悪役令嬢はシングルマザーになりました The Villainess Is Now a Single Mother Author: 北里のえ Syosetu raw link (Main Story Completed) NU link (Edit: The translator has stopped translating. It was deleted to respect the author's wishes) Since the story is mostly focused on the lighthearted and sugar-filled romance between Esther and Frederic, you can understand most of the story through the character spoilers. Note that this story is meant to be sweet and less focused on drama, so don't expect too much on seriousness or punishments Synopsis (taken from NU description) Esther, who was born with recollections of her previous life as a Japanese woman, is unaware that she has been reborn in the world of an Otome game. Esther is a so-called villainess, but she becomes the Crown Prince’s fiancée without knowing anything, and her engagement is terminated and she is banished at the Magic Academy’s graduation ceremony. Esther, on the other hand, is overjoyed that the unfortunate crown prince has called off their engagement. She would work as hard as she had in her previous life and live a normal life as a commoner from now on. However, the benefactor who saved Esther from deportation, dies soon after the birth of her newborn twin daughters. Esther adopts the twins and works hard to raise them, but then a young man who appears to be a nobleman appears at her tavern. The wheels of her fate began to turn from that point forward.
Character SpoilersSetting of the story Spoiler: Current Story Setting The story focuses at first on the tavern where the protagonist Esther works and then focuses mostly on Esther experiencing a sugar-coated love in Frederic Lafayette's household as his pretend lover->fiancee->wife. Set in a medieval fantasy with magic, swords, and monsters. Technology relies on magic such as a identification scanner that uses magical signatures to verify identities of nobles, Communication devices, and a magical bazooka. There is also forbidden contract magic that forces you to obey and unique shapeshifter magic that comes once every hundred years. The Valliere kingdom(queendom?) is technically ruled by a Queen and Dowager since the king has passed away, with the crown prince being the sole child of the king. There are three dukes that have blood ties with the royal family who are eligible to take the throne if the crown prince is gone. The story mostly focuses on the relationship between Esther and Frederic with some conflicts with other nobles and her own family. Spoiler: Original Otome Game Setting It is an otome game called "The Name of the Rose is" with the heroine Cecil. The villainess Ester is aligned with her evil duke family and the capture targets dislike her. She kidnaps Cecil and attempts to have Cecil agree to an illegal magical contract to make Cecil disappear from the crown prince's sight and be prohibited from saying anything about the kidnapping or else she will be raped and sold as a slave. Esther leaves after Cecil refuses, telling the duke's trafficking thugs to have their way with her and to dump Cecil's corpse into the forest for the monsters to eat. Cecil contemplates suicide while clutching a necklace before the crown prince Roland flies in as a bird, transforms into a human, and saves Cecil while having evidence of Esther's crimes recorded in a necklace. Esther is denounced but says she did it out of love for the crown prince until it is revealed she also seduced other men too. Esther is later convicted and executed while her father and older brother is sent to life imprisonment. Years earlier, Esther's little brother Daniel was friends with Frederic Lafayette after he saved Frederick from Esther who tricked the young lost Frederick to kidnap him. They shared a mistrust toward women because of Esther. Characters Spoiler: Protagonist Esther de Lionne(former)/Emma Garnier(disguise)/Princess Esther de Valliere(adopted) (complete) TLDR: Dense protagonist with 100+ years of life experience not knowing what love really is. Her biological family tried kill her a magical bazooka. She was a 80 year old woman in a loveless marriage of convenience because her previous husband was only faithful to his dead wife. Her relationship with her previous husband was like a brother and sister since they understood each others' circumstances. In her current life, she helped a lost child named Frederic when they were younger. She was a model student at the academy and helped the crown prince with his studies. Eventually her engagement was broken and she was disowned by the Lionne dukedom. Esther became Emma Garnier after befriending Monica Garnier and adopting Monica's children while taking over ownership of the tavern. She is friends with the Queen and Dowager, to the point that they considered her as the next ruler since she has the bloodline, personality, and abilities of a royal unlike the crown prince at the time when they noticed her true identity as Frederic's fiancee Emma, but Esther settled for being an adopted royal princess instead to prevent the Lionne dukedom from claiming her back. Her friends include Louise and her classmates as well as the people at the tavern and Lafayette dukedom, later including the crown prince. When the depressed crown prince appears in the tavern, her kindness heals his heart while her sheer density to his unnoticed feelings hurts him as well. Afterwards, the crown prince gives himself up to the authorities and the Queen noticing how the crown prince's actions and personality have become much better, has Esther tutor him to crown prince again. Esther receives a message that her friend Louise is kidnapped by duke Lionne and has to enter the forest to get Louise. She comes with a recording necklace and a dog (who is the crown prince) while Frederic tries to sabotage the rest of Duke Lionne's plan. Esther almost gets tricked into making a magic contract when duke Lionne plays a recording of her daughters screaming but trusts that in Frederic's words that they are safe. She is almost killed when Duke Lionne in desperation pulls out a magical bazooka and aims it at Esther but crown prince saves her. The monsters of the forest attacks everyone due to the sound of the bazooka but Esther who saved a young cub manages to convince the ruler of the forest to calm down who proceeds to drag away Duke Lionne deeper into the forest to play. Happily married with the possessive Frederic after she discovers her feelings for him and confessing about her previous life. Frederic promised he was going to marry Esther when the crown prince takes back his title, and promptly does so. She consummates her marriage with him after being a virgin for 100+ years. Had two boys, Thomas and James, with Frederic afterwards. In the original story, she was an evil villainess engaged to the crown prince who tried to seduce the capture targets and kidnap people like the child Frederic or the heroine Cecil but was eventually executed. Valliere royal family (Esther's adopted family) Spoiler: Crown Prince Roland de Valliere (complete) TLDR: Manipulated crown prince breaks engagement, gets disowned by royal family, sent to the army, comes back a reformed man full of regret, proves himself worthy of becoming crown prince and regains his title. Arrogant crown prince who abandoned his engagement with Esther while the Queen was away. He had insecurities that the heroine Cecil took advantage of and made him the arrogant person of today through psychological manipulation and a fascination potion. After the Queen came back, he is then immediately stripped of his title as crown prince and sent to the army for years. There, he worked hard and made comrades who he could fight together with and reflected on what he did. Roland eventually hears years later that Cecil escaped from the monastery after only a month and leaves the army to find her to know the truth. The nation announces an arrest for him for his escape from the military. He meets with Cecil and sees what Cecil truly was and is heartbroken by that fact. Eventually he ends up in Esther's inn and apologizes for what he had done to her and willingly turns himself into the authorities. The Queen notices his personality change after the several years of experience in the army and has Esther supervise him. He later on works underneath Esther as a servant and learns everything that is needed to be a good king. When Esther's fan and friend Louise gets kidnapped by the Lionne's dukedom, he comes with Esther in the form of a dog with a magical recording necklace to ensure her safety at the negotiation site. Esther's father tries to force her into a magical contract to make her older brother king but she refuses, leading them trying to kill her instead until Roland saves her. After the incident is resolved, is praised by the citizens as a hero who saved the princess Esther but he still feels awkward since Frederic is manipulating popular opinion and giving all the credit to Roland because Frederic wants Roland to be crown prince to keep Esther all to himself. Roland then gets a trial for his escape from the military but gets a lenient sentence due to the commander of the military supporting him and his achievements for saving Esther. He walks proudly into prison to atone for his crimes despite the citizens wanting him to receive amnesty. After serving his sentence and other procedures, he became crown prince again. There is a possibility he might marry Louise (Esther's fan) who really hated him in the academy. If he does, it will be an accidental reference to Louise de la Valliere (either Familiar of Zero or the real life one) if she takes his last name which the author realized too late and could be bad. In the original story, he was the Spoiler: The Queen Elisabeth (Incomplete) TLDR: True ruler of the kingdom, likes Esther, disowns crown prince, adopts Esther, gives reformed crown prince enough time to be prove himself worthy of leading the kingdom. She trusted Esther and had a good relationship with her, wanting her to support the crown prince. After she comes back, she hears about the crown prince breaking the engagement which results in her disowning the crown prince and sending him into the frontier army and sending the heroine to a monastery to improve their characters. She later on calls on the three dukedoms for their heir and fiancees to come to a meeting to discuss who might become the next crown prince since they have blood ties to the royal family. She recognizes Frederic fiancee Emma as Esther immediately and adopts Esther to separate her from the Lionne dukedom. Wants her to rule the kingdom and Frederic as her king consort. Eventually settles for Esther to be a princess rather than crown princess when Esther refuses and when the crown prince came back as someone who can lead the kingdom. Spoiler: King Valliere (complete) Dead. Not mentioned again and forgotten after one chapter. Considered a wise ruler. Lafayette dukedom (Esther's husband family) Spoiler: The twins (incomplete and will make more sense in context....hopefully.) Children of Monica, Esther's friend who fell in love with a person of an unknown background. Esther's adopted children and half-siblings of Frederic Lafayette. Later, also Esther's siblings-in-law, and aunties/sisters to their future sibling/nephews. Their screams made Esther almost enter into an illegal magical contract. Makes Frederic look like a wimp sometimes. Spoiler: Love Interest Duke Frederic Lafayette (complete) TLDR: A total simp for the protagonist both as a child (unknowningly) and as an adult. Very possessive of her. Been looking for a girl with a teardrop mole on her face ever since he was lost as a child and she found him. After his father died and left a will to find his possible half-siblings, he stumbles upon a tavern that has 2 children that match the description. He brings them and Esther back home where he deals with the rest of his family and makes it so the twins can get their inheritance as well. He falls in love with Emma who turns out to be Esther and has an engagement with her. Eventually he finds out that Esther was the love he was looking for all this time when she comes out the shower with a teardrop mole. The Queen wanted to make him king consort with Esther as the crown princess. He had to fight against opposition from the other two dukedom with Lionne's dukedom wanting Esther to choose them instead and the third dukedom wanting their own daughter to be married to Frederic instead. He is jealous of any men that goes near Esther especially Joseph and the former crown prince. He doesn't like the idea of Esther forgiving and tutoring the reformed crown prince but accepts her choice regardless. Eventually he catches wind of Lionne dukedom's plans to kidnap Esther and sabotages them with the support of the crown prince shapeshifted as a dog, his maid acting as a double-agent, and the royal family through his magical communication device with the Queen. He promptly marries Esther when the former crown prince reclaims his title and consummates his marriage with Esther who was a virgin for 100+ years. (She was in a loveless marriage in her previous life because her husband couldn't betray his dead wife). Spoiler: Previous Duke Lafayette (complete) Dead. Years ago, did not help Frederic look for a girl with a teardrop mole on her face after Frederic was lost as a child because he knew Esther was already engaged to the crown prince. Loved Monica Garnier but was mistrustful of her pregnancy. Realized she wasn't a person that lied and tried to find her to make up for it but couldn't since it would be a weakness that other nobles could take advantage of. Died with regrets, entrusting his son Frederic to find Monica's children and to take them in as legitimate children of the dukedom with inheritance. Spoiler: Exclusive maid of the twins, Daphne Robert (mostly complete) Worships the twins as miracles of the world. Protective of the twins and appreciates that Esther have brought warmth to the duke's household. Eventually takes part in a plan to prevent the twins from being kidnapped by the Lionne dukedom. She sells false information the spy of the Lionne where the twins were supposed to be, then later receives money to lead Pascal Lionne into the duke's property where they are immediately arrested. Later on, she's seen with a smug face at Esther and Frederic's marriage when people praise the twins. Spoiler: Joseph (incomplete) Assistant to Frederic and has feelings for Esther when she was in the academy. Lionne dukedom (Esther's biological family) Spoiler: Duke Lionne (complete) TLDR: Evil father of Esther who looks down on her, can't even recognize her face, is useless without his subordinates. Disowns Esther after she lost her engagement with the crown prince. Does not listen to his youngest son Daniel's pleas about Esther. He is unaware of Esther's connections to the Queen. He doesn't recognize Esther in her Emma disguise. He has ambitions to rule the kingdom when the Queen calls for a meeting for all three dukedom to attend to choose the next crown prince who has a fiancee. He thinks he has the best shot of getting his son Pascal to become crown prince since Frederic doesn't have a fiancee and the third dukedom doesn't have a son. Is dismayed when the Queen wants Esther to be the next ruler and tries to get Esther back into his family but is stopped because the Queen adopts Esther. He doesn't care about nor respect his subordinates but is useless without them. He plots to get Esther to sign a magical contract through his connections in the palace to disable the barrier around the forest and kidnaps a friend of Esther which he found out about from his spy. Eventually he tries to kill Esther with a bazooka after she refuses him and his thugs but instead provokes the forest's monsters who drags him away into the forest. He loses his position to Daniel afterwards because Daniel was the only one in opposition who saved Esther's friend from the underground prison. In the original game setting, he was working with the villainess Esther but becomes imprisoned when the villainess's sins get revealed. Spoiler: Pascal de Lionne (incomplete) Evil older brother of Esther who looks down on her, can't even recognize her face. Spoiler: Daniel de Lionne (complete) TLDR: Basically worships his older sister Esther, becomes the new Duke Lionne after the events of the story with approval from the Queen and help from his fiancee's family and friends. Younger brother of Esther who looks up to her. Calls the authorities to save Louise from the Lionne household. Calls the authorities to save Frederic from the Lionne household in the original game setting. He eventually helps reveals the duke's crimes. He has good relations with his fiancee Charlotte who Esther helped as a child. They become good fiancees with one another while bonding over their shared affection for Esther. He tries to make his engagement with Charlotte work out even though he feels he isn't worthy of her affection with Charlotte's father supporting them. Eventually, he gives her a choice to end their engagement because he doesn't want to drag their family down after he reveals his family's crimes but Charlotte refuses to part with him. Afterwards, he becomes the next Duke Lionne with support of the royal family and his fiancee's family. Spoiler: Mysterious person that doesn't get paid enough (complete) Originally worked for the previous Duke Lionne to collect information after a merchant group noticed his skills at espionage. The current Duke Lionne is worse than the previous one but the spy did not care as long as he got enough money to pay for his large family full of his siblings. The current duke Lionne and son Pascal doesn't pay this spy enough nor gives any bonuses and so he doesn't give all the information he collects. Basically is the only sane servant of the dukedom and eventually gives up on them. While at a tavern one time, he noticed the children were screaming while some chaos was happening in the store so he took the opportunity to record this in case but still wasn't paid much. He later knowingly relays false information given by the maid Daphne to Pascal Lionne, while disbelieving how stupid the Lionne dukedom is. This basically led to the Lionne dukedom to be arrested and the spy promptly leaves the country after sending money to his family. Frederic is still looking for this mysterious person. Esther's friends Spoiler: Louise de Coligny (incomplete....will make sense?) A friend and fanatical follower of Esther. Hates the crown prince. Got kidnapped by Duke Lionne. Might marry the crown prince. The author replied to a comment that said if Louise married the crown prince, Louise might get a name that might be worrisome. Spoiler: Monica Garnier(original mother of the twins) (complete) Helped Esther when she was abandoned by the crown prince and her family. They became close to each other. She fell in love with a man that looked to be a merchant but was actually the previous Duke Lafayette. When she said she was pregnant, he became mistrustful and she disappeared from his life, not knowing that he regrets saying that to her. Eventually she dies giving birth to twin girls and passing the tavern to Esther. Spoiler: The two tavern hirees who married and became the new tavern owners (placeholder) They were originally hired when the tavern were short on staff and eventually fell in love with one another. After Esther left, they were in charge and eventually after Esther became duchess, they officially became the owners. M... something dukedom (very incomplete) Wants to marry their daughter to Frederic. Spoiler: Heroine Cecil (complete) TLDR: Reincarnator who knows the original otome game, manipulates crown prince, escapes from monastery while refusing to improve herself, gets arrested by falsely accusing Esther, tells Lionne dukedom about Esther while in prison, eventually becomes a disgraced loner for the rest of her life. Baron daughter that notices that all the capture targets likes the model student Esther in the academy which contradicts with the game setting of everyone hating the villainess Esther. Uses a fascination potion to make the crown prince like her, and manipulates him into a narcissist until she no longer needs the potion. She was sent to a monastery but escaped after only a month. Eventually tries to get together with Frederic and verbally attacks Esther while at a school reunion in Frederic's home but since Esther isn't the narcissistic villainess who seduces men right and left like in the otome game, Cecil fails. Cecil is told she is arrested for falsely accusing princess Esther de Valliere, which she then backtracks by saying they are friends but still gets imprisoned. She is visited by a mysterious person from Lionne who asks about Esther, but he becomes tired of hearing Cecil's enthusiastic slander and leaves after hearing that Joseph and Louise are Esther's friends. She is surprised he isn't going to help her. Afterwards, she was released 3 days later because her crime of false accusation wasn't that serious and because she's a young lady. She then lived a lonely shamed life with no one to love. If she stayed in the monastery and tried her best to improve, this ending could have been averted. Anyone is able to edit this post with an account. Please edit this post to link to spoilers in this thread as you find them. You are free to edit and remove anything within this post, including this placeholder text. For more information, please visit: https://forum.novelupdates.com/threads/new-spoiler-plugin-for-the-forums.114103/
So far, so good. Pros: Intelligent, powerful, older royals (Queen and Dowager) MC had some support during her condemnation event (just that it wasn't enough AND MC WANTED to leave) Potential punishment with CP and the game heroine Female friendship so early and I think MC did a wonderful job raising such mature twins (for being 5 year olds, already understanding the concept of death, very supportive of mama MCs potential romance) Tavern side cast are so far a delight as well
Regrettably, the fan translation has been taken down by request of the author it seems. (´ ཀ `” ∠): Looks like we have to manually read the machine translation on Syosetu or wait until there's an official translation. ｡ﾟ₍ﾟ^இ‸இ^ﾟ₎ﾟ｡ Ignoring errors in names and certain phrasing, Google Chrome's automatic translation is readable. ₍^⚆༝⚆^₎. Looks away Spoiler: Anyways, this is the author's responses on Syosetu to the translation....machine translated of course. It was translated and posted without permission ...( ;∀; ) February 25, 2022 (Friday) 19:05 (Japan timezone) The shocking facts I noticed today. Someone translated my story into English and posted it on the English novel website. Yeah yeah yeah? !! (eeeeeeeeeeeeh?! is the correct translation) Is there such a thing? What should I do in such a case? Should I email the website operator? I'm worried about various things. Occasionally, there are authors who have added a note that prohibits translation and reprinting. I felt like I understood the reason. I'm scared ... (゜ Д ゜) Unauthorized translation / reprint, follow-up (゜ Д ゜) * It's a little dark story Tuesday, March 01, 2022 15:56 (Japan timezone) The other day, I wrote a story about my work being translated and reprinted on an English novel website without permission. I e-mailed the website operator to protest and have the work deleted, but was silent. There is no reply. However, I identified the person who actually translated and reprinted it and got the email address (I found it immediately), so when I emailed the translator directly, I received the word that I would not translate any more. It seems that it was also deleted from the web (hot). I'm not writing a novel for money. However, I think hard for myself, spend time and effort, and write with all my soul. I'm afraid, but do you think the readers are more interesting? I write with pure feelings. The translator owned a website full of advertisements, where I translated and posted my novel without permission. It's ironic that it says © All Rights Reserved, but "I spend hours translating and editing novels that no one wants to translate. So don't use an ad blocker to reduce the ad fees you're supposed to get into me. " In a way, you are reading without paying, and that bothers me. In a sense, trying to read a novel without paying for it is the same as trying to read a novel without seeing an ad. It's unpleasant. I was amazed at the double standard. Moreover, the quality of the translation is low, and even if it is shown to husbands and children (all native English speakers), it is at the level of "... it's terrible." The novel published in such a translation is evaluated in public and comments can be added ... (tears). Yes, it was already treated very roughly. My work is like a child. It is freely translated badly, exposed, and criticized. As anyone who has made a work knows, it's really sad. For the time being, this time it seems that it is settled, but I think that it is different just by writing © (name) (AD) to all the writers who are writing the work. If you write No part of this story may be translated nor reproduced in whole or in part in any manner without the permission of the copyright owner. , Partial translation and reprinting of the novel will also be restricted. It may not be necessary, but please use it if you like. There were many other works on the translator's website besides my work. It may be unavoidable that pirated editions are infested. But my impression is that they avoid booked novels that publishers may intervene. Although it is not made into a book, it seems that it is aiming for a novel with a certain number of readers, and that kind of thing is also unpleasant. Let's do our best, writers! It was a report (; ^ ω ^). After this, the author also wrote an extra line in the synopsis that prohibits translation.
Bump I remember reading the manga adaptation of this series before. Can someone DM me the translated manga if you find it? Thanks in advance