By Ringo and Tsukasa Satsuki. Released in Japan as “Wake Atte, Hensō Shite Gakuen ni Sennyū Shiteimasu” by PASH! Books. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Alex Castor.
The proliferation of both isekai series (which take place in a sort of vague middle-late European setting) and villainess series (which usually are more “Edwardian England”) means that we have a lot of writers who are fascinated with the concept of nobility and how it works. And trust me, most writers think it works – they are not here to revolutionize the world. Usually there’s a token evil noble, who tends to be either unattractive, stupid, or both, and they are so over the top evil that it makes all the other nobles look better. We get two of those here, both blonde women. That said, our heroine is a commoner who is (sorry to spoil) going to end up with the prince, so she has to learn why noble mannerisms are important and what they are meant to convey… and as a result, realizes why she was bullied at school. Which, if I’m being honest, makes me tilt my head and say “really?”.
This volume is neatly divided into two. the first part starts where the last left off, with Cesia being set up to take the fall for Marcus’ evil fiancee, who it turns out is far more evil than everyone was expecting. She manages to escape, and holes up with the help of Maria/Marcus (still probably the best part of this series – the resolution works here, and it’s telling that after it happens we never see Maria again). Eventually, by Marcus being incredibly stupid on purpose, they are able to save the day, and Cesia and Marcus are finally able to confess. Of course, Cesia is still a commoner, but they can do something about that – she’s saved enough nobles that one is willing to make her a baroness. Unfortunately, she and Marcus are reckoning without two people who really don’t want to see them married. One is very subtle and clever. The other… is not.
The “you were bullied for your own good” thing rankled on me a bit, but there were other parts of the story I liked. Cesia’s over-serious nature and tendency to blame herself for not being perfect meshes perfectly with the way she grew up, and I appreciated Marcus realizing that and seeing that family was absolutely what she needed. There was also the delightfully silly way Cesia’s “crime” was resolved, – it wasn’t silly how she was punished, of course, but it definitely was silly how our overly serious girl never realized that she was punished at all. The family of her evil duplicate was forced to pay a hefty fine, which no one told her, and she was under house arrest for three months – which she was told was a study camp, and no one bothered to clarify it. Given that she’s one of the most serious of the “villainess” protagonists we’ve met, this was likely for the best.
This ends with this volume, which is good – if nothing else, the title is even sillier in this second volume, which takes place years after those events.
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