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J-Novel Club Licenses 13 Light Novel Series, Reveals Print Editions for Sexiled, My Next Life as a Villainess

J-Novel Club announced 13 light novel licenses at its panel at Anime NYC on Saturday, including five licenses from Kodansha's Legend label. Five of the 13 titles are part of a new Heart label J-Novel Club is launching for shōjo-focused titles.

In addition, J-Novel Club announced it will release print editions of the Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out, So I Teamed Up With a Mythical Sorceress! and My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom novels starting in 2020.

Title: Teogonia
Creators: Tsukasa Tanimai (story), Kouichiro Kawano (illustrations)
Summary: In the harsh region known as the borderlands, humans must fight an endless battle against demi-human creatures that come at them relentlessly, intent on taking their land and their gods.

A young boy named Kai, fighting to defend his village, sustains a life-threatening injury that causes him to regain memories from a past life.

If you're not a guardian bearer, it's like you're playing life on hard mode...

Kai's newfound knowledge gives him a new sense of the unfair “rule set” that governs the world around him. One thing is clear: For those without a god to serve as their guardian, life is a constant struggle for survival. Thus begins the epic tale of a young boy's ascent into a vast world filled with magic, bloodshed, and mystery.

Title: The World's Least Interesting Master Swordsman (Jimi na Kensei wa Soredemo Saikyō Desu)
Creators: Rokurou Akashi (story), Shiso (illustrations)
Summary: Sansui Shirokuro is a young guy with an old man's name, which ends up landing him in tragic circumstances when God snuffs out his life candle after mistaking him for a geezer whose time has passed. Now reincarnated into a fantasy world, Sansui is one of the Immortals, capable of immense power... as long as he's willing to put centuries of work into achieving it.

One day, after five hundred years of swinging his sword, his monotonous existence is upended entirely by the appearance of a little baby. His master sends him out into the world to raise the child, and it's there that he meets a haughty young noblewoman and her tomboyish bodyguard. His fighting style may be bland and unpretentious, but the fast-paced mortal world is about to find out just how good even the most hopeless swordsman can get with half a millennium of practice behind him!

Title: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Isekai (Isekai no Hitchhike)
Creators: Carlo Zen, Natsuya Semikawa, Hoko Tsuda, Tappei Nagatsuki, Katsuie Shibata, and Hyuganatsu (story); Shinobu Shinotsuki (cover art)
Summary: With a diverse cast of writers, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Isekai was originally published in Japan as a doujin by doujinshi circle SAKKA KEIHAN. Famous authors Carlo Zen (Saga of Tanya the Evil), Natsuya Semikawa (Isekai Izakaya Nobu), Hoko Tsuda (Unmotivated Hero's Tale), Tappei Nagatsuki (Re:Zero), Katsuie Shibata (science fiction novelist), and Hyunganatsu (Rakuya no Hitorigoto) all contribute to this work. Did we mention that the cover art is done by Saga of Tanya the Evil's Shinobu Shinotsuki?

Teogonia and The World's Least Interesting Master Swordsman, both titles from Pash! Books, will launch digitally within the next day with parts of Volume 1 available to members. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Isekai, which features works from various dōjin creators, will launch in 2020.

Licenses from Kodansha's Legend Label

Title: The Economics of Prophecy (Yogen no Keizaigaku)
Creators: Norafukurou (story), Rei Shichiwa (illustrations)
Summary: The Oracle Princess Alfina suddenly announces an ominous prophecy to the people of the Kingdom of Crownheight. However, shunned as she is for being a descendant of rebel blood, her words are heeded by no one.

On the other hand, Ricardo, the adopted heir of a peddler, who also happens to be an economics department graduate reincarnated into this world, attends the Royal Academy to study as a merchant.

During an argument with a much more affluent merchant, the one to stick up for him is none other than Alfina.

As the distance between them rapidly closes, Ricardo makes full use of his modern knowledge of science, mathematics and economics to stand against the unknown disaster of prophecy!

Title: Kobold King
Creators: Syousa. (story), sime (illustrations)
Summary: Gaius Balderus has led a storied life. From humble beginnings, he made a name for himself as fearsome warrior, a renowned general, adviser to kings and paramour to princesses. Gaius's very presence commands respect and fear, so much so that everyone is too afraid of him to allow him to reveal his softer side.

Gaius gives up everything and finds a chance to start again on the frontier of human civilization, where humans and monsters alike scrabble for existence in a hostile forest. When he runs into a tribe of kobolds, small furry creatures who are fleeing from human aggression, they immediately distrust him and everything about him. Can this gentle giant of a man come to peace with his past and win the friendship of the adorable kobolds?

Title: Outer Ragna (Game Jikkyō ni yoru Kōryaku to Gyakushū no Isekai Kami Senki)
Creators: Kasugamaru (story), NAMCOOo (illustrations)
Summary: PotatoStarch, a live streamer who's gaining popularity for his excitable attitude and witty banter, has begun streaming Dragon Demon RPG-DX, a game with a cult following known for its extreme difficulty and unreasonable systems. Only masochists would play it.

Meanwhile, in the world of the game, a fierce war between humans, elves, and vampires is reaching its bloody peak. The humans, lacking in magic, were forced into a defensive battle—until a savior appeared. Wielding a battleaxe, a young girl named Kuroi stepped forth to oppose both enemy armies. Her heroic efforts earned her the names “Dragonslayer” and “Killer of Demons.” Thanks to Kuroi, a girl “loved by God,” humans counter-attack.

PotatoStarch is just a video game player. He dives into this world hoping to forget the tiring real world. But through an unexpected series of events, he ends up almost “possessing” Kuroi. As he reaches the game's climax, Kuroi discovers a mysterious power and PotatoStarch's fate is changed forever.

Title: Her Majesty's Swarm (Joō-heika no Isekai Senryaku)
Creators: 616th Special Information Battalion (story), Eiri Iwamoto (illustrations)
Summary: Our protagonist is a college student who enjoys playing as the evil-aligned faction Arachnea in her favorite real-time strategy game. One day, she finds herself in a world similar to the one in the game; additionally, her body is now that of a fourteen-year-old girl. While things are a bit different from how they were in the game, one element has remained the same: she is the leader of the Arachnea. The insects under her control, collectively known as the Swarm, praise her and implore her to lead them to victory.

In order to survive, she raises her Swarm and forms friendly relations with the elves of the neighboring forest. But after a slaver traveling through the forest murders one of her Swarm and the nearby kingdom's knights burn down the elven village and massacre its people, she prepares to launch her counterattacks in the name of revenge.

However, revenge is merely a pretense for attacking the countries of this world. Her command is masterful and severe, as one who has played the game in real life...

Title: Isekai Rebuilding Project (Isekai Saiken Keikaku)
Creators: Yukika Minamino (story), Kotakan (illustrations)
Summary: Have you ever wondered what happens after peace is restored in a fantasy world? What happens beyond the final page of an Isekai light novel? Eiji, a thirty-year-old Japanese city clerk with a thoroughly average life and a fiancée, had not. He too answers a call to be transported to a fantasy world, but not as a hero. This fantasy world, having already been saved by a hero, was about to collapse for another reason entirely... thanks to that hero, who was also summoned from Japan. Eiji is tasked with restoring the fantasy world to its authentic form: how it was before it was infected with the technology, ideology, and societal concepts of modern-day Japan.

The first parts of Volume 1 of these five series will launch within the next day.

Licenses for J-Novel Club's New Heart Label

Title: Tearmoon Empire (Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari ~Dantōdai kara Hajimaru, Hime no Tensei Gyakuten Story~)
Creators: Nozomu Mochitsuki (story), Gilse (illustrations)
Summary: Surrounded by the hate-filled gazes of her people, the selfish princess of the fallen Tearmoon Empire, Mia, takes one last look at the bleeding sun before the guillotine blade falls...

Only to wake back up as a twelve-year-old! With time rewound and a second chance at life dropped into her lap, she sets out to right the countless wrongs that plague the ailing Empire. Corrupt governance? Check. Border troubles? Check. Natural calamities and economic strife? Check.

My, seems like a lot of work.

Hard work and Mia don't mix, so she seeks out the aid of others, starting with her loyal maid, Anne, and the brilliant minister, Ludwig. Together, they strive day and night to restore the Empire. Little by little, their tireless efforts begin to change the course of history, pushing the whole of the continent toward a new future. And why did the selfish princess have a change of heart, you ask? Simple—she didn't. She's just terrified of the guillotine. They hurt like hell, and Mia hates pain more than work.

Lazy, selfish, and a complete coward, the ill-equipped princess of the Tearmoon Empire, armed with memories of her past life and a diary from the future, tries to avoid dying at the guillotine again and changes the very course of history in the process!

Title: The Tales of Marielle Clarac (Marielle Clarac no Konyaku)
Creators: Haruka Momo (story), Maro (illustrations)
Summary: As a plain, unassuming noble's daughter, Marielle doesn't stand out in high society. Imagine her surprise when she receives a marriage proposal from the sought-after Simeon, second-in-command of the Royal Order of Knights!

Simeon, the heir to an earldom, is highly accomplished in scholarly and military arts—and he's gorgeous. So why did he propose to such an unremarkable noblewoman?

Despite being a target of envy and scorn, Marielle is happy. After all, Simeon seems to be exactly her type: a dashingly handsome man with glasses who appears gentle on the outside, but who has a dark and scheming side!

Welcome to Marielle's world, where people aren't always what they seem—and a prim, proper exterior can hide the heart of a sly and devious fangirl!

Title: The Bibliophile Princess (Mushikaburi-hime)
Creators: Yui (story), Satsuki Shiina (illustrations)
Summary: When book-loving Lady Elianna spots Prince Christopher—her betrothed in name only—consorting with another noble lady, she realizes the recent rumors must be true. The prince has someone he truly loves, which means the annulment of their engagement is both inevitable and fast-approaching. What she doesn't realize is that this is merely a surface ripple—one of many where the truth runs deep, in a conspiracy surpassing her imagination!

Title: I Refuse to Be Your Enemy! (Watashi wa Teki ni Narimasen!)
Creators: Kanata Satsuki (story), Mitsuya Fuji (illustrations)
Summary: From an early age, Kiara has been plagued with dreams of another world—dreams in which a girl she doesn't recognize plays a strategy RPG called “Farzia: Kingdom at War.” Farzia is, in fact, the same kingdom where Kiara currently lives. Oh, and one other thing: there's an enemy character who's also named Kiara, though her name is Kiara Credias. Naturally, as with any other RPG villain, this enemy is slayed by the heroes.

So when her adoptive father, Count Patriciél, orders her to marry Viscount Credias, Kiara comes to a horrifying realization: perhaps those “dreams” were visions of things to come! She hatches a plan to get the hell out of dodge and create a new future for herself—one where she STAYS ALIVE, thank you very much!

Title: The White Cat's Revenge as Plotted from the Dragon King's Lap (Fukushū o Chikatta Shironeko wa Ryūō no Hiza no Ue de Damin o Musaboru; English title not final)
Creators: Kureha (story), Yamigo (illustrations)
Summary: Nineteen-year-old Ruri Morikawa gets wrangled into a messy situation when her selfish childhood friend strands her in another world! To make matters somehow worse, a mysterious conspiracy then gets her abandoned in a perilous forest.

Through an unexpected turn of events, she comes into possession of a mystical bracelet that allows her to transform into a white cat. Now that she's in the Land of the Dragon King, she must hide the fact that she's human—which means spending her days as a little white cat, for the time being... But how will she exact her much-earned revenge against those who've wronged her while stuck in the form of a small, fluffy, cuddly kitty cat?!

J-Novel Club is still in final negotiations for The Tales of Marielle Clarac and The Bibliophile Princess. The first parts of Volume 1 of Tearmoon Empire will launch within the next day for members, and a preview will be available for non-members. The remaining titles are slated to launch at a later date.

Update: Noted that J-Novel Club is still in final negotiations for The Tales of Marielle Clarac and The Bibliophile Princess, and corrected that the books licensed from Kodansha's Legend label will be released under J-Novel Club's branding and not as a new label imprint under J-Novel Club.

Sources: Email correspondence, J-Novel Club's Twitter account