By Yoshiki Tanaka. Released in Japan as “Ginga Eiyū Densetsu” by Tokuma Shoten. Released in North America by Haikasoru. Translated by Matt Treyvaud.
Yang Wen-Li may be dead but Legend of the Galactic Heroes goes on, even if Yang’s ghostly presence hangs over much of this volume. Julian is trying to do things the way he thinks Yang would have wanted to, even to the point of hearing Yang’s dialogue in his head. He’s still got revenge on his mind, but it has to take a backseat. Much to his frustration, the fight against the Empire also has to take a back seat – he has in mind now trying to get the Empire to become more of a parliamentary democracy, but that’s a long-term plan, and also unlikely to happen with Reinhard in power. So Iserlohn is placed in a bit of stasis this volume, with its most dramatic decision being that of letting the Empire’s fleet pass by unmolested so that it can attack von Reuentahl’s fleet, as the long-foreshadowed rebellion is finally upon us. Oh well, at least it looks like he might be getting a tsundere girlfriend soon.
The “rebellion” is interesting, as it’s a setup, von Reuentahl knows it’s a setup, and yet he goes along with it anyway, partly as he’s fairly sure he wouldn’t be believed if he denied it but partly because, without Yang there to be the noble enemy, there’s nothing really stopping von Reuentahl from attacking the next best military genius – Reinhard. Of course, the joke is on him, as for once Reinhard allows himself to take a back seat and let Mittermeier handle things. They go about as well as you could expect, which is to say very badly for von Reuentahl, who can’t even bleed to death quietly in his office without being presented with his newborn child, the product of yet another love affair. This leads to one of the most bittersweet moments in the series, as a dying von Reuentahl asks the child be raised by childless Mittermeier and his wife. I wish it hadn’t gone this far, but at least there’s some good coming from it. Oh yes, and Trunicht was finally killed. That was great, he deserved it.
The book is not all doom and gloom, though it is mostly serious as always. After being verbally attacked for the massacre that happened about 7 books ago, Reinhard is in a mood and feeling depressed, and asks Hilda to stay the night with him. We don’t see the love scene that follows (though it’s made clear that they’re both dorky ignorant virgins, so it can’t have been that breathtaking), but we do get the aftermath, with Hilda fleeing back home saying “WTF have I done?” and Reinhard immediately showing up to propose. This whole section is actually very funny, and it’s nice to see Reinhard as a lover is about 1/100th as successful as Reinhard the military genius. That said, Hilda is “lucky” enough to get pregnant after this one-night stand, so after taking care of his little rebellion Reinhard proposes again, and this time Hilda accepts. Like most LOGH romances, this has been both obvious and incredibly slow burning, so is very satisfying to finally see.
The main story ends with the 10th and final volume next time. (There are more books with additional stories, but it’s not clear if those will be licensed.) With its huge cast getting smaller and smaller, what fresh new deaths await? Or can we finally achieve peace?