Yes, this is another one – a light novel where one protagonist buys a romantic interest as a slave. By my count, The Abandoned Heiress Gets Rich with Alchemy is the third aimed at a female readership to be released in English, following The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life and Sugar Apple Fairy Tale, both translated by Yen Press. This one is from Cross Infinite World, and it really falls squarely in the middle of the other two in terms of how it handles the slavery bit of its plot: Chloe isn't as reluctant as Anne to purchase a slave, and like Mariela, she's quick to develop much more of a working relationship with him. There's a definite pragmatic element across all three titles as well – the main reason Chloe buys Julius is that she needs help; as an alchemist, she gets ingredients by hunting monsters, and that's not something she can safely do alone, even if she's been okay thus far. She's a little more likely to treat Julius as a slave than her counterparts, for one very specific reason: three years ago she learned that she couldn't trust anyone.

That's another thing Chloe has in common with other light novel heroines of recent years. Three years before the novel begins, Chloe lost her family, fortune, and fiancé after she was framed as a villain(ess). After her mother's death when she was thirteen, Chloe discovered that her father had been having an affair with another woman, and he promptly married her, moving Chloe's new stepmother and her half-sister Aliza into the ducal home. Aliza is only one year younger than Chloe, and she has no interest in being friends. Cowed by her more forceful personality, Chloe retreats into herself, which Aliza uses to her own advantage, framing Chloe and the duke for crimes against the crown and herself specifically. This results in the duke's death and Chole being first jailed, then thrown out on the streets, where she is assaulted. Before the knights can rape her, she's saved by an alchemist, who teaches her the trade. Chloe spends the next three years reinventing herself while her sister marries her former fiancé and becomes queen.

Chloe's past affects her future much more than she wants anyone, readers included, to know. At first, her narration is annoying, full of proclamations of her genius and beauty, but as the novel goes on, we realize that's all a front. Chloe is basically putting on a show to convince herself that she's a stronger person than she used to be in the hopes of turning her life around. To a degree, it works. She's able to establish herself in business and forms solid relationships with the townsfolk. But when she buys Julius, an enemy general forced into slavery as part of a peace deal, her careful constructions begin to crack. Although she talks a good game, it's clear that she sees herself in Julius and that she has zero intentions of enforcing the spells that would make him subservient to her. What she really wants is someone she can trust and care for without fear of them turning on her. Although technically she has ownership over him, Julius is that person for her. In no small part that's because he's gone through similar horrors, but their relationship really does come across as much more equal than anything else. Obviously, this isn't ideal – she still purchased him, and that's uncomfortable. Mostly it feels as if author Miyako Tsukahara just didn't put a lot of thought into the whole slavery thing, which doesn't do it any favors as a plot device.

The writing and translation are fairly good, with two things standing out as minor annoyances. The first is the amount of repetition, which is likely a fault of the original Japanese text. In part it feels intended to show how Chloe is actively working to convince herself of things; she has a few words she's really fond of that sound nearly motivational in the way she uses them. While this can be a bit irritating as a reader, it does work decently well with her character. The only translation nitpick is the way that Chloe's preferred style of dress is called an “apron dress.” While this is technically correct, it's also not the most common way to refer to what seems to be either a pinafore or a jumper in the American sense (as in a dress that's meant to be worn over a shirt). It's true that “pinafore” can sound old-fashioned, but given the pseudo-European past the book uses as its setting, I do think it would have been a smoother choice.

Although there is no number one on the cover, indicating that this is a stand-alone novel, it could easily have a sequel, and that would be just fine. Despite the tricky slavery bit and the repetitive language, the story is engaging, and as a bonus features a particularly adorable dragon. Chloe is a little bit like a more confident version of Violette from I Swear I Won't Bother You Again!, and Julius is a pretty classic tsundere, a combination that works surprisingly well. The Abandoned Heiress Gets Rich with Alchemy is a generally pleasant read, especially if you like to see the real bad guys get what's coming to them.