As I scroll through the comments section, I realize why there are so many second-rate sloppily written "villainess reincarnation with OP perfect Mary Sue MC, 2D suddenly evil bitch heroine & retarded shitty prince" stories being churned out.
The palace intrigue & drama of this story might not be the best written & the Emperor isn't perfect, but the comments make everything sound like the MC is being abused nonstop & the Emperor is the scummiest of scum.
I don't even understand why people keep reading this if it's such "trash". Just go back to the villainess mangas & leave the palace dramas alone, then. This comment section is reminding me of the readers who said that a certain manga about theater was trash because its theme was too "boring" because "who cares about acting your heart out, theater's a dying art anyway!" >:(
I enjoy this and I enjoy OP Mary Sues. They have different charms, press different buttons. I find the art here lovely, and that helps.
And no, I don't think emperors HAVE to be tyrants, but they do have to be cunning, tough, and smart to survive. And no, no emperor or king has to have multiple women (if anything, it seems counterintuitive to any sort of peaceful family life or smooth accession, if competing brothers plot against each other). The fact that rich and powerful men do fuck around just seems to be a fact of life. YOu do what you can get away with. But that is not laudable nor necessary. It's always a choice if one is ruler. An emperor CAN decide to have ONE wife.
Emperors have more than one wife not out of love (yes, lust to most of them) but there's also something called politics. There are many people coveting the position and the emperor has many ways to secure his throne, and marriage is one of the best solutions (not the morals obviously). Aside from the whole reincarnation/transmigration plot, the author is trying to be as realistic as possible and I think they're doing a good job.
What's that theater manga?
It's power and it's lust. But there have been kings and rulers without multiple wives. They do it for both, but let's not assume it must be that way and excuse it. The reason we enjoy it is it adds to the drama. We can get angry at all the inter-harem conflict. It certainly does make for a ripe situation for intrigue and revenge. In the end, it's most cruel to the women and children who get stuck in all the plots.
The only emperors who are able to keep one wife are the ones who have absolute power & influence over the court & the noble families. As we don't know about this ML's circumstances, but the manga has stated that both he & the FL struggled get to the position of Emperor & Empress despite not wanting to in the first place, which implies that there were/are still forces against them.
There is also the Empress Dowager, who despite being seemingly partial to the Empress & Emperor, has somehow allowed all these schemes to happen against the Empress when she should be on top of the entire court & would have had eyes everywhere since she's been in the palace the longest & has stayed in control. It is highly suspect & frankly, I believe that these suspicious circumstances are why the ML can't be solely with FL even if he wants to.
And that shows what a fool the Emperor is. If the Empress dowager is a threat, then you kill her. How many times have we seen emperors completely annihilate entire clans in these stories? If the women in the harem were political alliances, then he simply has to plot to have them fed birth control so they can't have heirs to challenge his beloved's children and make it clear that any concubine who does anything to bully or harm his beloved will be beheaded. And he can make that clear to the families he binds with. If you harm HER, you die. If you treat her well, I treat you well and give you rewards. But only the child of her body will rule.
An emperor can be designed, character-wise, to be monogamous or nearly so. It's the author's decision. So, let's not say "he can't cause." He can, because he's emperor and if he's cunning, he can outwit his enemies. Cunning, courageous characters ARE interesting, which is why we enjoy seeing the FL outwit her opponents, even as she is NOT a monster.
The emperor is weaker than he could be. The Empress Dowager is more powerful than she should be allowed to be. But, hey, it's still entertaining. And I love the costume designs. :D
Sorry didn't see this earlier. The manga is called Kasane (also on mangago). It is a tragedy/horror but a tragedy in the sense of a Shakespearean or Greek tragedy sense since the plot revolves around theater plays.
Okay yeah I said tomorrow, but I had to go back & reread the raws since I forgot some names/events & had to go google some names. The only confirmed names are Uesugi & Takeda, other names got mangled in google translate. FTR, they are the main daimyos standing directly in Oda's path. However, Oda's main enemy is still the Buddhist Temple. Sorry!
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Okay, so piggybacking off my first thread about Ashimitsu, I mentioned how Oda went to pay respects to him back when he was still Shogun. Well, Nouhime figures out Ashimitsu's identity (he really doesnt like her for how perceptive she is & considered killing her at one point) so she arranges for him & Oda to meet. Oda's shocked by Ashimitsu being alive & he confirms that Shizuko is from the future. They end up having a lot of chats together as Ashimitsu is still a wise strategist & warrior. Ashimitsu moves from the temple (where he worked as a caretaker) to having his own unit. It's essentially a secret service dedicated to protecting Shizuko against spies & doing a lot of dirty work during war.
Ashimitsu was fascinated by modern psychology & boy does he exploit his knowledge of it. His men capture enemy soldiers/spies & viciously torture them & even turn them into suicide warriors via drugs & such. When Konoe's ex head & Uesugi Kenshin meet up with him, Kenshin is shocked by Ashimitsu's blatent disregard for religious icons (he kicked a small shrine totem) since he used to be very devout. Konoe assures him that deep down, Ashimitsu is still the same great man he used to be & he wouldn't stay friends with him if Ashimitsu had changed THAT much.
There's a lot of chapters where Ashimitsu viciously kills spies & enemies to Shizuko. He tries to keep his whole drug operation secret from Shizuko as he wants her to stay happy & innocent to the horrors & filth of war, but she finds out & doesn't comment on it, showing him that she's mentally matured into that of an adult & general.
In one chapter, Ashimitsu becomes particularly furious when discovering an assassination plot against Shizuko. An inn in one of Shizuko's cities alerted the police that they had some suspicious guests muttering about Shizuko & after interrogating them, Ashimitsu found out that that the current puppet shogun, Ashiaki (aka his brother), was gathering the disgruntled rebels & Anti-Shizuko civillians to stir up discord in her territories & kill her. They could only gather up some really sexist thugs since most people were content with Shizuko's rule.
Ashimitsu busts into Ashiaki's place, beats him up in front of his terrified retainers & uses him as a chair. He then threatens to kill Ashiaki if he even so much as THINKS about harming Shizuko again (can't kill him since he's current Shogun). Everyone's freaked out by this & Ashimitsu's wrath & loyalty to Shizuko kinda spreads a rumor (amongst the feeble minded nobility) that she's like a fucking necromancer/witch that brought back the Asura from hell. IDK if Shizuko finds out about this but she & her men don't really treat Ashimitsu differently.
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So when Frois first meets with Oda, Oda has Shizuko (disguised with her chest bound & a hood over her face) at the meeting by his side. When Frois offers konpeito as a gift, Shizuko explains to Oda what it is & Frois notes that Oda seems to be very different from the rumors - as he actually listens to his subordinates & takes counsel from them. Shizuko then directs a question at Frois, quoting the phrase from the Bible about treating thy neighbor well. Frois is surprised that she knows this & answers that even if he is treated poorly in Japan, he will still persevere & treat others well. He then offers Oda many silver bars for his protection but Oda denies it as he does not want to be bought. So while the missionaries don't have Oda's protection, he will help them at times.
Frois does still have prejudices & biases though. He wrinkled his nose when Shizuko offered him a meal of potatoes & chicken (since potatoes are just ornamental crops) but he was pleasantly surprised by the taste. He was also turned off when Shizuko asked for coffee beans since that's a pagan drink (the Arabs still have the holy land right now), but brought them to her anyway.
Frois later brings another famous Jesuit, Organtino, along with him, too. Actually at this point, Shizuko doesn't have to keep disguising herself but Oda totally forgot he had her do so & so she never stopped & Frois still thinks she's a dude. Organtino immediately figures out that she's a she just from the first meeting & is able to posit that since Frois didn't tell him, this must be a secret that Oda & Shizuko have, so he should do the smart thing & not mention it. Organtino & Nouhime have like +100 perception, they're practically cheats.
There's a split between the Jesuits later on though - between Organtino/Frois & Francisco Cabral. Cabral's a hardcore Euro-centric Jesuit, which means that he views converts as inferior (author mentions how there's a derogatory name for them), shames non-Europeans for their pagan beliefs & preaches that all missionaries should discard vanity & should go around wearing the barest of monk attire. However, since they're trying to convert Asians (even the most poorest of peasants has enough religious knowledge of their own beliefs), this is NOT the best way to go about & Organtino/Frois going for the more tolerant route assimilation route (& also dressing up properly & bathing daily), Cabral is arguing against them that they've succumbed to vanity. Yes, this was also a result of Frois engaging in the cultivated pearl trade. Frois argues back that the culture here demands that they do this & yeah this is ongoing in the background.
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Also in regards to Shizuko pondering on the effects of cannabis & opium in the markets, the author inserts a whole gigantic lecture about how he personally is anti-pot legalization & he goes on a whole tangent about the Netherlands (this is before the US legalized weed) before going back to the story. Evidently, the dude's pretty passionate about this.
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So what changes in history because of Shizuko? Well when Takeda Kenshin besieged Ieyasu's manor, Shizuko & her squad were able to help them fend off Takeda. Takeda's army successfully destroyed Mori Yoshinari's unit in history, but here, he barely escaped death thanks to Shizuko. Shizuko faked his death so they could do a surprise attack later on. Oda & Katsuzou mourned Yoshinari until Shizuko showed up with him. Shizuko's not a doctor though, so Yoshinari's arm is unable to use his beloved polearm in battle anymore & he's effectively dead in that sense. Katsuzou takes over the military side of the Mori clan while his brother handles the political side.
In history, Takeda died from illness before he was able to reach Kyoto with his forces, but here, Shizuko's unit (equipped with gun/bow cavalry & special anti-arrow armour made from glass fibres) is able to completely decimate Takedai's forces & his main generals. Katsuzou, Keiji & Saizou face off against the generals in their own battles. Saizou has a Damascus steel western halberd, Katsuzou becomes infamous as a demon with his morningstar bashing people's brains in & in Keiji's fight, the enemy offers him a position if he turns, but Keiji declines since being with Shizuko is too much fun.
Insert anime battle scene where they both lunge & strike at each other, Keiji falls to one knee after a moment & then the enemy collapses entirely. Keiji asks him why he even bothered with the duel if he knew he was going to lose, the enemy general tells him that he just wanted to die with honor in a man-to-man fight, he didn't want to die to some nobody with a gun & he hates that guns are ushering the end of honorable samurai warfare. Keiji acknowledges this before beheading him. A few enemy soldiers show up & one of them (adopted son of the general) offers himself as a hostage if Keiji allows them to bring back the general's body. Keiji accepts & totally forgets to tell Shizuko that he's bringing a hostage. The hostage thinks that this is a life-for-life trade, but Keiji tells him that he's not killing him & that Shizuko's pretty chill about these things.*
*I think Shizuko puts him to work later as a spy to check on Takeda's territory. They don't invade it right away, they spend quite a few months building up their resources first (since Takeda's first battle where he kept forcing Oda to retreat did a number on them), plus with Shingen gone, his son (who has no accomplishments) & the nobles left behind started a huge struggle for power & this severely weakened the territory as a result.
Shingen gets captured after the battle & requests to see Shizuko before his execution. Ashimitsu refuses but Shizuko okays it. When they meet, Shingen snorts that he was beaten by such an idiot (Shizuko: why does everyone call me an idiot!? :<<<) but actually acknowledges her & even gives her his prized katanna as a reward for breaking his "never lost in battle" streak. Later, he is executed & his head is returned to the Takeda clan.
His defeat shocks the entire nation & permanently cements Shizuko amongst the male nobility as they have no choice but to acknowledge her now. Uesugi, who was considering either allying with Oda or his long-time rival Takeda, is now firmly pushed to ally with Oda & this even further shocks the nation. He offers one of his sons as a political hostage to Oda & the dude basically becomes yet another guest at Shizuko's mansion. He's impressed by, but wary of, everything he sees & Keiji takes him on a tour of Shizuko's fields & such. His mission is to essentially report to his father about Oda & Shizuko's might.
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Okay so I mentioned before how creating glass almost fucked over Shizuko. There are 2 factions in Oda's court - pro-Shizuko & anti-Shizuko. The anti-Shizuko faction is led by Hidenaga (no not the one introduced in the manga, I mean his brother. I'll just call him Hidenaga 2 for clarity's sake).
The thing is, he is not actually anti-Shizuko, he's just controlling the faction for his own purposes. If Shizuko loses Oda's favor because of the failure with glass, then Hidenaga 2 will offer her patronage so she can bring her knowledge & ability to his side. But she finally succeeded with glass & it brings so many endless benefits (binoculars, fieldscopes, crystal glassware, arrow-proof armour, microscopes, etc.), he convinces the anti-Shizuko faction to better their relations with her. His endgoal is still to get Shizuko for himself but since he can't, he's just bettering relations with her by giving her gifts (rare exotic animals, objects of historical/cultural value, etc.) to get benefits in return.
A lot of Oda's men go to ask Shizuko for advice. Mitsuhide for example, asked her for advice to improve relations with the recently conquered Biwa territory that he was put in charge of. She advised him to construct a harbour so that the people would become more prosperous but accidentally goes into a whole tangent about Life, Liberty & the pursuit of Happiness, thus unintentionally instilling ideas of democracy in him.
A similar almost happens with fireworks, the craftsmen working on it didn't finish in time for the fireworks showing for the Emperor, but due to outside events, the Emperor had to postpone all celebrations for the time being. So they were pretty relieved to get extra time.
And later all the nobility were shocked by the massive display of wealth & power with Oda firing off so much gunpowder such for a festival.
Speaking of explosions, Shizuko strikes fear into both her own men & the enemy when she uses a bomb to completely blow an iron castle-gate right off the wall.
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Shizuko's established herself in the society of men, but in the eyes of women, she's a total outcast. If not for Nouhime's support, they'd shun her even more. Thus it's time for her to integrate with the women of nobility. She gets all dolled up & Oda's men are shocked to see her actually dressed like a woman for once. She also promotes her new fashion styles, makeup & cloth from her factories to the noble women (along with glassware & ceramics) & she earns a lot of popularity as a result.
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A running joke is that whenever Oda rewards Shizuko (since who wants a boss who doesn't reward subordinates that perform well), she uses it the wrong way by investing it into new industries that in turn, just generate even more profits for Oda. So he just tells her to give it to her subordinates (Keiji, Katsuzou & Saizou) instead. He's also annoyed that she never takes a vacation. He forced her under house arrest when she collapsed from exhaustion after the whole "rescuing Yoshinari from Takeda" mission & she was bored out of her mind. She only asked for a vacation when her oldest pet wolf died.
As a side-note, Katsuzou now fears Saizou somewhat as during a mock military competition amongst Oda's men, Shizuko gave Saizou permission to totally let loose & berserk Saizou was REALLY something.....(if you're wondering why he's such a rule-abiding perfectionist stick in the mud, it's cuz he was worried about shaming Shizuko by acting out).
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As for the Buddhists, once Oda wins over Takeda & Uesugi, there's the whole peace settlement overseen by the Emperor. However, unlike in history, Oda has the advantage & demands for the right to issue official currency from the Buddhists. Shizuko told him to do so as this was something seemingly minor but offered tremendous sway & without it, the Buddhists would weaken significantly. Oda also drives hordes of refugees towards the Buddhists in order to drain their resources (as they can't just ignore starving Buddhist civilians).
They do send quite a few spies into Oda's territory to investigate Shizuko, but they all mysteriously vanish after some time, so the head of the spies goes to investigate in person. He finds that the cities are so prosperous & peaceful (with Oda's symbol everywhere advertising stuff even more than Disney does) that it's no wonder that the spies weren't able to stay vigilant & the ones who weren't discovered/killed off, most likely deserted as to keep their peaceful lives. He realizes with horror that there is basically no way to weaken Oda & Shizuko since they've drawn power from so many industries & have so much support that there is no way to fully weaken them unless they just raze the whole thing to the ground.
Which is impossible since the Buddhists don't have the resources or manpower for it. BTW some of the Buddhist heads still refuse to acknowledge Shizuko since she's just a mere woman, but the other heads told them off for that, saying that the fact that they disregarded her as "just a woman" in the first place was what led her beat them. The head of the spies realizes that all the reports about Oda just playing around (Shizuko introduced board games) were legit & that whenever Oda & Shizuko go quiet, it means they're building up massive amounts of resources for an all-out attack.
The head of the spies showed up during one of Shizuko's Autumn festivals, where she goes on a huge shopping spree & introduces new dishes to the populace. It's very popular & the merchants rush over in droves to sell stuff to her. Saizou notices the Buddhist & asks Shizuko for permission, but she waves him off & says that it's fine since she expected spies anyway. Let them report back, they can't beat her. Saizou is disgruntled by her carefree attitude towards her own safety but obeys.
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There's a minor kerfuffle when Shizuko's men discover a peasant who was creating her own manga with a ballpoint pen. It turns out that there was a leak from Ieyasu's side as prototypes for pens were being produced there. The peasant is worried for her life, but Shizuko offers her a job as she was intelligent enough to figure out how to use the pen in the first place.
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Shizuko's Jewish slaves are also getting along well with their Japanese coworkers as they aren't discriminatory towards them for their beliefs (they were wary at first but that's because they're gaijin, not because they're Jews). In fact Keiji can't really picture the whole "one dominant religion" situation going on in Europe.
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Shizuko DOES get "punished" at one point. She was supposed to assist Nobutada in a conquest, but they had to retreat because of a freak typhoon. Oda was okay with this because it taught his son a valuable lesson about victory & luck, but he still had to "punish" them for their failure. He basically gave Shizuko a forced vacation & this also served to make his men more vigilant since even a valued vassal like Shizuko would be punished for failures.
During her downtime, she gets authorization from the Emperor to collect & preserve historical/cultural objects. She also asked Oda for his men not to destroy those things in raids. Her reputation as an art/literature collector (& an eccentric sword collector) is what encourages Uesugi to introduce a famous painter to her for patronage. (Basically this dude's like the Picasso or Monet of Japanese painting - he established his own school of it). However, this is when the dude is just a young fresh painter & Shizuko's worried about influencing him the wrong way since he's so important to Japan's art history. She does become his patron after mulling it over & when he presents his first piece to her, she gives him more time to work on his style since yeah, there's an effect. Basically, imagine if Da Vinci painted you the Mona Lisa but it had a completely different color palette & whatnot. She doesn't want to destroy his confidence so she's kinda lost on how to deal with him.
Oda introduces her later to the monk who established Japan's tea ceremony culture & he springs this on her without warning (like he doesn't tell her who the monk is until the ceremony is over). Shizuko laments this since she just did her regular no-frills necessary tea ceremony in one of her ordinary tea houses, but the monk assures her that it's completely fine & he actually was very impressed by how down to earth & yet refined her style was.
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Latest chapters have Shizuko & Oda gearing up for an invasion into Takeda's territory. Their army has to wear special waterproof resin shoes in order to be safe from blood flukes when they march through the swamp.
Spoilers regarding Oda's brother-in-law, Azai Nagamasa.
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Okay so for anyone who's read Nobunaga no Chef, you'd know about how Oda ended up being betrayed by Azai & how Oda's sister, Oichi, sent Oda a message to warn him of the betrayal even though she remained loyal to her husband, Azai.
Because of Shizuko's influence, Oda communicates better with Azai & they don't end up splitting because Oda invaded the Asakura clan (a long-time ally of the Nagamasa clan). In fact, Azai supports Oda in this endeavor (even in Nobunaga no Chef, Azai's POV mentions how he would have supported Oda if he had just TOLD him about it & not invaded the Nagamasas behind Azai's back).
However, the rest of the Nagamasas are against this & they actually disown Azai, Oichi & their 3 daughters. Azai's father takes over as the new head of the Nagamasas & they join the Asakuras against Oda (so the alliance/betrayal still happens, just minus Azai).
Azai & his immediate family are forced to flee to Oda's residence for safety. Oda has Shizuko educate Oichi's daughters. Meanwhile, Azai swears loyalty to Oda & vows to defeat his own father, no matter what, even though patricide is a huge stain on his honor.
As the war progresses, just like in history, Oda pushes back the Nagamasas & the Asakuras until they're at the brink. Azai opts to join Oda's final invasion force & he faces his own father in one-on-one combat. Azai keeps trying to talk his father out of the war as it is very obvious that Oda's might is just too strong & it's futile to even fight against him.
Azai's father refuses & this causes Azai to hesitate on the final blow. He prepares himself for his father to strike him down, but instead, Azai's father impales himself on Azai's blade. Shocked, Azai questions his father about this & he reveals that this is to restore Azai & Oichi's honor so they can retake the Nagamasa name. Azai's father knew that it was futile to fight against Oda, but the bond between the Nagamasas & the Asakuras was too important for him to throw away. He tells Azai that he's proud of him & to uphold the Nagamasa name in the future.
Azai weeps as his father passes away in his arms.
[(even in Nobunaga no Chef, Azai's POV mentions how he would have supported Oda if he had just TOLD him about it & not invaded the Nagamasas behind Azai's back).]
CORRECTION, I meant "& not invaded the ASAKURAS behind Azai's back).". Sorry!
I will be posting spoilers about the upcoming battles/wars & political stuff tomorrow as there are a LOT of them (the novel spans over a period of 11 years) & it's pretty dense.
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Okay so in the latest chapters of the manga, Shizuko has succeeded in growing white rice. This is named Owari rice (named for the regions she grows it in) & because of its demanding needs, she isn't able to quite mass produce it yet. As a side, she grows an inferior (but still tasty) & easier to grow variety of white rice that is named Gifu rice (also for the region its grown in). Owari rice becomes a high demand luxury good for the nobles & royalty while Gifu rice is grown for the commoners (Shizuko sets up an exchange system so people who grow 1 kg of Owari rice can trade it for like 5 kg of Gifu rice). Oda has to limit the amount of Owari rice in the market because merchants are just stockpiling it as a luxury item & not as a food (kinda like what they do with Shitake mushrooms).
Eventually, Owari rice is able to hit mass production so Oda starts to slowly increase the amount being sold so the price doesn't crash. Owari & Gifu rice become the major backbones of Shizuko's powerbase.
She also introduces aquaculture & fishing to her territories. The people aren't familiar with certain seafoods (such as octopus) so she introduces ways to cook & eat them. Hidenaga (or another noble - the manga might change this) questions the need for aquaculture when they can just fish for marine products. Shizuko asserts that this would only allow the nobility to have access to them & by mass producing them, the profits would circulate much more thoroughly amongst the common folk & the economies as a whole. Shizuko makes sure to implement naval safety regulations (such as fishing hours & a life ring) & eventually takes a step back from managing everything when the facilities become self-sufficient. She funds entrepreneurs who start experimenting with aquaculture
(ie: people have developed a taste for sea cucumbers -> they know about aquaculture -> they wonder if they can do the same with sea cucumbers & start making their own attempts)
& this generates even more profits.
Shizuko also strikes a deal with the madames of brothels, having them register & setting up clinics for them while allowing them to self-manage. I think she provides basic workers' rights for them & other minor stuff to improve their image (since they are currently the most independent & important female workforce at the moment). The madame agrees to it since it's beneficial for her, but is wary of Shizuko because she can't see how deep her ambitions go.
Shizuko also tries to improve things for women by giving childcare benefits, setting up daycares for working mothers & employing widows/divorced women at her textile factories. Mitsuo's wife is one of the first to support these ventures & eagerly becomes a working mother.
Shizuko eventually has to leave her starting village (distantly managing it through a series of proxies) & the leaders of the village deeply thank her for all she's done for them. Currently, under Shizuko's orders, they're experimenting with hydroponics (although they don't quite understand how it works - just that it works).
Shizuko also starts hemp farming & implements a rural superstition about how its fruit is a blessing from the gods to encourage the people to eat it as a vitamin supplement every day. She sets up another exchange system with the farmers (where she processes it for free) as she needs the remaining materials to create bioplastic. The bioplastic works as tires for wagons & as panels for her greenhouses - which allow her to finally start farming.....
Pepper & cocoa. (Along with other tropical crops. Oda becomes quite fond of the mango & nicknames it "jewel melon". He has a habit of giving weird nicknames to Shizuko's stuff.) She has them transported at a very expensive fee (courtesy of Frois & his missionaries) via sea & by using primitive vivariums, but half the ships are lost at sea (average) & half the seedlings rot by the time they arrive (also typical). She barely manages to successfully grow pepper & cocoa (which take her years to get to fruiting maturity). The rough chocolate & chocolate gateau she produces become a new addiction of Oda & his nobles (they almost come to blows over the last slice of cake).
Also the main trades she does with Frois is a cure for scurvy (essentially a Vitamin C-heavy preserved packet), which is marketed as something of a holy remedy that only the Catholic Church possesses (& its ingredients are secret/known only to the church & Shizuko), along with pearl farming. Frois at first rejects the pearls since vanity is a sin & whatnot, but Shizuko frames it as "professing the beauty of the Church to nobles" as she wants him to sell it to nobles to boost his own standing & the Church's influence (so he can get her more rare goodies). Frois concedes, but runs into a bit of an issue since the pearls in demand are silver & Shizuko's pearls are white (can't be changed since this is dependant on the species of oysters used). So the price is a bit lower than expected but remains high & stable since half of them get lost at sea anyway.
So he's able to get her even more rare crops & livestock (like merino sheep, angora rabbits, the dodo & the Ostrich) along with Arabian warhorses & other horses that went extinct in modern times. Oda & Kenji take a fondness to the horses because of their imposing aura & hugeness. Her mansion is basically 1/2 a zoo at this point. She even tamed a flock of crows (because they eat her garbage & will warn her of intruders/drive them off for her).
Frois also gets addicted to the futon & kotatsu that Shizuko gifts him, even writing in his letters to home that priests who come to Japan must accumulate a lot of virtue in order to resist such devilish temptations.
In Shizuko's city, she sets up a police force with dogs (wild dogs that got their leader beaten by Shizuko's wolves & now submit to her) & popularizes cats in Japan in order to reduce the pest population (cats being exterminated were one of the reasons the Black Plague got so bad). Cats are feared in mainland Europe as being familiars of witches, but sailors value them highly for their abilities & refuse to trade them. Shizuko has to pay a high price to have the ships breed their cats while docked in port (since they're not able to sail until the kittens are born). Oda & his 4 heavenly kings become particularly infatuated with the different cat breeds (Shizuko catches them hiding the kittens away in their kimono sleeves) with each person having a different preference. A cat is also gifted to the Emperor & he becomes a total cat butler, writing a cat diary about it that becomes famous in the future as a historical document.
Noihime catches Oda fawning over his pet cat & finds it pretty amusing.
The cats get along fairly well with the wolves & show no fear towards them. Katsuzou also loves playing with them. Saizo, Kenji & Katsuzou wind up with a habit of lazing about in the greenhouses because of how warm they are.
And now....slaves.
Shizuko spends a lot of time meeting different slaves at port city markets & asking them about their culture in order to preserve history. A lot of Aztec/South American slaves refuse to talk but she's able to make progress with the North American slaves & garners their attention via her new pet eagle (a gift given to Oda but he had no need for it so he gave it to Shizuko instead). They tell her stories about their customs & beliefs & she thanks them & gives corn in return (also because she wants to compare her corn to the native's corn). They are pleasantly surprised by this & say their farewells & thanks to her as though it's obvious they'll meet again, unafraid of whatever fate might befall them.
Shizuko also runs into a work issue - glassblowing. In fact, her workers fail multiple times for a long time to make any glass. She does eventually succeed, but the investment was high & she decides to finally get some European craftsmen slaves in order to speed up the experimental stages (seriously, the glass one took forever & actually became a contention point for anti-Shizuko nobles to grab onto).
She decides on Jewish slaves, as Jews were the most common slaves in the market (this is before the African slave trade blew up) due to being heavily persecuted by Christian Europe. They were forced to change Hebrew names to Christian ones but were still discriminated against. They were barred from most careers except that of bankers & debt collectors, which made people dislike them even more. And to top it off, they'd wind up as debt slaves since people would refuse to pay their loans/bills to them.
Shizuko ends up picking up a bearded uncle (translator, wine maker), a brother sister duo (blacksmith brother & uhhh, I'm not sure what the sister does) & a mixed race girl (labeled as a "witch" aka an apothecary & also a bastard child). They've all been screened by Ashimitsu beforehand to make sure that they're not spies. Shizuko promises them a steady wage & 3 square meals a day along with basic workers' rights if they work diligently & effectively. The Uncle takes the initiative to ask her if (a) she minds that they're Jews (she doesn't care) & (b) if she would rename them. Their old Christian names cause them too much pain as both Christians & other Jews scorned them for this. They no longer feel too connected with the Jewish community so they no longer want their Hebrew names either. She gives them all Japanese names (which I can't translate for you but the mixed girl is named Autumn Leaves).
Oda takes a slight interest in the mixed girl because of her unique appearance but that's about it (literally just the amount of interest he takes in anything Shizuko does).
The Uncle ends up befriending Keiji & they discuss things while drinking sake together. The Uncle starts up his own wine venture (not for religious reasons but because he just misses drinking it), although he fails at first because Japanese grapes have a different sugar content than European ones. His first successful rose wine is well received by Shizuko's men, although they prefer sake so it's mostly sold as a novelty gift to Europeans.
Ashimitsu misses beer so he starts making his own (but in secret) & has Keiji, Katsuzou & Saizou taste test it with him. Shizuko finds out about this illegal moonshine & makes them drink ALL of it or else. The Uncle slyly replies that he at least notified Shizuko about his winemaking in advance & paid the proper liquor taxes instead of dodging them. The beer quad end up totally hungover the next day.
Speaking of liquor, the sake that Shizuko produces is well received, much like Owari rice, as the sake of the time was unrefined & basically called "muddy sake". It too becomes a luxury good of the nobles. Ashimitsu spread beer & the after work culture of getting fried/grilled snacks & beer amongst the common folk.
Shizuko also establishes the 5 day working schedule, holidays, discounts & travel brochures in her cities. This boosts the economy & motivation of the citizens. At her textile factories, she also introduces fabric swatch books & brochures to advertise the different colors of silk/cotton fabric available. (The poor manager nearly has a heart attack when Oda himself comes to supervise).
There's other stuff but that's related to political stuff & also my hands are tired. >.>
Oh yeah - Shizuko's longterm (like DECADES LONG) plan with Oda is to establish a colony on Australia, targeting it for the farmlands & its vast mineral resources, as the spice trade can't be relied on indefinitely since people will eventually figure out how to grow them themselves. Minerals & metals however, will ALWAYS be necessary & Japan will forever have a severe lack of them unless they depend on imports. She insists that they maintain a good relation with the natives there & that it won't be an issue since they just need to avoid their holy lands. Oda is fascinated by the idea of essentially creating his own mini Japan from scratch.
Gosh it's insane how much goes into this and how carefully it was written... so much historical details... thank you for taking the time to write this up!!! I'm actually interested in reading the web novel now but I assume there's no English translation?
Thank you once again for taking your time to write this ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶
There's a translation for the light novel version (which again - is DIFFERENT from the webnovel, some things were changed, omitted or switched around) & it updates on a monthly basis.
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/chronicles-of-the-hardships-of-komachi-in-the-sengoku-era/
AAAAA thank you for the spoilers!! I do hope the manga includes these in later chapters. It seriously is amazing how much thought and research has been put into this. I really hope the manga doesn't stray too far from the web novel uwu
so she never goes back to her main time? and wat about ehr uncle why were theh mad at her
Seemed appropriate, so here's a summary:
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As mentioned in my last thread, the previous REAL (as in not a puppet) Shogun, advocated for the protection of Christian missionaries. After his death, they hid in secret until Nobunaga established Yoshiaki as Shogun & then they went to ask Nobunaga for protection.
If you've read Nobunaga no Chef, the manga, you'd know that the missionary is the famous Luis Frois from Portugal. Shizuko (disguised as a man under Oda's orders) opens up trade with Frois in order to get her hands on Western livestock & crops. The increased amount of trade & Shizuko's own products result in more merchants in Japan which leads to......
Red pox (that's how it was translated - there were many different pox plagues in history - most of them fatal). Frois faints during a meeting & Shizuko diagnoses him with red pox. The other missionaries have to be kept under watch in case they also contracted it. Shizuko immediately notifies Oda of this upcoming plague & all of his cities/counties are put under strict quarantine. Anti-Oda, Anti-Shizuko or Pro-Buddhist places refuse to do so, going for the old ways where the infected pray at shrines for protection.
Shizuko organizes an emergency hospital with many wards, but they're filling up like crazy. Even with her properly equipped staff (many of them previously lost relatives/friends to plagues & that's why they became doctors), hundreds of elderly & children die. However, according to merchants (who've gotten their own natural antibodies thanks to their nomadic lifestyle), the cities outside of Oda's influence have all essentially become ghost towns piled with corpses. Many nobles suffer huge losses in population & workforce as a result.
Frois, being one of the earliest patients, makes a full recovery & becomes lucid after 2 weeks of fever. Shizuko has been treating the patients with a diet rich in Vitamin A which is the key to curing the pox. Eventually, they'll able to start releasing the recovered en masse & security has to be strengthened because hordes of them start flocking to Shizuko's mansion to pray to her & thank her.
The nobles & the Emperor start to take even more notice of Shizuko since plagues were thought to be curses from the heavens & the fact that she's able to cure them makes her incredibly invaluable.
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Shizuko being adopted by the Konoe family - originally, the Konoes were very wary of Oda & his forces, so they had their guards up when Shizuko invited them for a meeting. Oda got wind of this, but allowed it when Shizuko notified him that she was trying to gain a new political ally for him.
The Konoe head started to relax a bit with Shizuko's generous treatment, but said that he would only consider an alliance if she proved her knowledge of medicine by curing his long-time friend who had been crippled by a leg disease (some type of inflammation? either that or gout). Shizuko cured it by making him drink less & eat a healthier diet & it was cured so quickly & thoroughly that the Konoe head changed his mind about the alliance & also offered to adopt Shizuko as heir to the Konoes.
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During a latter war arc (when Oda's men are forced to retreat), Shizuko & her logistics squad resort to guerilla tactics & scorched earth tactics, which were considered dishonorable by others. She apologized to her men for debasing them like this, but they accepted it & agreed to the tactics. Ranmaru heavily disliked these tactics at first, but also became adapted to them over time & stopped caring. These tactics included things like smearing arrows with bacteria, waste & fungi to infect enemy soldiers, salting the earth, digging pitfall traps & sneaky night raids. Shizuko also started developing chemical warfare by making primitive pepper gas bombs & such.
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In latter chapters, when everything's settled down, Shizuko assigns a team of villagers to map out the locations of mud-rash (aka blood flukes) outbreaks. In modern times, the Japanese government eradicated the disease after decades of killing off the snails which housed the blood fluke parasites, usually by destroying the environments the snails lived in. Shizuko isn't able to explain this all to her scouts, so she simply tells them that the locations should be near river valleys & swamps & that this is a preventative measure to protect the villagers living there. One of the scouts begins to weep & another scout explains that that man had lost his little sister to blood flukes. Shizuko assures him that this will help others from ending up like that & the scouts become fired up for their task.
I've read the entire raw webnovel up to 167 (& compared it to the currently released raw manga chapters on pixiv).
If you have any questions regarding future arcs, specific characters or situations in the manga, I can probably answer them (with like an 80-90% accuracy since I'm using google translate). :D
Did she go her original time line at the end?
Where can I read the raw?!
https://ncode.syosetu.com/n8406bm/ for webnovel raw
https://comic.pixiv.net/works/3714 for manga raw
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Novel is still ongoing but it appears that she will remain in Sengoku period. When she reunited with Azuma, he asked her if she wanted to go back or if she was willing to bury her bones in the Sengoku period. She hesitated but determined to stay since she already spread her roots in this timeline. Thus, he agreed to remain with her. Later, she is adopted by the Konoe clan as their heir (yes they gave her inheritance rights, but the current head is still active & doing politics for her). However, this brings up the question of Shizuko's spouse & after over 12 discussions between Oda, the Konoe head & Azuma, it is decided that Shizuko will adopt one of Oda's sons as her heir (named 46? because they're a twin & twins are considered bad luck - Oda wants Shizuko to overturn this notion. The kid is very shy due to abuse & mistreatment by his nannies - who Oda punished severely when he found out.)
The middle-aged man ended up accidently getting married to a young (teenage) noble lady (dude got drunk during an agricultural trip & made agreements he shouldn't have).
Shizuko & Azuma congratulated him on his second spring & he resigned himself to his new wife. However, because he is a very doting husband, he was considered excessively loving by Sengoku standards & all this affection turned his wife into a yandere type (but it's fine since he returned her love & had kids with her). The wife became one of the housewife workers that Shizuko was promoting (also one of the users of Shizuko's new healthcare system for pregnant women). She also is the only other person who knows that they are from the future (she was shown old photos of her husband & his first wife & kids).
Thanks
Thank you!!
What is the novel chapter to manga chapter comparison? I mean, how many novel chapters can be compared to one manga chapter?
Bless bless bless!!!!!! Thank you!!!!!
she's single? just adopted an heir?
Just to clarify
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Yes, it's because she's become too valuable to tie down to another clan & her logistics unit is mostly loyal to HER & not to Oda necessarily. Her marrying someone would result in a power conflict between her & her spouse since she wouldn't sit back & be a housewife nor would it be good for Oda & his vassals if she did that.
Her adopting an heir means that her prestige & all the feats she's accomplished will not end with her death & basically she's no longer a one-hit wonder & that makes her more important to the nobility. BTW she was adopted by the Konoe family because she was previously introduced as a bastard of the Ayanokouji clan & they've already admitted that they have no record of her. This adoption guarantees her her own power-base & noble rank that isn't dependent on Oda. Azuma was pretty mad when he found out about this & nearly cut down the previous Konoe head, who was also his old friend, until he explained to Azuma that he was doing this to keep Shizuko safe.)
The son she adopts (still named 46) is from Oda & one of his lower-ranked concubines (a maid I think? She died in childbirth as was common at the time for birth resulting in more than 1 children - which increased the stigma of twins being bad luck. I'm not sure what happened to the other twin or if MC adopted that twin too.)
46 is very reticent around her as he fears lowering her reputation & causing her problems & he only opens up after Shizuko's bodyguards tell him that it's fine since Shizuko is such a weirdo herself. There is a lot of cute parenting stuff involved. Later, when Shizuko's pet wolf (the first one) finally passes of old age & she goes into mourning (she asks Oda for a year off for the first time), 46 is worried about being able to comfort Shizuko as much as the wolf did. Her bodyguards tell him that nobody can replace that wolf for Shizuko, so they just need to help her out as much as they can.
As a fun fact, after Shizuko has the wolf buried on a mountain, Oda has a statue of her & the wolf built as a memorial & it becomes the center of a small but popular folk religion amongst the villagers living there - as they pray to the Wolf Lady for blessings in everything EXCEPT childbirth & marriage. :)
How old is she when she adopts? Is the novel following her through her whole life or is she still a teen when all this happens?
Chapter 1 is March 1565. Latest chapter is October 1576. Adoption happens at around the 8-9 year mark I believe.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
So she doesn't get married - tho the novel is still going but is she currently involved with someone romantically? - what about the guy who has a crush on her / fell in love with her at first sight??
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Dude's not making any progress. He gets into a fight with Uncle A. when he pats Shizuko on the shoulder. Cue overprotective Uncle-ness.
During the marriage talks, Oda, Konoe & Uncle A all noted that there aren't any rumors of Shizuko being overly close with other males & the dudes around her just admire her.
Zero romance flags.
Oh well - will not be getting any hopes up now - I had a feeling that she would not marry cause there will no one suitable for Her in this era - ε=ε=(ノ≧∇≦)ノ
Thanks! Where should we start with the webnovel raw if we just finished the manga?
The manga doesn't contain the same stuff as the webnovel (in the linear sense) so I'd suggest around chapter 52ish. I think the manga skips/handwaves some stuff.
Thank you!
I have made a mistake with the names. Please swap in Katsuzou (Mori Yoshinari's son) instead of Ranmaru. They are different people & I mixed up their names (the whole "previous name" & "historical name" stuff confused me when I was translating). Nobunaga's son Kimyoumaru frequently ends up as Bizarre Maru thanks to google translate. Ranmaru doesn't show up until way later in the story.
Also it's Ashimitsu, not Azuma (again - blame google translate). Sorry about that.
I had to reread the raws like 4 times to get it & even wiki some stuff. >.>
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He's this dude: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashikaga_Yoshiteru
TLDR: He was the last actual great shogun of the Muromachi period & was one of the supporters for the Christian missionaries in Japan. His reign was so great that even Oda went to pay respects to him. However, the daimyos didn't like that Ashikaga wasn't just a puppet leader so they backstabbed him Caesar-style & thus he died. They replaced him with one of his brothers, but he also died of illness & then Oda kicked them out & replaced them with Ashikaga's other brother, Yoshiaki (the current idiot shogun) as his puppet. His death led to the missionaries going into hiding before going to seek Oda for protection.
Basically, after the assassination attempt, he got time-warped to modern day Japan - where he was found by Shizoku & her family. They got him to a hospital where he had to undergo multiple surgeries & months of physical therapy. He was obviously freaked out by all the modern tech around him & when asked for his name, he replied that it was "Azuma". Since he had no ID on him (they even did DNA tests on him to see if he was native or a foreigner so they could check the missing persons database), Shizuko's parents became his guarantors & brought him to their home.
He basically became Shizuko's pseudo-uncle & soon adapted to modern life (he wanted to repay them but he had no job experience & his farming knowledge was super outdated - so he learned how to cook for the family & watch over their 2 daughters). He got really into guns, modern psychology & Japanese beer (his favorite aesthetic from movies is the badass sunglass-wearing gun-toting leather jacket-wearing dude on a motorcycle). Also an embarrassing story about him - when he first encountered a TV, he attacked it out of fear & broke it, causing Shizuko's older sister to scold him heavily because now she couldn't watch his program.
Azuma lived with Shizuko's fam for about 10 years(?) before one day, when he went to pick up Shizuko, a bus (with the middle aged man who went to visit Shizuko's grandpa), suddenly careened towards her. He rushed to push her out of the way only to find himself back in the Sengoku period.
U r the best
Low key, I originally thought he may have been her dad or uncle. Thanks for posting this I can’t wait for them to meet again. Also can you maybe post where you read it. It sounds like fun!
I read the webnovel raws here: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n8406bm/.
They are slightly different from the manga since the manga is based off of the Light Novel edition. I had to run it through google translate 4 times just to understand what was going on.
Remember how the hamster said that the author abandoned the story after writing it for a few hundred chapters & how that might lead to errors in the personalities of the characters? And how in the High School arc, the MC said that the authors who write the terrible stories are to blame? Well........
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The author abandoning the novel lead to its ML gaining awareness. And it drove him absolutely fucking insane because a) he's forced to act stupid b) the people around him act stupid c) zero consequences to anything because PLOT d) he's stuck looping in this hellhole because there isn't a fucking ending.
So basically he treats everyone around him like the NPCs that they are because LIFE HAS NO MEANING. But then MC showed up & he becomes obsessed with her since she's the only real person in this world who has a functioning IQ. Because of that - the only real way to punish him is for MC to kill herself, since life without her is hell for him.
He swears to cultivate out of his novel world & to ascend to where MC is. (Idk if he succeeded).
Where did you read that??
This makes so much sense for the high school arc. Kinda reminds me of Miss Not-So Sidekick of a girl who went into an unfinished novel and the original author made it so that the MLs cannot see anyone else besides the FL and even to the extinct of giving them "corrupt" personalities and side stories just to fit in with the FL and her interventions.
are you fucking for reals? omg, that's hilarious
Novelupdates spoiler thread.
Thank you!!
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It's the maid Fuki-san!!! (No seriously).
I skipped ahead in the WN mtl & here is what goes down.
Our MC pretends to be a fellow transmigrator to get the heroine to back off (since she refuses to listen to logic). The heroine is placated & stops harassing her. Meanwhile, MC has happy SoL adventures with her new friends & even gets her first smartphone from them! Also her friends show her what otome games are on her new phone & she gets pretty into it. However, Fuki-san's son shows up at her home & scolds her fiercely about "leeching off of his mother" as Fuki-san neglects her own family to look after MC & her grandma.
The backstory of Fuki-san (as MC knew it) was that as a young girl in post WWII Japan, she was nearly sold off as a comfort woman to soldiers on the streets before MC's grandma (a wealthy heiress & famed pianist) picked up her up, had her educated as a high society maid & for that, Fuki-san is grateful to her & came back even after MC's family lost their fortune.
The real backstory - Fuki-san was a child prostitute for soldiers in post WWII Japan & encountered MC's grandma at a piano concert that Fuki-san's owner brought her to. MC's grandma took pity on Fuki-san & bought her, providing her with a good home & educating her as a maid. She even brought Fuki-san over to NY with her, but unfortunately, the grandma suffered a car accident over there & lost the ability to play the piano. The grandma fell into serious depression & not even her husband could cheer her up. The grandpa's parents started to put pressure on them to either divorce or to get a concubine.
Fuki-san, whose real personality is that she is INSANELY yandere for grandma & views her as her goddess, immediately wanted to relieve her of any pain, so she offered herself up to grandpa. Grandpa rejected her, Grandma found out & felt utterly betrayed by Fuki-san, screaming at her that she was a whore. (In an earlier chapter, MC reminisces that it was a good thing Fuki-san didn't understand French because during the grandma's dementia-addled rants, she'd start calling Fuki-san a whore in French.)
Fuki-san, realizing that she had wronged her goddess, became even more crazily devoted to the grandma & determined to remove ANYONE who hurt her. She killed MC's dad after his business investments failed (he didn't run off) & purposely neglected her own husband & son (they're just monetary support to her so she can continue looking after the grandma) &, when MC confronted her, Fuki-san confessed that at many times she considered murdering MC, too.
She goes on a totally unhinged rant about her love for MC's grandma & unfortunately I stopped MTLing just as she was about to attack the horrified MC. C:
..............Wtf. That's just wow...WOW. How unexpected
I know right? Gave me total whiplash when I went from SOL happytimes in chapter 20ish to this mess in chapter 60ish. :< Really shocked me. (Just google the Japanese name of the manga if you want to check it out for yourself).
Okay I will (thanks for the spoiler) but WOW. Shit went from 0-100 real quick
wow i did not expect that.
wtf.
i thought this was just a light manga with a hint of satire or something to laugh at the mc's stupidity in these kinds of stories, i did NOT see that comming
Holy shit
Better spoilers at this link: https://forum.novelupdates.com/threads/reiko%E2%80%99s-manners-%E2%80%93-she%E2%80%99s-referred-to-as-a-villainess-but-actually-she%E2%80%99s-just-penniless.101808/
Made a mistake with MC's father - again, I only read up to chapter 60ish? while skipping through half of it & the whole WN finishes at 100.
Raws: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n9183fj/
(O o O) *Em speechless *
Well I thought that fuki San actually stole the money from our MC but this is something else! WOW
Oh My God.. mindblown ... such a plot Σ( ￣□￣||) and here i thought this was just a light comedy
Oh wow.. I didn't see that coming..poor mc. I didn't know this story is so deep.. :(
that turned real shit faster than a shinkansen
0 to 100 real fuckin quick, holy shit.
I'm utterly speechless.
For those who have never tried it, I got some from a Korean supermarket's food court a few years back, thinking that it would be mild compared to tteokbokki from an actual restaurant.
The burn was literally SO much worse than the fire noodle challenge & it got stuck in my mouth no matter how much milk I drank.
Can't really blame the dragon for thinking that she was trying to kill him if the ones he tried were anywhere close to mine's..... >.>
Oh my god, I once tried a “mild” flavor my MIL had and it was hot enough that I literally wanted to cry, it hurt soooo much. Korean food is no joke when it comes to spiciness
Yeah lol it’s crazy hot
This is probably one of the very few "villainess comeback" stories that has the MC be a genuine villainess & not a "uwu poor pure saintess who was extremely OP but somehow got totally destroyed by the hero & heroine who are ridiculously evil & shallow for zero reason".
Probably because this isn't a "oh this was an otome game with a self-insert blank slate heroine" setting, but anyway, it's still nice that our protagonist isn't a total victim even in the first timeline. Was she set-up & played by everyone around her? Sure, but she wasn't totally innocent either. And the comeback isn't "owo everyone suddenly realizes that the poor villainess is a pure sweetheart & the heroine & hero are incompetent baddies", but it's literally all a facade of sweetness that Aria puts on.
Seriously, I really don't get the otome setup of "the good guys in the game who are described as geniuses who love justice & the heroine is a sweetheart" suddenly turning into completely horrible people when it switches to the villainess' POV.
I mean have the authors even PLAYED an otome before? The game is literally from the heroine's POV & you, the player, always see her thoughts on everything. And since it's a game, sometimes when the heroine exits a scene, you get snippets from the love interest's POV, too.
I can't really buy them being suddenly evil, incompetent & totally irredeemable unless they are all under some weird delusion or something, but that wouldn't make any sense since in the "villainess makes a comeback" timeline, whenever the reader gets to see their POVs, it's always "I'm a super horrible person who hates commoners & whatever, grrr how dare the villainess not let me use & abuse her, I deserve everything, blah blah blah". ಠ_ಠ