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

The Curtain Closes on an Adventuring Villainess’ Tale

Yesterday saw the final pre-pub release for Adventuring Villainess and its a volume that ups the ante on the previous two volumes as it promises a rematch against Prince Schneider as well as bringing the original heroine of A Wild Rose into the fray as she teams with Schneider to bring the game back on track.

The threat of Prince Schneider looms heavily throughout the volume as he finally takes the fight to Sere’s family, starting by having Maribelle place a deadly curse on Sere’s grandmother. His reign of terror only continues through the volume as he kills the queen, who had been conjuring up her own schemes, and takes the king hostage, truly setting the stage for the eventual final fight of the series.

As final fights go, the rematch between Sere and Schneider is the best the series gets. Much like final boss fights in soulslike games, this fight has multiple stages. The first sees Sere finally comes face to face with the world’s heroine and her powers to control people and create powerful curses. Unlike Schneider, Maribelle doesn’t have a great grip on reality and has deluded herself into thinking this world will play out exactly like the game. The second stage of the fight has Schneider and Sere go head to head and eventually sees all of Sere’s allies come in to help with the fight. It takes all they have to finally defeat Schneider and a brainwashed Terl. After defeating Schneider, the fight takes on its final form as Maribelle uses her powers of control to brainwash Sere’s brother, which ends with Sere’s sacrifice at the end of the battle.

Whilst the volume overall does a good job in wrapping up the numerous plotlines, just like the second volume, there are still certain areas of the story that feel rushed. The first instance occurs as the series magic’s up the king’s brother to rule the country after the true king is taken hostage and is too far gone to rule anymore. The second comes at the end of the novel, the series uses an almost deus ex machina to get Sere out of a death scene, using her own magic words from earlier in the series to save her and to stop the series from having a tragic end. It definitely feels as though they could’ve made an extra volume searching for the brother or giving a more thorough happily ever epilogue for Sere and Gillian.

Overall, Adventuring Villainess’ final volume creates a satisfying conclusion to the series. While sometimes feeling a little rushed, the main plotlines all concluded naturally, giving us the hyped-up rematch and a final confrontation between the villainess and heroine. After reading the entire series, I can definitely say that this is a good example of a villainess series and even through its flaws, I’d recommend it to those looking to satisfy their villainess fix.