Sad for the Queen, she seems to be an amazing human and woman and Queen, sad she can't have her own child from the King. I thought that prince Aaron is from the Queen, but as I understood, he's from a concubine. It's very interesting to know how is the King ....does he love the queen, or at least respects her, any special feelings? From what I gathered the King is OK, at least listens to the Queen (the case with CP dismissal) but ...did he just impregnated his 4th concubine? ...em, isn't he kinda ...old already to bring another concubine? As a King he seems OK, but as a man ...well. Thank you @Borednight
From what i could understand, as of late there's only 2 princes Gadrict and Aaron. I guess the 4th concubine is like, to get her baby in line to the throne too, so she's flattering the Queen to get on her good side. But it could just be she's a nice lady (doubt) As for the King's afe, idk. He hasn't show up yet, and i doubt his age will be revealed. Queen really seems to be extra sad about her life. The past chapters make it clear that she's not exactly happy being the Queen, but she gets to enjoy from time to time. She must suffer from empty nest syndrome or something similar, since she cant have children (so far, who knows)
Gradict reminds me of the over-the-top cheating fiance in 'I Claim Palimony'. The similarities just came to mind. Both are cheaters, both are outmaneuvered, and both give themselves enough rope to hang themselves from while committing social suicide in a grande manner.
Ah, that's a fairly loaded multi-part question. Why the synopsis say that she writing the novel was the thing that rose the death flag? The novel writing is more of a part of her multi-media/entertainment industry building thing. It was what brought her to the attention of the Royal Family and triggered her "engagement Flag" as part of the reason. The other part is probably in-world politicking and part the Queen's desire to have some family/company in her lonely life. Eseria would have been her psuedo-proxy daughter if she had become the Crown Princess. What happens when the OGheroine appears? When the absolute Mary-sue OGHeroine shows (with an IQ to Match), it's not really a blip on Eseria's radar. Eseria's doing her own thing with her friends, and by-the-by everyone resents Gradict at this point. Both idiots (CP and OGHeroine) simply build aggro the moment they enter the academy. Is there a Ml for Eseria? Well, no. As of right now there are no MLs for MC. More like Eseria's focus at this point is enjoying her freedom and building her multi media empire. She just finished her first year of academy? And got rid of her unwanted dead-weight of a fiance. She probably doesn't want to go through another disaster again. One Gradict shaped mill-stone was enough. Do you know the ending? The story is still being written, so who knows when it will end? The storyline is trending more towards Slice of Life style at this point, until another antagonist shows themselves.
I don't know if anyone is still waiting for spoilers but since the manga is taking forever I decided to read the entire raw novel. It was a lot more interesting than I thought so I wanted to share it. Spoiler: Alistair's background Alistair's background is sort of confusing she appears to be the daughter of Viscount van Mintia and an unnamed woman who is somehow related to Baron Jimtrail (the family CP is eventually stuck in). Alistair's mother was either the second wife or lover of the viscount not sure which because she is called both in the story. When she was pregnant with Alistair she fled to the church (don't know why) to give birth and dies shortly after. Alistair grows up in the church orphanage but knows that Viscount van Mintia is her father. Archbishop Kelly appears to be trying to get the viscount to take her in but the viscount just wont. As soon as she gets to the academy her goal is to find true love with a man who has a higher station than Viscount Mintia so that she can scorn her family and be above them. To show how pitiful she is to the CP she says the viscount and his first wife treat her horribly. The CP promises that her family will be dealt with after she becomes his fiancé. From what I read it never says for sure but it is implied that Alistair has never actually met the Viscount's first wife or his other children. (not positive it was hard to read) Later in the story Alistair attends a tea party for entertainers (because of the music festival) and Leonora van Lagunose, another Duke's daughter, asks Alistair about her family's territory. Even though the questions are really basic she can't answer any of them. The CP yells at the other ladies saying they were bulling her but they only asked like two really basic questions that anyone who had visited the Viscount's territory should know. Once they leave Alistair is upset and tells CP that she has never once been to her family's territory (I don't think she has ever been to their house in the capital either). I don't actually know if the Viscount is aware of Alistair using his last name or not. After the engagement is broken and both of the idiot love birds are dragged out of the hall the viscount and his wife are also arrested because of her actions. Both of them are shocked and yell that they have never had any connection with Alistair. This is where it starts getting confusing. Alistair is registered in the family's ledger as the oldest daughter of the Viscount, BUT she never once lived with them (this is what they are saying but they can't prove it because she is listed as a daughter of their family) I think its the viscount's wife but they say something along the lines of "that worthless girl I've never let her into my home" Apparently they get some sort of tax leniency or some sort of financial support for having more children (I didn't quite understand it) which is the only reason Alistair was registered at all. In the end they are able to disown her and send her to Baron Jimtrail's house. Because Alistair caused a huge commotion disowning her wasn't enough so they were forced to give up so of their land which is part of the land given to Eseria. I'll add more later but I'm not really familiar with novel updates posting rules so I didn't want to go on forever.
Someone already posted a bit about the engagement cancelation so I skipped to the "trial" which happens the following day in the story. I might go back to cover the foundation day event in more detail later. Spoiler: "trial" The CP declares his engagement to Eseria over at the beginning of the Kingdoms foundation day celebration. But the actual "trial" to make a decision is held the following day at the academy because Alistair is still a student and all of the "witnesses" to Eseria's harassment are at the academy. The CP, Eseria, and her friends have already graduated but to support MC during the trial the former students dress in their uniforms and convince the guards to let them in. The first evidence the CP gives against MC is Alistair's etiquette book that has been cut up with a knife. This is where it gets good. There is NO text book for ANY etiquette class offered at the school which Eseria points out. The etiquette professor stands up and testifies that book was specifically made for Alistair, he had written it himself. Alistair's manners were so bad that the professor had to give her a book to study outside of the class room along with extra lessons (and she still has not improved). At this point Eseria says "if it’s a book only for her how could I have known about it?". CP and Alistair say that Eseria was taking extra history lessons on the kingdom in the same hallway at the queens request, which is completely false. The Queen who is there with the King says she has never heard of such a thing and Eseria acts completely lost. The History professor than stands up and says that Eseria has always gotten perfect scores in his class without any extra help from him. They try to blame her for pouring water on Alistair from a classroom window but that complaint was disproven so fast it was over before the CP could finish talking. Now it's time for the classic act, falling down the stairs. Alistair rolled down the stairs on her side near the room where the upper aristocratic ladies were having a celebratory tea party for their graduation. She made no effort to see if Eseria was actually there or to make sure Eseria had left the room so MC wouldn't have an alibi. CP uses the doctor to prove Alistair's injuries but the doctor says she was completely fine and the CP only yelled at him saying he was a fake doctor who couldn't see her injuries. After giving her a painkiller and a useless compress she walked out of the infirmary with no issue. Now the King gets involved and asks if there was any follow up visit or if she used a cane to walk. Everyone is surprised by his level of knowledge about having a sprained ankle and he looks towards the Queen who laughed happily. When they were students the Queen and King had taken a fencing class together. The Queen defeated the King and he fell over resulting in a sprained ankle. He explains how it took a long time to heal, he had to walk with a cane and the bandages needed to be changed constantly. (I love this relationship, why did he have to ruin it with the other ladies!) Not only were her injuries proven to be a hoax Eseria couldn't have done it because she was a the castle on that day, invited by the king himself to discuss some trade plan. Alistair is afraid and starts stuttering about how she was really hurt by Eseria's harassment and they should trust her. Feeling trapped she notices a girl with a similar hair color to Eseria and calls out to her claiming she mimicked Eseria's hairstyle and pushed her down the stairs that day. The CP immediately yells at the girl telling her how awful she is but the girl is very calm (it said she was calm but she was actually holding back her anger) Her Marquis family is related to the royal family and famous for their hair, even the King and Queen are shocked by CP lack of knowledge. The girl thanks CP for remembering her family name but nothing else. She begins to undo her braid to prove it couldn't be her and when she takes out the last pin she throws it at the CP angrily. Her hair immediately becomes tangled and she cries out something like "do you even know how much I wish I could have a beautiful hairstyle like Eseria." (her family is famous for having frizzy/ curly hair that looks terrible when left down for even a few min. I think I read this part right) The King and Queen are sympathetic to her and everyone looks at the CP like he has lost his mind. Finally, CP remembers that he has written testimony about the things that Eseria has done even though no witnesses have come up when called. When looking at the written evidence Eseria and others point out the Ink and writting were the same even though they have different names. While presenting each item of evidence the CP calls out several names of people who had promised him they would testify against Eseria. In an earlier post someone said the CP kept muttering "they" said Eseria was evil and needed to be gotten rid of. "They" are actually Eseira's friends in disguise using FAKE names. He is so incompetent that he can't tell if someone's last name is real or not. When he tries to call these FAKE nobles up to testify no one responds and everyone is really confused because not one of them sounds familiar. Eseria stands up and tells him that none of those names are real and he yells at her saying there is no way she would know all of the nobles in the kingdom. Eseria asks the history professor to check her words and begins to recite every noble family in the kingdom starting with the royal family and ending with the Barons. Everyone is in awe, especially the students who had never interacted with her before, they see her as an amazing woman who knows and thinks about everyone (I think it was around 120 names). The history professor praises her and says that she is correct. The whole time the CP is yelling that she has it wrong because he can't even remember it.
I also just wanted to post really fast that the novel Eseria writes comes back to bite her in several ways. It brought her to the attention of everyone including the royals but that's not all it did. A copy of the book Eseria wrote was actually donated to the orphanage where Alistair lived as a child. After reading the book she became inspired to go to the academy and find a rich handsome man to marry. At first she just liked the story but when she started using the lines and followed the scenarios Alistair began to realize that what was written was happening right in front of her. If you read the book it gives small glimpses into what each character is thinking. After delivering a sooth or innocent line Alistair references the book several times in her thoughts. She ends up viewing the author, who is under a pen name, almost as a messenger of god who is guiding her to a bright future. After the engagement is broken the book causes a different reaction, it starts a conspiracy. That Eseria knew what was going to happen and planned the entire thing in advance to get rid of her unwanted fiancé. Even though it doesn't affect Eseria very much people end up writing books about her life and rumoring she might not be as much of a victim as they first thought.
I'll probably be on the neutral on this kind of thing. If the CP is a really competent person even with Eseria's so-called "elaborate schemes" of getting rid of her engagement, none of the farce of a trial would happen. And even if an annulment of the engagement happened, it should be solved privately like what happened in "Just A Heinous Noble Lady". So even if Eseria is an "instigator", the CP is still at fault because he's stoooopid and doesn't deserve to be the next king of a country for "falling" into such a trick.
I would like to correct a previous misunderstanding I had about Alistair's past. After reading through again I realized there is one part in the story where she talks about living with the Viscounts family. In the past she lived in their house but was treated like a servant (like cinderella). Also the financial support the Viscount's family was getting actually came from the Viscounts older brother who provided entertainment funds for Alistair and her mother. After her mothers death they began to treat her as a servant, then after learning his older brother wouldn't pay for her anymore the Viscount kicked her out to the orphanage. Apparently the Viscount asked for a large amount of money from his older brother to take care of Alistair and his second wife. Once the second wife passed away he refused to give them anymore money resulting in her being abandoned. Alistair still appears to be very young when sent to the orphanage I'd say around 6 or 7 (maybe even younger, Eseria released her book at 8 years old but Alistair should have spent at least a year in the orphanage before the book comes out. Plus Alistair is a few years behind at the academy.)
This is one of the extra stories focusing on Cornelia and her maid Alana. From what I have seen so far all of the extra stories take place at the same time as the main story. This one starts when Cornelia is 10 years old. Spoiler: Cornelia and her maid Alana It starts in Alana's perspective who is nervous at meeting the Duke's oldest daughter for the first time (she is a new maid but suddenly became the lady's personal maid?). She is comforted by the head maid Rosia who says "Cornelia is a smart and gentle lady". Apparently she rushed to greet Cornelia so fast that she bit her togue and it hurt to talk? She starts to cry a little because she messed up but Cornelia tells her to wait until it stops hurting which moves her heart (the wording was very strange). Alana greatly admires Cornelia and thinks the ladies around her aren’t on the same level at all. If there was a prince her age Cornelia would have definitely become Queen. Basically Cornelia is a perfect noble lady and Alana feels a sense of superiority by serving her. But when Cornelia turns 14 something changes, she begins to look out her window and sit alone frequently. Alana is concerned which makes Cornelia happy. She tells Alana that Eseria has been very active in creating such wonderful novels and toys but she can't understand her sister's creativity at all (she wants to understand but because they have a different level of knowledge it is hard for her to keep up). She goes on to say they both have the same parents but their level of skill is so different that she is embarrassed when reminded of it. Alana immediately refutes that Cornelia is the best and thinking those things about herself is absurd. Alana admires Eseria's inventions but dislikes how wild she is, she says something like "Eseria may be somewhat of a genius but if you look at her she's an insane lady". Alana feels angry at Eseria but can't do anything because she is a maid, instead she comforts Cornelia and says there are things that she alone must be good at. She encourages her to find a different field where she can make her own achievements that way the sisters can't be compared. Cornelia admits she was a little jealous of her sister but suddenly becomes motivated to find her own place. A few days later Cornelia gets a letter from the Wallace company, she tells Alana they will be going to visit soon. Cornelia tells Alana she can't write a book only from her imagination the way Eseria can but if she bases it off of historical facts she may be able to. She wants to write a book about people overcoming many difficulties and unreasonable circumstances, Alana encourages her (she thinks Cornelia is more qualified to write a book than Eseria because she is more lady like and thinks seriously about things). At the Wallace company she takes a tour and speaks to Wallace's wife (I think?). Afterwards Cornelia meets to talk with Wallace and he talks about Eseria a lot because they are business partners. She talks about wanting to keep up with her sister and he responds that the two sisters have a good friendship working together. Alana is angry at this but can't say anything. Cornelia wants to base her story off of Wallace and his wife who fell in love while struggling to make it as a merchant. Instead of staying home his wife also works at the company and she is interested in how well they live and work together. During lunch Cornelia speaks to their oldest son and he tells her that he will inherit the company because even though his younger siblings are more talented they have other interests. Cornelia praises him saying him taking over the company is what is allowing his younger siblings to do as they like and realizes that she is the same. Suddenly Qol (I think that’s his name) comes in he's the supper talented younger brother that’s in charge of testing/ expanding on Eseria's inventions. He's surprised that Cornelia is there and says he has always wanted to meet her. Eseria has told him a lot about her and he says Eseria thinks of her as a ridiculously talented genius. Cornelia is shocked but doesn't really want to hear that from someone who's level of genius is Eseria. Afterwards she runs into Milan who is trying to study for the commoners entrance exams to get into the academy. His family doesn't know he plans on taking them but Cornelia tells him he should tell them proudly (apparently Eseria thoughtlessly mentioned that they would be together in the academy so he is studying earlier then in the game). Cornelia writes her book and Alana praises it as her first reader, it is published two months after she went to visit. Alana couldn't believe it and was extremely happy. The book is kept as a secret to everyone except for the Duke, his wife and Alana. She continues writing but soon becomes engaged to the son of Marquis Chrysade, Riel. She is worried about continuing her hobby as a married woman because it isn't seen as a good thing. As she walks out to tell her father she needs to speak with Riel about her hobby she over hears Milan crying out followed by Eseria. It's about a book Eseria wants published (a BL novel) Alana somehow gets her hands on the book and tried to give it to Cornelia. Milan says she can't see it but Alana gets angry and gives it to her lady anyway because her lady should decide if it's something she should see or not. Eseria's maid is freaking out like crazy saying she and Eseria will be kicked out of the mansion and while everyone is talking loudly (even Alana) Cornelia is reading silently. Suddenly she cuts through all the noise and asks if Eseria truly wrote it, who responds after a few seconds. Cornelia declares her a true genius, boundaries between men and women are easy to break but men in love with other men is something truly challenging. Milan and the servants are shocked to the point of almost falling over while Cornelia's face is flushed with excitement. Once that calms down Cornelia then goes to a party hosted by Marquis Chrysade. After the introductions Riel gives her a tour of the mansion. In the study she notices that three of the books she has written are on the lower shelf. When she gets home she excitedly tells Alana that the wife of the Marquis had read her works several times and enjoyed them. She was so proud that her future mother in law was her fan she confessed right there and they spent a while talking about her books. The Marquis's wife was ecstatic and excepted her as her future daughter in law. The Marquis and Riel basically said if the wife was fine with it they weren't bothered by it. Riel's father even began to tell her stories about their family and rumors he had heard wondering if they would make good books too. Alana is sort of disappointed her lady won't stop writing after marriage like a proper lady but forgets it when Cornelia rushes to take her hands happily (not because she doesn't want Cornelia to be happy, she's more afraid of what other nobles will think). She thanks Alana for telling her to find her own path and her continued support throughout the years. After Cornelia is married Alana also gets married a year later. The final chapter is Alana speaking about the present with her husband. Eseria and Najek have just learned that Cornelia is an author and Alana's husband is surprised that they never knew. They only recently figured it out because after her marriage Cornelia began writing with her real married name, Cornelia Chrysade. A delivery arrives and its Cornelia's new book (it's about Eseria's abandoned engagement, this is one of the big reasons people start to think Eseria planed it out. Because her own sister basically wrote a book saying she did) the story ends with Alana thinking she'll read all of Cornelia's books no matter how strange. (during the conversation she's reading some sort of murder mystery written by Cornelia) This turned out way longer than I thought but I didn't want to break it up or come back to it. If having posts this long breaks some kind of rule let me know and I'll try to fix it.
Spoiler: CP and Alistair's life together After causing another scene at the Queen's birthday party (where they demand Eseria give them her title as a count and her new territory) former CP and Alistair are banned from any social event or stepping foot in the capital for the next ten years. The new Crown Prince Aaron confiscates Baron Jimtrail's house in the capital and arranges for the servants to find new jobs .Even after this former CP hasn't given up on reclaiming his "rightful" place. Former CP and Alistair are forced to pack up and move to the Jimtrail Barony before the week is up. The Jimtrail Baron's house is somewhat poor but the territory itself is actually not bad off. The former Baron invested a lot of money into improving the roads and businesses, as well as his own personal investments (before he got involved the territory was in a really bad spot). He is successful enough that when the new Baron and Baroness (former CP and Alistair) show up he kicks himself out of the family so that he can pursue his own happiness as a businessman. Knowing that the family name is basically over because of Alistair's actions he thinks it's best to just get rid of it. So the territory is doing ok but they don't have anything special to sell or attract visitors. The Jimtrail family pays quite a bit to maintain this balanced economy in their territory but doesn't make much back from it. Former CP (can you tell I barely remember his name?) messes all of this up, BIG time. The former Baron created several programs to improve daily life for the people but former CP immediately starts to shut down anything that doesn't make money. He stops paying for road maintenance which effects the efficiency of everything, as well as several other vital things that hurt the territory. Not only does he make the people's lives harder he raises taxes to an absurd degree. To the point he is punished again by the Crown for mismanagement. He and Alistair's relationship is a little rocky but both of them seem to be slightly more delusional than before (it was hard to understand but it implied the stress of living with barely any money, being hated by the people, and servants made them desperate to regain their past status). Alistair gives birth to a baby boy and former CP basically sends letters to any family he can think of saying "if you want your daughter to be Queen you should support the rightful heir of the throne" (I am unsure if he meant himself or his son) former CP gets frustrated that no one is paying attention to him or his child and gets the idea to divorce Alistair and marry a noble woman with a higher status. He thinks if he does this he will be able to get support to retake his place in high society. Ironically he thinks the best lady (target) for him to marry is Eseria who is now a Countess managing a territory of her own. Eseria is apparently the highest ranked noble lady who is still unmarried. A year or so later at the castle Eseria is meeting with the King and Queen about the trouble caused by former CP. It's about the letters he sent out, each family that received one immediately sent them to the palace unopened afraid of being connected with the Jimtrail family (this is the reason he escapes punishment for basically committing treason against the new CP Aaron, no one actually read the letters.) Eseria and the Queen talk again about how irresponsible he is sending letters to several nobles claiming their daughters will become Queen if they helped him. The Queen says something like "what would he have done if several nobles responded all wanting their daughter to be the true Queen." The King tells Eseria that former CP wants to be divorced and why but she wonders what noble lady would want to marry someone with such a bad reputation. King tells her that she appears to be his top candidate for remarriage but Eseria can't hide her disgust at all. She goes on to say that Alistair is the true master of the Jimtrail Barony and former CP would become a commoner upon their divorce. The King (or Queen?) tells her that his request for divorce has been rejected as their marriage was decided because of their actions (basically staying together is a part of their punishment). I want to add some extra information on former CP and Alistair's children. Their first child is a boy and causes former CP to send out those letters but former CP also tried to write to the King saying 'please let me into the capital so I can introduce you', or 'please give me a bigger territory for my son'. But former CP doesn't get away scot free, apparently his son dies at only a few years of age from some illness. Eseria thinks it strange as even if they are poor they should have better health care than commoners. I absolutely HATE to write this but it appears that the King ordered someone to either poison his grandson or purposefully give him a rare illness (to ensure he would never be able to threaten the throne). The meeting at the palace (the one above this paragraph) happens after the son's death. A month or so before this meeting Alistair gives birth to a baby girl and the King says if the former CP tries to use his daughter in the same way he tried to uses his son they might lose that child too. It isn't really clear if Eseria is ok with the fact that he killed a child (and is threatening to kill another) but she thinks the King is more impressive than she knew for being able to take such measures to ensure the kingdoms future. As far as I know this is the last time CP or Alistair is ever mention in the story. If I find any more info on them in the extras I'll post it separately since this is already a lot.
Spoiler: ML As of right now there is no ML in the book (main story is over but the last extra was edited not too long ago so there may be more one day.) but there are hints as to who Eseria would end up with if she wanted to get married. The only logical ML is Qol (Cole in the manga, I'm going say Cole because it sounds more like a name) the oldest son of Wallace (I accidently said second oldest in Cornelia's story). In the original Crystal Labyrinth game Cole is a supporting character in Milan's route and gives important information to the heroine. He is the one who reviews Eseria's ideas and figures out how to actually make them. A lot of times she just rambles things off and he tries to build a prototype that achieves her goals. Because of this they spend a lot of time together in his workshop reviewing ideas and improving them. It's shown in the first chapter of the manga too, but when they first meet Cole makes comments on her plans to create nail clippers. She praises him excitedly after he explains how it would need to be made, then he tells his father he would like to try making them. Afterwards Wallace tells Eseria Cole isn't normally good at talking to people so he must be growing up. No other man mentioned in the story comes close to having any sort of relationship with Eseria. In fact every last one either already has a fiancé, or Eseria helps arrange a fiancé for them. Eseria arranges for the second Prince, Aaron, to marry one of her cousins, Mary Rika, to ensure she won't become the second prince's wife when her engagement is abandoned. She also matchmakes a couple of her friends, one of them being Sileia who is eventually ends up will the leader of the church's son (capture target, more on him in a future post). Isfain (another capture target), the son of the knights captain, is also engaged to Eseria's friend Sabine. The brother is engaged to the daughter of a marques and Milan also gets a love interest later on (more on both of them in another post). Throughout the story she visits Cole to talk about business then praises him for his ability to make them a reality. Saying things like, "as expected of the genius Cole" or "Cole's skills are amazing". After entering the academy she visits him on breaks and writes him letters about what she thinks they should try next (she even asks Milan about him every once in a while). There are a few slightly romantic moments between them as well. The best one being Cole's successful re-invention of the crayon. Eseria had told him about crayons when they were younger but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't figure out how to make them. As they grew older Eseria forgot about it and moved onto other ideas but Cole kept trying to make them in secret (it was implied he wanted to surprise her with them). While in the academy the CP keeps trying to create random events where Alistair can show off her skills and raise her reputation. One of these events is a painting exhibition, the CP orders one of the nobles on his side to paint a picture of him. He paints a really good picture and Alistair adds like two barely noticeable details then claims it's hers. (I don't know why someone said she was a Mary Sue character, she literally can't do anything) Eseria knows this will happen and is trying to figure out a way to come out on top but is struggling because she isn't the best artist. Milan sees this as an opportunity and tells her that Cole had made something he wanted to show her. After hearing about the art exhibition he laughs saying something like, "god is on our side". When he shows the new crayons to Eseria and her group of friends, she is so shocked she goes quiet for a bit looking at them. All around her everyone is rejoicing saying Eseria can steal the show if she uses a never seen before art material. Karena (brothers future fiancé) becomes extra excited as she realizes the wax the Wallace company had bought from her territory was used to make the crayons. The reason Cole couldn't make them before was because the wax was to soft and crumpled when putting pressure on it (the wax in her territory was too hard to make lipstick or candles so they couldn't sell it but now that that it is an ingredient for crayons her territory will be more prosperous). Milan agrees with her happily saying Cole had worked on it for years, making several prototypes that had be thrown away every time because they weren't worth anything, but he still didn't give up. Finally Eseria speaks up and says something like, "This, … this is what I told Cole about before, right?" Milan responds by giving her the box and saying, "this is the masterpiece created after 7 years of hard work." They still don't have a name for the invention yet and Milan tells Eseria that Cole had wanted her to name it. Eseria is shocked and asks if the Wallace company had been trying to produce it for the last several years. Milan responds negatively and tells Eseria that Cole had been working on them on his own. Eseria is shocked and impressed, she tells Milan that the Wallace company can keep all money earned from the crayons. Since it was a result of Cole's hard work and skills she doesn't want them to give her any of the money. After this Eseria goes on a rant about how they can used it to defeat Alistair and promote the Wallace company at the same time. They end up having Mary Rika draw a picture of Eseria with the crayons to promote them during the art exhibition. Her picture is so good no one bothers to look at "Alistiar's" painting. When I compared their first meeting in the manga to their first meeting in the book the artist did exaggerate Cole's reaction somewhat (he was nervous and seemed a little interested but not as blushy as he looks in the manga). Normally manga's based off of light novels will have slight changes to make it more appealing to their audience. Slice of life manga's without romance are actually pretty rare because it gets boring real fast. The manga raws are hard to find but I did find a few of Cole and Eseria. If the manga is still being published I have a feeling Cole (and romance in general) will be more present than in the book.
Yep, I thought so too. For someone as bored as Eseria, someone who can create something to fulfill her wish like Cole is actually the best partner for her. Especially since she's pretty horrible at describing or even drawing what she needs, but Cole can understands her pretty well enough. My ML detector is very rarely wrong hohohoho~
Spoiler: Eseria's compensation after her engagement is ended One thing that really frustrates me about this story is Eseria's compensation after her engagement is ended. She is given the title of Count Azule and a territory but that’s it. She is a dukes daughter unjustly humiliated by the CP but instead of making it up to her it feels like they only gave her the bare minimum so the situation could be resolved quietly. Once again she is a DUKE's daughter, depending on what society hierarchy the author is using her becoming a Countess actually lowers her status by two to three stations. It's easy to understand that she can't keep her current status, or become a Duchess as her brother is already set to inherit. I understand they can't just re-divide territory boundaries but even if they kept the territory size the same it would be easy for them to give her a Marchioness title. She is directly related to the Queen and was formerly the future crown princess. Territory size doesn't always equate to title, it's common for people related to the royal family (for example a second/ third prince, or the niece of the Queen/ King) to have a small territory but a higher title. After all, the nobles managing their territories won't redistribute the land every time a royal is born, there is only so much land available. BUT, that’s not all, not only is her status falling at least two places she doesn't even get to keep her title or land. SHE DOESN'T OWN IT! After her death the land will immediately return to the Royal family and her title will no longer exist. I know this book has had very little focus on romance but it angers me to no end that if Eseria did get married and have a child her family would lose their status as soon as she dies (she would probably be able to work out a deal for her family to keep it, but she shouldn't have to.) It feels like their giving her a space to die alone quietly rather than setting her up for the future. it doesn't matter how much effort she puts into fixing the territory, expanding its markets, building a school because the second she dies all of the success, all of that money, everything goes back to the Royal Family. This is a really cynical look at what happens but it just frustrates me. Eseria doesn't care about any of this she just keeps doing her own thing happy to get out of her engagement, but no matter how you look at it the Royal family is pretty much taking advantage of her success.
Sorry for not posting in so long! I have a lot of hard classes this semester and don't want to fall behind. I already talked about what happens to the idiotic couple but there are a lot of background things I didn't mention. I was going to put all of them together but then it turned out there was more than I thought. I decided to start with Dione (CP's mother) and her two, until now unmentioned daughters. Spoiler: Consequences for Dione Obviously Dione, CP's mother, is hit the hardest after CP's down fall along with her two daughters (CP's younger sisters). After the sham of a trial CP tries to speak with the King or Queen but he is threatened by the guards outside of their office who draw their swords. Shocked/ afraid CP goes to see his mother Dione which he is only able to do because the guards in that wing of the palace haven't heard he is no longer a prince. The king's consorts live in the same castle as the king but their wing is farther away with their own court yard. As former CP storms through the courtyard the servants are confused but don't want to get in his way. They know that the trial was supposed to happen but don't know the result or why he is going to see his mother (as a prince he lives closer to the central part of the palace). The only people who try to stop him are Dione's two maids who tell him he should return later, but of course he doesn't listen. He barges into his mother's room and yells that he needs to see his father immediately. Dione had only just calmed down from a previous bout of rage (more on that in a min) and seeing CP made her quickly jump up from where she was laying down, scaring the maids. She yells at him even louder and says something along the lines of, "Congratulations!! To think you can still enter the palace to see me!". CP tries to get a word in but Dione won't have any of it. Earlier one of the king's assistant's came to her to explain CP's punishment and what had happened at the trial. After hearing everything her son had done in detail Dione worked herself up and started yelling/ throwing things in rage. Her servants try to calm her but she continues until she suddenly freezes realizing that Renate (the now crown Prince Aaron's mother) must be laughing at her. (wording was confusing but it implied that Renate would be able to hear her yelling and breaking things from her own room.) Finally she shakenly lays down on the couch with the help of her maids (then CP rushes in). After he yells that he needs to see his father Dione doesn't hold anything back, at all. She was never what you would call a good mother (maybe I'll explain in another post) but now it becomes clear that most of her love/ doting on him was only because he was the CP and gave her a stronger connection to the king. She tells him that she knows all of the charges forced on Eseria were false and goes even farther saying she knew he was the one who made up all of the evidence against her. She then yells even harder saying if their engagement had to be broken he could have done it silently. That way the king would still take care of her and her daughters even if he was no longer a prince. As the king's consort Dione flattered the Queen and others to gain power for her son's faction but her relationship with Eseria wasn't so superficial. Dione was actually one of Eseria's biggest fans in a weird way, not even Eseria's own parent's showed as much pride in her achievements as Dione. Of course it started because she was her son's fiancé but it actually grew to the point where Dione truly admired Eseria and in several scenes in the book chose Eseria over her own son. In the original game Eseria was chosen as the future Crown Princess because she was the niece of the Queen. The Queen couldn't have a child but it was important for the country's politics to have both the blood of the Queen and King passed down for the next generation. In our version Eseria has the blood of the Queen and is famous throughout the world for her contributions to entertainment and politics (she basically created a new market and then improved the economy). There is literally no one in the world who could replace her as Queen and by extension CP as king. In fact there were rumors throughout the palace and high society for years that if the Queen and king had known of her talents beforehand Eseria would have been adopted as the Crown Princess from birth. Several times in the book professors at the academy or different nobles show concerns about the future of the country with CP as the future king but as soon as Eseria arrives to save the show they act relieved. Because with Eseria as the future Queen how could anything possibly go wrong. This is the main reason CP becomes the biggest joke in high society to have ever existed, everything else plays a part but he literally had one job. As long as Eseria was there to clean up his mess he could have done anything and it wouldn't have mattered. Eseria was so talented and so well respected she could have led the kingdom to prosperity even with a handy cap like him. CP understands none of this and yells that breaking his engagement isn't a big enough crime to be removed from the role of Crown Prince and kicked out of the royal family. He also demands to know who has been spreading rumors about Eseria being adopted as Crown Princess after Dione says the king should have adopted her and insults his lack of brains (he wants to have them punished for insulting him but Dione continues to insult him). Dione responds that it was also because he had agreed to give away his territory as crown prince in front of everyone. The territory is passed down each generation and overseen by the crown prince. It is important to the country and the royal family because it is the birthplace of the kingdom's Church as well as the first king of the kingdom. If the royal family had lost that land because of him their authority/ power would never recover. (Eseria tricked him during the condemnation event claiming she wanted it as compensation if his claims were proven false. She never really wanted it, she only wanted him to show he was willing to put it on the table.) CP tries to take advantage of her rivalry with Renate, to get her to take action, by saying her son will become the new CP but Dione already knows nothing will save them. Once former CP is insulted to the point he can no longer open his mouth a messenger arrives with a letter from the Queen. Former CP urges his mother to open it quickly but Dione moves to open the letter slowly. Inside it reads "The royal family will no longer protect those who cannot remain dignified and act for the country. In the future Prince Aaron will uphold the dignity and tradition of the royal family." Former CP throws a fit and yells that the Queen can't change sides so easily, while Dione responds coldly, "The Queen is a true Queen who will always choose the country over personal matters, as Eseria would have. Ever since this farce began his Majesty hasn't come near this room once. Don't ever show your shameless, unpleasant face here again!! And don't even think about talking to your sisters!" The last sentence was a little twisted to translate directly but it implied the engagement of the middle child Grace was in the process of being broken (king has to agree as the girl's father) and the youngest daughter Nigua (I think, some of these names are weird) wouldn't have a future. Finally a male servant comes in and moves quickly to the former CP saying he could no longer be in the palace. CP is offended and says his famous, "Don't you know who I am?!" The servant doesn't react and asks him if he is the adopted child of Count Bas Adi (mother's former house, CP's Uncle, plan on talking about him in next post.) Because he is no longer a prince they don't know what house he will go to. CP storms out disrespecting all of the servants, yelling at them, while he tries to get a carriage to take him to the Count's mansion. Dione's two maids try to calm her again while the other servants follow CP out of the room. Before they leave Dione yells at them and tells them to never let the former CP come through again. Even though her two personal maids are trying to help her they are only trying to get her to calm down rather than the over eager help they had given her in the past. Dione orders them to serve her tea (because her throat hurts from the screaming) once they do, she tells them to leave because she wants to think alone. The maids are respectful in front of her but once they leave the room they start to whisper saying, "This time the king's love has really been exhausted." In the past she was the king’s most loved consort but now there is nothing that can save her. The maids agree that Dione's life is over and wonder if her daughters will follow their mother. Within a few days Dione and both of her daughters are sent out of the capital as quietly as possible. This is the end of Dione's story, though she might be mentioned for a moment when talking about Count Bas Adi Spoiler (since he is the one who provides for her after she leaves the capital) . If anyone wants any specific spoilers just ask! I've only been picking random things to share but I honestly like this book. I think it was planned out and written much better than a lot of the other cliché villainess stories.
Thank you for spoilers! I agree that Esseria compensation after all that sh*tshow is ......pathetic. She's so talented, famous, helped with so much the entire country, she's also a Duke daughter and Queen's niece, there were even discussions that she could have been adopted as Crown Princess ...and what did she got? a non-hereditary count title, and a poorly managed county (the ex-count fault) that Esseria will have to revive, ....lovely. The feeling like she got more work rather than compensation. Is is because she's a woman? I mean, in this story they can basically dismiss a male of royal blood, direct son of the king and ex crown prince to ....no one now, so I don't think it's that difficult to award a hereditary title to a girl who saved all your asses so many times?! And even this title was basically requested by Esseria's brother as compensation, I mean what if he didn't ask, then what would have Esseria get in the end ....nothing? Also, do you have any spoilers on the king, queen, and maybe their story, something? The king and his other concubines, how the queen lives with this harem?
Spoiler: King and Queen (and the consorts) Ignoring the consorts and his sometimes nonsensical decisions the King is truly in love with the Queen. The book never says if they were engaged beforehand but they truly met at the academy and he eventually fell in love with her. There is no extra story about them but their past is explained through conversations with past classmates and other people who attended the academy with them. In one scene the CP throws a fit at the academy because the instructor in charge of printing papers wouldn't prioritize what he wanted printed. The instructor then laughs at him and says CP is just like how his father was in the past. The teacher went to school with the king. As a student the king was arrogant and acted like others were there to serve him, only changing after meeting the queen. The queen was angered by his lack of responsibility/ respect for others and challenges him to a duel. I already talked about it in the trial spoiler but the queen wins the duel and causes the king to hurt his ankle. After this duel the king pays attention to the queen but doesn't change right away. The queen sees him ordering some people around telling them to go faster but she intervenes and tells him things would move faster if he helped them. The kings first consort is Renate who is from a marquis family. She is Aaron's mother and Dione's rival. It never elaborates on her family's name or background. Her character is hard to get a grip on because she is so similar to Dione (competing for the kings affection and her son to be crown prince) There are some major differences though, Renate honestly loves and is proud of her son. Even though he isn't the crown prince Renate encourages him and truly knows he is smarter than Dione's son. As I've already said Dione isn't the best mother and there are scenes where she slaps CP (for another post) to be fair though he kind of disserved it. Because the book isn't focused on them it is hard to tell if this difference is because they have different morals or because Aaron is smart enough to leave his mother alone when she's in a bad mood. Dione is the kings second consort from the count house Bas Adi it never clarifies why but somehow she became more favored than Renate and was able to give birth to the CP first. Renate gives birth to Aaron a little over a year later. I plan on doing a whole post on their rivalry/ comparing them as there is a lot to talk about. I'm going to be perfectly honest, I have no idea why the author made the choice to add in two more consorts other than Dione and Renate. I even went back to the chapter where the queen invites the other consorts to play board games with her and I couldn't find a name for either of them. The only person referred to by name in that chapter other than Renate, Diona, and the queen is the queen's maid Carla. I was convinced that I had just missed them at first but I went through every chapter that had anything to do with the palace again trying to find a name or a mention of their children (I couldn't find either.) Someone was confused before about the kings 4th consort saying he was to old but the 4th consort entered the palace when Eseria was only 6 or so years old. The book has a time skip so I think someone got confused thinking he married the 4th consort when the CP and Eseria were already grown. I could find nothing about the 3rd consort and the only thing I could find about the 4rth consort is that Dione was nervous when the queen introduced her because her family was more powerful than the house of Count Bas Adi.
I found these images of the consorts when looking for other images from the manga. In the most resent chapter 9.4 Alistair is finally shown but I haven't found a version of it that I can post on this forum yet (we already know what she looks like but its the first time she has shown up in the story) new manga pictures! I'm glad it is still being published. Spoiler: manga images The Queen is the one sitting down in the top right while Dione is the one with the dark black hair. Renate is the woman standing next to Dione with the her hair in a braded bun. In the bottom picture the 4th consort Jeris is the one on the left with short hair and a plain dress. On the right in a floral dress is the 3rd consort Elysia (I think these names are right). I don't know if these names were in the book and I just missed them or if the artist just made up names for them. For Dione and Renate the boxes under their portraits state their title and which prince they are the mother of. the other two consorts don't have any children listed under their names though. I don't know if that's because they don't have any children or because they don't have any children yet (this scene happens right after Eseria gives the queen a game board when she is only 6 or so years old. so there is plenty of time for them to have children in the future).
I just found out this book has a spin off called "The Flowers Name Is" which follows the story of Najek from his fiancé's POV (Karena). It's more politic based and shows power struggles between the factions of the two princes (the neutral nobles as well). Najek was doing a lot to aid Eseria's cause from the very beginning behind the scenes which is why her plan flowed so smoothly.