The Epic Tale of the Reincarnated Prince Herscherik
It was good until it wasn’t.
This is yet another isekai story where a 35-year old woman named Hayakawa Ryoko dies suddenly on her 35th birthday. Okay, she doesn’t suddenly die. She gets hit by a car while trying to pick up a newly released otome game.
Anyway, she is reincarnated as prince Herscherik…, this is a name I don’t know how to even pronounce. Obviously she retains her memories of her past life and she is kind of glad that she is reborn because her mortgage is now gone for good. She does feel odd that she is reborn as a boy but it is what it is.
Initially, Herscherik expects a luxurious life. I mean he is a prince after all. Sadly, he soon realizes that his kingdom faces heavy corruption to a point that he foresees kingdom’s downfall within his lifespan. That won’t fly, and he decides to fix it himself.
Prince Herscherik, a 7th prince of Kingdom Gracis, faces a daunting task of rejuvenating his kingdom as well as cleansing itself from corruption.
This is supposed to be an otome story.
Therefore, there are slight elements of yaoi (gay) mainly due to a fact that Herscherik tries to couple guys around him and he is surrounded by strikingly handsome guys. However, his such behavior soon vanishes because of the very nature of the story (politics).
Basically, when Herscherik is too young to realize the dark future of his country, he acts more like Ryoko, an otaku. However, when he realizes what he has to do, he becomes prince Herscherik and traces of yaoi elements are gone for good.
It is awesome until it isn’t?
The first stage of the plot ends in volume 4 where Herscherik progressively uncovers a dark plot by a powerful political figure within his own kingdom. As he discovers who is behind the sinister plot, his country is being declared war by an adjacent nation. He, as a child, goes to the war as the commander in chief which brings a nice conclusion.
Then, the author had a hiatus at the end of volume 4. Until that point, the story had a bright future.
Sadly, the hiatus was a little too long and volume 5 felt like a completely different story. As a result, the series lost its popularity so rapidly that the publishing company pulled the plug.
From my own perspective, I could not believe what I was reading (volume 5). It was indeed a completely different story to a point that I lost interested in it very rapidly as volume 5 went on. I can see why it was dropped. Essentially, the author lost the plot completely.
Still …
Yes, the series has been cancelled. It’s over. However, it does not alter the fact that volume 1 to 4 is awesome. You can safely conclude that volume 4 as the last volume.
Now, there is something to note. The publisher dropped it. The author did not. It’s my understanding that this story continues in web novel format and has gone on up for around volume 7ish in content wise. I did not read past volume 5 though. Personally, the drop-off in story quality is so huge in volume 5 that you should just drop this upon completing volume 4.
It may not be complete, but the story until volume 5 has been one of the best isekai stories I’ve ever read. So, I recommend this story despite the fact that it has been dropped because it’s just shame to miss out such a nice story.
