Tags: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Romance, Drama, Isekai, Villainess

A Showdown Between Pride and a Master Manipulator.

Having escaped her doom at the hands of Stale and Arthur in the previous volume, Pride continues to use her power to save her people. However, the escape from her fate has yet to be set in stone as the second volume throws two more doom-laden problems her way, from the schemes of a master manipulator within the royal court to a bunch of slavers kidnapping children with special powers.

The problems take around half of the volume each to solve, the first of which features the route of Prime Minister Gilbert as he uses his influence within the court to pass a bill that would register the residents of the nation that have a unique power. Of the two main plots, this is definitely the best of the two as it answers some of the biggest questions that were leftover at the end of the first volume. Throughout the previous volume and this volume, the Prime Minister had been spreading malicious rumours about Pride attempting to manipulate public opinion about her. In this volume, the main cast is wary about his special powers bill and the potential schemes behind it. As it turns out, there’s a much more tragic reason for his manipulation and schemes, as they are attempts at trying to cure his fiancé who’s dying of an unknown disease. To quell her potential doom, Pride and the gang intend on helping him with the solution being closer at hand than they may think.

Throughout this arc, we get some great character moments. The author does well to endear the audience to Gilbert’s character through his tough upbringing and environment as well as the fairytale-like love story between him and his love. There’s also a good bit of development between Stale and Arthur and the level of trust they have to protect Pride from the numerous problems the country has. This part requires a real level of maturity from Stale, not only to admit that he alone can’t protect Pride but that he’ll need to leave the job to someone else.

The second plotline of the volume, whilst weaker than the first is still a pretty fun ride. It sees the return of Val needing help in saving two people close to him from child slavers. The main takeaway from this arc is the development of Val’s emotions and finally opening himself up to others. Other than this, we also learn that powers that can strengthen others exist, Pride opens a postal service and that another kingdom is messing with Pride’s country in the hopes of getting children with special powers. It seems overwhelmingly likely that in the next volume we’ll be following Pride as she attempts to stop her doom at the hands of Adam the Magnificent and the people in the Kingdom of Razia.

As we approach the third volume, the last boss queen’s second volume continues to play on its strengths – tense storylines and great character development. With Stale, Arthur and Val getting the lion’s share of the development in this volume, as we move on to the next volume I’d love to see some development from Pride or her sister as the threat of Razia rises and the school for special powers opens.