My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned a S-Rank Adventurer (Original Japanese: Bōkensha ni Naritai to Miyako ni Deteitta Musume ga Esu Ranku ni Natteta) is a novel series by Mojikakiya that was first released as a Web Serial Novel from September 2017 to January 2020 on Shousetsuka ni Narou. It was later published as a series of Light Novels by Earth Star Entertainment with illustrations by toi8 from 2018 to 2021 for 11 volumes. The series has a manga adaptation by Kyū Urushibara which began serialization in Comic Earth Star in 2018 and an anime adaptation which was produced by Typhoon Graphics and first started airing in October 2023. Both the novels and the manga adaptation are licensed in English by J-Novel Club.
Belgrieve, like many young men, dreamed of fame and fortune as an Adventurer but had his career tragically cut short when he lost his leg on an early mission. Retiring to the country, Belgrieve meeks out a living protecting the village from monsters and collecting herbs content with his peaceful, but solitary, existence. Then one day he hears the cries of a baby, finding an abandoned child deep in the woods.
Fast forward 17 years and Angeline, or Ange, lives in the city of Orphen as a S-ranked adventurer and is celebrated as the "Black Haired War Maiden" and the city's "guardian deity". But she doesn't care much for any of that, as the only thing she wants after five years is a little time off to return home and see her father. Fate, however, seems determined to prevent that as circumstances again and again conspire to throw problems only Ange can handle.
This series shows examples of:
- The Ace: Ange is S-rank and considered effectively a hero by societal standards, alongside her two fellow party members. As goofy as she looks, the moment she gets serious, nothing stands in her way shortly after. This is because she herself is a Demon Lord with extraordinary latent power, but is completely unaware of it because Belgrieve found and adopted her shortly after she was born, effectively humanizing a walking facet of power incarnate.
- Badass Normal: Belgrieve is more of a Badass on Paper than he is the true top-tier adventuring hero that Ange childishly believes him to be, but even despite having a wooden leg, he is competent enough with his veteran skills and age to be able to hold his own in some extreme circumstances.
- Corrupt Church: A supposedly-independent sect of the regional church is attempting to "revive" the Demon Lords, akin to being a satanic cult, and even use Child Soldiers as a front for gathering donations and recruits — while being willing to eliminate them if problems ensue. Ange's Defusing the Tyke-Bomb of two children involved sends the politics of the region into absolute chaos, and it's ambiguous how far the sect's influence in the church goes.
- Daddy's Girl: Ange adores her father to the point she buffs up his abilties and reputation in her mind which she in turns tells anyone in earshot, becoming moody and throwing a tantrum when her vacation plans to visit him are interrupted.
- Eldritch Abomination: Later in the story, entities known as "Demon Lords" appear that can seemingly drive all the local fauna to mad survival as wild monsters and become a Walking Wasteland due to being unable to control their powers, and short of them being born from darkness and magic, no one but the Corrupt Church sect working to "revive" them actually knows what their deal is beyond being considered so dangerous that they must be killed to maintain world order. Belgrieve ends up pitying a small child Demon Lord and adopting him to Orphen, only for circumstances to gradually reveal that this is exactly what he did with Ange seventeen years ago, effectively taming Demon Lords by the kindness of his heart.
- The closest thing to an origin story most people would have for them is an old legend about a great sorcerer named Solomon, who made 72 homunculi (the Demon Lords) and used them to conquer the continent, until he one day went mad and vanished, the homunculi also losing their minds in his absence.
- Fantastic Racism: Due to being a beastperson, Miri has faced her fair share of prejudice and derogatory comments over it, to the point that she always wears a hat to cover her ears.
- Foil: There are shades of this between Ange and the various Demon Lords she fights, especially the first one. At first glance there's virtually nothing in common between the warrior heroine and the Eldritch Abomination... until the latter starts talking about how it just wants to go home, a sentiment that Ange notices and is stunned by (given how much she wants to do the same herself), enough to leave her vulnerable to the monster's attacks until she snaps out of it. This similarity makes even more sense when it's revealed that Ange herself is technically a Demon Lord, with the only difference between her and the rest is that she was found and raised by Belgrieve, who raised her well and instilled some humanity in her, almost by accident.
- Humble Hero: Belgrieve is definitely this, mostly in his embarrassment over people gushing over his (supposed) abilities and is never tempted to use the misconception for his own advantages. This also works the other way as Belgrieve is more skilled than he believes due to his age and handicap, just not nearly to the level his daughter makes him out to be.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Ange is this a lot in the first arc, as she wants nothing more than to visit her father, a goal that is being constantly stymied due to a combination of a recent uptick in dangerous monsters and the resignation of multiple other adventurers due to increasing demands of the guild in response to said monsters. Despite her constant grumbling about the situation (including complaining to the guild master about how poorly they seem to be handling the situation), it apparently never occurs to her to just quit and move to another guild herself. When asked by other adventurers (including the guild master) about this, she simply responds that she was taught by her father that it was natural for strong adventurers to help those weaker than themselves, and that he wouldn't approve of her abandoning those who needed her for the sake of her own desires. Upon hearing this, the adventurers present praise Belgraive as a great man (the guild master being especially thankful, considering the dire straits Orphen would have been in without Ange).
- Memetic Badass: In-Universe. Ange loves to gush about her father and how she was never able to beat him in a fight and gives him the moniker "Red Ogre", her enthusiasm and earnest attitude makes it easy for people to believe Ange's claims. It doesn't help that people who do meet him end up misinterpreting his abilities due to lucky circumstances and his attempts to correct them makes Belgrieve appear as a Humble Hero.
- Rotating Protagonist: The story rotates between Belgrieve's life in his hometown and Ange's adventures.
- The Reveal: Ange herself is an adopted Demon Lord that Belgrieve stumbled upon and raised without any context for what was going on— functionally turning her from a baby that was a potential Weapon of Mass Destruction into a heroic adventurer that can help save the world in the present.
- Shipper on Deck: Ange eventually grows to realize that A.) moms are cool, and that B.) she doesn't have a mom because Belgrieve never actually settled down and got married. Her response is to bride hunt for her father without his permission, pestering women and obsessing over the idea of trying to find someone that's a good fit for him. She has no idea that he did pine for someone in his youth that was an Unrequited Love.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: Generationally inverted and Downplayed. After leaving the village and not being home for 5 years, Ange and Belgrieve miss each other, though Ange is much more vocal (i.e. childish) than her father about it, and look forward to one day seeing each other. The first arc is basically Ange working to get the time off to go home for a visit only for circumstances to conspire to prevent this from happening.
