Thanks to Rishe’s planning and quick wits, an alliance between Galkhein and Coyolles has been successfully forged! With one crisis averted, Rishe turns her attention to the next—namely, annulling her engagement so she and Arnold can be married. To accomplish this, Rishe travels to the Grand Basilica in the Holy Kingdom of Domana and reunites with Millia, the young woman she served during her life as a maid. However, something has changed about her former charge, and whispers of death and curses linger in the air. Does this latest reunion spell disaster for Rishe and Arnold?
J’aime tellement la dynamique entre Rishe et Arnold, ils font un couple vraiment badass. J’espère continuer à les voir de plus en plus travailler main dans la main, que les mystères soient enfin révélés. Ces petits rapprochements qu’il y a entre eux sont tellement mignons, ça serait tellement chouette d’avoir un peu plus les pensées de Arnold au sujet de cette relation !
This series never disappoints when a new volume comes out, no matter which format it is or if the story is already familiar. There are little details in each version that add to the overall picture, and of course the art is amazing. Arnold's expressions are very subtle, so it's not surprising that he seems more put out when he realizes Rishe is learning how to read him at least some of the time even as he tries to puzzle her out in return. Millia is even more childish than expected, even knowing she's supposed to be a child at this point in time and determining that it's at some point before Rishe met them in her previous life. It's also interesting to see the contrasting images of Leo and Rishe's current life compared to her memories of her previous life as she pieces together who he is and tries to puzzle out the differences in this life. Of course, as with other volumes, there's also a new short story at the end that is adorable. For all that they may both hide their feelings much of the time, these two really do make a good match.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
so much fun! rishe and arnold are getting closer but there's still some things that arnold isn't really telling rishe. however, with her intelligence and ability to read the room, rishe is working with arnold rather than against him.
Probably 3.5 stars, but it felt wrong to drop it all the way down to 3. This is the first volume where all the material is entirely fresh to me, since we're fully out of anime territory now. And it starts up some pretty hefty worldbuilding.
I don't know why I'm surprised by the idea that genuine magical powers exist in this universe, when Rishe's literally on her 7th life, magically looping back through time to start over every time she dies...
I suppose it just seems odd to introduce it here, with a ten year old girl who can apparently rage her father's carriage off a cliff when she's having a tantrum. If this was a thing, wouldn't Rishe have heard about magic in any of her previous lives and her world traveling? But it does seem rare and is probably a closely guarded secret. It's not explained yet why this girl would have powers, or what exactly those powers are - she has, however, been chosen as a "stand-in" for the royal priestess at the goddess festival, so there must be some sort of connection, even if she isn't directly connected to the goddess's bloodline.
As soon as the goddess was introduced at the beginning of this volume, I thought: oh, did she become the goddess because she had a power like Rishe's? And with the translations from the walls of the basilica, I'm even more convinced that Rishe - despite her protestations to Arnold - must be the goddess reborn in some way.
There is just so, so much backstory that is getting unveiled so slowly, and it's starting to drive me the tiniest bit crazy. I get that Rishe can't just sit everyone down and quiz them until she knows everything about the church, the goddess, Arnold's childhood, etc, but it's starting to frustrate me that there are so many unanswered questions! I'm going to have to go back to the novels and start reading them faster. This is apparently the start of the third one, and I do have six sitting on my shelf. (With the 7th apparently not coming out until a full year from now??)
What we know so far is that there are two ultra-powerful kingdoms in this world: Arnold's and the desert country, Halil Rasha, whose ruler apparently spent a lot of time with Arnold in his (their?) youth. There's also the church, kind of awkwardly called "Crusade," which wields as much power as a kingdom. And which Arnold, for no thus-far explained reason, absolutely despises.
During his rampages in Rishe's past lives, he'd targeted the churches specifically, and Rishe had actually died in a fire in one, during her life as a maid, when she was caring for the aforementioned young girl. In the present day, he's simply butting heads with the bishops, particularly the one who is vocally very resistant to Rishe marrying him.
There's also some talk about his father being religious, which could be the source of the bad blood, but at this point we know so very little about the emperor.
Rishe does finally get to pry a little bit into Arnold's childhood, finding out from Theodore and Oliver that he had killed both his mother and all of his servants...but was also severely wounded at that time, including those scars on his neck. My guess is that they must've attacked him, but why? And why would Oliver be actively spreading rumors around the kingdom about Arnold's brutality? (He tells Rishe that since she hadn't heard about it, he'd have to get a fresh batch of gossip underway.) What game is Arnold playing?
At this point in the story, Rishe is starting to accept that she has genuine feelings for Arnold, that go far beyond just wanting to preserve her own life and prevent him from starting a war. So when she gets flustered during a conversation with Oliver and goes to find Arnold to bring him back to dine with her, only to find him telling the bishop that she's just a "trophy wife" that he's pretending to care for until the wedding, I really did think that she'd respond with a little bit of heartache.
Maybe Arnold had thought the same, because he's surprised by her reaction. Why would I think you meant it? she says, genuinely puzzled. She trusts Arnold so much and truly believes he has a reason behind every single one of his actions, especially when he's doing something that seems cruel. And she's okay with waiting until he's ready to tell her some of those reasons.
I'm less patient, but I'm hoping the novels will give me some of the answers!
One big one that seems odd to keep a secret for this long...what happened in Rishe's fifth life? Why do we still not know what she was doing then? It's even got a big ??? in the chart at the beginning of this volume.
C’est un vrai plaisir après plusieurs mois de retrouver ce duo de fiancés atypiques dans de nouvelles aventures politiques croisant avec les incarnations précédentes de la demoiselle. Tension, romance et aventure sont au rendez-vous.
Même si je dois avouer que je ne me rappelle pas tout d’un tome à l’autre, c’est toujours un plaisir de retrouver Rishe et son sombre fiancé. Ici, en plus, ils nous embarquent dans un petit voyage à deux pour faire annuler les précédentes fiançailles de celle-ci, l’occasion de croiser d’anciennes connaissances.
Atteignant, depuis le dernier tome, le tome 3 de la série de light novels dont elle est issue, l’histoire prend soin de se déployer venant questionner encore et toujours les intentions secrètes d’Arnold et rapprochant par ce fait les deux héros, ce qu’on ne peut apprécier. Avec son intelligence et ce flegme qu’elle a su développer, Rishe l’entraîne ainsi à la rencontre du clergé qui semble avoir joué un rôle clé autrefois dans le drame qui s’était joué entre eux dans une autre vie. On n’a pas plus de réponse, mais ça vient titiller notre curiosité.
A la place, nous avons droit à des scènes assez mignonnes et enjouées où Rishe recroise des personnages de ses anciennes incarnations mais avec des petits changements. Ainsi, la fillette dont elle avait la charge quand elle était domestique est une future prêtresse, ou le domestique malmené recueilli quand elle était chevaleresse est désormais aux ordres du père de cette première. Tiens, tiens. Ajoutez à cela, un prêtre qui vient donner son avis sur ses fiançailles sans qu’on lui demande rien, il y a de quoi se poser des questions.
Et plus, que les non-événements qui se déroulent, c’est donc cette ambiance qui vient piquer notre intérêt qui m’a séduite ici. Ça et l’évolution des personnages. J’ai aimé voir Rishe s’affirmer et jouer de son intelligence auprès d’Arnold et des autres qu’elle a croisé. J’ai apprécié, derrière son regard froid, de voir un Arnold prêt à tout pour la garder comme future épouse. Tout le monde (ou presque) voit que ce couple en puissance est une bonne chose, ça fait plaisir à voir.
J’attends juste désormais pour la suite, une intrigue quand même plus nourrie, qui joue moins sur les non-dits, qui lâche un peu les chevaux et s’emballe avec des complots, des retournements, des trahisons, de l’action quoi ! Ça manque un peu…
Sympathique série de romantasy que je prends plaisir à retrouver grâce à ses personnages, qui bien qu’archétypaux, savent me séduire par leurs caractères entreprenants et les mystères que les autrices distillent autour d’eux. Même après des mois de séparation je me plais à voir avancer les pièces de leurs échiquiers respectifs. Reste que j’aimerais quand même un peu plus une vision d’ensemble et des avancées claires et nettes.
Has it really been so long? And the next volume of the manga is due in February. I guess those light novels are going to be a treat later this year. Still, it was a treat to revisit this world and these characters, so I want to read more of the things on my list for this year so I can focus time on this. With the previous crisis with Coyolles resolved, we have a new one brewing in the Holy Kingdom, the home of organized religion of this world. The reason for it is reasonable: her engagement with Prince Dietrich (all the way back in volume 1) was a religious ceremony, and she cannot marry anyone else while it has not been annulled. Rishe was holding on to it as an instant-divorce card, but has decided to discard it. Also, the timing helps because she wants to see another of beloved friends from her past lives, the young Lady she served in her fourth life as a maid who happens to live in Domana. Of course, things are already looking to be more complicated than normal for this series - there are numerous interesting hints littered throughout that tantalize interesting story angles, so while not a cliffhanger, the ending certainly makes one want more. Working as intended. In terms of art, it continues to be lovely. Rishe is adorable, Kino-sensei does an excellent job bringing her and the other characters to life, and the attention to detail in the outfits and backgrounds are top tier. The chibi illustrations continue to be used to good effect for humor as well as to make clear who is speaking. This volume is less blatantly romantic, but there are several little scenes that do deliver the requirement. As I said before, this series is more than just romantic love, but this volume was more about setting up for the next two volumes.
I absolutely love Rishe. I love how much she trusts in Arnold despite everything he did to her in her past lives. I would have thrown a fit if I heard my fiance talking about me the way Arnold was talking about her. But she decided to trust him because of everything he had shown with his actions in this life.
But I do wish she had waited Arnold to open up instead of asking his little brother. I do wonder why Arnold's mother seemed to hate and avoid him. Did she keep insulting him because she felt like he ruined her life somehow or did she perhaps see his father in him? I have a lot of questions.
Rishe kept questioning the real reason why Arnold wanted to marry her. Her current theory was that it was because it was a requirement for prince Arnold's consort to be from a foreign royal family and she's a distant relative, blood from the royal family of her homeland flows through her veins. I personally think he knew something she never did even after all these past lives.
Prince Arnold keeps being such amazing love interest. I wanted to swoon every time Arnold referred to her as his wife even though they weren't married yet. There's a reason "my wife" is such a popular trope. He hated even the idea of her dying and he wouldn't let her die.
The art was gorgeous like always.
All in all I liked our couple in this volume but I felt like this one was sadder than previous volumes. I do wish the volumes were longer or at least focused less to the action/ past life stuff. I'm romance girlie and even though these are young adult I wish we got more of the sweet moments.
I can't believe I'm already caught up on this series, now I have to wait until February for vol. 8 (although I could probably just read vol. 3 of the light novel, which I might). Although the positive to not getting a new volume every 3 or 4 months like with other series is that I don't need to worry about constantly keeping up with reading the new volume along with other series and constantly spending so much money on new releases (there are still lots of new releases I'm interested in but it helps when there are a few less. Like right now I don't need to worry about the new My Happy Marriage because we don't know when vol. 6 will release plus I have the light novels to read and still need to watch the anime, which is most likely ahead of the manga just like The Apothecary Diaries anime is. I will probably need to reread this volume or at least skim through it once vol. 8 comes out, unless I read the light novels before than.
This 7th manga volume adapts Volume 3 of the light novel and it’s such an exciting arc! In this part, Rishe has to annul her previous engagement, and of course, Prince Arnold decides to tag along 😏👑.
Things get even more interesting when Rishe encounters people from her third past life, adding depth and intrigue to the story. The mix of politics, emotions, and past-life connections makes this volume super engaging.
And let’s not forget the bonus short story—it’s absolutely adorable! 💕 Even with Arnold trying to keep his usual aloof and serious demeanor, there are moments that reveal his sweeter side (and I loved every bit of it 😌).
This volume balances romance, tension, and character growth so well, making it one of my fave arcs in the villainess reincarnation genre. Highly recommend if you’re into smart heroines + cold but secretly soft princes!
I have been looking forward to getting this volume and after reading it I don’t know why. The introduction of Millia, who is the token brat character and her father, the token dad that has no clue how to act with his brat child added nothing for me to this story because I do not care. I also didn’t care about Leo. The big story of the curse didn’t interest me at all. The only moments that engaged me in the volume were the moments of Rishe and Arnold and learning more about Arnold. I understand we are going to keep meeting people from Rishes other lives but can we please make them more interesting because this volume was a giant snooze fest for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
BRO. This whole series is great, but CAN WE PLEASE TALK ABOUT HOW THE WRITER DOESN'T FORCE RISHE TO HOLD THE IDIOT BALL IN THIS VOLUME WHEN SHE OVERHEARS ARNOLD TALKING ABOUT THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO A LIKELY ENEMY AND SAYING DISMISSIVE THINGS ABOUT HER? HOW INSTEAD OF LOSING EVERY SCRAP OF INTELLIGENCE, AS SO MANY "SMART" HEROINES DO WHEN THIS TROPE HAPPENS, SHE PLAYED INTO IT INSTEAD? HOW SHE WASN'T EVEN SLIGHTLY MAD, AND SHE LOOKED HIM RIGHT IN THE EYE LATER, WHEN THEY WERE ALONE, AND SAID, "WHY WOULD I TAKE THOSE WORDS AT FACE VALUE?"
GOSH.
GOSH!!!!!!!!!!! BLESS THIS BOOK. BLESS!!!!!!!!!!! THIS BOOK!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
My only complaint is that I read it too fast. I blinked and I was done. I need more.
I am so intrigued by all the ways this seventh life is coming together. I'm obsessed with how every past life has given her all the traits that the MMC is fascinated with. All those past life's making her practically irresistible to him. Yup. I adore this story.
I love the anime too and cannot wait for this to hit the screen. 💜
This one is building nicely and I'm looking forward to how things turn out in hopefully the next volume. The church building reminds me of Catholic cathedrals even though the church in the story seems to be pulling from several religions to form the story world's.
When is she gonna get to lay down and relax?! She works so hard to keep everyone happy. I love the art still and the story is still very interesting. I wonder too about his hatred of the church and if we will get clear answers in the next volume.
We’re learning so much about the current politics of this world as well as Rishe’s history as a maid in this volume. Arnold is out here being awkward as he plays 3D chess and I’m here for it.