The Savior's Book Café Story in Another World (異世界に救世主として喚ばれましたが、アラサーには無理なので、ひっそりブックカフェ始めました Isekai ni Kyuuseishu toshite Yobaremashita ga, Around 30 ni wa Muri nanode, Hissori Book Café Hajimemashita) is a Shoujo-Isekai Fantasy Light Novel story written by Kyouka Izumi. It has a manga adaptation which is licensed in English by Seven Seas Entertainment.
Tsukina is a woman in her thirties who suddenly finds herself encountering an all-knowing, all-powerful orb claiming itself to be "God". Turns out Tsukina has been chosen to become the Savior to a Medieval European Fantasy.
She declines. She admits that she would have been stoked if she was asked to do this if she were still a teenager, but she has built a life for herself. Unfortunately for her, she doesn't have any real say in the matter, but she does have a say on how she can live her life in this new world.
Given great magic power, Tsukina decides to follow an old dream and start a Book Café, using her unlimited pool of mana and her new number of magical skills to achieve this.
Tropes:
- Achievements in Ignorance:
- Tsukina's literal god-given magical abilities makes her able to cast high-tier healing and defensive magics, using it for things like making restorative food and keeping her books from being damaged. That said, her age and the effort such magic would take makes her level of skill and cavalier use of them very noticeable. Later, "God" reveals that her first city-wide barrier (as in, the one that's been protecting Othel for months) was "ramshackle" and was going to go down anyway, but by the time she erects a second barrier, all the time she spent creating protective charms made her "level-up", her second barrier guaranteed to stick.
- The First Savior spends zero time learning magic and all she wished from "God" was that he make her prettier. Since all Saviors come with an unlimited pool of mana, this came with the added side-effect of making her a Charm Person, unconsciously bewitching the Prince of Othel and letting her get away with pretty much anything. Not only that, but the longer she goes without actually using her mana, the more that mana builds up, making her a ticking time-bomb of magic that could destroy an entire country if set-off.
- Artificial Human: Sham Saviors are an artificially created puppets created in Hagar in an attempt to supplement their lack of saviors (as "God" has been purposefully preventing any saviors from being sent there). They are all identical, genderless, and while having more magical power than the average human, are nowhere near as powerful as a genuine Savior. One such puppet, Bran, was sent to Othel to find and kidnap their savior.
- Badass Bookworm: Il is the captain of the royal guards and his favorite hobby is reading, which is what got him to become a regular at Tsukina's Book Cafe.
- Barrier Maiden: On top of healing magic, Tsukina is primarily adept at defensive spells. While she normally uses such power to protect her books from damage, she winds up having to erect a massive barrier over Othel when the First Savior unwittingly casts a Meteor-Summoning Attack. The barrier is so massive and impressive, not only does it manage to stay up and protect the Kingdom months after it was first cast, but it alerts the rest of the kingdom that there is a second savior amongst them.
- Charm Person:
- Instead of wishing for anything productive from "God", the previous Savior before Tsukina wished that he make her more attractive. This mixed with her massive reservoir of magic power led to her exuding a passive charm that bewitches the Prince of Othel, making him so smitten with her that he lets her get away with anything.
- Bran has a spell that lets everyone lower their guard when they're around, allowing them to walk in and out without arousing suspicion.
- Cosmic Keystone: While people have grown accustomed to seeing Saviors as heroes that slay monsters and involve themselves in humanity's politics, "God" admits that merely by existing, Saviors stabilize their surroundings and promote prosperity, not unlike a fusebox collecting and distributing energy. Just that fact that Tsukina uses her powers, even for Mundane Utility like imbuing food with healing magic or creating supplies for her Café, means she's performing her duties just fine.
- The Dog Bites Back: After Bran gets the orders for their country to kidnap Tsukina, who treated them with kindness, so they can exploit her Savior powers, they finally have enough and use their crystal to have the Sham Saviors in the royal palace explode, wiping out the royal family and their allies.
- Establishing Character Moment: Tsukina is introduced bluntly rejecting "God" telling her needs to go to another world because starting a new life would be troublesome. When it becomes clear she can't return to her own world and discovering "God" can grant her multiple wishes, she takes full advantage of it so she starts out with everything she needs to be able to live her fantasy of having a book cafe in Othel such as her book cafe, a pendant that can conjure what she needs, and the strongest defensive spells before she enters said new world.
- The Gods Must Be Lazy: "God" apparently picks his saviors at random, can't be bothered to send them back if they decline, doesn't tell anyone that he has no real limits on the number of unique abilities he can give them and apparently he isn't allowed to meddle in the affairs of his saviors in any meaningful capacity until the results turn apocalyptic. Given that this is "God" however, one can't be certain if this is him working in mysterious ways or if he just can't be bothered.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Due to the terrible example First Savior set mixed with the impressive display of power Tsukina anonymously displayed with her city-wide barrier, Youta has developed a complex over being seen as weak or incompetent as a savior. Add to the fact that the girl he has a crush on is already being spoken for (Tsukina), he loudly proclaims that he intends on surpassing both other saviors, no matter what it takes.
- Grew Beyond Their Programming: While Sham Saviors are made to serve as Red Shirts, Bran has enough of a personality to have doubts about his mission. When ordered to kidnap Tsukina, they instead explain the situation because Tsukina treated them with kindness and humanity and destroy the royal family and their allies remotely using the Sham Saviors before turning themselves in.
- Irony: Despite being more than content to just stay in her secluded book cafe and hide her status as a Savior, Tsukina does live up to her role far better than her predecessor and Youta because her kindness toward Bran leads to them deciding they'd rather die to wipe out the corrupt country officials that planned to kidnap her than allow that to happen, which does bring peace to the country of Hagar in the process.
- Karmic Jackpot:
- After accidentally destroying the barrier over Othel, Youta does the right thing, confesses to doing it and accepts whatever punishment the King may have for him. The Knights all gather around and sign a petition requesting leniency for him, citing that he has been nothing but good, kind and dedicated to everyone (especially when compared to his predecessor), with evidence suggesting that he was being manipulated by a foreign agent. Add onto the fact that Tsukina was able to erect a new barrier minutes after the first one came down, the damage was minimal and it will be unlikely that it will happen a second time.
- Tsukina treating Bran with kindness and humanity leads to Bran when getting the orders to kidnap her for their war-mongering country to rebel by having the Shame Saviors in the palace explode and wipe out the corrupt Hagar royal family and their allies.
- Kick the Dog: Being a Spoiled Brat who could get away with anything, the First Savior spends all of her free time abusing the staff. She chews out the chef for making food she doesn't like, has all the horses trapped in the stables when one of them startles her, and has a maid with years of experience working at the palace fired because she refused to give her her pendant.
- Love Triangle: Her hopeful and kind personality made Youta fall in love with Tsukina, but by that time she was already engaged with Il. After learning that she is the other savior, he proclaims Il his love rival and that he isn't giving up until she chooses him of her own free will. While polygamy is legal in Othel, no parties involved intend on sharing.
- Mark of the Supernatural: All saviors can be identified by a pentacle on their body marking them as such. Tsukina asks for her mark to be on the back of her head behind her hair to remain inconspicuous.
- Mundane Utility: "God" gives Tsukina The Power of Creation, Healing Magic and Defense Magic with the skill and mana level of an expert, and she uses all of this to run a Book Café on the outskirts of a thriving kingdom. Said casual and constant use of her magic allows her to train her magic to the point she can create a barrier surrounding the country that lasts for months.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The second prince impulsively stabs the First Savior when she starts summoning a meteor storm with her tantrum and out of control magic. When the crisis is over, he's so horrified that he requests to be executed for the crime. However, because the First Savior survived and no one died in the subsequent meteor storm, his sentence was reduced to years of imprisonment instead.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Literally. In his quest to attain ultimate savior power, Youta accepts a Tome of Eldritch Lore from a hooded stranger. When a swarm of monsters attack the barrier around Othel, he conjures up an attack spell that was supposed to pass through the barrier, but instead crashes through and destroys it instead.
- No Name Given: The savior preceding Tsukina's name is never given.
- Oblivious Guilt Slinging: When he learns that the First Savior is (apparently) destroying the entire kingdom rather than learn a single spell, Il curses out all Saviors and their greed right next to Tsukina. This prompts her to step up and save the kingdom.
- Old Maid: Tsukina is 33 and has never had a boyfriend or romance, preferring her books and friends. Il is a Rare Male Example who dedicated all his time to his duties despite his friends and family constantly trying to get him a wife. Naturally, they fall for each other. The book even mocks the trope by having Tsukina comment at one point that her romance with Ill feels like a shoujo manga, but surely there's no demand for a protagonist as old as her.
- The Poorly Chosen One: "God" apparently picks his saviors at random, and the reason why he had to summon Tsukina was because his last pick was a Spoiled Brat uninterested in learning any magic or doing anything in the job description.
- Power Crystal: All of Hagar's Sham Saviors are powered by a gemstone they created by accident. It's imbedded in Bran's chest and has to be replenished with food. Should anything happen to it (and by extension, Bran), the Shame Saviors all die.
- Power Fantasy: Deconstructed. "Isekai" as a genre has a lot of Power Fantasy elements to it, and a lot of Chosen Ones (most of which are teenagers) in this setting Jumped at the Call when given the opportunity. Never mind the fact that "God" chose them with no real reason other than they were at the right place at the right time, they are so gung-ho at the idea of going on an adventure that they don't stop to consider their options.
- Our protagonist, Tsukina, had no interest in going on account of being in her thirties and had already built a stable life for herself. Because of this, her Power Fantasy is to live peacefully in a Book Café without the stress of saving the world from monsters. This also means she ends up causing the least amount of trouble among the Saviors since she's mature enough to not use her powers recklessly.
- The previous Savior is a Spoiled Brat who's Power Fantasy is to live a life of luxury free of consequences, getting live out that life after having charmed the Prince of Othel where she can bully her wait-staff, her status as Savior protecting her from anyone who takes umbrage.
- Youta, the Savior that comes after the previous one, has a Power Fantasy of being able to help others. Unfortunately, a combination of feeling inferior to Tsukina's Savior powers, plus his own over-eagerness and impatience results in him easily accepting a forbidden tome from a hooded stranger (an agent from a war-mongering country) in attempt to get stronger faster that almost causes a disaster on its own.
- The Power of Creation: "God" gives Tsukina a pendant that allows her to magically conjure literally anything she wants, using it to stock her Café with everything it could need.
- Secret-Keeper: When Il finds out that Tsukina is a Savior, he decides to keep it to himself, both because he knows that Tsukina would rather live a quiet life, and because he knows that if she's known as a savior she'll have plenty of suitors and he wants to keep her for himself.
- Slow Life Fantasy: While the world has the political intrigue and impressive magic of your typical Isekai, the protagonist Tsukina esques the usual Power Fantasy associated with the genre in favor of making a Book Café.
- Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: While Tsukina would rather spend her days running her Book Café in peace, "God" informs her that because the First Savior refuses to learn any magic, her unlimited pool of mana will build and build and eventually, should her emotions run too high, result in an explosion with an enough force to destroy an entire country. Sure enough, this does end up happening and Tsukina's barrier is what prevents anything worse from happening.
- Super Prototype: While every other sham savior are all mindless drones, the first sham savior Bran has emotions, some level of free will and is capable of intelligence gathering, as well as being the one to possess the Power Crystal that powers them all.
- War Hawk: The country of Hagar has a corrupt government and royal family that desires to conquer other countries. "God" purposely never sends any Saviors to that country because they would be happy to exploit the immense power of Saviors as weapons.
- Wasteful Wishing: While Tsukina had the sense to ask for specifics of her wishes (including the fact that she can ask for more than one wish), all the first Savior wanted was to make her pretty.
- Wham Episode: Chapter 11 ends with The Prince stabbing the First Savior, causing her magic to manifest as a Meteor-Summoning Attack crashing onto the city. This forces Tsukina to out herself as a Savior to Il.
- White Mage: Not being the combative type, Tsukina specializes in non-offensive magic, allowing her to cast healing magic, imbue food with healing magic, make her books indestructible and erect protective barriers.
- You Didn't Ask: "God" can give his chosen saviors as many magical wishes as they want, but they always assume that they can only grant one wish. Tsukina is the first person to ask and he grants all of her wishes, being as specific to what she wants that she's able.
