The Otome Heroine's Fight for Survival: Volume 2

The Otome Heroine's Fight for Survival Light Novel #2

by Harunohi Biyori, Hitaki Yuu (Illustrator), Camilla L. (Translator)

Young orphan Alicia—now going by Alia—manages to escape death at the hands of Graves by jumping into a turbulent river. Narrowly surviving the raging torrent, she makes her way to the isolated cabin of Cere’zhula the Fiend—the demoness and retired sorceress who was once the mentor to the woman who attacked Alia in an alley—and becomes the dark elf’s newest apprentice. Under Cere’zhula, Alia learns new spells and combat techniques and dips her toes in the art of alchemy. After a few months, the young girl grows used to her new life in the woods, only for it to be thrown into disarray by the arrival of a mysterious man from Cere’zhula’s past...

Genres: Light Novel, Fantasy, Manga

291 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 20, 2021

Reviews

[Russell Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a pleasant surprise since the first book was a bit of a mixed bag. There was much less expositional infodumping in this volume and the story really seemed to find its stride.

It's refreshing to find a MC in a light novel who takes such an active role in the plot. She stays focused and decisive throughout this volume and I liked how we've firmly settled into the assassin role. I feel like there are tons of shadow casters and void casters in gamelit stories that ultimately feel a bit like an edgy teen's dream. Alicia, by contrast, genuinely tries to stay under the radar as she builds her strength to a point where she has control over her own destiny, but world events keep pulling her into various situations. But once she's in a situation, she isn't trying to look cool, instead, she's likely trying to kill everyone involved who knows of her existence.

Alicia is quietly training with her newfound master in the woods when a former apprentice appears. This guy is the head of a regional branch for the Assassins' guild and blackmails Alicia's master into service. Seeing it as an opportunity to grow stronger, Alicia volunteers to take her master's place...and ultimately plans to destroy the guild to protect her and her master's peace.

Something I really appreciate about this series is how well the magic system of skills dictates how Alicia overcomes plot obstacles. While Alicia is OP from the standpoint of being super capable for a child, she's rarely the strongest person in the room and has to rely on careful planning and deceitful tricks to even the playing field.

This was probably one of the best assassin experience stories I've read in a long time and I'm curious to see where things develop as Alicia continues to grow stronger.

[Pieter · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story keeps being an interesting twist on the usual. This time the MC gets formal training in magic and as a result she gets mixed up in a conflict with the assassin guild. At times the story gets rather brutal though, and while I find the characters and story good, it is very much a fight for survival, which at times it is a bit more extreme than I feel is necessary. Still, I am enjoying the series.

[Mariána K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alia is wicked cool and super badass!

The more I read, the more I like our heroin. She does have a hard time understanding human emotion after her trauma from the first book. Despite that she still manages to hold on to her humanity. She has a fierceness to her that is impressive, very contrary to the otame heroin archetype. She's definitely a female character that you can admire. Her determination in the face of adversity and her willingness to do anything for those she deems worthy is inspiring. She's definitely not someone you want to be enemies with!

Some side notes on the plot, I think it's kind of charming how the powers that be still have her run into love interests despite her disinterest and being an otame heroin (although she doesn't know they're love interests.) I also think it's interesting that rather than having her grow close or click with the boys / love interests she actually is drawn into having meaningful connections with the villains. I think that her relationship with the princess is particularly charming and makes me wonder what the future has for those two. The darker villainess is creepily twisted and dark.

Which brings me to another thing that I wanted to discuss before I forget. In the beginning, before Alia is assaulted and thus permanently changed in jaded, she lived holding tight to a motto her mother had said. This idea that all people were innately good and that they're just having a bad day or there's a really good reason that they're doing what they're doing and that you should just keep having faith that underneath it all they're still a good person. The idea that keeping a smile in the face of adversity is the best way to live a good optimistic wholesome life. When Alia became jaded, she seemed to lose her smile and no longer had that naive optimism from her mother. Interestingly enough, the author keeps slipping in little side stories along the way giving you the backgrounds behind a lot of the side characters. As a result you frequently find out that the antagonists that she has to defeat along the way became these nefarious people because of very specific backstory reasons. So in a way the author is showing that these concepts the mother was trying to teach are still true to the setting. The thing is that she will never know that the people she's killed have all that in their backstory so she won't get the opportunity to learn that her mother still had some validity in what she said. It's kind of a little bit of irony. In this story even the blackest character is actually just shades of Gray. I think that's an interesting thing because in a way it allows the reader to hold on to the innocent niavity in safekeeping for the hero who can no longer be pure.

[Megan Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This follow-up volume gives more of the same. It keeps the heavy tone and continues to try and twist the genre expectations of capture targets, villainess’s, crossdressing, and more. The characters tend to be intriguing as they struggle through their lives. There is an incremental build to skills but often the momentary action is intense; over quickly. There are credibility issues as our eight-year-old protagonist eats through guild after guild of highly trained adults and is gifted equipment as needed. The execution is starting to feel a bit stuttering. I find myself skimming the constant status check updates. Despite long explanations, there is inconsistency to the cost of sorcery and magic activations. The timeline will often go back slightly between chapters without warning or pause to give a long tragic backstory to explain new characters—even if we are in the process of killing them off. Worse, I often find the goal posts are moving. Arya’s going to train to be a maid, be an adventurer, or level train dagger arts—but then doesn’t. There is a betrayal, missing heirloom, or blackmail that pushes her onto something else. I understand we are trying to explain her diverse skill set and it keep things interesting… but the haphazardness drains tension. It does enough to appease current fans but at least this reader lacks enthusiasm for the next entry.

[Cameron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great book continuing her story. This time with a lot more action. From my perspective the MC is a genius. She's always planning ahead, keeping her end goals in sight and doing everything to get towards them. She takes every hit on the chin while maintaining composure and tact.

Personally though, I was hoping for more, "down time" to be spent with her supposed master. Maybe not so much a longer time skip, but for more time to be spent together in general. The author is really good at writing believable relationships that you can form connections with, but it almost seems to me like the author is scared to spend more time on them. For that reason alone I'd kinda love a spin-off book focused on side stories between characters.

On that note, something I didn't mention in my review on the 1st book but I love seeing a return of in this book is the side stories at the end with perspective of supporting cast. They are really well done, and I love learning more about these supporting cast history, as well as seeing how they feel about the main character. It's nice especially since the rest of the book is in the eyes of the main character.

TLDR, from beginning to end this book keeps your attention without even trying. Wanting to see more time spent on a specific "parental" relationship forming is more a selfish and personal wish than anything else.

[Alarna · Rating 4 out of 5]

good. :)