Qatora was once a valiant knight of the Razanate Empire who gave her life to protect a young imperial noble. The tragedy cast her into the primordial Light of Origin, which not only revealed to her a dangerous secret... but also reincarnated her! She now lives as Lyse Winslette, the humble daughter of a poor baron in a neighboring country, who is doing everything in her power to keep her distance from the empire because of the forbidden knowledge she possesses. Lyse thus works her days away at the royal palace of Olwen as a lady-in-waiting. And she’s rightfully mortified when she’s chosen to attend the visiting Razanate emperor. Little does she know that she’s about to learn another state secret that’s going to land her... an engagement to an imperial knight?! She’ll have to use all her skills—from this life and her last—to get out of this mess. Yet what is this strange feeling when she touches her fiancé’s hand? Just who is Sidis, and what secrets is HE keeping?
Meh. Not buying the reason they didn’t figure out the Big Bad until the nick of time. Also, the romance happened too quickly and it was kind of…weird. He had hero worship for her past self and he’s over 100 years old, but she’s decidedly not, she’s maybe 19? Not sure.
Whatever, he doesn’t act 100 and doesn’t look it either because magic, whatever. And the secret of the Light isn’t explained in this one, just told it’s a secret. Annoying to be purposefully denied that info.
Other than not being told the secret, this could have easily been a standalone. I bought the second one before finishing this one, so I’m going to read it, to re-teach myself that we DON’T buy the next volume WITHOUT reading AND enjoying the first volume first!
2.5 rounded to 3,meh it didn’t rock my socks, stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This take on a reincarnation story was completely captivating to me! I found Lyse (Qatora) to be very charming as she finds the balance in her new life. Especially once she is reunited with people from her past that she deeply cares about. Sidis is truly so sweet and charming from the get-go, that I couldn't help falling for him a little myself. I enjoy how loyal he is to Lyse from the beginning. When each reveal happened in this volume, I was pleasantly surprised.
When I finished, I completely went and picked up the other 3 to finish off the series! Expect more soon!
The FL goes around like some kind of secret ninja on a righteous adventure around castle grounds and gains the attention of a powerful man, who ends up being the emperor. A full-on romance story and the FL does kick-ass, but the gentlemen in this novel are very irritating.
After a bit of a confusing start in which we are introduced to characters that we never see again and which adds nothing new, the story quickly becomes cohesive. Lyse is a lady-in-waiting in a vassal state of a big empire. She is hand picked for her unclear reasons to assists the visiting emperor only to get involved in the defence of the emperor against an unknown enemy using unknown magic. The knowledge of her former life as a bodyguard for said emperor is both a help and a hindrance, and there is this attraction tot the emperor's bodyguard.
The story is ok with decent characters and an interesting world. It is also a complete story with a decent resolution, so it can be read as a standalone something that I wish more series in the genre would do. My enjoyment was lessened though by some of the romantic tropes, but I am aware I am not the target audience. Worse for me was that to the reader the cause of the trouble is glaringly obvious, and yet the characters ignore it. The story eventually give a good explanation, but by that time I already had to struggle to continue reading: not my kind of trope. Spoiler: ...
So if you don't mind the internal anguish of the MC over the romantic interest and the basic premise, it seems to be a decent book. It was just not for me.
This is a case of bad writing and a good translator. As light novels go, it definitely isn't terrible, but the story does get repetitive and many of the twists are given away while we wait for our goofy main character to catch on to literally anything. This is part of the joke, obviously, but it loses its luster pretty quickly.
Also god the possesive fiancee tropes just kept getting worse.
Me ha costado terminarlo porque no llegó a despertar mi interés. La historia es muy básica y la trama es predecible desde el inicio. En otras ocasiones he leído light novels igual de previsibles que sí me han gustado, por lo que no creo que eso sea algo negativo. Influye mucho la forma de contar los sucesos. En esta novela hizo falta más trabajo al elaborar las escenas, por ejemplo las de acción y peleas fueron muy descuidadas como si el autor quisiera acabar rápido con ellas. Los personajes tampoco captaron mi atención, puesto que no había en ellos algo más excepto el rol que tenían dentro de la historia. Por lo consiguiente, el romance (?) entre la pareja no despertó ningún sentimiento en mí, algo que lamento porque la premisa de "un amor de su vida pasada" se escuchaba interesante. Ya tengo el volumen 2, pero esperaré otro momento para decidir si me animo a continuar con la serie.
I'm giving this story a chance. Now I'm really intrigued to what will happen next. Also I'm really intrigued what revelation she discovered from the "Light of Origin."
Qatora was a knight that died in the line of duty. But her death---which threw her into the Light of Origin---left the reincarnated her with a few changes. And a secret. She now understands the truth behind the Light, and it's something that could get her killed again. So when she is chosen to be a lady-in-waiting for visiting royalty, she'd rather stay as far from them as she can. Except one of their knights wants to marry her . . .
Lyse (formerly Qatora) is a much more typical noblewoman this time around. Although she's found it impossible to lose her habits as a knight, she's still living in a world that values etiquette and lineage more than ability---especially from a woman. So when she's somehow chosen to be the lady-in-waiting for the visiting royal party, she's confused.
Sidis was infamous for never batting an eye at any of the women who pursued him, but thanks to Lyse learning something she shouldn't, they're now engaged. But he seems remarkably keen on this whole relationship . . . or is it a ploy to keep her close?
This story is mostly straightforward. I would venture to say the title alone spoils any of the mystery for the relationship between Lyse and Sidis. So the main draw is learning the history behind each of them, the worldbuilding that resulted in countries this different despite being next to each other, and the all-important secret about the Light of Origin that Lyse feels duty-bound to keep.
Also, the king is turning into a dog, which is pretty funny.
But it's not all that good at the more serious side of the story. The villain was super obvious. The method was also obvious. The only real question was how many of the relationship secrets would come out by the end of the book, and the answer was most of them.
Although this is the first novel of a series, it's also pretty stand-alone in its plot, so readers could stop after this book and feel like it had a good ending. I liked it well enough, but there wasn't really enough draw in either the plot or the characters to interest me in reading the next one, although I might go back if J-Novel Club ever puts it on catch-up. Still, it wasn't bad for what it was, just not exceptional. I rate this book Neutral.
Rounded up because it has the potential to be really good, and because I've been a fan of Ichige Yoru's art for almost a decade now.
This is a pretty standard reincarnation story. The main character, Lyse, remembers her past life as a knight of the Razanate Empire. She misses the empire greatly now that she's living in a vassal state, but decides that she cannot go back because she's learned the Light of Origin's secret when she died. She's now working at the palace, surrounded by people who are constantly side-eyeing her for being unladylike, until she meets Sidis and gets chosen as the emperor's lady-in-waiting. From there, she somehow gets roped into a temporary engagement with Sidis.
But of course we all know it won't stay temporary forever. Not with Sidis being super affectionate and protective of Lyse, despite her attempts to convince herself that there's nothing going on between them.
Aside from introducing us to the characters, the first volume also deals with the emperor's visit to the Kingdom of Olwen, where Lyse lives. The emperor has been slowly transforming into a dog since the moment he stepped into the kingdom, and the majority of the book is spent dealing with that issue while also linking it to another problem that might lead to something bigger: the Donan cult. The main reason why I can't rate this higher is because it has the potential to be really good, but it never quite reached that point. The writing feels rather flat for the most part, and even the Light of Origin's secret revelation feels so… bland. There's also a pretty bad case of telling instead of showing during the book's climax, and it's really unfortunate because it could've been done so much better.
Still, the characters are lovable and the romance is cute. In a true shoujo fashion, it has a frustrating moment caused by a misunderstanding, but it gets solved nicely in the end. To put it nicely, this is a classic shoujo fantasy story with all the familiar tropes. To put it not so nicely, it's nothing new and rather predictable. That being said, I like it enough to want to read all four volumes of this, so I hope the next books will be better and more engaging.
This was an okay read. I can't say I loved it, but it was fine. The romance didn't make me swoon, and the plot was predictable. I liked the main character. I'd say read a sample and give it a try if the synopsis sounds appealing. Just know that while it's relatively charming, it's nothing special. 3.5 stars.
Im not going to lie, it was modtly boaring. I usually love light novels and find them very intresting but this one i was able to finish but it was hard to do. I want to complete it just so that i can finish the series which i think is only 4 booksbut honestly it feels like this could be a one book story.