belfry

Posted by Sean Gaffney

https://suitablefortreatment.mangabookshelf.com/2025/10/19/the-wicked-princess-and-her-twelve-eyes-the-legendary-villainess-and-her-elite-assassins/

http://27.18494

By Daken and saino. Released in Japan as “Aku no Reijou to Juuni no Hitomi: Saikyou Juusha-tachi to Densetsu no Akujo, Jinsei Nidome no Kareinaru Musouroku” by Overlap Novels. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by piyo (Irene Nakano). Adapted by Rei Geronimo.

I was going to buy this anyway simply as I like the genre, but then I saw it was by the author of Who Killed the Hero?. And then, for some reason, as I was reading it, I totally forgot that. I’m not sure why. But the first, oh, two-thirds of this book is content to just be a hoot. You’ve got the usual villainess who goes back in time and does things over again. There’s a large helping of humor, both because she’s an absolute sadist but also from the author themselves (one of the color pages tells us what each of her squires excels in, and one girl is simply “energetic!” in a “no thoughts, head empty” sort of way). That said, don’t worry, this *is* by the author of Who Killed the Hero?, and the last 50 pages or so made me sit up, and then made my jaw drop as I recalled all the things I hadn’t bothered to pay attention to.

Serena Rosenberg starts this book, as all good villainesses do, by getting her engagement broken in front of a large crowd of nobles. Unlike most villainesses, she really is guilty of a lot of attempted murder against the heroine. Even though none of her attempts succeeded, she’s sentenced to death. As she’s forced to drink poison, she realizes that her biggest fault was that she did not have competent minions. Then she wakes up as a baby again, but with memories of her past life. Unfortunately, she’s still pretty much a terrible person, but she definitely wants to avoid her previous fate. Therefore, she actually studies magic and the sword, getting good at everything. She also goes to an orphanage, grabs the six “problem children” from it, and puts them through training. Ridiculously hard training.

The bulk of this book goes sort of how you’d expect, being one of those “Serena does something with evil intentions, but everyone else sees it as good” sort of books. Her hellish training really is needed to snap this orphans out of their mindsets, and makes them better people. She gets them dogs, who become good pets and like family to them. She does this for absolutely WRETCHED reasons, but because she’s being so good, those reasons have to be abandoned. And as the book goes on, we see her realizing that she doesn’t really want to get revenge, and doesn’t care if the heroine marries the prince after all. It’s headed for a “doing good thing feels good” sort of ending… and then we’re reminded about things we took for granted because this genre has lots of mediocre things that make the brain assume. Like why does her mother avoid her? Like why did she go back in time in the first place? The last chunk of this book is here to answer the questions, and the answer is pretty terrific. And yes, author, I appreciated the added ending.

If you like this author, cool plot twists, or books where the protagonist is terrible but in a fun way, this is a must-read. Also, I teared up a bit when I realized what the title meant.

https://suitablefortreatment.mangabookshelf.com/2025/10/19/the-wicked-princess-and-her-twelve-eyes-the-legendary-villainess-and-her-elite-assassins/

http://27.18494