Imperial Reincarnation: I Came, I Saw, I Survived, Vol. 4

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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.

If the Villainess and Villain Met and Fell in Love ~ She Was All But Disowned for Her Spirit Contract, But She’s Still Competing with Her Rival ~, Vol. 4

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By Harunadon and Yomi Sarachi. Released in Japan as “Akuyaku Reijō to Akuyaku Reisoku ga, Deatte Koi ni Ochitanara: Nanashi no Seirei to Keiyaku Shite Oidasareta Reijō wa, Kyō mo Reisoku to Kisoiatte Iru Yō Desu” by GA Novels. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Evie Lund.

It’s always interesting to read a series which does not quite know how long it’s going to be allowed to run. I mentioned last time that the third book felt like an ending, but here we are with the fourth book. The fourth book also seems to wrap most everything up, as while last volume we focused on the horrible abuse of Brigitte’s father, here we check in on Yuri’s abusive brother, and now that Brigitte has mostly managed to come to terms with her past and grow into a splendid young woman, it’s now Yuri’s turn to try to get past his own past and present and accept that he’s still in love with his ex-fiancee. They go through a trial, come out of it well, have a lovely confession, and we’re all set for a weddi–oh dear, it’s cliffhanger time.

It’s exam time at Yuri and Brigitte’s school, and because this is a school with magic and spirits, the exam is incredibly dangerous, because this is that sort of genre. That said, Brigitte has discovered she’s made of sterner stuff, and she and Yuri (as well as Nival and Kira, who I haven’t mentioned in my reviews but are basically a combination of “those two friends”, the beta couple, and comedy relief) set off to the crack between the human world and the spirit world, where they have to take care not to be tricked by spirits who can literally read your mind and become the person you’re closest to. Even worse for Yuri, his brother Clyde will be assisting with the exam, and he still has a massive hate-on for Yuri, and also is in charge of an evil spirit. Will they be able to pass?

Given that we’ve had to deal with Brigitte’s father literally sticking her hand into a fireplace in prior books, I did appreciate the lesson learned in this book, which is that not every abusive person is driven by being evil and psychotic, and sometimes it’s just pettiness and jealousy taken to extremes. Clyde can’t be head of household like his older brother, he can’t be contracted to powerful spirits, like Yuri, all he has is an “evil” spirit, who he can’t even use that often. This all adds up to “making my little brother feel sad makes me feel better”, and so can end with a mere apology rather than the exile Brigitte’s father got. That said, Yuri doesn’t forgive Clyde, which is also very valid, given that the bullying has affecting how he conducts his life to date – we’d thought Brigitte was the one driving the “competition”, but we see here Yuri uses it as an excuse to do things he’d never have the courage to otherwise. Fortunately, they’re both able to gather their courage here.

Unfortunately, remember how the archbishop was holding everyone back from taking Brigitte and abusing her phoenix powers for their own gain? Yeah, he died. See you in Book 5! (At least we now do know it will end with Book 6.)

The Trials and Tribulations of My Next Life As a Noblewoman: The Price of Glory, Part 2

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By Kamihara and Shiro46. Released in Japan as “Tensei Reijo to Sūki na Jinsei o” by Hayakawa Shobo. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Hengtee Lim.

(This review contains spoilers, though I will try to confine them till after the synopsis.)

Well, that went about the way I thought. Not that I knew what was going to happen precisely, but because “Great googley moogley, everything’s gone to shit” is the way that this series operates, and I had a feeling we were due for everything going wrong very rapidly, and that’s exactly what I got… eventually. Honestly, the first two-thirds or so of this volume feel like a typical “villainess” book, with just a bit more politics than usual. There’s even a big dance where Karen (who has been trying harder and harder to not be The Worst Dancer Ever) ends up needing to be literally dragged around in order to manage not to humiliate herself. And the Emperor even snubs her, which is a surprise given he invited her, but hey, good news! Then we get the last third of the book, and everything once again becomes a horror novel *and* a tragedy.

Karen is trying to make up with Ern, but unfortunately that involves running into Lubeck, the knight who really, really wants to seduce her and cannot understand why she seems to find him a massive creep. (The reason is that he’s a massive creep.) Fortunately, they do make up, and then Karen is off to the ball(s). She thinks that it doesn’t go well because after all this fuss, when she introdeuces herself to the Emperor he barely acknowledges her. To me, it read like she had significant conversations with every single powerful person in the Empire, all of whom are trying to curry her favor. But then, I’m not the one desperately trying to pretend I’m just a plain side character. (Un)Fortunately for Karen, the Emperor decides to invite her back for a meal. Breakfast. The next day. When she arrives, along with six other people the Emperor is “honoring”, we get to see just what he’s really like. It’s not great.

I admit I was not all that shocked at the window thing, as it was heavily telegraphed, but I was far more shocked at the Emperor essentially saying “rejoice, we’re going to make sure we have good Aryan stock by breeding my knights to you folks, so get ready”. Usually light novels aren’t quite this blatant, but this is Trials and Tribulations, and when has it ever held back before? To be frank, I’m amazed Karen escaped, and she even rescued a young noble who made me think of Galinda from Wicked but who quickly gets a nasty surprise. Then there’s the finale with Ern. Honestly, I suspected Ern would not survive this book, so again her death in and of itself is not what shocked me. What shocked me was HOW she chose to die, and the fact that Karen ended up, with gritted teeth and a callback to something that now seems far less funny, going along with it. On the bright side, this may make it harder for the Emperor to simply marry her off as breeding stock. On the less bright side, EVERYTHING ELSE. (Oh yes, bonus points for actually hearing the rumors about Karen explicitly, which frame her as the most evil woman in the universe.)

The cover to the next volume also seems to have a spoiler literally on it, suggesting that the events of this book affect Karen far more than we’d expected. I realize this is not for everyone, but I really do highly recommend it. It’s the best car crash being published right now.