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Posted by Sean Gaffney

https://mangabookshelf.com/2025/12/18/manga-the-week-of-12-24-25/

https://mangabookshelf.com/?p=86891

SEAN: You there! Boy! What week is this?

(…)

Then I haven’t missed it! Let’s get going.

MICHELLE: Heh.

SEAN: We have print titles for Airship, as we get There’s No Freaking Way I’ll be Your Lover! Unless… 7 and Too Many Losing Heroines! 6.

And for digital we get the 4th volume of I’m the Heroic Knight of an Intergalactic Empire!.

Dark Horse has H. P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Out of Time (Toki wo Koeru Kage), another of their Lovecraft adaptations from Comic Beam. A man collapses one day and wakes up not as he once was.

ASH: These adaptations have been fantastic. Glad to see more being released!

SEAN: J-Novel Club has one digital debut, from their Knight label. Buying You on the Day You Were to Die (Kimi ga Shinitakatta Hi ni, Boku wa Kimi wo Kau Koto ni Shita) is a one-shot BL novel. A man is dealing with death and abandonment for his family, and gets offered a tantalizing proposition: become this guy’s best friend… for cash. I did promise if there was a JNK title that wasn’t fantasy I’d read it, so I’ll give this a try.

ASH: Excellent.

SEAN: Other light novels: The Accursed Chef and His Pair of Furry Foodies 2, Hell Mode 11, and The Mythical Hero’s Otherworld Chronicles 13 (the final volume).

For manga, they have Demon Lord, Retry! R 9, Hell Mode 9, Infinite Dendrogram 14, The Invincible Little Lady 11, Jeanette the Genius 3, A Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-Back Life 8, The Oblivious Saint Can’t Contain Her Power 6, and Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles 12.

Kodansha Manga has one debut, a BL title. You’re All Mine Tonight (Konya Kimi to Nemuritai) is a one-shot from Gateau. A man who fell in love with a sex worker five years earlier and then ran away now finds that the same man is now a newcomer at his company.

ASH: Funny how that happens.

ANNA: Ooops!

SEAN: They also have one artbook, The Art of Witch Hat Atelier. This is a stunning hardcover-only title originally published in France.

ASH: This should be phenomenal.

ANNA: I don’t usually go for art books, but seriously considering this one.

SEAN: Also in print: AKIRA Hardcover Collection 5, Ashita no Joe: Fighting for Tomorrow 4, Bless 6, A Condition Called Love 16, The Moon on a Rainy Night 8, Senpai is an Otokonoko 4, Snow & Ink 5, and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime 28.

Digital titles are Even Given the Worthless “Appraiser” Class, I’m Actually the Strongest 15, The Great Cleric 15, and You Can’t Bluff the Sharp-Eyed Sister 2.

KUMA has, according to retailers, Haberdashery Ginmokusei 2.

Seven Seas. Let’s start with danmei. Silent Reading: Mo Du is the new series by the author of Guardian. It’s another police procedural, but seems to be slightly less supernatural?

MICHELLE: Oooooh.

SEAN: The White Cat’s Divine Scratching Post is from the author of The Wife Comes First, so clearly that author is December’s author of the month. I’d tell you the plot, but I saw the word cultivator and my mind just wandered away.

And there’s also Legend of Exorcism: Tianbao Fuyao Lu 4.

The one manga debut is a BL title, God of Seduction in the Bedroom (Erogami-sama no Ero Musubi) ran in the magazine Hanaoto, and is done in one. A man who keeps getting dumped for being a terrible lover turns to a matchmaker.

ASH: That’s an entertaining premise.

SEAN: Other Seven Seas titles: Backstabbed in a Backwater Dungeon 10, The Barbarian’s Bride 5, The Dungeon of Black Company 13, Himegasaki Sakurako Is a Hot Mess 2, His Majesty the Demon King’s Housekeeper 11, The Ideal Sponger Life 20, Kageki Shojo!! 15, The Lady and Her Butler 5, My Girlfriend’s Child 9, My Younger Knight Takes Care of Me in Another World 2 (the final volume), Painter of the Night 2, Sheeply Horned Witch Romi 3 (the final volume, and Yonoi Tsukihiko’s Happy Hell 4.

MICHELLE: I should really read Kageki Shojo!! at some point. I’ve been collecting it this whole time!

ASH: I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve read of it.

ANNA: I have a few volumes stockpiled too.

SEAN: Square Enix has Dragon Quest: The Mark of Erdrick 2.

Steamship has a 3rd and final volume of Adored By an Elite Officer: Could This Be Love?.

Titan Manga has Somali and the Forest Spirit 4.

Tokyopop debuts Touched by Twilight (Hakumei ni Michiru), a BL series that runs in from RED. Two lovers are separated when their families go to war. Fifty years later, can they patch things up? Those two do not look 70 years old, so I fear I may have to deal with cultivation here as well.

We also get Lullaby of the Dawn 6.

Viz has a 4th volume of Beast Complex and the 6th and final volume of My Name Is Shingo: The Perfect Edition.

ASH: I’ve been meaning to start My Name Is Shingo, so I guess it’s time for a marathon read.

SEAN: And lastly, Yen Press has The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t a Guy at All 3 and Super Ball Girls 2.

MICHELLE: I definitely really want to read The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t a Guy at All.

ASH: You really do!

SEAN: The publishers have done it all in one night. They can do anything they like. Of course they can. Of course they can. What are you buying to celebrate not being a Scrooge?

https://mangabookshelf.com/2025/12/18/manga-the-week-of-12-24-25/

https://mangabookshelf.com/?p=86891

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JLI #16-17 introduced the Queen Bee and her alliance with Jack O’Lantern. In that first appearance, she was all poise and grace. Despite her chilling games of mind control, she also exuded a false warmth that snared lovers and allies and disarmed her enemies.

In her second appearance, the warmth is gone. It’s true what they say: holding high political office ages people before their time.

( But why won’t certain office-holders DIE of old age already? )

muccamukk

Fandom and Art Stuff

elasticella: sapphic stocking stuffers.
Lots of great prompts! Open for fills until 31 December, or they're all full, whichever happens last.

Street Art Utopia: The Giant Kitten.
By Oriol Arumi at Torrefarrera Street Art Festival in Torrefarrera, Cataluna, Spain

Rolling Stone: Taylor Swift’s Last Album Sparked Bizarre Accusations of Nazism. It Was a Coordinated Attack.
I read this, and was like "hmmmmmmm." Because it seemed plausible that there were bots or whatever, but also a lot of people I'd seen critiquing the album were definitely humans that I knew. But also human conversation can be driven by bots without the humans realising it. And also, I don't care enough about TS to look into the whole mess. Then I saw the following.

MedusoneDeluxe: Rolling Stone embarrasses itself to defend Taylor Swift. Again. (Video: 41 Minutes).
I love it when people actually read the research. So probably not a significant number of bots, but also the science is so sloppy it's impossible to tell.

Trans Rights Are Human Rights
The Walrus: Kids Deserve a New Gender Paradigm by Kai Cheng Thom.
Lovely, thoughtful look at how we see gender, and maybe kids have this more figured out than a lot of adults to. Older piece, but I enjoyed reading it again.

The Guardian: The WI and Girlguiding have been pressured to exclude trans women – yet the law is clear as mud by Jess O'Thompson.
The Guardian published something non-terrible about trans people in the U.K.! Do the Dance of Joy!

CTV News: Skate Canada to stop hosting events in Alberta due to sports gender law.
Solidarity! From a national sporting organisation! A MIRACLE!

Canadian Politics Stuff
The Tyee: Human Rights Tribunal on RCMP Methods Delays Decision Nearly a Year.
This is some fucking bullshit. The elders are dying of old age before they're seeing any kind of justice. I am enjoying how Amanda Follett Hosgood is so out of fucks to give on the publication ban that she's basically putting up a bright red arrow pointing to A.B.'s name, even if she can't actually say it. Which is John Furlong, incidentally. And seriously, fuck that guy.

The Globe and Mail: Leilani Muir made history suing Alberta over forced sterilization.
This is an older obit, but I dug it up for a school project, and thought it was worth sharing. Not enough people know about Canada's eugenics policies.

Times Colonist: Residential school survivor says he will protest OneBC at other campuses.
We shouldn't need our elders to be superheroes, but nonetheless many of them are.

Times Colonist: Water-contaminated fuel caused crash of Port Hardy-bound plane: TSB.
This is neither here nor there, really, but I find Transportation Safety Board investigations really interesting. Even if they take a really long time (i.e. I found this while looking for information about a more recent crash, but will probably have to wait a couple years to find out what happened to that guy).

Slightly Dated U.S.A. Politics Stuff
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American: December 6, 2025.
Beautifully ties in the events of Pearl Harbor with the politics of today.

Rebecca Solnit: Solidarity Stitches Us Together: Today, World AIDS Day, Is Also the 70th Anniversary of Rosa Parks's Historic Protest.

The fabric of this country is forever being torn apart by hate and exclusion; it is forever being stitched into, as the site says, new patterns, new connections, new relationships. Solidarity is always about connection across difference, about the way you stand with someone you have something crucial in common with but who may be different in other ways. It is a quilter's art of bringing the fragments together into a whole. It is e pluribus unum.

kass

Found via

laurashapiro, this is so worth one minute of your time. The last couplet in this clip is just -- ::chef's kiss!::

Hot Hanukkah

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Posted by Sean Gaffney

https://suitablefortreatment.mangabookshelf.com/2025/12/18/if-the-villainess-and-villain-met-and-fell-in-love-she-was-all-but-disowned-for-her-spirit-contract-but-shes-still-competing-with-her-rival-vol-4/

http://27.18686

By Harunadon and Yomi Sarachi. Released in Japan as “Akuyaku Reijō to Akuyaku Reisoku ga, Deatte Koi ni Ochitanara: Nanashi no Seirei to Keiyaku Shite Oidasareta Reijō wa, Kyō mo Reisoku to Kisoiatte Iru Yō Desu” by GA Novels. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Evie Lund.

It’s always interesting to read a series which does not quite know how long it’s going to be allowed to run. I mentioned last time that the third book felt like an ending, but here we are with the fourth book. The fourth book also seems to wrap most everything up, as while last volume we focused on the horrible abuse of Brigitte’s father, here we check in on Yuri’s abusive brother, and now that Brigitte has mostly managed to come to terms with her past and grow into a splendid young woman, it’s now Yuri’s turn to try to get past his own past and present and accept that he’s still in love with his ex-fiancee. They go through a trial, come out of it well, have a lovely confession, and we’re all set for a weddi–oh dear, it’s cliffhanger time.

It’s exam time at Yuri and Brigitte’s school, and because this is a school with magic and spirits, the exam is incredibly dangerous, because this is that sort of genre. That said, Brigitte has discovered she’s made of sterner stuff, and she and Yuri (as well as Nival and Kira, who I haven’t mentioned in my reviews but are basically a combination of “those two friends”, the beta couple, and comedy relief) set off to the crack between the human world and the spirit world, where they have to take care not to be tricked by spirits who can literally read your mind and become the person you’re closest to. Even worse for Yuri, his brother Clyde will be assisting with the exam, and he still has a massive hate-on for Yuri, and also is in charge of an evil spirit. Will they be able to pass?

Given that we’ve had to deal with Brigitte’s father literally sticking her hand into a fireplace in prior books, I did appreciate the lesson learned in this book, which is that not every abusive person is driven by being evil and psychotic, and sometimes it’s just pettiness and jealousy taken to extremes. Clyde can’t be head of household like his older brother, he can’t be contracted to powerful spirits, like Yuri, all he has is an “evil” spirit, who he can’t even use that often. This all adds up to “making my little brother feel sad makes me feel better”, and so can end with a mere apology rather than the exile Brigitte’s father got. That said, Yuri doesn’t forgive Clyde, which is also very valid, given that the bullying has affecting how he conducts his life to date – we’d thought Brigitte was the one driving the “competition”, but we see here Yuri uses it as an excuse to do things he’d never have the courage to otherwise. Fortunately, they’re both able to gather their courage here.

Unfortunately, remember how the archbishop was holding everyone back from taking Brigitte and abusing her phoenix powers for their own gain? Yeah, he died. See you in Book 5! (At least we now do know it will end with Book 6.)

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amberite

So, despite having not a lot of money, I've lately been able to get a ton of random stuff I've wanted. Small electronics, art supplies, home organization supplies, more different kinds of purple clothing than I imagined existed - you name it. (The main limitation is that our apartment is very small.)

This is because earlier this year I got on Temu to buy some business supplies, mostly in the interest of divesting from Amazon. Now they are giving me a deal where, if I spend $200 in a sitting, I literally get the entire price of my purchase refunded except the sales tax and sometimes shipping (but not inflated shipping! That would make too much sense!) And then sometimes they don't manage to ship me the items in time so I get credit for delays, which covers the sales tax. It's kind of absurd.

Why this is happening, I have several theories. I'll share them here, in the order of "most similar to mundane economic activity" to "kinda wild but OK."

I suspect multiple of these are true to some extent.

1. Maybe most people fail to complete the rebate process correctly. The process is rather fiddly. If you miss logging in for a day, you lose a big chunk of the money back. If you order less than $200 at a time, you don't get the full rebate. At that point, you are paying for regular discounted goods, a decent deal but nothing special.

....BUT I'm completing the process correctly, and they keep giving me the rebate, so that can't be the whole story. (Also note that previous Temu deals have been known to kick people out of the promotion eventually if they claim too much of the money successfully.)

Very well, more theories:

2. This is the equivalent of a brushing scam, without the scam. The algorithm has figured out that I leave useful, honest reviews and leave a lot of them, so they're sending me free shit in the knowledge that I'll likely respond, naturally on my own, by improving the credibility of the platform. This certainly might explain why they're still giving me the rebate deal despite my reliability at claiming the money.

3. Temu is trying to inflate its Q4 sales figures. There are many reasons why this could benefit them - investment, taxes.

4. Temu is engaged in some form of money laundering. What form and why, I got nothin'. (Well, okay, I got a wetsuit, a tattoo gun, and a lifetime supply of 2gal plastic ziploc bags.)

4b. The Chinese government is throwing money at Temu, which in turn is throwing it at its customers. This works reasonably well in concert with 3 or 4a. The motivations could be: undercutting Amazon, establishing monopoly, spiting Trump over the tariffs, or - and I'd bet it's at least a little bit this, because it's the right style of "communism-capitalism cookie sandwich" for them - ensuring the manufacturing economy continues to keep workers employed.

Anyway, now that I've established that they really are reliably sending my money back & I have most of the fun things I want, I'm ordering useful stuff. This has its own hilarious economic caveat:

- Most of the brand-name practical expendables on Temu are actually drop-shipped from Walmart, Target or Amazon.

You know how you used to sometimes buy stuff from a US web storefront and find it was actually shipped from a random Chinese seller? Well, now they're doing the opposite. The telltale signs of this are that the item ships from a domestic origin point and costs more than normal. It's harder to find these items on the platform than it is to find clothing and bling, they go fast, and I wouldn't normally order them at this price point, but... yeah, money back...

For example, I "spent" $35 on an order containing a small box of Tampax tampons, a large box of Band-Aids, and a bottle of Neutrogena body wash. These items would have probably cost a total of $25 in the store. I ordered them knowing that I would be refunded all but the tax. Some 3rd party vendor sent me a Walmart package and pocketed the difference.

Other things I've been ordering a lot of this way are brand-name supplements and essential oils. (I still want to start doing perfumery again someday.)

I've also started ordering altruistically, because I'm sure this deal will end eventually and I'd like to make other people happy. One of our homeless friends down at the beach, who deserves a whole post or two on here himself - he's the one who made me realize that Venice Beach is basically a town full of urban fantasy protagonists - is always wanting to borrow my phone to play music because he can't hang onto one without getting rolled for it. I ordered him a music player and speaker. Got a big box of hand warmers and emergency blankets to give out, too.

And I've just picked up a cat carrier to donate to a rescuer who's been doing work to help us gradually resolve a friend's Infinite Kitten Hell problem (poorly educated immigrant parent adopted a bunch of strays without realizing how important it was to spay/neuter. Predictable events ensued & every vet in LA is backed up on spays, so you have to know someone.)

(P.S. - anyone up for taking on a spare kitten or cat? My friend's family are decent people and caring for the ones they've brought into the world, but it's not really a healthy number of cats to have.)

Current Mood: thoughtful

jamethiel

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petra

I was right to say I do not understand one goddamn thing that happens in Amos Burton's head when I asked for him for Yuletide.

I don't know that I have the Chrisjen Avasarala/Bobbie Draper series of my heart in my fingers, but I will be over here shippin' it like whoa.

Overall, they were a lovely ride. The audiobook reader learned to pronounce gimbals very late in the canon, and got the stress pattern wrong in Avasarala, but was quite good at voice distinction, and definitely didn't do the All Women are Falsetto crap.

Current Music: I am wearing a hat / After winter, I'll marry / I'm entitled to that

petra

hannah and James Marsters have got you.

1969 by Alex Dimitrov is Hannah's recommendation to start with, and it's a banger. Wander the archive of that tumblr and enjoy!

Current Mood: poetically inclined
Current Music: He's invoking the powers of Bryan Adams!

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Posted by morbane

https://yuletide-admin.livejournal.com/300321.html

There's a new post up on the Yuletide Admin comm regarding 2025 Deadline Has Passed - What Next. Please note that there may have been a delay between that post and this crosspost.

You can go through to DW to check the details:

Dreamwidth Post

If you have follow-up questions, they can be asked in the DW comment section using a DW login, OpenID with another login, or a signed anonymous comment.

https://yuletide-admin.livejournal.com/300321.html

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muccamukk

These are probably going to be short and sweet, given I read them in late August through September. I'll hopefully catch up to where I am now by the time next term starts, and I go back to only reading stuff for school. Expect a bunch of books about gender, followed by all the romance novels I read on my off time, lol.

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, narrated by Jefferson White
I had only the vaguest memories of the account of Haymitch's games from Catching Fire, or anything else from Catching Fire, for that matter. I never did read the other prequel. If Haymitch is one of your favourite characters, and you just want backstory on all the olds who show up later in the original series, this is solid fun. Collins did a good job of thinking through where everyone came from, and how they got like they are when Katniss meets them. Effee showing up is especially fun. We also get confirmation of several queer characters (which I assume she wasn't allowed to do in 2008), and an interesting note about the Capital banning generative A.I..

I enjoyed all the themes of the amount of groundwork needed to put into a revolution, and how the lives of the people in this story eventually led to the events of the first books. Especially how the characters themselves feel like they've failed and wasted everything, but the reader can tell how it's more a process of (horribly) figuring out what works and what doesn't.

At the same time, it didn't feel like a story of only moving pieces into place for the "real story" that will start later. It certainly doesn't read as a stand alone novel, but it does stand up as being about these characters in this moment. Haymitch is such a sweet kid when we first meet him, and is a bit more of a dynamic lead than Katniss (i.e., he actually likes people and wants to talk to them), and given the pile of characters we meet for the first time (because these games have twice the number of tributes), each of the new people get enough development for the reader to become least somewhat invested in what happens to them (spoiler alert: it's the Hunger Games, so...).

I always found the games themselves the least interesting part of the earlier books, which is largely true here as well, but the story still moves along pretty fast. They probably would've been more interesting if I remembered what the story was supposed to be, as Collins puts a lot into the contrasts and surprises. The post-games section did draaaaaaaaaaaaag though. Especially the recap of the games we'd just read about, and the part that was set up as this huge poetic tragedy. I think if you're like... 14, you'd be weeping through the end, but I found it overdone, and thought her editor should've made her stop.

Still, I'm happy to have read it.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I hadn't read these in fifteen years, so I thought I'd swing back through to remember what we were supposed to know about all the characters we met in the prequel. Enjoyed it. Games still dragged.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
So most of the characters from Haymitch's book actually show up here, it turns out. So I read this one. Enjoyed this too, though found the games section dragged a bit. The love triangle continues obnoxious, and I did myself the favour of not reading Mockingjay again.

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder
I've been hearing bits of this quoted since it came out, and it's quite good. I think the target is more people involved in public life, but it was still good to listen to, these being the times that were given to us. I know it's his area, but I wish there had been more examples from autocracies other than 1930s Germany, for the sake of variety, if nothing else (there were a handful of comparisons from the Soviet bloc, but it was very Nazi centric).

I think it's on YouTube for free, if anyone wants to listen. I'll probably go back to it later, so that I take more on board.

Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians by Austen Hartke
Solid primer if you're interested in the a gender-diverse approach to Christian theology. Hartke talks to a variety of other trans and non-binary Christians, especially those involved in ministry, about their relationship with God and the Bible. Each chapter focuses on a few lines of scripture, which are largely clobber verses, and discusses how they can be seen as trans affirming. It's really beautifully expressed, and thoughtfully takes on some difficult parts of the Bible. Hartke does talk about how frustrating it is to feel like he has to spend so much time justifying himself and talking about the clobber verses, when he just wants to talk about religious gender euphoria. He's since put out a second edition, which might refine that approach, but I haven't looked at that yet. I really appreciated this edition is an intro, however, and helped me put together a church service for Trans Day of Remembrance.

omens

I saw (what I think was) a sharp-shinned hawk in the tree the other day. What a petite little dude! I thought it was a mourning dove at first bc it was a mottled brown from what I could see, but something in me was like, "get the binoculars!" The tail twitching, I think. It reminded me of the long ass tails of the magpies in Belgium. Twitch, twitch, twitch. But yeah, in the binoculars, the big orange eyes and the tail striping, very very cute, but he zipped off a second later so I didn't have time to note details ;_; come back lil sharpie

Junco thru my filthy window <3

Honestly, I thought I had more to say when I opened up dw to post, but there's just nothing? Feeling kinda like going back to bed today. I think it's going to be a no-focus kind of day.

mangabookshelf_feed

Posted by Sean Gaffney

https://suitablefortreatment.mangabookshelf.com/2025/12/16/the-trials-and-tribulations-of-my-next-life-as-a-noblewoman-the-price-of-glory-part-2/

http://27.18681

By Kamihara and Shiro46. Released in Japan as “Tensei Reijo to Sūki na Jinsei o” by Hayakawa Shobo. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Hengtee Lim.

(This review contains spoilers, though I will try to confine them till after the synopsis.)

Well, that went about the way I thought. Not that I knew what was going to happen precisely, but because “Great googley moogley, everything’s gone to shit” is the way that this series operates, and I had a feeling we were due for everything going wrong very rapidly, and that’s exactly what I got… eventually. Honestly, the first two-thirds or so of this volume feel like a typical “villainess” book, with just a bit more politics than usual. There’s even a big dance where Karen (who has been trying harder and harder to not be The Worst Dancer Ever) ends up needing to be literally dragged around in order to manage not to humiliate herself. And the Emperor even snubs her, which is a surprise given he invited her, but hey, good news! Then we get the last third of the book, and everything once again becomes a horror novel *and* a tragedy.

Karen is trying to make up with Ern, but unfortunately that involves running into Lubeck, the knight who really, really wants to seduce her and cannot understand why she seems to find him a massive creep. (The reason is that he’s a massive creep.) Fortunately, they do make up, and then Karen is off to the ball(s). She thinks that it doesn’t go well because after all this fuss, when she introdeuces herself to the Emperor he barely acknowledges her. To me, it read like she had significant conversations with every single powerful person in the Empire, all of whom are trying to curry her favor. But then, I’m not the one desperately trying to pretend I’m just a plain side character. (Un)Fortunately for Karen, the Emperor decides to invite her back for a meal. Breakfast. The next day. When she arrives, along with six other people the Emperor is “honoring”, we get to see just what he’s really like. It’s not great.

I admit I was not all that shocked at the window thing, as it was heavily telegraphed, but I was far more shocked at the Emperor essentially saying “rejoice, we’re going to make sure we have good Aryan stock by breeding my knights to you folks, so get ready”. Usually light novels aren’t quite this blatant, but this is Trials and Tribulations, and when has it ever held back before? To be frank, I’m amazed Karen escaped, and she even rescued a young noble who made me think of Galinda from Wicked but who quickly gets a nasty surprise. Then there’s the finale with Ern. Honestly, I suspected Ern would not survive this book, so again her death in and of itself is not what shocked me. What shocked me was HOW she chose to die, and the fact that Karen ended up, with gritted teeth and a callback to something that now seems far less funny, going along with it. On the bright side, this may make it harder for the Emperor to simply marry her off as breeding stock. On the less bright side, EVERYTHING ELSE. (Oh yes, bonus points for actually hearing the rumors about Karen explicitly, which frame her as the most evil woman in the universe.)

The cover to the next volume also seems to have a spoiler literally on it, suggesting that the events of this book affect Karen far more than we’d expected. I realize this is not for everyone, but I really do highly recommend it. It’s the best car crash being published right now.

https://suitablefortreatment.mangabookshelf.com/2025/12/16/the-trials-and-tribulations-of-my-next-life-as-a-noblewoman-the-price-of-glory-part-2/

http://27.18681