Culinary Chronicles of the Court Flower: Volume 5

Taking place immediately after the previous book, volume 5 is set in spring as Rimi prepares for her enthronement ceremony. The ceremony itself is split into three parts, and in this book she has to deal with the first one: the Executive Audience. Rimi has come a long way from the rather unremarkable girl she was at the beginning. She has made a difficult decision, and she's also found the inner strength to see it through until the end even if it's hurting her.

Except it won't go that smoothly, of course, since we're only halfway through the series. :')

At first, the book focuses on the trouble brewing up among some of the ministers who clearly have no respect for Shohi as the emperor. Add some anti-Wakoku racism into it, and before long Rimi finds herself backed into a corner by these people. While she manages to deals with this gracefully, it only leads to a more blatant assassination attempt that throws her into a sticky situation... with Jotetsu. Up until now, Jotetsu has been a complete mystery who is hard to read. No one knows where his loyalty truly lies, but we finally get to learn his background and motivations here. It's a lot more sincere than I expected, and the book does a nice job in getting him out of the complicated situation he was placed in.

The problem is, the same can't be said for Shusei. If anything, Shusei just went further into the other direction. His issue stays on the sidelines at the beginning, and he even assists Rimi in her lessons for the Executive Audience, only for the entire thing to come back in full force towards the end. This marks a major shift in the series, and Rimi can probably say goodbye to the peaceful days she spent cooking with Shusei. Even this particular volume is heavily political, though Rimi still finds the time to cook a tasty noodle dish to save Jotetsu's life. Oh, and Rimi still brings up her sister in times of crisis. It feels especially out of place in this volume because she's been surviving just fine without memories of her sister, but clearly she plans to do this forever so I give up questioning this particular part.

If volume 4 sets the overarching plot into motion, volume 5 accelerates it at an alarming speed. I might have picked up this series for the food, but I love court politics just as much. I honestly don't care about what's right or wrong in fiction, and I also like Shusei a lot more than Shohi so I'm really excited to see the chaos that's about to unravel LOL.