Ever since I heard about the Royal Academy, I have been eagerly awaiting the day the story would reach it, and it finally has!
This volume lived up to my hopes (even if the academy is very different than I thought it would be), and it's my favorite book with Rozemyne, and one of my favorites in the whole series. I read the majority of this in a single day.
I'm super excited to finally get a country map! It's hard to know the size of the country, but it seems a large one just by the size of Ehrenfest versus everything else.
As for the story itself, I feel so bad for Rozemyne, as she feels left behind in a world that has continued on without her for two years. She also doesn't have much time to prepare for her future that is now her present, and then it's off to the Royal Academy!
But before I get too ahead of myself, there's the Prologue. It's told from Ferdinand's POV, and it's him filling Rozemyne in on what happened over the two years. Much of it is known to the reader from the previous volume's bonus stories, but there's some new info. Also, I liked seeing more of what happened shortly after Rozemyne woke up, as I hadn't thought about the consequences to her body.
Back to the main story, the Royal Academy is very different from what I was expecting. I thought there would be a lot more learning, but it seems you can test out of your classes and then kind of do what you want. Which, this volume focuses on passing all of the various tests (and some learning still happens in the practical lessons). So, your first year is a breeze if you've properly prepared for it.
Not to say everything is easy for Rozemyne. No matter how much she tries not to stand out, she does so for good or bad. Much of the time, there's quite a bit of humor to find in it. It's also fun to see her no longer at the top of the hierarchy, and I'm really interested to know more about this prince character.
There are a lot of new characters, and sometimes I couldn't recall who someone was (and I honestly still have trouble with a few of the characters from the previous arc), but... the author does state at the back she knows there's going to be problems with that and to just do your best to remember who you can, as even Rozemyne struggles to remember everyone. Plus, it makes sense there's going to be a ton of new characters now that the story has entered a school location. So, hopefully more time is spent on getting to know these new characters in the next few volumes.
I have to say, though, I love both Philine and Roderick. I knew Philine was likely to be important since her introduction earlier, but, after this book, I'm hoping good things will be happening for Roderick too.
Then we have the Epilogue. It's told from Sylvester's POV, and it's him and Ferdinand dealing with the reports they're receiving while Rozemyne is off to school. It makes the various events that happen in the book all the funnier, and the image that accompanies this makes me laugh. It's the perfect reaction.
As for the bonus stories, the first is told from Lieselta's POV. Honestly, she's been a pretty forgettable character for me. I couldn't remember who she was at first. Her story is sweet enough, and it gives more insight to how lower rank nobles live at the academy. I still can't say I really care about her (and her older sister is one of my least favorite characters out of the good guys), but we'll see what the future brings.
Then we get the story I was craving for the first several chapters of this book. It's told from Effa's POV. I'm still sad Rozemyne didn't get to meet with her blood family in this volume, but it's nice to get their reaction to the news she's awake. Kamil has now gotten so old! Which just kind of made me sad. I really hope him and Myne can meet one day.
Bonus comics! The first comic is super cute, and it must be a Japanese thing that drinking milk makes you taller. The other two comics were pretty funny as well.
Oh, and this book includes the results to a character poll. Some of the results don't surprise me, but I am sad at how much some of the characters from the Myne days have slipped down in the ranks. I know they hardly appear in the story anymore, but my top three are still Myne, Benno, and Lutz. I don't know if anything can change that. :P
Overall, an excellent book. It covers a lot of ground, but I loved every moment of it--especially once at the academy. The humor is always great, but the humor seemed even better than usual in this one. There was a lot of worldbuilding going on, but it was always done in interesting ways, and it was nice to see Rozemyne grow in new ways (or the slight subversion of how well she excelled at things). I love the small bits of drama sprinkled throughout this book from the other duchies, and I can't wait to see what comes next.
Oh, and as always, the art is amazing.