Clockwise from right: Cain, Telestia, Silk, and Tijuana.
The Aristocrat’s Otherworldly Adventure: Serving Gods Who Go Too Far is a Japanese light novel series written by Yashu. The series originated on the Shousetsuka ni Narou website in October 2016, before being published in print with illustrations by Mo by Hifumi Shobō beginning in June 2017 under their Saga Forest imprint. A manga adaptation, illustrated by Nini, began serialization on Mag Garden's Mag Comi manga website in March 2018. An anime television series adaptation by EMT Squared and Magic Bus aired from April to June 2023.
A Japanese teen is killed while defending two girls from a mugger. Seven gods from a fantasy world reward him by reincarnating him as Cain von Silford, the son of a noble, with his memories of his past life. The gods also grant him many abilities that allow him to easily defeat opponents and solve problems. As he grows up to be an adventurer and struggles to deal with the affections of several girls, he is unaware that the gods summoned him because a great evil will awaken around his 16th birthday.
The work provides examples of the following tropes:
- Accidental Marriage: All three of Cain's fiancées are cases of this.
- Telestia and Silk, the princess of the kingdom and the daughter of a high-ranking noble respectively, become engaged because he relented and allowed them to link arms; in his eyes, it seemed innocent enough, but what he didn't know was that it was effectively broadcasting that they were marrying him in the eyes of nobility, so he was left with no choice but to take them on as his actual fiancées. Of course, they were so smitten with him that they were more than happy with the arrangement.
- Tifana had made a vow that she, being the strongest knight in the kingdom, would only marry a man who was capable of defeating her; something Cain didn't find out until after doing just that. And, because she's the daughter of a high-ranking noble who is the king of the territory he oversees in all but name, he effectively can't say no to her.
- The Ace: Cain is so ridiculously good at everything that he tries to restrain himself when possible. "Tries" being the keyword here, since all the seven gods maxed out his blessings at the highest peak that it becomes a Running Gag for him to effortlessly killing calamity-level monsters, creating items that makes normal pouches that can only hold two carriages worth of items look cheap by comparison, and this often gets the attention of his father and the King, Duke, and Prime Minister. Even after he reveals he's a reincarnation.
- Actually Pretty Funny: Any time Cain does something really outlandish, Duke Eric can't help but laugh at all the absurdity whenever Cain is involved.
- Adaptation Explanation Extrication: The intro and the episode where Cain meets Yuya in his backyard shows three graves. The graves of his parents and Yuya's wife. In the anime, Yuya invites Cain in his backyard where Yuya buried Megumi and Seiya, but he doesn't explain the third grave and Cain doesn't say whom it belongs to.
- Adaptational Wimp: In the manga adaptation, Tfana was strong enough to corner Cain and break his wooden sword in half, which forces Cain to improvise and uses the broken half to win the mock battle. In the anime, Cain's sword remains intact when he causes her to be off-guard..
- Adapted Out: Cain's brothers' mother Maria doesn't appear in the anime.
- Always Someone Better:
- Cain to practically everyone. Because he has perfect 10 in every category by the gods, no one can realistically catch up to his level even if he tries to show restraint.
- Cain himself is at the receiving end of this. Has Derain notes, he's stronger than Cain while Yuya is stronger than him. Because Cain needs to train at level 600, Derain trains him up to get an even footing with Aaron, who's stronger than everyone.
- Alien Non-Interference Clause: Deities aren't allowed to interfere with the internal affairs of the world they helped created. Only give blessings and hope for the best.
- All for Nothing: Kazuya Shiina didn't have to stop the robber terrorizing a convenience store. He would had defeated himself by tripping, and a crowd of people would have ganged up on him. Despite this, Zenom asks Rime to reincarnate him with his memories intact as a reward for his selfless act. The knife robber who accidentally killed him ends up being charged for murder.
- Arranged Marriage: It'd be easier to list over who Cain isn't engaged to.
- First, he saves Telesie and Silk while they're on their way to the kingdom for their debuts from a horde of orcs. After he saves them, the girls asked him to stay with them in their carriage, and he obliges. Then the girls locked hands with him, which everyone assumes that they're in a relationship with him, and he ends up being engaged to them.
- Second, Cain was asked to train the kingdom's knights. Then Tifana thinks they were picking on a child. When Dyme tells her he's actually supposed to help train the knights, she then challenges him to a mock battle and wins. Cain is unaware that Tifana will not marry anyone unless they defeat her in which he does, and she ends up being his third bride in waiting.
- Third, after the king publicly announces Cain's engagement with the three girls, the Saintness Hinata states that the gods told her to take Cain as her husband, in which everyone including Cain and the King were floored over the news. She has yet to move over to his domain for the engagement.
- Back from the Dead: Rather than dying and being reincarnated, Yuya and Kazuya's parents died, then their souls were transferred into the new world. They were to fight Aaron after causing the entire world into wars.
- Beam-O-War: Faced with the Big Bad, Cain engages one with Aaron. However, he uses a more powerful spell that not only vaporized the black dragon Aaron was possessing, but his two familiars tries to get him to stop and Seth tells him he already won.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Cain is the nicest kid you'll ever want to be friends with. But do not make him mad. While visiting Dorinthol, the local lord abused a family of demi-humans whose mother he's healed, and cuts the legs of the lord, and heals his legs so he can stand trial.
- Creative Sterility: Without Aaron, deities are unable to create anything new to entertain their immortal or amoral time in the heavens.
- Deity of Human Origin: Yuya is the God of Creation who created the new world. And thus, he can't interfere with internal affairs with humans.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: When Cain defeats a red dragon, he didn't think much of it, and needed it to make a bag for his tutors. Then when he fixes a mansion the king gave him, and mounts the thing, his maids and father were utterly shocked because red dragons are calamity-class monsters that A-Class Adventurers would have trouble with. And ye, Cain effortlessly kills it despite being ten.
- Fantasy Pantheon: 7, formerly 8, gods and goddess. Each have responsibility over a specific area. Can cross over with The Dividual since they are rarely seen as individual entitles. Rather all 7 are always seen at the table together.
- Freudian Slip: At one point, Cain is asked what he is. He responds that he is a "high school student", but backtracks a moment to correct himself to saying he is 5 Year Old Boy.
- Good Parents: Despite the grief his parents get when Cain does something ridiculous, they still love him as his son. And despite revealing that he was reincarnated into the world, Cain still sees and loves Garm and Sarah as his parents.
- Greater-Scope Paragon: Yuya Terra Hirasawa was the first Japanese person to reincarnate into the world before Cain did. As such, he wrote the Emperor's Spellbook in Japanese, and no one in the world knows how to read it. When Cain reveals that he is also a Japanese reincarnate, those involved kept it a secret.
- Hate Sink: Marquis Corgino and his son Habit are Upper-Class Twit Fat Bastards who love to throw their weight around and cause no end of grief for people of lower rank, especially Cain. Corgino's Jerkass attitude didn't go unnoticed by the king, and Habit keeps getting a humble pie any time he and his friends trouble Cain or his friends.
- Henpecked Husband: Cain meets with an A-Rank Adventurer named Claude when some thugs try to pick a fight with him. As they are both drinking (Cain is still a kid, so he drinks juice), his wife Lina finds him nearly drunk and drags him by his ear for their next assignment.
- Hero of Another Story: Yuya Terra Hirasawa was the first Japanese reincarnate into the world before Cain was born. He was an Adventurer until he became an Emperor. He leaves behind the Emperor's Spellbook that only a person from Japan can read, since no one can read it.
- Klingons Love Shakespeare: Deities love entertainment stuff that comes from earth, and ask Cain to (re-)invent it in the new world so they can get it in the heavenly plane.
- Language Barrier: Everyone in the world can understand each other fine in this world, but one language the first emperor can read and write becomes a plot point: Japanese, and that's because Yuya Terra Hirasawa was actually transported into the world before Cain was born, and the king rightfully believes there was a connection between him and Yuya because the Emperor's Spellbook is written in Japanese and no one else can read it.
- Mayfly–December Romance: Cain ends up being engaged with Tifana, making her his first elf fiancée as well as his third overall general fiancée.
- New Life in Another World Bonus: Cain gets blessings from all 7 gods, to max out his growth potential. Despite all the trouble this causes Cain, the head god says that he is going to need all that power in a decade to help save everyone.
- Older Than They Look: When Cain spends a few years in Yuya's world, 7 years had passed and as a result, he's 17 years old once he returns to his own world, and Yuya changes Cain back to his 10 year old self.
- Parental Abandonment: Kazuya was an orphan when his parents were gone, and was raised by his grandfather who also passed away. Yuya, who was friends with them, tells Kazuya that they died in battle against Aaron while trying to seal him away. Since then, he had them buried outside his house, and Kazuya collapses on his knees when he sees their headstones.
- Past-Life Memories: Cain has them, returning to him at the age of 5.
- Polyamory: It's not uncommon for noblemen to have multiple wives. Cain was born from his father's second wife, and has two older half-brothers. Cain himself is set to marry several women.
- Power Incontinence: Pretty much 90% the trouble Cain faces is due to how insanely powerful he is, being that he has a perfect 10 in all seven of the Gods' protections in a world where it's exceedingly rare for a person to have more than two or three protections, and the highest known number in recorded history is around 5. Because of how insanely powerful he is, he is thus constantly performing feats that no mere human, let alone a 5-12 year old child, should be capable of, even when he's actively trying to hold back (which is basically all the time).
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The King. Or at least he tries to be as every time Cain overdoes something it leaves him shocked and accurately aware of how powerful Cain actually is. Still, he's quick to realize the importance of keeping in good standing with Cain rather than risk him being swayed over to another kingdom.
- Rescue Romance: Telestia and Silk fall for Cain after he saves them from a group of orcs.
- Reincarnate in Another World: Cain was killed in Japan, then reincarnated in another world.
- Royal Favorite: Cain quickly endears himself to the King after he's engaged to the princess. There's also a pragmatic reason with King recognizing Cain's immense talent and wanting to keep him loyal to the kingdom.
- Running Gag: Cain has a running gag throughout the series of attempting to do the right thing, but it hilariously backfiring on him for one reason or another.
- Cain dies due to being stabbed by a mugger. But, as one of the goddesses reveals, the mugger would have defeated himself by tripping over his own feet and then being dogpiled on by bystanders. Making it a Senseless Sacrifice.
- Cain understands that if people knew about his stats and blessings, there would be plenty of people who consider him a threat. So, he does things to hide his power or disguise his stats. The problem is, he doesn't lower it enough, and what he does show would still be astronomically high for a full-grown adult with years of experience under his belt, let alone a 5-year-old who just got magic. This later ends up playing a part in forcing him to reveal that he was reincarnated in Episode 6.
- Cain's attempts to gather materials to make bags end up sending streams of fire into the air from the Forest of Monsters, which a guard mistakes as a monster preparing for a raid. The guard informs Cain's father, the domain lord, and therefore the one who leads the charge into battle to defend the domain. When the cavalry arrives to fight the monsters, all they find is a crater left behind from Cain's magical attacks on monsters and a handkerchief with the emblem of Cain's family on it, making it pretty easy for his father to figure out who was out there and what he was doing. In the stinger for the episode, you see him lecturing Cain over his recklessness and foolishness.
- Cain attempts to make 2 bags for his departing tutors and makes them Bigger on the Inside as one would expect a bag to do if it was bought at the store. The problem is, a storage bag would, at most, hold the equivalent of 2 carriages, not including the carriages themselves; whereas his bags could hold a mansion, including the materials the mansion is made of. This means that he just handed his tutors items that are national-class, if not above.
- Cain's attempt to rescue people from a monster army, ends up exposing his power to the royal family since one of the people he rescues is the princess. This has some ripple effects on him:
- The king is so impressed with the feat, he gives Cain a title, a mansion, and 10 platinum coins, presumably the highest currency of the kingdom. This is both as a thanks for rescuing his daughter, but also to help keep him in the kingdom and capital, where he could be of use to the entire nation.
- The princess and the daughter of the Duke become smitten with Cain and insistently ask to be with him at all times. Cain, not used to being the object of affection for girls, along with trying to be polite to someone of a higher noble rank, tries to politely resist, but eventually gives in and ends up linking arms and sharing beds with them. While everything pretty much stays innocent, the appearance of these acts makes people think they are all in a relationship, so the King and the Duke ask for Cain to take their respective daughter's hand in marriage.
- Satanic Archetype: Aaron was formerly the God of Amusement who corrupts and manipulates kingdoms into elaborate death games. He was also the one responsible for the deaths of Cain's parents from his previous life prior to being sealed away.
- Senseless Sacrifice: Cain is reincarnated in another world as compensation from the seven gods due to the fact that the assailant with the knife was going to be caught regardless if he intervened. Zenom tells her to reincarnate him as a reward, and the God of Creation allowed him to be reincarnated into his world.
- Shout-Out: Cain brushes off one of Corgino's demands with "I cannot acquiesce to your request".
- Spoiled Sweet:
- Cain was born and raised into nobility, and the third son of his father Margrave Garm and his second wife Sarah, and Reine's younger brother, along with two half brothers. Despite his noble status, he doesn't flaunt his nobility onto others and detests those who do, such as Habit, a Spoiled Brat who is the son of Marquis Corgino who is a Fat Bastard that looks down on commers and lower nobility.
- Telestia and Silk are the daughters of the King and Duke Eric that they too look down on noble children that looks down on commoner children.
- Tifana, an elf princess, is shown to be a nice person despite her training regimes, and her hilariously one-sided love for Cain.
- Spotting the Thread: When he learns about the history of the Kingdom of Esfort, Cain notices the first king's name sounds Japanese, suspecting he's not the first transplant to this world.
- Token Heroic Orc: Cain accidentally summons Seth, The Prince of Darkness, and they both decide to form a contract. Once an Onslaught starts, he summons Seth to help fight off the monsters, and even have the Four Heavenly Kings to help the humans. Then his wife shows up, and seeing her as a nice person, Teles and Silk befriend her, and reciprocates in kind.
- Unwanted Harem: First, Cain is engaged to Telese, the princess and Silk, Duke Eric's daughter after saving them from orcs. And then he becomes engaged to Tifana after he defeats her in a sparring match. And by the gods' admission, Hinata the Saintess becomes his fourth engagement partner. Cain cannot catch a break.
- Wham Episode: Episode 6. Cain is forced to reveal that he is not only a reincarnator, but also reveal his stats and blessings to not just his father but also the Duke and the King. Knowing how insanely powerful and earnest Cain is; they decide to keep this a secret.
- Wretched Hive: When the King gives Cain domain to Dorinthol, the place more or less upside-down, and several nobles have abandoned it completely. Until Cain showed up that is.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: Yuya's pocket dimension is a year inside while a day outside. He gives Cain the task to train to level 600 to fight Aaron.
