Now a second-year student at the academy, Seika is asked by the headmistress to participate in a combat tournament as the academy’s representative. Although he initially intends to decline, Seika changes his mind when introduced to the other representative, an uncanny girl named Mabel Crane. Between the unusual atmosphere about Mabel and the headmistress’s strange behavior, Seika decides there must be more to the tournament than meets the eye and elects to participate. What mysteries will the exorcist, committed to lying low, uncover as he advances in the tournament?

Teenager Shiinya Kazuya died while saving young girls from an attacker, only to find himself reincarnated into a world of swords and magic. It was a dream come true! Though he remembers his life and knowledge of Earth, he is now Cain von Silford, the third son of an aristocrat. Being granted the protection of the gods on his fifth birthday turned out to be too much of a good thing for Cain. His stats and boosts are so powerful, he must hide his real abilities to climb the ranks of society as he descends into the darkest dungeons. The ultimate isekai adventure begins as a teen-turned-child is trapped in a beautiful kingdom he didn't create, but might one day rule!

Tsubaki and Black*Star set off on their most difficult mission yet: a battle with the Uncanny Sword Masamune, a soul on the brink of becoming a Kishin. But this fight holds personal significance for Tsubaki - their target is her older brother. Jealous of her inherited talents, Masamune is holding nothing back. Usually docile and complacent, Tsubaki must find the strength to overtake the Uncanny Sword before she too is sucked into the darkness.

Serephione Granzeus is your average three-year-old girl...or so she thinks, until she meets Lou, the super-fluffy Holy Guardian White Tiger. Memories of her past life as a Japanese businesswoman come flooding back to her, and she realizes she’s part of a fantasy book she read before, but as the villainess. Yet her past life isn’t all that she remembers; she can recall her life as the original Serephione, and her sadness, and her pain... After making a contract with Lou, she comes up with a plan to change the plot and avoid the villainess’s dark fate: become an adventurer and avoid everyone from the book! But the more she diverges from the plot, the more unpredictable the other characters become. How will she keep everyone from learning her secrets and spoiling her plans?

This collection of 23 essays, presented in three sections, aims to discuss women’s studies as well as methodological and theoretical approaches to gender within the broad framework of ancient Near Eastern studies. The first section, comprising most of the contributions, is devoted to Assyriology and ancient Near Eastern archaeology. The second and third sections are devoted to Egyptology and to ancient Israel and biblical studies respectively, neighbouring fields of research included in the volume to enrich the debate and facilitate academic exchange. Altogether these essays offer a variety of sources and perspectives, from the textual to the archaeological, from bodies and sexuality to onomastics, to name just a few, making this a useful resource for all those interested in the study of women and gender in the past.

A long, long time ago, in the era of legends, there was a knight known as Sir Sid the Barbarian who pledged his sword to the Holy King Arthur. Unparalleled in strength, he was the greatest magical knight of his time, but also a disgrace to the name of chivalry. His evil deeds were countless, and eventually he met his end at the hands of his own king...or so the story goes. Now a thousand years have passed, and Sid is summoned from his eternal slumber by Alvin, a descendant of Arthur and a prince who knows the truth about Sir Sid the Lightning Knight. Honoring his ancient pact, Sid rises from the grave to help Alvin save the kingdom from impending peril and become the new instructor to Alvin’s class of fellow aspiring knights. As danger lurks in the shadows, Sid must train this class of underdogs to rely on more than just their magical fairy swords and teach them the old ways of the magic knights.

This American underground classic is a rollicking cosmic mystery featuring Albert Einstein and James Joyce as the ultimate space/time detectives. One fateful evening in a suitably dark, beer-soaked Swiss rathskeller, a wild and obscure Irishman named James Joyce would become the drinking partner of an unknown physics professor called Albert Einstein. And on that same momentous night, Sir John Babcock, a terror-stricken young Englishman, would rush through the tavern door bringing a mystery that only the two most brilliant minds of the century could solve . . . or perhaps bringing only a figment of his imagination born of the paranoia of our times. An outrageous, raunchy ride through the twists and turns of mind and space, Masks of the Illuminati runs amok with all our fondest conspiracy theories to show us the truth behind the laughter . . . and the laughter in the truth. Praise for Masks of the Illuminati “I was astonished and delighted . . . Robert Anton Wilson managed to reverse every mental polarity in me, as if I had been pulled through infinity.”—Philip K. Dick “[Wilson is] erudite, witty, and genuinely scary.”—Publishers Weekly “A dazzling barker hawking tickets to the most thrilling tilt-a-whirls and daring loop-o-planes on the midway to a higher consciousness.”—Tom Robbins “Wilson is one of the most profound, important, scientific philosophers of this century—scholarly, witty, hip, and hopeful.”—Timothy Leary