With their honeymoon adventure at an end, Philia throws herself back into her saintly duties while Prince Osvalt prepares for a visit from the royal family of neighboring Alectron. An advance party of knights sent ahead of the royals proves to include one unexpected figure: Lena's fiance, Elmhardt! Realizing the couple is mysteriously estranged for reasons neither of them will reveal--and which might be related to the Alectron royals' last visit to Parnacorta--Philia sets about getting to ...

Oh, crud, I just realized that I’ve been reincarnated into my favorite manga as the first boss defeated by the heroine at the start of the story!Worst yet, it turns out my fiancé is the strongest of the Four Grand Magi and the very villain who slanders my character as a disgrace on her deathbed! I’m outta here!This is the story of the weakest manga villainess who seeks out the slow life instead of the villain life.

In Greek mythology, Athena, the daughter of Zeus, was born in full armor. By birthright the goddess of battle, she did not believe in conquest, and only fought defensive wars. Her battles with bloodthirsty gods and giants shook the very earth and seemed to last forever. On the battlefield, there were a group of youths that always surrounded and protected the goddess: the Knights of Athena! Flash forward to modern-day Greece: two Japanese tourists are shocked to see a mansized meteorite cra...

This book is your ultimate guide to Japan's scariest creatures!Yokai come in every imaginable shape and form—from frightening ghosts and cruel demons to cute fairies and enchanted animals. They can be evil monsters, harmless tricksters or prophets of doom, depending on their inclination.This book profiles 100 of the most fascinating Yokai, including:Tengu: A powerful Yokai that often takes human form with wing...

Thanks to her deal with Roselia, Ellie is now in possession of the precious material she needs to craft a weapon capable of defeating her most powerful enemy—Bulat, the God of Thunder. Most blacksmiths aren’t skilled enough to work with the tricky thunder dragon horn that’ll serve as the base of her new rapier, but Ellie isn’t worried. She has the perfect person in mind: Gaien the Divine Artisan, one of the members of the empire’s Merchants’ Guild Council. She and her group head to the cit...

You Can Change the World: The Global Citizen's Handbook for Living on Planet Earth should be required reading for anyone who cares about the future of the planet. Written by renowned scientist, futurist and Club of Budapest founder Ervin Laszlo, You Can Change the World answers two pertinent questions-first, what is at the root of all the conflict and crisis in today's world? And second, what can actually be done to move toward a world where we can live in peace, without marginalizing and ...

From the depths of space, the comet Repulse approaches Earth, and with it, a hunger for blood and a banquet of slaughter. The target of the oncoming chaos is Shoko, a high school girl who has no idea what’s in store for her. Only Athena, Goddess of War, and her warrior handmaidens stand before the destruction--but will their power be enough to save Shoko from the resurrection of an ancient evil?

Cultures of Modernity and the U.S.-Japan Cold War Alliance reconsiders the origins of postwar U.S.-Japan relations by focusing on “modernization” ideologies that the Americans and the Japanese shared in the 1940s–early 1950s. Mobilizing a wealth of English and Japanese-language sources, the author identifies parallel groups of modernist thinkers in America and Japan – including politicians, bureaucrats, intellectuals, scholars, and journalists – and follows how different strands o...

Queer Intimacies and Cultural Dissent in Japanese Life: Quiet Subversion offers an intimate cartography of LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and others) expression across contemporary Japan.Featuring over 100 profiles of activists, artists, politicians, scholars, theologians, manga creators, and media figures, this book introduces “quiet subversion” as a methodological framework for understanding how dissent operates through ambiguity, relatio...

This book offers a comprehensive exploration of the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals in Japan, framed through the central concept of precarious visibility. While the COVID-19 pandemic serves as a pivotal case study, the scope of this work extends beyond that moment to examine how legal precarity, entrenched cultural expectations, and pervasive social stigma shape queer lives in Japan and abroad. Drawing on rich first-person narratives and qualitative analysis, the book illuminates t...

This book presents the fundamentals of the separation mechanism of the environmentally benign polymer-based aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) and applications of ATPS to separation and/or enrichment of inorganic compounds with batch extraction and chromatographic techniques. It first describes the structures of the aqueous polymer phases formed in the ATPS. Then the effect of the background electrolyte on the distribution of ionic solutes is discussed. A subsequent chapter shows the applica...

Kate’s mind was made up when she caught a wedding bouquet for the umpteenth time. The reason she was in her thirties and still single was because she hadn’t yet met Mr. Right. All she had to do is find one! Being a methodical science teacher, she decided to use her computer skills to find her future husband. She dated different men to gather data such as their age, occupation and physical traits. That’s when she met Jamie, who came to her summer school as a parent chaperone. At first sight...