Imperial Reincarnation: I Came, I Saw, I Survived, Vol. 3

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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.

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.

Welcome to Olivia’s Magic Jewelers, Vol. 2

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By Rinrin Yuki and Suzaku. Released in Japan as “Olivia Maseki Houshokuten e Youkoso: Ka to Mise wo Oida Sareta no de, Outou ni Mise wo Kamaetara, Naze ka Moto Konyakusha to Gimai no Kekkonshiki ni Dero to Iwaremashita” by Mag Garden Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Jordan Taylor.

I enjoyed this a great deal more than I did the first volume, though I do feel a bit guilty about that, as the main reason I enjoyed it was I kept waiting for Olivia to finally break down. We already knew she was an earnest young woman with a low opinion of herself, and we saw, at the start of the first book, her treatment at the hands of her abusive adopted father, cheating fiance, and terrible stepsister. But she ran away to the capital, made a name for herself, has a shop, and also has the most attractive man in the city in love with her, though she has not quite cottoned on to that last one. That means that this book, where she is forced to go home, be a witness at her sister’s wedding to her ex-fiancee, and then discuss her birth father’s old shop with evil adopted father – well, she reaches her snapping point.

Things start off well. Olivia now has her shop, and is satisfying customers once she manages to get out of her own head and stop stressing. She has a capable assistant who tries to make her rest (with limited success). She has her friends who helped her when she first came to the city. And she has Elliot, who sure seems to show up an awful lot around her. When she gets the letter telling her to return home for the wedding, everyone springs into action. She’s given a fashion and makeup upgrade, and Elliot decides to start taking her out to fancy restaurants and the theatre – not for any ulterior motives, of course, just as a pal. He’s also agreed to go with her when she returns home. Because the one thing Olivia and all her friends agree on is that this is a giant trap.

The third quarter of this book is dedicated to getting on Olivia’s last nerve. Her father’s shop sits abandoned and covered in weeds. The one employee who used to work there, but had to retire due to injury, is missing. At the wedding itself, her stepsister proves to be a shrieking harridan, demanding Olivia publicly apologize. The noble who controls the area – her ex-fiance’s father – decides to have Olivia marry him after all. And when she refuses, thanks to the help of Elliot, who the noble is terrified of for some reason, they go with Plan B, which is to knock her out, kidnap her, and say she’ll be imprisoned for life making artifacts. Apologies for all the spoilers, but this is a good way of showing that when we learn Elliot’s true identity (which should not surprise any reader who’s paid attention), she just gives up and goes back home by herself. The definition of the final straw.

Now, of course, they make up, which is the last quarter of the book. And there’s a third book which implies that Olivia’s low nobility status (which means she can’t marry Elliot) may soon be fixed by a secret in her family’s past. But for me, the best part of this book was seeing Olivia suffer. It was very realistic and well handled. Sorry, Olivia.

Welcome to Monstrous Miss Sophie’s Enchanted Salon of Healing, Vol. 2

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By Sachi Konzome and Harenochihareta. Released in Japan as “Bakemono Jou Sophie no Salon: Gokigenyou. Kawa Ichimai nara Naosemasu wa” by Mag Garden Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Dawson Chen.

Endings are hard, especially when a book is only two volumes long. Honestly, I think this might have worked better as one big brick, but I can guess why the publisher didn’t want that – these are chunky books as it is. But the main issue is that the first volume was alternating between Sophie and Kurt and their budding love and Sophie essentially having a new customer every chapter with a scar and a story. The second volume also starts out this way, but it almost reads like the author was told to wrap things up, as a little over a third of the way into the book, we end up dealing definitively with Sophie’s skin issues and disfigurement, as well as her self-loathing which is preventing her from accepting Kurt’s love now that he has finally realized what emotions are and that he has them. It’s still a good book, but it feels unbalanced.

The book starts with Sophie still taking care of clients with issues. We meet two kids who claim to be lost princesses but the truth is something far more tragic and well-worn; a clown following in his grandfather’s footsteps who wears his tragedy on his face; a beastman gatekeeper who is struggling to bring up a wayward daughter; and a bartender who is troubled by her past as a pirate. Throughout this we also get Kurt, who is going off to help fight a monstrous dragon, a task so dangerous that he gives Sophie half his dog tags, something you usually only give to your wife or fiancee. She’s very, very worried about him. Then, he returns, with a nasty scar (which she heals of course), and a proposal. She rejects him bitterly due to her condition. Can something be done about that?

The book wears its heart on its sleeve, sometimes a bit too much. Sophie’s cure amounts to finding a doctor who knows what it actually is, and the psychological component of it all, which I was sure might cause her to reject an immediate cure, does not come into play – at least not like that. The little girls’ story is tragic, but also somewhat incomplete – I was expecting the story to circle around to the mother and daughters once more, but it never did. The back half of the book is almost pure fluff – the one cure Sophie administers is to a literal living magical creature that makes people happy. It’s an emotional book, but I wish it had a bit more heft to it. Everything here happens pretty much exactly as you could have guessed. And they all lived happily ever after.

Still, it wasn’t that long, and I enjoyed Sophie essentially collecting tragedies and then upending them. That’s what I’ll remember this series for the most.