By Rei Kazama and Fujiazuki. Released in Japan as “Tensei Reijō wa Seirei ni Aisarete Saikyō Desu…… Dakedo Futsū ni Koi Shitai)” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by okaykei.

First of all, I feel the need to apologize to Karla, who I clearly jinxed in my last review. Thanks to her family, not only is she no longer a candidate for Prince Andrew’s hand, she’s barely in the book at all. She’s not particularly happy about this of course, and I think is quietly trying to get herself disowned as well. In the meantime, this is good news for Monica and Susanna, the other two candidates. First of all, because hey, Andrew is a catch and you get to be Empress, but also because the “loser” in the wife wars gets Chris, who is himself just as much of a catch. Of course, there’s also the elephant in the room, which is who Deirdre is going to marry. The longer she waits, the worse her options get, and the political kudzu that is her home nation means that there’s a limited number of partners available there. Fortunately, there is one obvious option.

Just as everyone learns about House Johannes blowing up Karla’s social status, the spirits come to take folks to Kohaku’s domain, so that the spirits can meet Andrew properly. This actually ends up defusing another small crisis, as the second prince, Eldred, has been feeling so guilt-ridden over what happened in previous books that he wants to leave the royal family altogether. Elsewhere, Deirdre is busy with her various projects, such as a book – one for children, one for young adults – about how to care for and raise spirits; getting a decent edible chocolate, with the help of Kamil and his country; watch how her other brother proves to be far more romantically adept that her and Chris will ever be; and also meet the spirits of other nations, who quickly get involved in a bidding war for her favor that promises to turn nasty in future volumes.

I appreciate the fact that, by the end of this volume, Deirdre has acknowledged her own ineptness when it comes to perceiving romantic interest, and she’s rapidly also coming to realize that her choice of potential partners who will not somehow make her life a misery is down to one. It was pretty clear in the third book that she and Kamil would be endgame, and it’s made crystal clear here. That said, the combination of Deirdre’s reluctance to get engaged at the age of ten, and her own discomfort with the fact that she’s not only an adult in a child’s body, but an immature adult n a child’s body, lead her to kick the can down the road. Fortunately, a road trip in the next book may help there. As for the rest of the book, there are a few dark suggestions of Deirdre’s future in the story of another woman who was found to be beloved by spirits, and possibly a reincarnator, who ended up killing herself out of depression. Let’s avoid that Bad End, please.

We’ve got a ways to go, though (this is book 4 of 13), so I’m sure there will be drama a-plenty before Deirdre gets both old enough and politically savvy enough to tie the knot. In the meantime, this is a great deal of fun.

By Rei Kazama and Fujiazuki. Released in Japan as “Tensei Reijō wa Seirei ni Aisarete Saikyō Desu…… Dakedo Futsū ni Koi Shitai)” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by okaykei.

It continues to be entertaining watching Deirdre wondering why everyone in the cast considers her to be less of a human and more of a monster – or worse, a bomb. It’s especially amusing watching Chris and Alan doing it, because of course those two are also considered to be not quite the same as normal humans in their peer group. In this book full of nobles and their politics,l this is definitely a top-down series – the crown prince, dukes, and marquises are heavily involved, as are their children, and it tends to be counts and barons who end up wither as the villain of the subplot or struggling to accomplish what the rest of the cast can easily do. One reason that light novel authors have glommed onto noble teenage politics is that it’s the best of both worlds – you can write all the pretty rich kids and courtship you want, and then see them screw it up, as they’re teens. Albeit teens with assassins after them, in some cases.

Deirdre is ten yours old, which means at last she gets to attend the magical noble academy that’s a staple of all these books. If nothing else, that should at least slow down Prince Andrew, who continues to drop by their estate to chat whenever he feels like it. She also reunites with Kamil, the young boy she mistook for a girl four years prior. He and his suspicious merchant friend are trying to sell them chocolate… but alas, it’s “we don’t have modern conveniences” chocolate, so she’s not as delighted as they hoped. And there’s also a heaping helping of romantic tomfoolery, as almost all kids are engaged by the time they’re fifteen in this world. The prince is interviewing marriage candidates, an arrogant guy is trying to break up a true love couple (we know how that will go). As for Deirdre? Well, she’s not interested in anyone right now, but the author does give us a few hints.

Sorry to anyone thinking she’d end up with the prince, but a) clearly having her as a queen would be a disaster and they both know it, and b) Kamil is given over one-third of the entire novel, as we hear of his entire tragic backstory and his present struggles, including his own POV of his initial meetings with Deirdre. Foreign prince, still somewhat a secret prince, who’s handsome and clever but has also renounced his title so she can do whatever she wants with him? Yeah, this guy’s endgame, though it may take a while. Taking less time is Deirdre and her posse starting to grow up to be incredibly powerful young women… though admittedly with some of them it may be with regret. (Karla, you need to get it together, as I suspect you’re right in Andrew’s sights.) There’s also some really good heartwarming stuff among this intrigue – I enjoyed Deirdre’s happy memories of her family back in Japan, which had a “difficult dad”, and I was also surprised when the standard “there’s a rumor of a ghost” turn out to be not only 100% true but they even got the identity of the ghost right.

This thankfully lacks the high body count of the 2nd book, so is more relaxing (leaving aside Kamil’s backstory), but I’m still intrigued to see how things play out in future books. A lot of fun.

By Rei Kazama and Fujiazuki. Released in Japan as “Tensei Reijō wa Seirei ni Aisarete Saikyō Desu…… Dakedo Futsū ni Koi Shitai)” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by okaykei.

Last time I described the events in this series as being “a political hotbed”, and if anything I feel bad now for underselling it. I joked online that TO Books waylaid JNC after it had licensed Trials and Tribulations of My Next Life as a Noblewoman and sold them this series, like Sheldon Leonard’s tout trying to sell Jack Benny a horse. (Never let it be said I don’t provide modern references for the youth of today.) This book starts out with Deirdre and company getting involved in major rivalries, then moves to finding out that half those rivalries were not what they were told about at all, and ends in… well, I’ll talk about the last quarter or so of the book later. It’s absolute dynamite, though. The writer knows that light novels are drenched with 6-year-olds who talk like they’re middle-aged women, and so decides to weaponize it, with everyone not in her family seeing Deirdre as a terrifying creature.

Deirdre is six years old now, meaning her parents are finally letting her out of the house so that she can have destined encounters with dusky pretty boys… destined encounters that she totally ignores, of course. She’s also going around to various domains and trying to patch things up between the rulers and the royal spirits, who have made it perfectly clear that if they have to choose between destroying the entire nation and Deirdre, the nation will lose. Unfortunately, things are still very bad with the Empress and her family. What’s more, the faction that was supposedly opposing our heroine and her family… may not be after all? It turns out there’s another family in this race behind the scenes manipulating things. Oh, and there’s also an Evil Religion. It *is* a reincarnation book, after all.

Let’s talk about the last quarter of this book, which is when I started to compare it to T&T. It certainly racked up a hefty body count, and not the bodies that I was expecting. I had wondered whatever happened to the magical Wikipedia that Deirdre used in the first book, but it comes back with a vengeance here, as it’s a great way to summarize all of the backstabbing and manipulation that’s been happening to either keep the empress on the throne or get her off of it. Even Andrew, the closest thing in the Royal Family they have to an ally, doesn’t fully trust Deirdre and her family as they’re simply too powerful, too eccentric, and do not remotely care about power or the throne. Deirdre is here as a spirit guide. That said, she is quietly amassing a badass group of young girls who will presumably grow up to be a badass group of young women. Assuming they get to grow up.

The epilogue of this book shows us Deirdre about to turn ten, and I am assuming by the cover of the third book we’re headed off to the academy that always happens in these sorts of books. That said, I’m sure politics will not go away. Also, the thirteenth volume that just came out in Japan is the final one, so while we have a long way to go there’s at least an end point.