I feel
fandom: i raised a black dragon
summary: A free verse poem about the sensations Eleonora feels and the threats she promises to keep.
text preview:
The magic in my fingertips—
the mana under my nailbeds—
the means to any end—
all of it, gone
Synopsis: Ack! I'm trapped in this webnovel, "Brigitte Wants to be Happy!" No prob, I KNOW what's gonna happen so I'll just—wait. I'm not Brigitte? I'm her aunt, Princess Yerenika?! Uh-oh. I'm stuck 20 years before the main plot... and everyone in my generation ends up tragically dead! Her parents, dead. Me, dead. Villain's dad, King Euredian, dead. A-ha! That's the key. I just need to prevent the villain from being born... time to break out some seduction schemes and flirt like my life depends on it!
Status: On going (march '24)
My rating: 4 - 🍓🍓🍓🍓
Images: Soleia (villain), Laurus (???) and Terry (priest)
Our FL, Yerenika, is reborn in a world she got to know about in a story she read in her past life; only she gets there twenty years before the story she read about begins. Her sister is currently pregnant with Brigitte, the future protagonist of that webnovel she liked and the girl who will be the one sided love of the future villain, the son of the King of Bellacourt and the dark mage Soleia. To save her new family, one of her favorite characters –Euredian King of Bellacourt– and herself from a tragic ending, she decides to take her sister's place in a nearby event that sets the horrible future into motion. Like that, Yerenika prepares to be kidnapped instead of her sister by the Euredian and be taken to Bellacourt as a hostage due to both Yerenika's father and Euredian having an unsolved political issue. Her plan? Use her time as a hostage to make Euredian, the future father of the original villain, fall in love with her and prevent the villain from being born.
I love this story for two reasons. Number one, Yerenika's character is very strong, and doesn't allow anyone to intimidate her. She's a woman on a mission to save the world, and she doesn't care how dense or annoying she has to be because there are more important matters at hand right now, people will die if she doesn't succeed. She's very determined and a little bit strategic, it's fun to see her try and try and try again without falling despirited to Euredian's cold heart, she's not after his love because she's enamored with him after all.
I will admit that later in the story there are things about the way she refers to others that I don't like as much, there are points where she becomes a little bit mean maybe. It doesn't happen as often so I just ignored those particular parts and kept going, but I thought maybe it would be necessary to point that out since I don't seem to be the only one who perceives it that way. I think it's part of her strong character, I just think it could have being approach differently.
The second thing that I really liked about this story is the two main character's dynamic. There is a third party in play, Soleia –who I really liked too–, Euredian's fiancee and the mother of the future villain. Soleia needs to marry Euredian as part of a plan of revenge against the empire, so of course when Yerenika comes around trying to steal his attention she has to be wary of her, but I personally never saw her as the main obstacle for Yerenika's and Euredian's relationship.
Euredian could be seen as the typical ML with a heart to defrost, but the reason he can't let his heart waver is because he takes his role as the king very seriously. Even when he comes to like this silly princess that is also very suspicious as to why she insists so much on marrying him, he can't just drop his responsibilities to his empire and its people, all the things he was taught since childhood, because of her. Not to mention that he's aware of the danger it would represent for her if he ever showed he cared for Yerenika. Euredian needs to marry Soleia as part of his responsibilities, and he's aware Soleia might harm the princess if he tried otherwise. So what makes the main obstacle for these two people to be together is how their stubborness and goals collide: Euredian wants to be a responsible and dedicated king, Yerenika needs him to to give that up to save the future. It's fun because the conflict that keeps their wills fighting it's presented in a way that feels genuine, and also because it eventually evolves in this dynamic where both are conscious that they like each other, but Euredian can't give everything up for the sake of love and they both begin to feel powerless about the situation.
I like Soleia as a villain. She has a story behind her that led her to a bad path, she made bad choices but she doesn't regret it, she's too filled with anger to regret anything. Laurus, a deity of this universe that comes into play later on, is someone I find very entertaining as this all powerful being that just wants to be left alone but suddenly cares too much about this random princess from another universe.
I would like to add that in this story in particular the fact that the FL comes from another world is important to the plot. Not only does her soul not completely align with her body, causing her to be sick most of the time, but it also comes to be a problem later on when her body starts to reject her, which was also very interesting to read about.
I like the story, the illustrations and the side characters. I didn't feel it was boring at any point. I will give it four strawberries. The story is still on going but I can feel it being close to the end (I'm about on chapter 140). I fully recommend it!
