[Manga Mondays] This Mage Desires Mediocrity

Title: This Mage Desires Mediocrity (Madoushi wa Heibon no Nozomu / 魔導師は平凡を望む)
Artist: Hiromi Taihei
Story: Ren Hirose
Genres: Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Shoujo, Isekai
Published: 2018
Rating: All
Chapters: 19 (Ongoing)
English Publisher: Frontier Works Inc
Available to Purchase in English?: Yes (Renta!)

Synopsis: “No one will capture me!” Mizuki, a grown-up who loves gaming, is suddenly swept away to another world. She resolutely survives by using her inherent grit and magical talent. Then, two useless knights and one particularly kinky knight arrive on the scene. The appearance of so many disappointing hot guys marks the beginning of Mizuki’s unprecedented, alternate-dimension life! Her chosen lifestyle involves nothing but “being herself!” This is a meritocratic, alternate-dimension fantasy that features hot guys with sublimely deplorable flaws and a sadistic mage!

 

This story begins 3 months after Mizuki Kousaka, a young female gamer, is suddenly and mysteriously swept into another world.  Alone in a forest with no skills or weapons, she is found dazed and weakened by a man named Dr. Gordon. He takes Mizuki in and starts to train her in the ways of magic; to his surprise, she’s a quick study and soon becomes strong. Very strong.

So strong that even royal knights try to hide behind her when they come across Mizuki and Dr. Gordon in the forest. Mizuki is able to dispatch the black-clothed men chasing the royal knights fairly easily with her “silent magic” (she doesn’t need to say an incantation to cast it). Afterwards she chews out the wimpy knights for failing to uphold their duties before both she and Dr. Gordon bring them back to Dr. Gordon’s home.

There we learn that Mizuki, unable to find a way back home, has decided to start a new life in Dr. Gordon’s hometown of Lagus Village. People who come from other worlds are called “Void Denizens”, and the skills and knowledge they have are called “living treasures.” It is these treasures which make people like Mizuki a target. Apparently the men in black who appeared to be chasing the lackluster knights were really after Mizuki and her magical abilities.

Then a white knight from the castle shows up at Lagus Village and attempts to bring Mizuki back to the castle with him. His name is Prince Argent and he’s a handsome ladies man. Mizuki, however, is having nothing to do with his plan and leaves the conversation abruptly. This doesn’t phase Prince Argent though and he follows Mizuki to where she’s gathering some water. He tries to sweet-talk her with promises of delicious food, fancy clothes and comfortable furniture, and even “the love of a knight” – all to no avail. Mizuki gets pissed off and smacks Prince Argent in the head with her pail – too bad being dominated by a stronger woman is his kink! Ha!

Mizuki is pretty desperate to not have anything to do with Prince Argent, so Dr. Gordon suggests that the two of them go to the castle and appeal directly to Argent’s brother, Prince Elusion. Dr. Gordon will escort the duo to the capital city.

When they arrive at Ilfena’s capital city of Galtia, Prince Argent brings Mizuki up to the castle to meet his brother. Prince Elusion is, surprise surprise, also young and handsome. Not only that but he was born with “massive internal magic” which makes him subconsciously appear intimidating to others!! He totally reminds me of Griffith from Berserk. xD

Mizuki asks Prince Elusion to keep Prince Argent from bothering her, and Prince Elusion agrees – on the condition that Mizuki help a friend of his using her magic. He won’t specify -how- she can help this friend though. Mizuki changes into some beautiful clothes and jewelry, and they fit perfectly thanks to secret measurements taken by Black Knight-turned-stalker Klaus, who has been following Mizuki from the shadows since she arrived in Ilfena. Creepy much?!  Oh and because this is a fantasy world, all of Mizuki’s new gear has been enchanted with different spells of protection. So what is it that Prince Elusion wants Mizuki to do??

While Klaus teaches Mizuki to memorize the different enchantments, Prince Argent confirms with his brother his plan to give Mizuki to a city named Sevrest. It sounds like Prince Elusion’s trying to stir up some shit! O_o   Isn’t peace a good thing?

The next day Mizuki learns that instead of verbally speaking spells out loud, she can make magic work by thinking the spell instead! This allows her to specifically control her magic, such as making a waterfall pour from her hand. Pretty neat eh?

Elsewhere in the kingdom, two men  are watching secret footage of Mizuki. One of them seems like he wants to become friends with Mizuki, if only to improve his own life.

Ten days later, a young man named Rudolph from Sevrest arrives at the castle to meet Mizuki. He asks for her help with his plan: to pretend to be his concubine, infiltrate his harem and bring it down from the inside! But why?? Well this man Rudolph is the freaking king of Sevrest! It turns out that he wants to eliminate his harem because all of the women within it despise anyone who’s not from their clan, and he knows that they are jealous women. He doesn’t want to risk having a child with any of them for fear of what might happen to him, or said child. Well that explains why Prince Elusion gave Mizuki such beautiful clothes. >_>

King Rudolph goes on to share that he wants to become a strong leader who purges anyone who goes against his ideals from his kingdom. Seeing his strong resolve causes Mizuki to agree to help him. She then celebrates their deal by cooking Rudolph some clam chowder.

Mizuki and King Rudolph leave for Sevrest several days later. How will Mizuki’s arrival be treated by King Rudolph’s royal harem?

 

Preliminary Thoughts:  I have very limited experience with online-only manga, so I tend to be a little picky with which titles I read. This Mage Desires Mediocrity caught my eye immediately when I spotted it atop the listings of Renta’s shoujo manga. When I took a peek at the first chapter I liked the art style, and I found it to be witty with lots of action even in the first few pages.

This review spans only the first two chapters, but I’ve liked it enough that I will continue to read on. There are lots of bishounen to ogle and it’s feasible that Mizuki could end up with any one of them (except maybe Prince Argent) – or maybe she’ll stay true to her “average personality” and not settle for another man at all?

Final Score: 8.5/10

Author’s Note: This review’s title is in English because I didn’t find the romanji title until after the featured image was set up. Going forward I will continue to try to use the Japanese title over the English.