A secretly powerful girl wants nothing more than to live a quiet life, away from her family’s influence. The next head of a family needs a powerful temporary wife to help him stabilize his ascension. Will the two of them be able to help each other reach their goals?
Author
Genre & Tropes
Info about this series (ongoing)
There are seven volumes currently out in Japanese, and four in English.
TL;DR
This is a light novel I would recommend to fans of playful relationships, and Cinderella stories. As far as Cinderella stories go, this one is very light on the tragic past.
Official Synopsis (Yen Press)
For thousands of years, Japan has been protected by five clans wielding barrier-weaving magic. Born to a branch family of one such clan, eighteen-year-old Hana has always been stuck in the shadow of her more capable, beautiful, and popular twin sister. When a strong power awakens within Hana, she chooses to hide it so she can continue living a quiet life out of the spotlight. But that ideal lifestyle begins to slip out of reach when Saku Ichinomiya takes over as the new head of the Ichinomiya clan and sets out to find a bride strong enough to stand by his side. Eager to keep her abilities secret, Hana steers clear of Saku… but will she be tempted to sign a marriage contract if it guarantees the peaceful, quiet future of her dreams?
My thoughts on this volume (Slight Spoilers!)
I tend to have a rather rocky history with Cinderella stories. They generally stress me out, as I feel the unwarranted abuse of the protagonist tends to drag on for far too long. “Cinderella” will generally be too kind or broken down to do anything but tolerate the abuse, making for a very stressful read. I’m still discovering exactly what I require in a Cinderella story in order for me to enjoy it, and this volume actually helped me out with that quite a bit!
Our protagonist, Hana, is the daughter of a branch of a noble family. Compared to her twin sister and older brother she is incredibly weak, earning nothing but her parent’s disappointment. As her parents are power hungry, they only put stock into the children that could help them gain something, leaving Hana behind in the dust. While she’s never physically abused, she’s all but abandoned by everyone, including her twin sister.
One fateful day, Hana’s true powers awaken. She quickly realizes she’s far more powerful than the apple of her parent’s eye, her twin sister, but decides to stay quiet about it. By this point in the story she’s decided that if her family would give up on her for something so trivial, she would also give up on them—why should they get to know just how powerful she actually is? She doesn’t necessarily hide her newfound talents for the sake of revenge, but rather because she’s grown apathetic.
In comes the male lead
The male lead, Saku’s, entrance into the story was rather…different. While he first lays eyes on Hana at a big family dinner—she’s has a typical not like other girls scene here, but it was forgivable—he actually gains an interest in her when he discovers how powerful she is. It’s made clear that he has not fallen in love with her by any means, he just needs someone whose strength can rival his.
His entrance into her life could be seen as a bit abrupt and jarring, but the two of them have such good chemistry that it just somehow works. Basically, he comes to her school every day trying to propose to her, and every day she finds a new way to run away from him. While that can sound a bit stalker-like, trust me, the whole ordeal is very funny. Hana just wants to live a normal life, so she runs away at the mere sight of the man. Marrying the head of a powerful family would bring nothing but responsibilities and danger after all.
Once Hana and Saku actually sit down and have a conversation they’re able to come to a mutual agreement—no one is coerced into anything here. While he chases Hana down every day for a little while, it’s only so he can have a conversation with her. She would run away at the mere sight of him, never giving him the chance to plead his case.
As with most Cinderella stories, just because the protagonist establishes herself with the powerful male lead, that doesn’t mean she’s then safe from harassment. Hana is actually abused more after moving in with him—his mother and brother both dislike Hana; Hana’s family is outraged that her twin sister wasn’t chosen; her classmates believe she brainwashed Saku into marrying her—but unlike other Cinderella stories, Hana has a bad personality by this point in the story. She doesn’t waste a moment putting a stop to the abuse whenever she can, allowing for a satisfying read.
Of course she can’t just pumble every problem as they present themselves, especially not the political ones. The ones that require some delicate handling do take a bit longer to come to a conclusion, and thankfully Saku is present to make sure Hana is okay. Honestly, so long as all of the abuse is acknowledged and brought to a stop prior to getting tiresome, I’m able to enjoy the story.
The sub-plot
It’s very easy to forget, but there’s actually a mystery happening in the background of Hana and Saku’s romance story. It feels like such an afterthought that I was genuinely surprised when the final chapter focused solely on it. This volume only has four chapters, and throughout the first three, there were only a few select one to two line sentences about dogs being abused. At first, I thought it was going to be a plot device to show some grandiose monster coming, and that was why Saku was so desperate to marry Hana. It was not.
The final chapter focuses on what happened to the dogs, completely changing the focus of the story. It did allow us to see a lot more of Hana and Saku’s dynamic, so I can’t complain all that much. The two of them have very good banter, so anything that allows them to interact with outside forces—say, Hana’s classmate referencing how Hana is madly in love with him—is very welcome. I just wish this sub-plot didn’t feel so much like an afterthought.
Maddies Manga 
Leave a comment