a butler again didn’t last long.
“Did she not realize how much we would stand out walking through the royal capital together?” I believe that’s the point, Allen.
Lydia could definitely stand to learn a thing or two from her sister’s personality. Or even her mother’s, for that matter.

Part 2:
How the heck does Allen know “confidential information”?
“I knew they would get along.” LUL
Why do you assume Lydia will let you borrow something from her “collection,” Lynne? Or do you plan to steal it? In that case, you better be prepared to face Lydia’s wrath. (Also, I guess we can add “stalker” to the list of Lydia’s undesirable traits.)
I don’t think Lisa’s gonna try any “funny business” with Allen, Tina. She would be in trouble with noble society (and worse, with Lydia!) if she did so.
I’m pretty sure Allen is at least partially wrong about the reaction Lydia would have to finding out the real reason he failed the court sorcerer exam. At least if she finds out from him, that is. If she finds out from someone else, all bets are off.
I wonder what Lisa needs Allen’s help with. Probably something to do with the “mysterious new scheme” mentioned in the volume description.
“I wondered why part of the wall looked strangely new.” Oh no. Tina? Lynne?

Part 3:
Well, no one would ever accuse Allen and his little sister of being blood-related, that’s for sure.
Still really curious who Allen’s biological parents were.
Did you learn nothing from your failure at the court sorcerer exam, Allen?
Oh ho, Allen had a mischievous streak as a child, did he?
Great speech from Tina!
Who’s the third student from the past decade to skip a year, I wonder?
Stella had a nice speech, too.
Surely the headmaster’s speech can’t be that bad, can it? On the other hand, from what I’ve heard of the headmaster, I wouldn’t put it past him to weave a literal sleeping spell into his speech.
Allen, I think the only difference between you and Richard in matters of love is that he’s aware of others’ affections.
Oh boy. Is Richard a victim of Lydia, too? Or maybe of the professor?
“She could never seriously hurt someone she cares about.” And yet, Allen doesn’t realize that applies to him, too.
Alright, Richard (and the interactions with him) is hilarious!
“Haven’t you had your fill of violence?” “No.” LUL

Part 4:
That scene with Richard and Anna at the beginning was hilarious!
That’s an awful lot of “Divine” spells Allen’s using there.
Don’t say Allen didn’t warn you, Lydia.
…Allen, just because you’re not as good at swordplay as Lydia doesn’t make you “not cut out to be a swordsman.” You’re doing a lot better against Lydia than all of the actual swordsmen here!
“Inconsiderate servants are such a handful.” This really strikes at the heart of my issue with Lydia. As long as she keeps treating the protagonist like a servant/punching bag rather than a partner, I’m not gonna care for her as a love interest.
“I’m not sweating. Would you, um…like to check?” Lewd! And Allen still thinks she isn’t interested in him….
“No matter how much they might have preferred not to” LUL

Part 5:
Constantly headpatting and talking about “interest”? Allen is Rean Schwarzer!
“If I may reiterate, Lady Lydia is kind. She would never draw her sword—or even wield a sharp word—without ample justification.” Unless the target is Allen, of course.
“Out of the goodness of their hearts,” my foot.
“Unable to so much as find a fiancé”? No, Lydia chose not to look for noble fiancés.
“Great Tree”? Hmmm…
“Knight’s, apprehend this imbecile!” Yes!
Hmmm… who’s asking Allen to visit their daughter, I wonder? I don’t think it’s one of the dukes, because it wouldn’t make sense for Tina to want to see Lydia, and Duke Leinster wouldn’t refer to Lynne as “my daughter” in this context. Is it the king wanting him to visit the princess? Hmmm…
“Was I going to kiss her? I was not!” LMAO
“Calling on a certain esteemed personage, however, would presumably have to wait” Yeah, it sure sounds like the king wanted them to visit his daughter (so, the princess).
Alright. This part improved my opinion of Lydia immensely.

Part 6:
Oh, boy. Caren’s a tsundere, too.
Oh man. Is Caren gonna end up having Thunderbolt?
Oh, there we go. That explains the “one ‘yes’ is enough” from Lydia.
Love the tail wag in that illustration of Caren.
Seems like Stella is suffering from some serious self-esteem issues.
“I haven’t even done my makeup!” LUL
Seems like Girard has decided he’d like to add going after a minor to his list of offenses.
“I’m not a professional head-rubber.” Could have fooled me.
“Oh, I could hardly wait.” LUL
“I’d like to give whoever taught her a piece of my—“ LOL

Part 7:
So Allen apparently has a planetarium spell. Cool! (Also, nice chibi art at the bottom of that illustration.)
Oh, huh. Apparently creating creatures isn’t limited to dark magic.
“And surely Ellie wouldn’t want her head rubbed in public either.” Yes. Surely.
I love Lynne and Tina’s expressions in the background of the illustration of Allen giving Ellie a headpat.
Allen, dodging the question in this situation is as good as a yes.
“I’m not really bothered. Not one bit.” Uh huh. And I suppose that’s why you feel the need to tell us that?
Lydia: innocent whistling
Wow. Asking Allen to turn the page on a book you aren’t even reading together? How lazy can you be, Lydia?
“D-did she seriously expect me to read this aloud…?” LUL
Oh boy, the Hero’s a girl? And she proposed to Allen, but he turned her down because he thought it was just because she “wanted to know about love”? 🤦‍♂️…Allen… Anyway, +1 harem member, I guess. (Is that the “exceptional” friend Allen mentioned in Volume 1? I bet it is. Might also be the king’s daughter.)
Interesting. This world seems to have its equivalents of Saturday and Sunday swapped time-wise.
Don’t worry, Caren. Lydia would never give her “seal of approval” for little girls to “wait on” him.
“It wasn’t as though I wanted to spoil her.” Oh, no. Allen’s a tsundere, too?!
“I have no plans to see the whole continent.” Too bad!
Gerard, you idiot!
“Save Lady Lynne”? Somehow, I doubt Lynne is the one who will need saving.

Part 8:
Wait, is this a different Great Tree from the one in Allen’s homeland?
“Didn’t he realize that being stripped of his knighthood would affect his place in the line of succession? Knowing him, quite possibly not.” 🤣
“Ellie the crybaby” Wow, rude!
Poor Stella…
Gerard ogled a little girl? Lasciviously, even? Yep, he deserves to die.
Tina’s young friend, Lynne? Since when? (I kid, I kid.)
“A pillar of the royal family!” In your dreams, pal.
Tina tied her ribbon to her wand? Oh man! That means she’s serious!
Oh, boy. Seems we have +1 harem member in the form of Stella here.
Gerard turned into some weird amalgamation of human and magical creature? Is there a great spell involved here?
“If you die, I’ll kill you.” LUL
Lydia, why can’t you give Allen a reason that, you know, doesn’t sound entirely selfish?
What exactly is Allen holding in that illustration?

Part 9:
So Lydia’s sword is named True Scarlet, is it?
“Thinking is your job. I just slice things.” LUL
There is indeed a great spell involved. Radiant Shield, apparently.
“Come here, Tiny!” LUL
“The strongest ice spell [Tina] can manage”? That would be Frigid Crane. You sure you want that, Lydia?
“Hang on... Why had she grown her hair out?” 🤦‍♂️
“We’re already at quota. Try another style.” LUL
Loved Allen attempting to say “Only one ‘yes’” and getting denied!
Hmmm… I suspect either that wasn’t the real royal dagger, or the royal doesn’t actually have vestiges of Radiant Shield within it. It’s actually something else.
So, uh, does Allen know Lydia’s into him or not?
What was the “something that had happened earlier” that Allen used to get Lydia to try and slice up the headmaster? I’m drawing a blank right now. What “embarrassment” was it, specifically?
Oh no. Allen collapsed! And what was with that gasp from Lydia?

Part 10:
Really nice bit with Lydia here.
Wait, Allen’s been searching for great spells for four years?! Interesting… Allen searching for great spells clearly doesn’t just have its roots in the Frigid Crane, so why is he searching for great spells, exactly?
I love complete lack of hesitation in Lydia’s response to Tina that she was trying to kiss Allen.
Excuse you, Ellie. Allen did not kiss Tina. She kissed him, and without consent.
LOL. All that effort to try and keep Lydia from finding out the real reason Allen failed the court sorcerer exam, and it turns out everyone already knew!
“Tina merely screamed.” LUL
“So, Richard didn’t make it. May he rest in peace.” LOL

Alright. I enjoyed this volume much more than Volume 1. Lydia has grown on me immensely, and Allen’s relationship with his barely-teen students was toned down significantly (probably due to having to share time with Lydia).

I'm not sure how to react to this big arc about reviving an evil God that in the end turned into nothing.
Anyway I hope that with the upcoming wedding we'll bring back focus on the original cast.

@xdbx Good to hear that we aren't dealing with a dead series on the JP side.
Though with that pagecount it will be quite likely to take a while to get it all translated, edited and whatnot.

I absolutely hate the "little did I know at the time..." retrospective narration thing, and this book had way too many.

@iurychiga Chapter 4, where it starts "Most buildings erected by the demons were built by the Corvut family", would I think be equivalent to WN c150 "魔族の建造物は、その多くがコルヴト族の手によるものだ。"

@Gamen Mainly the surreptitious photos and videos of his students, as well as some of his thoughts about them in his inner monologue.

Sara and Allen both lacked grace this volume. Allen moreso of course. Well, they are their ages. Resolution felt a bit cramped, but was nice overall.

@Geezer-Weasalopes Thanks for the input. I'll add it to my other operating notes I've accumulated.

I don't know what I thought was going to happen next, but it wasn't abducting a vampire(?) princess(?) and doing good cop bad cop - which she knows about for some reason - that was a weird sentence.

I do kinda feel bad for her, it's pretty safe to assume she isn't lying since she knows about his mind-reading, which would means she' a mostly ordinary non-combatant that just got accosted by basically deities randomly. Interesting that her skills are sewing related when the reason they're there is because of a torn sail, I wonder if that'll come up.

Is Londium called the city of bridges because of how often they fall down?

So, when this was announced I decided to skip because I previously read another series here about a blacksmith and found it incredibly boring.
I then found myself with a bit if free time before yhe volumes expiration date and decided to try reading it, thinking I'll probably drop after a couple of parts. We'll, I'm glad I did that because it turned out to be much more better than expected. It definitely helps that swords are my favorite weapons, even if I'm not at the same level as the characters in the story in terms of obsession.

5 (thick) slices = 1 school week = 1 slice each day for breakfast.

toast with jam (carried in mouth when running late to school)
alt text

@Geezer-Weasalopes said in Management of a Novice Alchemist Vol. 6 Discussion!:

Because we know she's gonna end up as the new lord.
Since she's there, has already established strong relations with the regional power structure, and has demonstrated to the country's leadership that she can be relied upon.

Not just the regional power structure… she’s also rung up big points with both the villagers by cleaning up the bandits without any of the innocents getting hurt, and with the sailors by being a strong leader.

She’s gonna get it from all sides… mweh-heh-heh.

Added version 0.25.1 to the OP.

This version has updates to the automatic volume importer (more series correctly detect chapters now) and the css importer (fewer series should fail to format text because of malformed css).

There's also a tweak to the chapter editor (left hand pages that have no content set will now be hidden instead of displaying error messages).

The series Deathbound Duke's Daughter, I Refuse To Be Your Enemy, and The Apothecary Witch Turned Divorce Agent have all been migrated to the UI omnibus builder.

@Lily-Garden said in The Apothecary Diaries Vol. 9 Discussion!:

@Marina-Van-Eysinga-0v7x1dl I actually like the unusual vocabulary; I think it adds to the historical tone of the story

Yeah... and I like learning new words, which this series has made me do on a few occasions

I thought for sure we were going to have the winged warrior girl in the harem but seems like the author will go with the fanatic hero girl instead.
I mostly like the humor of this series but I hsve to agree that Zelos acting like a pushover on occasions can be annoying, even if the author is trying to give an explanation in universe. Stilllookimg forward to the next volume, though.

Checking the authors twitter they have started doing some more work on this series. Hopefully that translates into a new volume. This series is one of my all time favorites

@Whacka yeah, I saw that several books I follow have their new volumes ready for part 1. It's going to be a good week.

@Tacitus said in Imperial Reincarnation Vol. 3 Discussion!:

@bf3ubvf

Didn't he have a choice of words for Carmine after the storyteller showed up? I think he's got some line now that the Emperor shouldn't cross.

I don't think so? He said he'd follow carmine whatever he decides as long as carmine thinks it's in interest of the rotahl dynasty. I.e. he knows the sword properties and will support carmine even if he decides to use the sword or try to conquer the continent.

I think the conflict may be much later in the future if never at all. Carmine doesnt believe in divine right or trust his descendants and doesn't expect them to always be competent. so he hopes lead the empire in a direction where the emperor position is no longer necessary someday, though he considers it a necessary evil right now. Obviously turning the empire into a Republic or democracy would end the dynasty Alfred is trying to protect. But that seems far into the future and probably not when carmine is still alive, let alone Alfred who's much older.

"Mischief, thou art afoot, Take thou what course thou wilt!"
Methinks Zen has his work cut out for himself as he works to get the evidence against Stoga and survive (along with Mina and Elysia).