LCD Rakuin no Monshou

Finally caught up. Many thanks to @renuac and @sithkazar

Anyways, prop to Guhl for being a man till the end. And is it just me or this volume is a huge cluster fuck of events? I could get a general sense of where they were going but the impact feels flat. I'm also a little bit disappointed with the epilogue, so we got teased throughout the volume about Dragon Emperor but then we could not even get a glimpse of it. An epilogue for a ruler's era in Sevens style is much better imo.

Still, don't know how the author plans to do with loose thread concerning the Dragon Faith and Barbaroi. It like it's end and not end at the same time. It's also kind of amusing that Garda, Elder and even 1st Mephius may be the same person.

 

And with that, 'Tales of Leo Attiel' is fully translated and uploaded on Baka-Tsuki (barring a short story or so). Sugihara hasn't written anything else set in this world, so that's it for now

 

Wait, is that series related to Rakuin no Monshou? I haven't read it, but would like to know.

 

I believe its just set in the same world. I haven't read it myself yet. I was curious about it being labeled as on Hiatus? Is the story left open / unfinished or does it have an ending?

 

It's set in the same world as Rakuin no Monshou, but about fifteen years earlier and on the other side of the continent (specifically in and around Atall, which is mentioned in Rakuin as being Lance Mazpotter's native country). So no, it has no direct connection to Rakuin apart from a few, pretty minor cameos.

About the hiatus: the last book published came out in 2016 and the author has since started a new series, so it was probably dropped. The ending is very open, although it does wrap up some of the major threads, and we're told from the start of book 1 that things aren't going to end well for Leo, so at least the reader isn't left completely hanging.

Honestly, I can see why it wouldn't have been particularly popular. Overall, it feels like the work of an older, more mature writer than Rakuin does, but that's not necessarily a good thing. Although I wouldn't call it particularly dark, there's a certain underlying hopelessness to Leo's situation, which makes it pretty grim for a light novel. And as a main character, Leo is nowhere near as charismatic as Orba. It's easy to sympathise with his situation, but halfway through the story, I realised that I didn't even actually like him. Which might be the point given that this is the story of someone who goes down in history as a complete villain. It's not entirely his fault that he gets driven to it, but he very much develops into a 'the end justifies the means' kind of person.

On the other hand, the political manoeuvring is pretty good, the' secondary' characters are well-developed, receive a lot of focus and are mostly really likeable, and the story is tightly plotted. If you're into that sort of thing, you also get to watch someone fundamentally nice turn utterly ruthless. And obviously, it expands more on that particular world, since you learn a whole lot about the eastern part of the continent. Plus it has a gun-toting nun. She's awesome.

It's also one of these series which gets better with each volume, so by the end of volume 4, I was pretty disappointed when it stopped. Especially considering the extra at the end of volume 4 - at that point, I was really hoping it would continue.

The tl;dr is that it's not the greatest light novel ever, and it's not particularly "light" either, but it's an interesting read that gets progressively more immersive. And at only four volumes, it's not all that long. I wouldn't have translated it if it hadn't been connected to Rakuin no Monshou, but I don't regret doing so either.