It ends with winter turning to spring. Literally. The final scene of the book is the first blossom on the apple tree outside her shop window after a long, dark winter. Her life with her husband was winter, but now she is experiencing a personal and perpetual spring. It’s a pretty classic literary device, but when you’ve spent hundreds of chapters with a character even the most overused of clichés can feel warm and earned. It’s a great way to visually bring to life the sense of closure and new beginnings that this character so rightly deserves.
After the protagonist gained a base of power, I found that the story stagnated for a while and went through some filler arcs. Most of the arcs followed the same basic pattern: another noble would get offended by the protagonist at a party and the protagonist would have to deal with the economic repercussions of the noble’s actions for 5 chapters or so. Then, there would be a random monster attack on the border where the protagonist’s knights would fight. These stories, for the most part, were just a slice-of-life in the world of a fantasy duke simulator. I was starting to worry that the story would just continue in this manner until the main conspiracy was brought up again. I wish that instead, new threats that were related to the protagonist’s transmigration would have been introduced. These could have been other world-hopping individuals or even entities that enforced the “story’s” timeline.
I chose this for a mix of slapstick and second chances. It’s about a guy who dies from a drink he thought was poisoned by his awful boss, but instead was meant for him, and then gets to relive the moment and try to do things right. I have a partially translated version up on Scribble Hub for the first 12 chapters or so. A commenter there led me to this fan’s version of the novella up on his WordPress page, but beware, it’s very, very messy.
To read the raw translation (as it's often referred to) use your browser's translation tool. Some are better than others. Prepare to have your perception of words like "glass" changed occasionally (e.g. “tumbler of destiny”) and be happy to root for the underdog as he tries to outwit his evil boss while secretly hoping that the big boss gets what's coming to him.