A big surprise causes Nora’s entire world to collapse. Who will she choose to believe: the memory of her beloved Makoto, or the words of the woman claiming to be his true fiance?
You can check out volume three of this series for yourself below!
Author
This series was written by Hoshikubo Akane. Instagram, X
This is their most notable work.
Genre & Tropes
Romance, tragedy, loss.
Info about this volume (complete)
There are 3 volumes in this series. The first was published in March 2024.
TL;DR rating
This volume had a perfect ending! While the overall series is rather sad and tragic, I actually think this ending was happy.
My thoughts on this volume (Spoilers!)
This volume hurt quite a bit. Nora was forced to make a few negative discoveries about both the life she has lived until now, and her relationship with Makoto. While she and Nozomu clearly had plans to bring the entire house down—they discussed doing so in the previous volume—they really didn’t have any concrete plans yet. I strongly believe it’s the introduction of the new woman, June, that is what actually sets of the sequence of destruction seen in this volume.
When June introduces herself as Makoto’s prior fiance, and goes further to express interest in becoming Nozomu’s fiance…it’s not all that surprising that Nora snaps! While she and Nozomu still have a rather complex and fragile relationship, he’s still her man! It was nice to see Nozomu clearly have her back, and for her to realize that. She’s really been put through the ringer throughout the past few volumes, it’s nice to see that she has someone truly on her side.
When we first meet June, I strongly disliked her. As time went on and we learnt more about her though, I started to feel compassion for her. She claims to be pregnant with Makoto’s child, and that she has absolutely no problem with marrying Nozomu in order to succeed their house. As she was born into a prestigious family, she was brought up to do exactly that—to be the female head of another house. She even tells Nora that Makoto was excited to hear that she was pregnant, as he too was ready to take over as head and start a family of his own. It’s no wonder that the two get into such a fight…
Poor June’s entire world is limited to that of being a mother and head of a family. While Nora tries to question how she could possibly be okay with marrying Nozomu if she claims to be thrilled to be carrying Makoto’s child, June simply tells Nora that a woman’s greatest duty is to bring pride to her family. Marrying the secret brother of her deceased fiance seems to bare absolutely no weight on her.
The two girls spend a great deal of time arguing about Makoto, as both claim to be the one he truly loved. Honestly it was an incredibly stressful read, as I really couldn’t tell who was telling the truth. While I didn’t exactly love June as a character, I didn’t want to believe that she would lie about being pregnant just to get a new opportunity to marry into the family.
June firmly believes that Makoto wanted to start a family with her, and was very excited to take over as head of the family. Nora, however, believes that Makoto was hesitant to take over the family, and that he instead dreamed of moving somewhere far away with Nora and living freely.
So… Who is lying? Or, are they both somehow telling the truth?
The excitement of reading this part was heart pounding! It felt as though all of the secrets were finally getting unravelled, and that June was the final piece of the puzzle.
Just at the first was beginning to wind down, Nora recalls Nozomu talking about finding Makoto’s journal, and both women agree to take a look at the journal to learn his true feelings. What they learn from the journal was…devastating, to say the least.
What was written about Nora: We know that Nora was discovered by Makoto when they were both children. She was a young, nameless orphan living on the streets. We learn here that he chose to name her Nora, specifically because she was a stray. (Nora is used to describe stray cats and dogs in Japanese.) He wrote in his journal about how he saw that Nora was a dreamer, and more on the emotional side, so he tried to match that. Everything that he did and said to Nora, he wrote in the journal, analyzing it. He wrote about what he thought he should do next, and how he assumed she may react. The entire persona he put on when with Nora was an act. That means that all of the “I love you”s and “let’s run away together”s were said with no intent behind them.
What was written about June: He wrote about how he was introduced to June through their families, and that she was a rich young woman from a notable family. He noticed that she was a rather family-oriented, serious person, so he decided he would act as a person who was excited to take on the role of head of the family when with her. As she was ready to start a family with him, he wrote about how he noticed she didn’t seem to mind not waiting to sleep with him, as they would be married eventually, so he took advantage of that.
He wrote about how he knew both women clearly loved him, but that he loved neither of them.
While that is incredibly cruel, a little while later, we get to read a bit more of the journal. It seems like he wasn’t documenting all of this as a cruel memory book, but rather as a way to actually document his emotions. He lamented in the journal that he really doesn’t understand what love is, and wonders how he could bring himself to love a woman. While this doesn’t excuse him of what he did to both women, we get a glimpse into who he was as a person—a very troubled young man with absolutely no emotional support.
As Nora basically collapses upon learning all of this, Nozomu is still there for her. And finally, finally she comes to terms with the fact that she’s developed feelings for him. While she admits that she does still and probably will always love Makoto, even if he did lie to her, she is able to finally move on with her life.
It seems like Nozomu has similar feelings to Nora, as the two of them are able to finally bring their plan to action—they will destroy the house that brought both of them so much pain. Watching it all burn down was just so satisfying!
Thankfully this isn’t where the story ends, as we get to see where the two of them go once they are finally free of their ties to that family. Nora really did get the ultimate happy ending here, as she gets to live freely in a coastal town with her loving husband…Nozomu! That’s right! They get married! They also changed their names (no more stray Nora!), and live alongside a whole bunch of orphans, living what I can only assume is a very fulfilling life).
I can’t end this review without bringing up June one more time. While she was introduced as a more villainous character, she really was a victim, just like Nora. I’m happy to say that she also got a happy ending, as after Nora and Nozomu faked their deaths in the fire, the pregnant June became the head of the household! She actually knew about the plan to set the fire and went along with it, as while she was trying to fulfill her duties to her family, she didn’t actually want to marry Nozomu. So now, she gets to be the head of a household, AND she is free of any man. Another happy ending.
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