By Masekinokatasa and Kaito Shinobu. Released in Japan as “Tenseishitara Koutei deshita: Umarenagara no Koutei wa Konosaki Ikinokoreru ka?” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Gwendolyn Warner.

Of all the series to be reminded of while reading this isekai military fantasy, I was not expecting it to be The Executioner and Her Way of Life. But with this volume, it’s unavoidable. Executioner has at its core the premise that being isekaid’s to another world can be bad, especially if you’re not the only one. Catastrophic world ending things happen because Formerly Japanese folks get magical power and abilities and go slightly mad. And while that’s not happening here, it is very clear that this world has the potential for also wiping out civilizations because of their interdimensional travelers. Not only is Carmine not the only reincarnator, but there are absolute piles of them out there, some of whom are on his side but some of whom are working for the enemy… and easily manipulable. And they’re also having children, who sometimes have to suffer for the sins of their parents. Carmine will have a rough ride ahead.

When we last left Carmine, he was finding that his legendary victory was not without a cost, that being everyone suddenly deciding that now is the time to turn and wipe him out. Fortunately, (military things) and he is able to return to the palace, where plans are afoot for him to marry Rosaria… at least in two years, once he’s fifteen, the age of adulthood in this world. He also is urged by Rosaria to take Nadine and Vera-Sylvia as his concubines, which he pushes back against at first but is reminded that this world runs on politics rather than love and caves in… that said, he clearly also likes them, and they love him. After this he goes on a campaign to take Teyanave… which ends up going very badly indeed because (military things). He is barely able to make it back in time for his wedding.

As you may have guessed by reading the above, I am the wrong audience for this series, even though I enjoy it a great deal. I really do not have any interest in the battles, the strategies, and how we get from point A to point B while losing as few men as possible. This series, and this book, really do love that. Expect more of me eliding in future reviews. For now, let me focus on my favorite part, which is Carmine and his wives. He is a classic case of “does not realize what a smooth player he is”, and it’s very amusing seeing him say bluntly to Rosaria, who lives in a world where everything is couched in subtle metaphor, how gorgeous she is and how much he owes to her. Other than that, the most interesting thing in the book was the introduction of Mei Hatsume… erm, Lady Valenriehl, the daughter of a reincarnator with a grudge against the Church but a fantastic mind for taking apart magic things. I like her. Carmine is very wary of her.

If you like military history you will eat this up. If you don’t, you are me, and I still liked the smaller parts of the book that were not that.

By Masekinokatasa and Kaito Shinobu. Released in Japan as “Tenseishitara Koutei deshita: Umarenagara no Koutei wa Konosaki Ikinokoreru ka?” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Jason Li.

Those who know my reviews by now could probably guess that I would find writing about this volume difficult. It is, after all, a massive medieval battle, complete with little maps showing the position of the troops and everything. This is still a book of “let’s sit down and explain politics, economics, ad history”, but now we get “warfare” in there as well. Still, buckle down, I will get through this. After all, that’s what Carmine has to do. His “reincarnated from Japan” doesn’t help him quite as much when it comes to things like this, and after all the Emperor should not be fighting one-on-one anyway. Carmine is going to have to set back and let other people fight so that he can survive. And that’s hard for him to sit still and just watch happen. Fortunately, he can occasionally duck into secret night sabotage, but near the end, when all seems lost, he has to ignore everyone around him and take up a sword himself.

Carmine and his troops are headed into battle against Duke Raul’s forces, and they have clever plans to ensure victory. Well, sort-of-clever. Plans that don’t hold up against actual medieval problems like the fact that measurements haven’t been standardized yet. Or the fact that it doesn’t matter how many commoners you trick into fighting for you if they’re too scared to actually go in for the kill when it matters. Or, and thanks to the blurb for this book for spoiling it, the fact that the enemy army is twice the size of Carmine’s own. Fortunately, there are certain advantages they have – the mana batteries, Carmine’s own magic, which will allow him to sabotage the enemy cannons, and of course Vera-Sylvie, who has stopped being a shy maiden who finds it hard to speak in a tower and has leveled up into being a shy maiden who finds it hard to speak but is a magical powerhouse. That said… the actual battle can’t be predicted.

Vera-Sylvie did pretty well, though this clearly is not somewhere she wants to be. It is, though, exactly where Nadine wants to be, and it has to be said, if Rosaria, Nadine, and Vera-Sylvie are all going to end up with Carmine (and this book points us even more to the fact that this is going to happen), They’re very good at balancing each other out. They even get along – Nadine warns against Carmine making Rosaria sad as a threat. Mostly as no one trusts Carmine not to try to fix things himself at the possible cost of his life. Carmine would say that he rushes in to fix things himself because he wants to live longer – he explicitly says here that he does not care at all about what happens to the Empire after he dies, as he’ll be dead and won’t care. Everything is for the Carmine of now to live as long as possible.

Which means that cliffhanger is just rude. Fortunately, that can be solved by looking at the cover art for the next volume, which if nothing else should give me something to write about.

By Masekinokatasa and Kaito Shinobu. Released in Japan as “Tenseishitara Koutei deshita: Umarenagara no Koutei wa Konosaki Ikinokoreru ka?” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Jason Li.

I appreciate that even now that we’ve had our coup and Carmine is allowed to not act like an idiot all the time, the best scenes in the book are still either him trying to be very clever and then realizing everyone was already way ahead of him, or him realizing that he’s kind of screwed up but can’t say anything about it. The latter is possibly the most darkly funny moment of the book, when his imprisoned mother pushes her lover out of the tower to his death, and everyone wonders why there were no bars in the window, and Carmine quietly realizes he removed them when it was Vera-Sylvie’s tower and forgot to replace them. OOPS. More awesomely, when Carmine points out (and you can see his logic) that he has to be on the battlefield leading the charge, he immediately gets some extra help he really does not want, because they know what he’s like, and “I might need to sacrifice myself” would be on the table unless they take it off.

The entire volume consists of the aftermath of Carmine taking power and trying to consolidate it, figure out who he can trust and who he has to execute, and preparing for war, as the sons of the folks he just murdered are declaring themselves independent and amassing armies. He can’t even really trust his own allies – his spymaster, at one point, deliberately makes himself less trustworthy to remind Carmine not to trust even those he’s closest to 100%. He’s always going to be the Emperor, which means he’s always going to be at risk of getting killed. His biggest concern besides allies is money and weapons, as well as an army to use those weapons. Money is the biggest worry, which is why he has to try to make a deal with the largest merchant company in the world right now. Fortunately, she, um, comes to him and offers a great deal? Not suspicious at all!

The most interesting part of the book was probably the meeting between Carmine and Hilaire Fechner, the head of the Golden Sheep Trading Company. Her behavior throughout the exchange, and even the interior art, makes you think of her as basically Mikuru from Haruhi, the sort who’s always crying and apologizing – she literally comes in apologizing in such a Japanese style Carmine suspects she too is reincarnated from Japan. Then of course we see her making deals and revealing secrets that essentially end up with everything going the way she wanted. You would expect most authors to at least confirm a little that she’s really crafty and this is an act, or have a side story from her POV later. But no, all we have is Carmine’s realization that she’s putting one over on them – the act doesn’t drop even for the reader, and it could be that she’s really like that. I want to see more of her.

You really, really need to be prepared for the lead character to ramble on about military alliances and trade agreements for 250 pages. If that’s your cup of tea, and you don’t mind that Carmine is still too young to have this series get TOO harem-ey, this could be right up your alley.