#aoikou

Author: Aoikou

Illustrator: Enji

Label: HJ Bunko

Release Date: 28 December 2023

My Score: 3/5 stars

English Release: J-Novel Club is releasing this series as The Hero-Killing Bride.

Genre: Action, Fantasy

Premise:

In the light of day, Sister Alicia Snowell is a faithful and devoted bride of the gods, dedicated to serving the Holy Church and its followers. In the shadows, she’s one of the Church’s top inquisitors, tasked with hunting down and eliminating heretics by any means necessary. Alicia’s latest mission: assassinate the Hero Elcyon, slayer of the mighty Demon Lord, whose growing fame threatens to eclipse the Church’s political power. In order to kill the divinely protected, supposedly unkillable Hero, Alicia first needs to win Elcyon’s heart. There’s just one problem—Elcyon turns out to be a girl named Cion! Alicia’s at a loss for what to do, but while she tries to figure out how to seduce a girl, more trouble brews on the horizon. With remnants of the demon army still at large, Alicia and Cion face one deadly supernatural battle after another! Where will the two girls’ intertwining paths lead them? (Source: J-Novel Club)

My Thoughts:

Gotta say, it was nice to have the badass looking lady on the cover be the actual protagonist for a change. The amount of light novels that have caught my eye due to having a cool woman on the cover, only to realise that the protagonist was some plain looking dude...

Anyway, I enjoyed this but I didn't love the writing style. It's elaborate with some uncommon kanji which made it more difficult to read and picture what was going on. There were also a few scenes where I found it hard to tell who was talking.

Otherwise, this was a good time overall. I liked the protagonist a lot and her growing friendship with Cion was a joy to read. I always enjoy stories that feature two ladies getting to know each other. I almost think you could call this a yuri but there are important men characters as well, unlike something like Howling Blaze. I had a laugh every time Alicia broke character and thought about how much she wished someone would die. It's not a new fav, but I enjoyed my time with it and I want to read the next couple of volumes.

Domesticity meme. Send me a ship, and I'll tell you:

who cooks normally?

probably Aoi, but then Kou distracts him by randomly coming up and hugging him from behind and commenting on the food. or the other way around. goes both ways. 

how often do they fight?

over Kou's sleep schedule I got nothing for this one but I gotta say they strike me as the kind of couple that would both be very opinionated on their sides of the argument, but the thought behind them would never be anything but for the good of each other.

what do they do when they’re away from each other?

you can't tell me Kou doesn't send Aoi texts and voice messages all the time. but walks. I can see them doing that. taking walks. idk.