By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

Covers always spoil of course, but this one perhaps spoils a bit more than most. That said, we were due. Given that Rozemyne keeps being engaged to various people, as well as the clear “we are each other’s destined forever” relationship she has with Ferdinand, keeping her looking nine years old forever is a non-starter. That said, this is only one of the huge things to happen in this book. The time for set up volumes is done, we’re now ready to fire off all the guns on the wall. Fourth year? What fourth year? Instead we get war, or “true ditter” as the book calls it, with Rozemyne being forced to choose between the life of one man and the fate of the entire kingdom and chooses the one man, because really what has the kingdom ever done for her? And honestly, she has a point. In other news, Letizia manages to pass Hannelore for “most unlucky person in the series”, though that naivete costs her a lot more.

The book starts off relatively normally. Rozemyne is headed back to school for her fourth year, and there’s a lot to do. She has to prepare for the move to the sovereignty, investigate the giant magic circle only she can see above the school, and of course get everyone to pass all their exams and get first in her year again. Sadly, that last one won’t happen, as while praying to the odd statue on the 2nd floor of the library, she is whisked away to meet the Gods. There she gets a book!… forced into her head, with so much knowledge that it’s painful. Worse, it’s not even the entire book – about 30% is with someone else. (Ferdinand. Come on, it’s Ferdinand, we all know.) In addition, after seeing that her “vessel” is far too tiny for all the mana she has, they get the God of Growth to give Rozemyne the body to match her age at last… which, unfortunately, means a lot of PAIN.

She gets back (yes, this is still a summary, it’s that kind of book) to find that the school year has come and gone without her (no first in class for her… heck, she may have to redo the year) and that Georgine’s plans are far more advanced than anyone realized. Everyone prepares to combat Georgine, but Rozemyne is mostly going to leave that to others. Then, um, Ferdinand is poisoned. And is slowly dying. And crying out to Rozemyne via a psychic link (we actually saw this before like 25 books ago, with Myne calling out to Lutz to save her, so kudos there) so that she knows exactly what’s going on. Now they have to go to war IMMEDIATELY, which means they need more manpower. Gosh, if only Rozemyne was best friends with a girl whose father was head of the most war-happy duchy around…

So yeah. It’s a lot. Oddly, despite the poisoning and general dire things going on, the Rozemyne sections are still the light-hearted part, if only as whenever we cut to someone else’s POV it’s much worse. Letizia is totally schnookered into being an attempted murderer, and might be executed, and she also essentially had the corpse of her closest ally thrown at her feet. Meanwhile, Detlinde is 100% OK with a foreign invasion as long as people continue to praise her and kowtow to her, though she perhaps is unaware that it’s all massively phony. (Her attendant isn’t, but sorry attendant, pretty sure you are also going to die by the end of this.) And then there’s Ferdinand, who still expects Rozemyne to have the common sense of this world, and also have an ounce of romance in her body, and she has neither of these things. Consciously, at least. Even if you don’t ship them, you have to feel bad for him.

Next time, TO WAR! Bookmaking will be taking a back seat for a while. Also, this series may end with Rozemyne as the supreme ruler of everyone. Be afraid.