By Sasara Nagase and Mitsuya Fuji. Released in Japan as “Yarinaoshi Reijō wa Ryūtei Heika o Kōryaku-chū” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by piyo.

As I write this, we are less than a day away from the premiere of the anime version of this series. As such, I wish to make it clear that I am well aware of the problematic nature of this series. We’ve discussed it before. The series opens with incest, and then it ends up hitting “I’m going to marry a ten-year-old”. It is the definition of “oh dear”. And I am here to tell you that the author is absolutely reveling in it. Given a chance to, say, have a timeskip, or perhaps move away from the incestuous kingdom, she instead insists on doubling down on everything. This volume in particular talks about how awkward it is for Jill to be eleven years old multiple times, and it also manages somehow to double the incest! Unfortunately… or, well, fortunately, to be honest… that does not double the fun. I can tell you that both plotlines are for plot-related reasons, and the plot is insidious, and REALLY wants war.

After the relative light-heartedness of the last volume, we’re bundled back into political intrigue at Jill and Hadis’ home base in this volume. There’s been a poor harvest, and the three dukes whose support Hadis need are 100% ready to throw Jill under the bus at a moment’s notice. They propose an impossible task – revive the Dragon Flower Crown Festival, something which will require the help of all the other consorts who stay at the Empress’ palace. Unfortunately, they’re all (well, almost all) trying to sabotage Jill – clearly at the behest of some mysterious party. Oh yes, and Jill has been getting mysterious love letters confessing to her and urging that she meet in the Garden of Resting Dragons… a place well known for adulterous affairs. There’s a mad old man setting traps in the Dragon Consort’s Palace (a place Jill didn’t even realize was there). Oh yes, and Minerd’s back, and totally not planning something evil.

It’s refreshing to see this series come back to “at any moment, history will revert and Jill will die” territory again. We’re not quite there yet, but we’re one step closer to war, thanks to the events near the end of this book, which lean heavily on the squickiest of the series’ plotlines and rub it in our faces. it’s chilling. As for the actual bad guy, well, they’re rather pathetic and sad, but that’s the point, and fits pretty well with everything that we’ve heard bfeore. Much better are the other consorts, who theoretically present an enemy that Jill simply can’t beat to submission with her fists. She is being forced to actually think politically and scheme… and then, when that doesn’t work, she beats them to submission with her fists. Jill does not quite shout “IT’S CLOBBERIN TIME!” once a volume, but it’s not for lack of trying.

After that nasty cliffhanger, it’s a good thing we’ve got the next volume coming s–what’s that? Short story volume? Sigh. Of course. In any case, please enjoy this series, which rampages through its problematic aspects with TINY FISTS.

By Sasara Nagase and Mitsuya Fuji. Released in Japan as “Yarinaoshi Reijō wa Ryūtei Heika o Kōryaku-chū” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by piyo.

After four volumes of absolute breathtaking drama, where you worry every single page that Jill is going to either die or end up thrust into a war that will cause everyone else to die, it’s a relief to have a volume that is comparatively a relaxing romp. Oh, don’t get me wrong, the main plotline is still “there’s a secret plot to destabilize things so that the Dragon Emperor will be forced to go to war and the timeline can go back to its old, Jill-is-dead self, but that’s the plotline of the series as a whole. Whereas this book reads like Nagase-san took a reader poll saying “Hey, if I was to have Jill in any cliched situation you can imagine, what would it be?”. And the winning entry was absolutely “I want to see Jill as the new teacher having to deal with a bunch of awful delinquent students who just need the power of someone who cares and can punch them hard.” “Can she wear a cap?” “Oh God yes.”

Jill has plans. She doesn’t want to just be a good wife to her future husband, and she doesn’t want to just punch everything in sight in his name. She wants to help him make her adopted nation even better. Towards that end, she’s come up with a plan for an academy, and wants to go to the nearby La Baier military academy in the Grand Duchy of Laika… which, coincidentally, also has another member of the royal family there – Hadis’ younger brother – as well as a noble who Jill remembers as being a schemer in her previous life. Jill is approved to attend the academy – honestly, approved far too fast – and Hadis ends up tagging along, because of course he does. Unfortunately, when she gets there, she finds not only that the younger brother is one of the worst of the delinquents, but that she’s not there as a student… but as a teacher?

I’ve said this before, but I love how this author always seems to know exactly what the audience for these books want. Yes, a lot of tense intrigue and action, with one false move and the series will end forever tension. But, more importantly, the fact that Jill and Hadis rarely feel that tension themselves. After the events of the last book, Hadis has discovered that the best way to both get revenge on Jill for ignoring him and also find her at her most attractive is to infuriate her, and also possibly side with the enemy. (The actual enemy is in flux through a lot of this volume, and will involve even more of the extended family from hell.) Everything may be going to hell in a handbasket, people’s lives are at stake, but that doesn’t stop these two nitwits from fighting like they’re flirting and vice versa. It is, frankly, cute.

Unfortunately, there’s a nasty cliffhanger that suggests that we may be back to “everyone is trying to destroy Jill’s happiness” next time around. Fortunately, the next book is out very soon, so we can suffer then. This is, almost, a fluffy respite.

By Sasara Nagase and Mitsuya Fuji. Released in Japan as “Yarinaoshi Reijō wa Ryūtei Heika o Kōryaku-chū” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by piyo.

I feel confident in saying that very few readers of this series will have gone through the same thing that Jill has. Which is good, really, because yikes, Jill once again goes through some stuff in this book. We’ve been reading the series from her perspective, and of course we know it’s a villainess-style “back in time” story, so we’re expecting a lot of fighting fate and never giving up, etc. The problem is that everyone else in the world does NOT have Jill’s perspective. And to them, this is absolute lunacy, and the Dragon Emperor is going to go mad, start a war, and destroy everything. Why on earth would they let this 11-year-old (yup, still, just assume I talked about it already) do whatever the hell she wants just because she says that the two of them are in love? Especially when that love is tested – again – and Jill is forced to once again fight for everything she’s achieved to date or else everything will be set back to the original track.

Jill and Hadis are headed off to get permission to marry from her parents, which requires essentially going through days of traps and dangerous travel because, unsurprisingly, Jill’s entire family are all as eccentric as she is. (It turns out she did the wrong test, too, because Jill is still not the brightest bulb.) Unfortunately, Jill has assumed this will mostly involve her dad saying “you can’t date my daughter, you cur!” and other wacky light novel cliches, forgetting that her family are, in fact, part of the kingdom of Kratos, and that it would be much, much easier, instead of agreeing to Jill and Hadis getting married, to start a war to get Jill away from him. Something which, to Jill’s horror, Hadis is 100% okay with.

Probably the best part of this book (aside from the ending, where Jill once again proves there’s no problem that cannot be solved by extreme violence) is how it ties back to the rest of the series. It’s paying close attention to its backstory, and has not forgotten about the other taboo subject in the series, with is Gerald and his sister starting the whole plot off with their incest. First of all, everything we’ve seen about Gerald in this new timeline makes that seems puzzling, as he just doesn’t seem the type. Then his father, who is a real piece of work, explains what’s actually going on to Natalie, who appears to be taking the role of Jill in this new timeline since Jill has abdicated. It’s not completely explained, but it’s certainly ominous, and is not helped by Faris, who appears to be about to go full evil. I also really liked the look we got at the past Dragon Consorts, and how they all tried to have a wonderful relationship with the Emperor only for it to fall apart. It weighed the tragedy and fate just right.

Assuming you kept reading past the basic premise, this is an excellent volume in the series, from an author who really knows how to make everything feel that the words “BAD END” will appear on the very next page.