Thank you very much for purchasing volume 4 of Imperial Reincarnation. I’m the author, Masekinokatasa.
The majority of this fourth volume is about the Battle of Chelán Hill, and the events that led up to and followed it. This is the big showdown between Carmine, who’s finally come to power, and the Duchy of Raul, which was once one of the top four houses of the Empire. It’s a battle between old and new power, where the winner will rule the Empire and the loser will vanish into history...and it took a lot of preparation to make sure the protagonist wouldn’t lose a fight like that.
In the future, I imagine this battle will come to be considered part of a set with the Bloodsoaked Coronation. I think it would only be natural to link the cleaning out of traitors, grasping of true power, and momentous first victory as connected events as the emperor reclaims vast swaths of imperial land. If this were a story about Emperor Carmine as opposed to Carmine the transmigrator, then this probably would have been the opening act.
As the ruler of an empire, Carmine wanted to end the infighting within his nation as quickly and as painlessly as possible, and he succeeded. He had to lay a lot of groundwork to be in this position to begin with, so from his perspective, victory was a matter of course.
However, that wasn’t how those around him saw it. Those who didn’t know he’d been acting the fool saw a failed emperor suddenly awakening to enough talent to topple the largest military in the Empire. That’s enough to make waves in any nearby country, which is what leads into the ending of this volume. Our hero managed to quell his rebellions successfully, but maybe a little too successfully.
These dire straits are where volume 5...will aim toward, but I think it’ll start a little ways back, rewinding to the Battle of Chelán Hill itself and detailing the year or so that followed. There’s lots of character development in that year, after all.
I also hope to pick back up on the relevance of the reincarnation plotline. For example, Carmine doesn’t remember his old name, but that isn’t necessarily true of all reincarnators. The only through line for those reborn to Ein’s bloodline is that they can’t remember the moment of their death. I figured that I wouldn’t be able to fit that into the main text anywhere, so this would be a good opportunity to drop a tidbit of lore. Consider it a token of my appreciation for bothering to read this afterword.
To wrap up, let me grovel in apology to TO Books for causing them yet more problems. And Kaito Shibano-sama, thank you as always for your wonderful illustrations. The cover and color illustrations are so powerful and exciting—they’re just up my alley. Thank you so much.
And, of course, from the bottom of my heart: Thank all of you who decided to pick up this book.
December 2022, Masekinokatasa