History Literature / ReignOfTheSevenSpellblades

* DidYouJustHaveSex: Katie, [[JealousRomanticWitness much to her chagrin]], figures out almost immediately in volume 10 that [[spoiler:Oliver and Nanao have finally slept together (unbeknownst to her, more literally than figuratively: they only actually got to third base this time)]]. Guy has to persuade her that ItsOkayToCry while giving her a CooldownHug. In volume 11 she complains to Guy that, [[spoiler:Oliver and Nanao having been together for the better part of a year, she now almost constantly smells like him]].

** Mages require some external focus to cast, which can be either a wooden wand or an athame (sword). Athames also double as a sidearm for most mages because, within a radius known as the "one-step, one-spell distance", no mage can cast faster than an opponent can strike them with a weapon.

** Volume 10: Gino Beltrami recalls how his alchemy mentor tasted his finest concoction sometime before he came to Kimberly. He came to their workshop the next day to discover she herself become a pool of liquor.

** When the garuda appears during the colosseum fight, both the manga and anime render the slogan "See how it feels to be the prey" in English, with Oliver reading it aloud in the dub language.

* DidYouJustHaveSex: Katie, [[JealousRomanticWitness much to her chagrin]], figures out almost immediately in volume 10 that [[spoiler:Oliver and Nanao have finally slept together (unbeknownst to her, more literally than figuratively: they only actually got to third base this time)]]. Guy has to persuade her that ItsOkayToCry while giving her a CooldownHug.

* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: Played with, as the first dwarf character met in the series, Luluim in volume 11, is bulky, bearded, axe-swinging, and ''[[GirlsWithMoustaches female]]''. More generally, the dwarves are one of the few demihuman races to have citizenship.

* MagicMisfire: "Being consumed by the spell" is a catchall term for death due to magic gone awry, whether due to an ImperfectRitual, PhlebotinumOverdose, [[GoMadFromTheRevelation Going Mad from the Revelation]], a summoned creature managing to EatTheSummoner, etc. Several instances are detailed in the series:

** In volume 4, Nanao admits to Katie that she fears her simultaneous love for Oliver and suppressed desire for a DuelToTheDeath with him might drive her mad, and [[MercyKillArrangement asks Katie to kill her if that ever happens]]. Katie has a mental image of Nanao surrounded by blood and corpses and realize she's imagining her consumed by the spell.

** Katie is from Farnland, which corresponds to Finland. It's written 湖水国 ''kosui kuni'', "lake country", in Japanese, and is located in the far north of the Union and where saunas are a big deal.

* RousseauWasRight: Surprisingly for a DarkFantasy series, the theme that people aren't naturally evil but are made that way by their circumstances comes up a lot. Most of the antagonists turn out to have significant redeeming qualities and/or {{Freudian Excuse}}s, and Katie's efforts to kill 'em with kindness make a surprising amount of headway. While the mage world and especially Kimberly are amoral and often horrific, a lot of it is driven by generational cycles of abuse, social inertia, and the cynicism of a minority of mage aristocrats, and a growing number of people are now questioning it, which has a lot of allegorical applicability to the time of writing.

* OurElvesAreDifferent: Elves are about the only species of demihumans [[FantasticRacism treated as equals by mages]], and sometimes interbreed with them: [[spoiler:Chela]] is [[HalfHumanHybrid half-and-half]] and [[SuperMode can take on a fully elven form to increase her spellcasting ability for short periods]]. Khiirgi "Avarice" Albschuch, a sixth-year aligned to the conservative faction, is the only full-blooded elf character introduced so far, and is an iconoclastic {{Jerkass}} who was [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch expelled from elven society over her past behavior]].

* TimeSkip: The series frequently jumps several months between volumes since it's meant to follow the Sword Roses through the entire seven-year curriculum of Kimberly. About four months pass between volumes 1 and 2, and volume 3 skips to the beginning of the next school year.

** The Fifth Spellblade, " "Papiliosomnia, the dream of a butterfly that never wakes up again", is a MindControl technique that attacks the target's sense of self, causing them to become unable to tell the difference between themselves and the wielder, and either not resist a follow-up strike or even [[PsychicAssistedSuicide kill themselves]]. [[spoiler:Demitrio Aristides wields this one, and uses it to CounterSpell Oliver's Fourth: Oliver is unable to pick a desirable future and only narrowly escapes the follow-through. The second time, his friend Yuri Leik, a SoulFragment of Demitrio, [[FightingFromTheInside reasserts himself over his creator]] to tell Oliver which one to pick, [[HeroicSacrifice knowing it will mean he dies along with Demitrio]].]]

* LikeParentLikeSpouse: Nanao starts to draw comparisons from various characters who knew the deceased Chloe Halford: they're similarly talented at sword arts and {{Flying Broomstick}}s, even bonding to the same MoodyMount due to their similar mana signatures. [[spoiler:Oliver and his close relatives are the only ones present who know that Chloe was his mother.]]

** {{Justified|Trope}} in volume 11. Oliver challenges the graduating Godfrey to a parting duel as a way of gauging how far he has to go. Predictably, he doesn't last very long, and his cousins are shocked that he even considered it while Shannon heals his broken arm. Oliver admits he knew full-well he'd almost certainly lose badly and just wanted to see how far he had to go.