By Iota AIUE and Misa Sazanami. Released in Japan as “Nanashi no Ōjo to Reikoku Kōtei: Shītagerareta Yōjo, Konse de wa Ryū to Mofumofu ni Dekiai Sarete Imasu” by M Novels f. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by JCT.

I always enjoy it when a series with an “artifact title” manages to find a way to work it into future volumes regardless. An artifact title is when you title a book or a show after something that happens at the start that gets fixed, and you’re then left with that title even though it really doesn’t make sense anymore. See, for example, The Ideal Sponger Life. Third Loop was an obvious candidate, as the Nameless Princess gets a name at the end of the book: Angelina. As such, well, how is she nameless? This ssecond volume, though, comes up with something quite clever: people are calling her “the Polaris Princess”, but are seeing her as her title or her power rather than as a four-year-old girl. (To be fair, she’s mentally a lot older… well, kind of.) So she once again has o deal with enforcing her identity upon those who would deny it. Luckily, she has friends.

We’re coming up on a ten-day celebration and ritual for her older brother Kyril. Naturally, having won over everyone in the first book, Angelina will have a large role, despite being four years old. Indeed, one of the main parts of the ritual HAS to be done by her, as the Emperor, um, sort of killed off every other women in his family to ascend to the throne. As one does. That’s not the only issue she’s facing. The goddess of the Heavenly Sovereign Temple has descended for the ceremony, and she does Not Like Angelina At All. There’s also the issue of some wells in the commoner part of the kingdom freezing up… in high summer. Could this be related to the demon tribe that their nation has been at war with, who have arrived seemingly just to be jerks? And can Angelina really solve everything by gumption and cuteness?

Well, nearly. As I alluded to above, this series is not really very good at making Angelina act her age. This is not an uncommon problem with time loop or reincarnation stories that start with them as a baby – technically they should act like they’re in their thirties, but the reader wants to see her be an adorable kid who lisps when she gets stressed. But maybe that’s the way to keep her from being too OP, as it’s clear that Angelina being adorable and forthright solves almost every problem in this book. It’s how she gets gods on her side. It’s how she deals with introverted royalty, insecure priestesses, and her bodyguard and best friend. She’s weaponized being cute as a button. (Perhaps too much – I could have done without the standard “overprotective dad” joke where he worries his four-year-old girl is running away to get married.)

So yes, flawed. But honestly, if you’re hear for the cute? You can put up with a lot of flaws. And the gumption and forthrightness is also excellent.

By Iota AIUE and Misa Sazanami. Released in Japan as “Nanashi no Ōjo to Reikoku Kōtei: Shītagerareta Yōjo, Konse de wa Ryū to Mofumofu ni Dekiai Sarete Imasu” by M Novels f. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by JCT.

So there is a trend in fiction in general… honestly it’s always been a trend… to mine the tragic backstory of the protagonist for emotional trauma in the reader. We are shown how utterly, utterly TERRIBLE their life has been to date. Usually this ends up becoming “but then this happened and suddenly all my karma reversed at once”, be it meeting the prince of your dreams or just buying a Super Cub. Third Loop, of course, is one of those books. Honestly, the reason I was so looking forward to it was the sheer over the top ludicrousness of the backstory in question. Our heroine does not have a name. She’s just called “That”. That said, this particular book, while it does not minimize all of the abuse she’s gotten, is more of a Cinderella story than anything else, and most of the abuse stems from a very real place: grief.

Not only is Princess That despised by her father (who says if he ever sees her he will have her executed) and servants (her head maid is trying actively to destroy her life), but this isn’t even her first life: this is now the fourth time she’s been through this. In previous lives she’d never really experienced enough love from anyone to realize the extent of her abuse, but now, having lived in one life long enough to escape the royal estate and be taken in by a commoner family, she knows what actual love is. As such, she now decides to fight back, be it using her past memories to appear to be a genius or “messenger of heaven” or just looking really sad and crying in front of sympathetic maids and knights. And, as it turns out, she’s really quite powerful, and in this fourth life, things finally start to go her way.

For the most part I really enjoyed this. The Emperor, Feilong, was deeply in love with his wife, to the point where it actively caused political issues. (Honestly, the backstory of the previous generation sounds more interesting than the main one being told here.) Unfortunately, she died giving birth to her daughter, and in his crushing despair, he decided that his daughter killed her. That said… it does not really take much to change his mind. Honestly, everyone in this book, with the exception of the head of the inner palace, Mion (who is aiming to be the Emperor’s new wife), is relatively easily won over by the princess, because it turns out that she is not, in fact, a monster but is plucky, smart and cute. The one drawback in the book is that once her father and brother are won over, they start to have “jealous of other men who are close to her” rage, which is used comedically but made me sigh, especially since in this life, the princess is three years old for the majority of the book.

This is another one of those books that feels complete in one volume, but there’s apparently at least two more. Fortunately, the nameless princess gets a name before the end of this book. I bet they don’t change the title, though. A rewarding read if you can get past the traumatic backstory of everyone.