Nia Liston: The Merciless Maiden Volume 1

凶乱令嬢ニア・リストン [Kyouran Reijou Nia Liston] (Light Novel) #1

by Umikaze Minamino, okaykei (translator), Jishaku (illustrator)

A great hero lies undefeated on her deathbed, regretting that she never found a foe who could take her down. She never intended to meet her fate anywhere other than on the battlefield, and her peaceful demise has her wishing desperately that things could have been different...

But when she suddenly comes to in the body of the young, frail Nia Liston, she’s got an all-new fight ahead of her. Nia is a sickly child, meaning she has a long way to go before she’s in fighting form. Now that she’s been given a second shot at life, however, she’s determined to get what she wants. She’s going to live—and die—for battle this time! Make way for the Merciless Maiden!

Genres: Light Novel, Fantasy

223 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 30, 2022

About the author

南野海風

Reviews

[Pieter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nia Liston is a bit of an odd story.

The titular MC (a 5-year old noble girl) had died, but a sorcerer of some sort placed a random soul into the body to get a lot money from Nia's parents for "saving" her life. The soul he picked happened to have been a cultivator/martial artist who with the power of chi managed to cure the disease and start a long recovery. While a martial artists at heart with a love for fighting, she decided to help her parents with their TV business (or at least the magic equivalent of such) as a TV star out of filial piety.

In other words, it is an odd mix of cultivation tropes mixed in with cute girl doing cute things. It is written well enough and the characters and world are interesting enough, but in volume 1 there is no true arc, just slice-of-life (recovering from her disease and the acting job). I think I enjoyed reading it, and I am certainly curious enough to try the next volume (when it becomes available), but it was a bit weird to be honest.

[Alarna · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was ok. the tv stuff that others mention was indeed a bit strange and the world setting confuses me a bit but it reminds me of treasure planet where the world seems to be both almost set in the older times but is also fruteristic with flying ships. at the start she a frail 4 year old thats recovering from a deadly illness and can hardly move about but then she's always saying she could beat the servants/bodygaurds with just her pinkie finger or her hand at most? i dont believe that at all, i dont care how good at moving chi about her body she is, it just doesn't seem right.

the mafia guy that shows up at the end also had a really stupid plan that i dont think would have ever worked. his plan is to blackmail her parents to protect there reputation because he had one of his guard go beat up like 100 people and they where going to say the MC did it and if they didnt give them money he would tell everyone. putting aside the fact she could beat them up from the outside perspective she a frail 5 yr old girl who just overcame a deadly illness and is seen on tv everyday as a calm and collected, does he really think anyone is going to believe that that kind of person could beat up 100 thugs by herself? it doesnt matter that she really could no-one is gonna believe that. :/

[Progreads · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really bad. Like genuinely incompetent as a piece of writing.

The author sets up a fun enough premise (what if a battle-crazy cultivator was reincarnated as a sickly child) and then just never bothers to use it for any jokes or plot beats.
Instead we get an arc of her being a tv star where there's zero drama, no actual slice of life because nobody gets any characterisation and half of the time it skips back and forward in time in order to undercut whatever slight bit of drama there might've been.

I know the standards for light novels are basically non-existent but I'm still baffled at this getting both an adaptation from its webnovel origins and an English translation.
I can only assume that they're praying an anime studio will pick it up, seeing that they can mine some cheap laughs out of the premise by adapting it.

[Tenome · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're coming here expecting what's written on the synopsis--a story about a powerful warrior reincarnated into the body of a little girl and becoming a battle-crazed little girl--you won't find it here. For some reason, the author decided that it's really important to have a subplot about her appearing on a TV show for almost the entire volume. Pretty much nothing happens in v1, the entire read is one big disappointment that doesn't even deliver on its premise.

Also, the writing is really stiff and weirdly dry. I don't know if it's J-Novel's translation or what, but it just feels awkward to read. Don't waste your time here.

[A S · Rating 3 out of 5]

not very good

This was kind of funny. Interesting to have a mythical hero transmigrate into another magical world and there’s some fish out of water humor that’s not bad. The end is pretty stupid, the whole she’s so OP that she just wants to fight and fight until she’s killed is annoying and dumb if it’s played up too much, and it is. She just beats up hundreds of people and that just goes on and on and on and I’m supposed to laugh because it’s a little girl or sort of. Just got dumb and boring by the end of the book.

[Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trash level setup, reincarnation not isekai. Surprisingly fun characters though. This author takes this much higher than the plot itself deserves. The world building is also sparse in detail, but doesn't feel empty.