After subjugating three countries, Grevillea sets her sights on her next target: the supreme military power and land of swooping wyverns, the Nyrnal Empire. In order to secure a path into the country, she must first seize the neighboring Eastern Trade Union. The Union’s capital city of Khalkha is a paradise where any and all pleasures are within arm’s reach—but when Grevillea and Emperor Maximilian vie for supremacy, will its utopian streets run red with blood? The Arachnea and the Empire, the two remaining great powers on the continent, clash for the right to rule. As Grevillea’s secrets are dragged out into the light, the story hurtles toward its climax!
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...
Grevillea, Queen of the Arachnea, has rapidly decimated the Kingdom of Maluk and now the Dukedom of Schtraut. After receiving troubling reports that the shores of her newly obtained territory are being raided, she investigates the matter. She discovers that these raiders are pirates under the command of a female captain named Isabelle. The pirates belong to a colony on the island of Atlantica, and they are a formidable faction not to be trifled with. Grevillea conspires with Isabelle and improves her navy. Strengthened by this partnership, she aims to plunge the Popedom of Frantz into the depths of despair...
After quickly conquering the great power of the north, the Kingdom of Maluk, Grevillea and the Arachnea prepare for their next war. They set their eyes on the Dukedom of Schtraut, a country of merchants northeast of their territory that will provide a shortcut to defeating the other nations. Accompanied an elite squad of her strongest units, Grevillea sneaks into the Dukedom and begins gathering information on the country’s topography, defenses, and culture. She and her group establish themselves as members of the local Adventurers’ Guild, and they begin hunting monsters to fulfill the guild’s quests. While they work to form connections, however, Grevillea secretly prepares to bare the Arachnea’s fangs against the Dukedom...
There are all sorts of Professions in this world, from Magician to Fencer, from the lowly Beast Tamer to the mighty Hero. Every adult has their own, which they can never change as long as they live. Kanata Aldezia is an icy and mysterious beauty, a fighter, and a genius without peer. Today is her Selection Ceremony: the day when a child must decide their Profession from those chosen for them by the gods. Everyone is eager to see what Profession Kanata will choose. There is even speculation that she will be the one chosen as Saint, destined to lead the Holy Church. But Kanata has a secret. There is something she must obtain at any cost. Something more precious to her than her own lifeâher quest for the fluff! Kanata loves fluffy fluffy critters more than anything, and would go to any lengths to pet their soft fluffy fur. Saint? No! Sheâs just a passing Beast Tamer!
A young woman, net nickname "Mushi-nee," finds herself sucked into a world not unlike the online real-time strategy game that was her only escape. She had captained the "Arachnea" faction...but it's one thing to do on a computer, and another to find herself face-to-face with giant arachnids who hail her as queen! But rather than shrink from her fate, she steps up...to become the conquering queen she knows she can be!
Candide is a French satire by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. It begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism (or simply Optimism) by his mentor, Pangloss. The work describes the abrupt cessation of this lifestyle, followed by Candide's slow, painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world. Voltaire concludes with Candide, if not rejecting optimism outright, advocating a deeply practical precept, "we must cultivate our garden", in lieu of the Leibnizian mantra of Pangloss, "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds". Candide is characterized by its sarcastic tone, as well as by its erratic, fantastical and fast-moving plot. A picaresque novel it parodies many adventure and romance clichés, the struggles of which are caricatured in a tone that is mordantly matter-of-fact. Still, the events discussed are often based on historical happenings, such as the Seven Years' War and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. As philosophers of Voltaire's day contended with the problem of evil, so too does Candide in this short novel, albeit more directly and humorously. Voltaire ridicules religion, theologians, governments, armies, philosophies, and philosophers through allegory; most conspicuously, he assaults Leibniz and his optimism. As expected by Voltaire, Candide has enjoyed both great success and great scandal. Immediately after its secretive publication, the book was widely banned because it contained religious blasphemy, political sedition and intellectual hostility hidden under a thin veil of naïveté. However, with its sharp wit and insightful portrayal of the human condition, the novel has since inspired many later authors and artists to mimic and adapt it. Today, Candide is recognized as Voltaire's magnum opus and is often listed as part of the Western canon; it is arguably taught more than any other work of French literature. It was listed as one of The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written.
Shotgun-wielding otome game villainess Astrid Sophie von Oldenburg is now in possession of a small arsenal of modern weapons powered by fantasy-world magic. But it’s still not enough to strike back against fate! Driven by her love for all things military related, she’s not about to stop recreating or firing her favorite guns anytime soon. However, her parents are less enthusiastic about their daughter’s newfound obsession with magic; can Astrid rise to the challenge of keeping them happy? And how will she fare when she comes face to beak with a griffin and the tiny fairy in its talons? Many trials await her, but she swears that through the power of bigger and better weapons, she’ll tear fate apart!
If an entire nation could seek its freedom, why not a girl? As the Revolutionary War begins, thirteen-year-old Isabel wages her own fight...for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become the property of a malicious New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for Ruth and Isabel. When Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to the Patriots, he encourages her to spy on her owners, who know details of British plans for invasion. She is reluctant at first, but when the unthinkable happens to Ruth, Isabel realizes her loyalty is available to the bidder who can provide her with freedom. From acclaimed author Laurie Halse Anderson comes this compelling, impeccably researched novel that shows the lengths we can go to cast off our chains, both physical and spiritual.
