Fake cuteness can be grating, annoying...and disarming. This cute monster is silly and devoted, but that doesn’t mean he's stupid. Our protagonist has been lured into a false sense of complacency. She's so wrapped up in cuteness she's forgotten about an entire village full of frozen corpses. It wasn't his fault! Isn't it only natural to feel bad for a tragic monster? That's what kind ladies do!
Mirisu is much beloved and spoiled, and coincidentally she wasn't before her brother came into her life.
She was born to be nothing but a marriage chess piece. In this world having magic beats gender. If you're a woman with firepower everybody respects you and you immediately become a noble lady with special privileges. On the flip side if you're the daughter of a magical couple......and you're born without magic....you're a dowry and nothing more. You have to sit and watch as the magical ladies get all the praise and riches, while you wash your pretty face and wait for a less important man to buy you.
It's an extra cruel setting I think.
Shitty traditional womanhood and marriage for thee, not for me.
Mirisu found a boy named Darryl on top of a mountain, steps away from a village of frozen corpses. It is the most useful thing Mirisu has ever done. Her parents immediately adopt Darryl, and now their family is perfect. They plan to make Darryl their heir and tool to further expand their power, while Mirisu's budding beauty will provide them more money.
The kids get along great too!
Darryl is scary to most, because his ice powers are hard to control. His emotions activate them. Hugging and touching Mirisu calms him down because they're close. He feels pretty much nothing for his adopted parents, because they're so heartless. Their closeness makes alot of sense. Considering the fact that Mirisu is treated as second class, and Darryl isolated himself for a long time.
He's a good liar because he's not faking. It's more like he's overexaggerating. He loves Mirisu romantically, but he wants her to smother him with cute love in between brutal border defense fights. Mirisu is weak to his cute little brother act because he's the only real family she has ever had, and he takes advantage of that.
Mirisu wants what's best for him. His magical sealing tool isn't perfect. She wants him to mature and control his emotions and marry a perfect magic lady someday.
She plans a fake marriage with Alan, her childhood friend, in order to distance herself from Darryl.
Her plan fails and Darryl eventually spills the truth.
He's been able to control his ice powers for a long time now.
He just wanted Mirisu to cuddle him!
Teehee!
Also he's going to kill her fiance if she doesn't call it off.
I thought about free will alot while I read this. What if starting a whole new life, with a princess romance included, wasn't enough? What if you tried to be happy, and your love gave your lover so much joy, but you left anyway. It's cruel, but it's your right. Right?
Things get real obvious real quick, but that's ok because we're in a twisted dark world. A place where people with demonic blood can only ever be loved by brides from other world's/timelines.
These women from dimensions beyond are known as swans.
Marquis Rothbart adored his Swan. It's been ten years, but all is meaningless without her now. He doesn't even spare a minute for his son.
He's broken and cruel and....you know what it's actually for a pretty good reason.
His beloved didn't kill herself or anything.
No.
She told him he wasn't enough and she wanted to return to her original realm with tears in her eyes. Their son wasn't a factor to her either, so why the hell should he care about anything?
He often bickered with his Swan. It was lively and loving and he didn't have to be a fearsome demon next to her.
He had been fooled.
You see there is a way back.
If you're a Swan and you want to return to your original life have a kid. Just find a dude with red eyes fuck him and wait.
Marquis Rothbart's Swan did not do that.
She made him happy, and then when the portal opened she unloaded on him before jumping right in.
He had to go to her funeral for appearances.
He had to look at his only son and know. Know deep down that the love of his life probably took him to bed to....get rid of him.
He doesn't want to believe it.
Even their bickering was full of love to him.
He didn't want perfection.
He loved his wife, and she left.
Anna returns! With a boyfriend!
Huh?
Say what now?
Yes the timeline stuff is important. Marquis Rothbart has aged. She hasn't. Time was wonky and she lived a life of suffering in her original world.
Still, she desires to return to her world with her college boyfriend.
Anna is not some silly girl that can be romanced by red eyes.
She probably loved Marquis Rothbart at least a little, but now she doesn't even have those memories. All was lost in the twists of time and dimensions and so she could still look 20 or whatever.
The Duke has been doing experiments with a woman that can summon Swans. He wants his specific Swan back. Marquis Rothbart is not a character to be pitied. He is relentlessly obsessive and willing to spill his own blood constantly to power failing spell after failing spell.
He has permanent scars now.
He's not perfectly young and unburdened like the new version of his wife.
The woman seeks to manipulate him.
He has some allies, but his life is genuinely so fuckin grim no wonder he's miserable.
There is no confusion here.
His wife made him genuinely happy and everybody else seems to see him as a piece of noble demon meat. Maybe his wife was just hiding that sentiment, but he wants it back anyways. That feeling.
His only happiness, away from more deadly and less-than-fun bickering.
The kid involved, who was most likely born a pawn, ALSO misses his mom. Of course he does. Another tug at the heart.
Or is it?
The kid seems a tad off too.
At the very least we know Marquis Rothbart has gone mad from chapter one. He greets his wife's portrait every time he comes home. He maintains her old bedroom himself to ensure no one will ever disturb it. He spends big money on hallucination candles so he can pretend she's there, and he adds aphrodisiacs to the smoke. He sits in front of his wife's portrait doing and saying fucked up shit and Anna sees him...
....because everybody knows his wife escaped and she wants that too. She was looking for clues.
Again.
This is a special kind of torture. Marquis Rothbart has to watch a new, naive version of his wife run away. With the exact same face, another man, and even more conviction. Under his very nose, where she works as a maid.
They're both drugged but the first fling definitely isn't consensual.
I think this sums him up.
I think this sums her up.
The obvious....isnt here. Anna doesn't need to regain her memories and reunite with her loving family. She abandoned them, maybe for good reasons, but it broke them both. Plus it's been a decade. Plus she has a boyfriend. Plus her motivation remains the same. She wants to go to HER home. Her life wasn't even particularly good, but she wants it. Anna isn't really a fantasy protagonist. She's an adult...stuck in her ways? She doesn't have the desire to pick up a sword or a spellbook. It's double screwed up, but even in her last life she was more attached to her dead otherworld parents than her alive child. It seems like her first version just never truly connected with Rothbart or their child.
This flies in the face of so many stereotypes. Being a loving mother. Loving your kooky crazy husband heartily. These two key points define so many yandere isekai stories, but Anna doesn't fit in the box. Not totally.
Her longing for her original life is so real and raw it makes her formidable. Marquis Rothbart can't win her over with his muscles. His only choice is to be evil....because the other option is staring at a painting.
Anna has lots of choices and most of them don't even revolve around the Marquis. She sees him as little more than a pervert for a long time. A lie to keep from her boyfriend. Less than even a side piece. The furthest thing from a loved one.
The worst part is you can see why he loved her, and you can see that he was willing to give her a stereotypical happy ending.
Trapped inside the Ice Emperor’s Cage - By Tsuzumi (8/10)
Admit it, or I will abandon you. Admit that you loved me, and throwing me away was some ploy. That my love for you was always reciprocated or else....or else what? I just said what! Join me in watching a total failure of an Ice Emperor, who is totally incapable of ever giving up on a worthless fallen princess.
The star of Bennet.
The Emperor's most favorite child.
Yes, she was borne of love. Strong and deep. Her father absolutely adored her mother.
A mere concubine.
He loved that lover so, so much. Rowena, or Ronnie, became a real princess. None could stand against the powerful and popular Emperor. Not even his wife. Nor his heir or any of his other children.
Peasants toss flowers at Rowena in the streets. She is the star.
Absolutely.
She was so sickly sweet. She even befriended a hostage prince. A boy named Finlay, with no chance of inheriting his throne. His life was rough as a spare prince. Over the years he became completely devoted to her, and he wanted to stay with her.
She all but forced Finlay to pursue politics. While he waxed poetic about freedom...possibly running away together...she pushed him back towards his cold home.
They were only children.
Going it alone isn't that easy.
Finlay was blinded by love and fear. Afraid that he would have to watch his star marry another.
Rowena would never disappoint everyone she loves for love.
It was a hard position to be in. Finlay has always hated his warlike family. Being a disposable prince. It was easy for him to pick love.
How unfair.
A sister turns up dead.
A sacrifice.
A girl gone so the true queen can finally grasp power.
Poison is found in Rowens room. The jealousy between the concubine and the Queen is suddenly in broad daylight.
The Star of Bennet was a Spoiled Brat of a Princess all along. Never satisfied with what the Emperor gave her. Not even with a Ducal match!
Such a duplicitous bitch.
She was fifteen.
She spends five years getting whipped in jail.
Her elder brother becomes Emperor in the mess.
Her mother, the concubine the Queen envied over all, was quickly executed. A worthless peasant the second the throne cracked.
Rowena is a different person.
A woman who matured in prison.
She is twenty.
Finlay has been busy killing, and missing her.
He is finally the Emperor.
He has her locket in his pocket.
He has enough power to request HER as a political hostage this time.
A mysterious noble with strange ambitions plants Ronnie in his bedroom. He was planning to make her wait. He wanted her to beg, but there she is.
He just starts saying her name.
When she wakes he's barely sane and mad from waiting for her to say it.
To harken back to their former closeness.
Out of desperation, perhaps.
He will take anything.
She just tries to sneak out.
He snaps.
She doesn't get hurt.
He's like a puppet with no strings as soon as he touches her.
She leaves him for the lonely house he bought for her.
He wants her to believe he is simply repaying her for her court teachings. She was the only one who bothered to teach a useless prince. So getting her out of jail and funding her life as a peasant is her payment.
She accepts.
A nightmare for him. A man desperate for even her fake love.
She gets dragged and roped back towards him...by other politicians who know what their Emperor desires.
It's quite sick, or it would be, if his love was not returned.
Yes, Ronnie loved him all along.
She doubts his challenges and his favors though, because things are so different.
Akujo ga Kishi no Kyouai Kara Nogareru Houhou - By Misaki Sangatsu (8/10)
The reincarnation setup is weak. We all know this, but we also love a good sick villain. A freak to fear. It's a huge bonus if that villain is NOT the obsessive love interest. No, here we get to dive into a world of complete vanity. Where everyone is obsessed with our stunningly beautiful, ignorant and useless noble girly girl protagonist.
This is just a book.
She tells herself.
She woke up inside a stereotypical villainess, and everything is wrong.
She's going to die in a big public spectacle. Envious of some special girl who isn't half as pretty as she is. In the end her absolutely obsessed knight, Cain, kills her. He absolutely worships the ground Victoria walks on. With her vain request she saved his life.
Victoria was stupid, mean and privileged. So much so that she did a pretty nice thing by accident. She saved the son of a fallen noble family, because she wanted a pet pretty boy. Now, that's a creepy and awful reason. The new soul inside her is disgusted, but otherwise an innocent man would be dead. Harassed to death over some slight his parents committed.
Victoria thinks its all fake though. A charm spell is affecting Cain. Victoria is the one who asked her sister, Fiona, for a legitimate charm potion. A permanent one which completely changes the victim into a dog.
Victoria never knew her knight felt some real loyalty to her, because her bratty experiment turned him into a stalker.
The new version of Victoria isn't as mean, so his condition gets worse.
Beforehand Victoria was too abusive for Cain to overpower. An iron wall of sorts. She was too arrogant to notice she had literally created a stalker. Her punishments kept him at bay, but now Cain keeps lashing out. Sword in hand, gushing about how her kindness is all wrong and its driving him even more mad.
Great.
The sensual rumors about her dont help.
Poor Cain thinks she has a million loves, but she won't touch him.
Fiona drops in to start talking about potions and things get weird.
Realllllllyyyyyyyy weird.
Fiona isn't obsessed with her sister. It's more of a fascination. Like Victoria is a bug in a pretty wig.
Fiona wants her sister to die....in a particular way. In a loving embrace. The potion was her idea. The hot knight was her idea. She's really into dark magic. Victoria dying foolishly chasing someone else's man, with a maddened stalker behind her.....is her SISTER'S FANTASY.
Wtf!!!!!!
New Victoria isn't stupid but she's sloppy and she isn't mean enough to Cain. Now he's in love with her underneath the spell AND THAT MAKES THE EFFECT WORSE.
He's not even the final boss, and he's pretty bad.
Which is great.
I do love it when the "stupid villainess" has an origin that makes alot of sense. Victoria was a rude, rich, peerless beauty. She liked to hit maids, and in response to that bad rumors about her began to spread. Loads of men wanted her, despite her awful personality. They used that awful personality as a springboard for more rumors. Leaving Victoria with a strippers reputation unjustly.......whhhiicch only made her attitude worse. Then creepy sister Fiona preyed on her insecurities, and Victoria used a love potion on a man who insulted her once. Cain. Which left her and Cain in an magically charged "obsessive" relationship fueled by magic.
Maybe Victoria gave her bothersome pretty body to another soul, with a transfer spell or something.
Being so desired so strangely sounds like it sucks.
A serial killer finds a shiny new toy lurking inside a depressed and repressed woman. A woman who has always longed to take revenge on her long list of enemies. That makes her a great target to blame when lots of people end up dead, but is that all it is? This particular killer isn't obsessed with blood alone. Can she keep her sanity in this mess?
Teacher Gijeong is an excellent protagonist. She really does shine.
Without going into too much detail this story has a setup that is near and dear to my heart. It is quite literally Too Real. In South Korea it's apparently acceptable to harass teachers and blame them when your child is a failure. Gijeong is currently dealing with a student who brings knives to class while he violently bullies other very young students.
Grade six students.
Its a tease and awful situation, and the child's mother handles it by constantly harassing and defaming the struggling teacher.
(This sort of culture is also growing like mad in Canada where I am. As a former private school kid yeah parents are bananas and some of them will literally try to ruin school for everybody else.)
Anyway her struggle is very real ahem.
Everything escalates and eventually we, the reader, realize something. Huh. Our protagonist is totally being stalked by a middle aged woman who hates her because she needs someone to blame. For her bad home life. For her son's vile behavior. Anything. She:
- Calls Gijeong at home constantly.
- Starts to pry into Gijeong's personal life.
- Spreads rumors about Gijeong's dating life??? Ew????? With pictures???? Like it's clear she follows Gijeong around AT NIGHT????
It all happens because Gijeong is a great victim. After all as soon as Gijeong calls a lawyer the stalker responds by....accusing her of child abuse.
(Man this is so relatable my skin is crawlingggg. Not from a teacher perspective but as a student from a dramatic af school.)
Anyway the lawyer she hires is really kind and understanding. He decides to take her case on for cheap when he sees her standing in the ran, looking listless. He recently lost a client to suicide, so his need to redeem himself like a hero is showing haha.
What a sweet first meeting!!!!
She also meets a handsome detective, who later tells her to avoid her helpful lawyer emotional support guy.
Anyway dont worry about that. How about some MORE shit that is Too Real??? Giseong is her one and only little brother. He goes to the therapist alot, and even though they barely speak she loves him. Even though life is so hard alone.
Their parents died. They were raised with their aunt. When I say raised a mean they were terribly abused by their aunt and it's clear that Giseong can't function because of his upbringing. Gijeong has to. She's the older one. The smart teacher. She has to do this.
Giseong is getting bullied at school.
He might want to kill himself.
I'm going to hold your hand here, but this might break your heart anyway. I said realistic. Giseong is a complete piece of shit. He wants her to die, and every time he goes to the therapy she pays for he calls her useless. She has no idea. The therapist is doing his best, but Giseong is both disabled by anxiety and a grade A asshole. The worst possible combo.
Gijeong isn't going to get help from anybody anytime soon!
Except her friendly neighborhood lawyer!!!! Who is helping her for free because he's soooo nice!!!!!! His office is right down the street from her apartment!!!!!
Wait a damn second.
The location of his office is just perfect. It makes stalking Giseong really fucking easy!!!! Inseop, our handsome lawyer friend, shows up at Giseong's therapy office. He asks if they take walk in's. They say no. He goes out to have a long sad boy smoke.
He's actually waiting for Giseong.
Where, oh where, is this going???
Giseong responds when he says hello. Inseop, a handsome successful looking man, is looking for a tall building. He wants to die.
Giseong takes him to the roof he personally considered jumping off of.
They have a chat.
Inseop doesn't actually want to jump.
He tells the boy he's afraid, but when he plucks up the courage...
They can die together.
The man and the boy exchange numbers, and then the plan is really in motion.
Inseop doesn't like sharing.
"I want this one."
To the extreme.
To the max.
He wanted to be the only sibling to recive love from his parents, so he got rid of his sister. Her monogrammed pen is his favorite keepsake.
He collects trophies from his victims, like any good serial killer.
He's got a long list of "things" he's really attached to. Instead of people. The pen that represented his parents love was the easiest for a normal mind to understand. The rest are just diabolical.
He got jealous one day when a client bragged about his loving family. So, he made that client a shame to his family. Until they refused to ever speak to him again and he hung himself.
His best friend was just a bug to him, but that bug had a wonderful relationship with his father. So that father died in a "construction accident" and the son, well...he's gone too.
Even his favorite teacher.
She dared to get married.
Gone.
Gijeong doesn't date. Her whole life revolves around caring for Giseong, and getting abused by her stalker. She did go on one date with a weird guy in college, but she didn't want a second date.
I wonder if that's connected to anything??????
Also it doesn't matter if I'm wrong and Inseop chose to obsess over her randomly.
He's great and she's great in totally different ways.
Gijeong starts to crack, and it's not because of Inseop. He's a professional. She doesn't stand a chance against him. No, her mental battle really is against Shitty Momma Stalker. Someone on her level, willing to use societal norms and employment to harass her.
Remember, all of Inseop's "help" is just a ploy to make her depend on him.
He's smart and experienced enough to get rid of Giseong to make her dependant. He's been stalking her with flare. With notes. He damn well knows she won't be his shiny new special thing if Giseong is around.
So, she gets fired.
Teaching gives her joy.
She loves all the kids.
All of the parents liked her too, but as you can see Shitty Momma Stalker dedicated every day of her life to ruining that. Just because of her pride...oh and her jealousy.
Gijeong is a understated pretty woman who loyally cares for her disabled brother. People admire and like her. Her enemies are loud, narcissistic losers who threaten her job while they brag about their money to bring her down.
Her only female friend is one too.
Fuck her life.
Damn.
She was already on her way to collapse before Inseop arrived.
So now she's jobless.
What's next?
He sewed all the seeds. The man has been PLOWING this field. He does his hair every time he sees her. He takes her out for soup to comfort her. He drives her places in his fancy car.
Look at me.
I'm a cool lawyer with money and you're jobless!!!!
Hello?
Hello??
WHY ARENT YOU CALLINGAAAAAAA
After she loses her job my bitch sends him a thank you note.
Bye.
Pfff-
BHWAHAHAHAHAHA.
I literally fell off my couch holy shit.
Inseop didn't manage to do enough damage before she lost her job. Giseong is still alive too. I think he got cocky because she hung out with him a few times. Maybe he planned to kill Giseong after they started dating, so they could attend his funeral together. It would have been so romantic. He never suspected that she truly only saw him as a helping hand. Not her only option. Not a love interest. After she loses her job she politely cuts ties.
So, what can be done? How can he possibly weasel his way back into Gijeong's life now?
The stakes go up.
In flashbacks we see Inseop kill people indirectly. As a reader you might mistakenly think he doesn't like to get his hands dirty. He proves us all wrong when he butchers Shitty Momma Stalker.
This embroils Gijeong in a legal mess, as she was recently fired due to child abuse complaints from Shitty Momma Stalker.
At this point her teaching career is ruined.
It's in the news.
There's articles about it.
What a messy, messy legal mess.
Sounds like somebody needs a lawyer!
He won't delay will killing Giseong this time either.
Gijeong is a tougher thing to have than he thought.
No hard feelings.
He doesn't actually hate Shitty Momma Stalker.
He even apologizes.
"I just want to see Gijeong again."
.
My final notes here will be on the rockin, fuckin adult character design. This webtoon almost reminds me of a noir mystery and the bland colors are so much like everyday office life.
It makes Inseop scarier! He really is lurking amoung us, and he's doing a super good job!
How do you feel about cosmic horror? - By Galpil (8/10)
I love it next question!!!! This is horror and sci-fi to the max, with lots of love added in! The only flaws are the average art and a somewhat boring protagonist. The plot is spine chilling, because our protagonist doesn't remember her loving husband. It quickly becomes obvious that she never had one, and her alien partner has constructed a perfect reality for her to enjoy with him.
One where she can barely recognize herself!
Yu Irae remembers, but she's got pretty bad amnesia. Her past is fighting against her present.
Surprise it's not actually amnesia. Her human brain is struggling to comprehend all the unnatural shit that has been happening to her.
She doesn't remember being married, and that's the only thing she forgot after the accident.
She doesn't recognize her beloved either.
Also, he looks like a pile of tentacles.
First, she asks for help.
Then, she assumes she's going insane.
After that the doctors comfort her.
The human brain is weird. It was a big accident. They assure her she will get better, and her husband will be there to support her.
Why wouldn't she believe it?
The nurses always tell her how handsome her husband is. Her husband (the pile of tentacles) always calls her honey and he seems like an upstanding man???
She caught quite a catch.
He's a CEO and she's a housewife who doesn't have to lift a finger.
The nurses are soooo jealous.
Everyone around her is happy, positive and supportive.
Yohan (that's not his real name. Just a nickname she can pronounce) is all about the truth. He's there to help this wife through her mental health crisis! He tries to fill in the gaps in her memory.
He honestly admits he had to chase her.
Apparently, she didn't like him in the beginning. His crush was one sided for a long time before they got married.
Capgras Syndrome.
A type of disorder that makes people see a loved one as a stranger, after a traumatic event.
She assumes she has this.
She continues to struggle with what she can see....but then it's time to go home.
When Yohan takes her to a fancy penthouse...it doesn't feel like home.
The bad feeling she has becomes more important than what she can see.
Her memories dont match what Yohan is saying.
She remembers an ordinary life, full of regular suffering and few successes. She had a shit job. She didn't do well in school. She's a loner...
No. No. No!
Yohan insists she was a happy woman with a great carrier, and marrying him was the next chapter in her happily ever after!!!
Then she has a weird dream.
She can see Yohan's handsome human face.
He destroys the sky, and she gets this weird feeling in her head.
Is this what sent her to the hospital?
No.
It's just a dream.
She's pretty convinced they're a couple. The doctors are there to reassure her. They start to flirt.
Yohan doesn't like it when she talks about getting older.
He also says she's the only one he's been in a relationship with.
How cute?
Then it gets stranger. He seems to be hostile towards other people. Or more accurately he treats them like servants. Yu Irae is his only RELATIONSHIP. In general. On the planet.
Which explains why she disliked him.
He was basically a rich stalker who was nothing but rude to everyone else.
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