Volume 1 cover
Shinigami ni Sodaterareta Shoujo wa Shikkoku no Ken wo Mune ni Idaku or Death's Daughter and the Ebony Blade is a Light Novel that follows a girl named Olivia that was adopted by the Death God Z (pronounced as Zed). She spent years living in a shrine called The Gate of the Underworld deep in a forest, being taught a lot of things by Zed.Things changed on her 15th birthday, when the Death God suddenly disappeared, leaving only a letter, a ruby necklace and a black sword. She sets off and leaves the forest to find clues on Z's whereabouts, and she decided that the best way to find clues is to enlist as a soldier of Farnesse Kingdom's military. This chain of events is what sets her on the path to becoming a hero. It is licensed by J-Novel Club in English.
This series provides examples of:
- An Arm and a Leg: Given Olivia's power, she frequently cuts off limbs from enemies. In her first confrontation in the series shows her cutting off the limbs of the Empire soldiers attacking her.
- And Your Reward Is Edible: When her reward isn't books, she prefers to be given edible things like cakes, bread, or other sweets. This includes when she is told she is to receive their nation's highest honor: the medal of the Golden Lion. Prior to Olivia, only three men in the history of the nation were recipients, but Olivia would rather just get some cake or books and appears bored with the prospect of this honor.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: When Olivia enlists, she is given the moderate rank of Warrant Officer due to her bringing in the head of a high value target during her enlistment. Within a few months her rank only gets higher as she starts racking up achievements on the battlefield.
- Badass Adorable: Olivia has a doll-like appearance and a cute personality. She's also The Dreaded in the battlefield.
- Badass Crew: The other members of the trio, Claudia and Ashton, are badasses in their own right. The former slowly catching up with Olivia's prowess with the sword and the latter being a really good strategist.
- Batman Gambit: After the victory at Fort Casper, General Paul and Colonel Otto discuss with Olivia, Ashton, and Claudia some potential ideas for the several thousand prisoners of war who surrendered rather than be killed by Olivia. Ashton has the idea of exchanging them all for the Kingdom's soldiers who are prisoners of the Empire. While this will give back soldiers to the Empire, it will help replenish the Kingdom as well with properly trained fighters, of which Ashton isn't one of them, and remove the need to feed and house this large number of prisoners. While Otto notes that such exchanges haven't been done for lower level soldiers, Ashton counters that this will also be a humanitarian move and such generosity on the Kingdom's part will have to be matched in kind or the Empire would suffer a harm to their reputation for leaving their men as prisoners when given a chance to bring them back home. Paul gives his permission for Otto to implement the plan and it is a success.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality:
- Olivia's an innocent and sweet girl, but her values are completely different than the average person due to being raised by a Death God.
- Z, as the one who raised Olivia, thinks differently from humans.
- Boom, Headshot!: After acquiring a bolt-crossbow with its excellent range and power, Olivia will snipe enemy guards in the head with her newest weapon.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Olivia, at first glance, gives off the impression of being out of place in the military due to her innocent and quirky personality, but she can be very insightful on a lot of things, as she was the one who discovered Ashton's talent for being a strategist or figuring out Claudia's Magical Eye. She also happens to be the Royal Army's strongest soldier by a wide margin.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Olivia is fond of doing this in the middle of a battle. Considering her skill, she likely doesn't think she's in danger at all.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Claudia is Olivia's second-in-command, who was assigned her position to keep the latter from going too wild.
- Clueless Chick-Magnet: Downplayed as Ashton is aware that he is becoming increasingly popular with the women as he rises through the ranks, but he is only interested in Olivia, who is Oblivious to Love herself. He finds Claudia's help in driving the women after him a big help, although Gauss hints that it might be because Claudia also likes him.
- Combat Pragmatist: Olivia has no sense of honor or dignity in battle. She will kill her enemies quickly and in the most efficient means and reduce the cost of lives of her own people.
- She will use psychological attacks, such as Decapitation Presentation of enemy commanders.
- She will launch sneak attacks on enemy forts by setting the place on fire and then having her platoon kill the men as they run out of the burning building.
- Comically Small Demand: Unless a person comes at a bad time, Olivia can be made to move by promising really simple things such as sweets or books. When King Alphonse asked Olivia what she would like as a reward for her achievements, she answered that she wants a really big cake, like the one she saw in a book she read. Needless to say, the king was taken aback by this, but went above and beyond with the request.
- Decapitation Presentation: Olivia does this on a regular basis as she initially believes it is a common and proper thing to do.
- When she first reaches the kingdom, she has with her the head of a notorious Empire soldier and presents it along with her request to join their forces.
- When Olivia is tasked with a special duty to clear out some bandits from an abandoned fort, she asks her superior, Lt. Colonel Otto, if he desires their heads. When she asks, "Don't humans love to see the head of their enemies?" he is disturbed by her words and tone. He assures her that won't be needed here.
- During the Battle of Iris Plains after killing Imperial General Oswan, she has his head put on a pike and one of her people carries it around. Seeing this desecration of their beloved general leads one group of Empire soldiers to try and kill Olivia, but they fail.
- The Dreaded: Olivia slowly becomes this for the Arsbelt Empire's military, and especially more so after she becomes known as the "Death God". It gets to the point that they're willing to ignore a much bigger army just to try and kill her off given the chance, which Olivia and Ashton aren't above using to their advantage (much to Claudia's chagrin).
- Driven by Envy: Major General Osmund is properly introduced after the battle of Iris Plains. In the preceding battle his leading of the Kingdom's right flank did their job but were outshone by the left wing's actions and Olivia's Special Brigade. As a result, while Major General Elman is promoted to Lt. General (and now Osmund's superior) despite being from a commoner family and Olivia is given high honors, Osmund is not given any promotion for his actions. This hunger for recognition leads him to fall into the obvious trap set by the Empire when they placed the bodies of his scouts on pikes and in view of the city he is defending to taunt the Kingdom's forces. His actions lead to the deaths of over 1,500 men and would have been more had Olivia's brigade not arrived to save them and Olivia saves him personally.
- Flash Step: Fleet Footed Rush. Enemies who are on the receiving end of this technique would suddenly find their distant enemy right in front of them in the blink of an eye. So far, only three have been shown to be able to use it, including Olivia. The other two are Felixus and, after training under Olivia for some time, Claudia.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Olivia and Claudia are not sisters, but they have this dynamic, with Olivia as the foolish one and Claudia as the responsible one.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: In the northern occupied part of the Kingdom at Fort Larswood, two soldiers of the Empire on night duty hear something in the bush. One is fearful of an attack by the infamous Death God, which is Olivia's new nickname, but his comrade dismisses those rumors and believes their small fort out of the way wouldn't be targeted by this mysterious force. The doubter then leaves his post to look for the source of the noise. Olivia and her platoon kill the guard who walked near them and then she fires a bolt from her crossbow to silence the remaining guard as he finally got the nerve to blow the whistle and alert the fort to an attack. With both dead, the fort is quickly destroyed by Olivia and her platoon.
- I Gave My Word: Once Olivia makes a promise, she's going to keep it unless the other side breaks it. This includes letting go of a Mirage spy she captured in return for intel or promising Johann not to kill him in their sparring, even though he tried to kill her himself. For Johann's case, he did say beforehand that he wasn't going to hold back.
- Inadequate Inheritor: Zig-Zagged with King Alphonse. He has mediocre military acumen, but a good eye for economics, which would have been fine in times of peace, and would be allowed to learn from his mistakes. A lot of people are aware of this issue, including himself. As Sofitia puts it, he was "born in the wrong era".
- It's Personal: Olivia gains several enemies by virtue of her killing Empire soldiers and their friends or comrades lust for her blood. During the Battle of Iris Plains, she decapitates the enemy General and so earns the ire of another General who served under the man before. General Rosemarie leads an attack to destroy the 3rd and 4th armies of the Kingdom just to draw the 7th northward, and so gives her a chance to kill Olivia.
- It Was a Gift:
- After arriving late to her meeting with Lt. Colonel Otto, Olivia explains she doesn't have a watch like Otto does. Otto looks at his timepiece and gifts it to Olivia so she will be on time for her future meetings. She is genuinely elated by this and treasures the watch.
- In the citadel of Emlied where Olivia and her forces are staying after one battle, Ashton takes her to a blacksmith. During their waiting in the city for new orders, he paid for the blacksmith to make a superb black armor with Olivia's family emblem on the shoulder. Olivia lights up at this thoughtful gift.
- Kill It with Fire:
- During the battle of Iris Plains, Colonel Neinhert of the Kingdom understands his superior's plan to bait a Blood Knight enemy general into a trap and adds his own recommendation: lace the field with oil-soaked grass so even in the rain the field will catch on fire. The result is the Empire's cavalry is surrounded by flames and they lose many men.
- When Olivia is leading a platoon on a wooden fort that isn't needed for the Kingdom's future plans and they have killed the guards on watch, Olivia has her men fire flaming arrows into the fort's encampment and burns the place down. When the soldiers come running out, Olivia kills them as well.
- Living Lie Detector: Claudia is able to tell when someone is lying thanks to her eyes.
- Memento Macguffin: Her ruby necklace was something that Z found on her when she was a baby, one of the last connection to her biological parents. It turns out that it has the coat of arms of the Valedstorm, which lead to her to choose it as her last name once she became a noble.
- Perpetual Smiler: Olivia. She's often seen sporting an innocent smile, even on the battlefield as she fights and mercilessly slaughters her enemies.
- Phrase Catcher: Foes of Olivia frequently call her a monster, and she will frequently respond, "I'm not a monster. I'm Olivia."
- Rank Up: As a story about military forces, several characters will rise in rank for their actions and heroics.
- Olivia has a meteoric rise in the ranks after joining the Kingdom's army a few months prior.
- She joins and is granted a position of Warrant Officer for bringing in the heads of several Empire soldiers, skipping the lower eight ranks of Enlisted and Non-Commissioned Officers.
- For the reclaiming of Fort Lamberg, she rises one rank to of 2nd Lieutenant.
- For her valor and skills in the Battle of Iris Plains and the reclaiming of Fort Casper, she is then moved up three ranks to Major.
- For his 7th Army's victory in reclaiming Fort Casper, Lt. General Paul moves to full General.
- For his part in helping General Paul in reclaiming Fort Casper and being Olivia's superior, Lt. Colonel Otto is moved to up one rank to full Colonel.
- Claudia transfers to the 7th Army as a Warrant officer. For her part in the Iris Plains battle and the reclaiming of Fort Casper, she is granted a two-rank promotion to First Lieutenant.
- Aston is introduced as a private. After becoming Olivia's strategist and his plans in reclaiming Fort Casper are a huge success with their tiny platoon routing the whole fort, he is given a special acceleration promotion to Warrant Officer.
- Olivia has a meteoric rise in the ranks after joining the Kingdom's army a few months prior.
- Reasonable Authority Figure:
- General Paul first appears in Olivia's interrogation after she captured one spy in the fort and killed a member of the Mirage intelligence unit of the Empire. While Otto is exasperated by Olivia's directness and lack of social norms, Paul gauges and asses Olivia to be honest as well as trustworthy. While he continues to dote upon her like a beloved grandfather, this is only because she is good at her duties and is a skilled leader and fighter. This is best compared to his interactions with Major General Osmund who fell for an obvious taunt when the Empire put the bodies of his scouts on pikes outside the city. His haste in responding lead to Osmund losing half his forces, or roughly 1,500 soldiers, for nothing and would have lost more had Olivia's cavalry not arrived to save them, and Olivia to save him personally. Paul calls the man an imbecile in front of Otto and orders him to his quarters until the punishment is decided. Once the man is gone, Paul notes to Otto with some sadness Osmund is a good general when he keeps a cool head.
- Downplayed. King Alphonse is normally reasonable, but the stress and responsibilities of a ruler of a nation in war has made him harder to convince in matters of military, with Cornelius only managing to convince him due to the former's trust on the latter's abilities. After Cornelius voices his concern for Alphonse's life that could be interpreted as Lèse-majesté, Alphonse threatened to have him killed, only for him to relent once he saw the the old General genuinely tear up and gave him full control of the military for the duration of the war, telling him that he won't hold a grudge if they inevitably lose.
- Red Baron:
- Cornelius is known as the Ever-Victorious General.
- General Paul is called a Demon by the Empire's soldiers.
- Olivia later becomes known as the Death God.
- The Snack Is More Interesting: During a high level meeting among the officers of the 7th Army after the 3rd and 4th armies have been destroyed by the Empire's attack Olivia is more interested in her tea and it being empty than what people are saying. However, she is still listening to everything and later affirms her belief that Ashton's assessment is correct, even when the others in the room ignored his views.
- The Strategist: Quite a few characters fit this due to being in the military, but special mention goes to Ashton, who is Olivia's personal strategist.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works:
- Given Olivia's power, she has the capability to do massive damage to her targets as she regularly hits them.
- Downplayed in her fight against General Rosemarie. While Olivia misses the general, the attack is a feint and distraction allowing Olivia to close the distance, kick the general's sword up and away, then punch her so hard Olivia breaks both arms.
- True Companions: Olivia, Ashton and Claudia become close enough over the course of the story that they can joke around with each other in their downtime.
- Unfriendly Fire: During the battle of Iris Plains, the commander of the Empire's right flank is Lieutenant Minits, a distant relative to the Emperor and completely incompetent commander. It is only by his subordinate Major Raiones do they not lose their forces on reckless charges. When Minits celebrates too early after Raiones provides him a good countermove and doesn't think it could fail, they learn that the Kingdom's forces nearest them have out-gambitted them and routed their forces. The Major has his men take Minits away for his safety and dies holding the line. Raiones' other men, disgusted by Minits' lack of care for the Major's death and sacrifice, take a few minutes when the whole army is in retreat to fire a volley of arrows at Minits and his two sycophant lackeys. The narration notes that the official report will claim the three died from the Kingdom's arrows.
- Vestigial Empire: The Farnesse Kingdom is but a shadow of its former self at the start of the story. Even before the war, it has been on a slow decline, but the war only accelerated it.
- We Have Reserves: This is discussed between Ashton and Gyre. Gyre notes that a soldier like himself, while capable of some fighting skill, is ultimately disposable. If he dies, the cavalry unit will continue to function. He calls out Ashton for thinking he needs more skills with swords to be useful when Ashton's mind and strategies are things no one in the cavalry can replace.
- Willfully Weak: All of Olivia's fights would have been even easier if she used Magic. Though it's not like she was having a hard time with any of them.
- What Is This Feeling?: Olivia notes that she there's a pleasant warm feeling on her chest whenever she looks at Ashton and Claudia, but doesn't know what it means.
- You Remind Me of X: Olivia accidentally hits the Relative Button when she notices General Rosemarie's sword style is similar to General Oswan, whom Olivia fought, killed, decapitated, and put the head on a pike. This comparison from her enemy is what it takes for Rosemarie to realize that Olivia is the one who killed her beloved father-figure who trained her in the sword since her childhood, and lose her composure in the fight.
