Maddies Manga

Rizu wakes up after surviving a poisoning, without her memories intact. Prior to the poisoning, she hid behind her long hair, kept her gaze on the floor, and was a general wallflower. Post-poisoning, she has become a bright and bubbly person, overflowing with ambitions. Why was she hiding herself from the world? Why was she allowing those around her to pick on her? And, what happened to the crown prince? She has so much to uncover.

You can check out volume one below

What’s this manga about? (Chapter 1 spoilers)

Rizu wakes up after an assassination attempt with complete memory loss. The first person she sees upon waking up is a beautiful but cruel girl, who shouts derogatory things at her—something that seems to be commonplace, judging by the reactions of the onlookers. Rizu is brought back to her room by her servents, and they explain her situation to her once she tells them she has no memories. Thankfully the is no animosity from her servents, and they seem to genuinely care about her wellbeing.

They explain: Rizu is a candidate for becoming the bride of the crown prince—there are four candidates total. On the night that she was poisoned, the crown prince was also attacked, but sadly, he didn’t survive. No one knows who the perpetrators were, or if the two events were even connected.

They continue: When it comes to Rizu’s personality and social life, she seems to have made a total shift upon waking up with no memories. Before, she was a very quiet girl who just took the abuse. She hid behind her hair, never wore makeup, and did her best not to stand out. Now, she is a confident girl, who thinks that those that treated her poorly deserve to get a little justice. She also is quick to doll herself up—and wouldn’t you know it, she’s quite beautiful when she isn’t hiding behind her hair.

Not long after she wakes up the three remaining imperial princes summon all four bridal candidates to the castle. While the old Rizu would have been scared to attend, as both the other candidates and the princes would probably have treated her poorly, the new Rizu is jumping at the chance to teach everyone that they shouldn’t underestimate her.

Not everything is straightforward though, as why was Rizu hiding in the shadows for so long? When she goes through her things in her bedroom, she discovers a hidden love letter—one from someone besides the crown prince. One of the surviving princes also takes note at the fact that “the reason she is no longer hiding” is because of her memory loss, and even tries to invite her to talk in private. This doesn’t end up happening though, as while the princes and candidates are all having tea together, there is yet another attempted poisoning of Rizu!?

My thoughts (spoilers)

This was such a fun introduction to the story! I really like Rizu’s character, especially with all the mystery surrounding her. It seems like she has always known she is beautiful, and was deliberately hiding her beauty from everyone for some reason. Perhaps she was working with one of the princes to do something? Everything is just so unclear…

Due to the little scene we were shown at the very start of the story we know who the male lead is going to be, and it’s not the prince that invited Rizu to talk more in his room! This just makes me all the more suspicious of the prince, as what does he know about the old Rizu!? Speaking of the male lead, is am in love with his design. Dark hair, dangly earrings, and a magic user? He almost reminds me of Howl in a way.

The setup for all of the mysteries was very well done, and I’m already well-invested in the story. I cannot wait to see where it goes from here. Rizu is my favourite type of female lead: cute, fun, and willing to break someone’s arm if they try taking advantage of her. Literally, she literally almost broke someone’s arm in this chapter—it would have been well-deserved had she gone through with it.

I’m very excited to see how she will grow as the story goes on, and how she will react when she discovers all of the secrets her old self was clearly hiding.