Tags: Fantasy, Comedy, Romance, School Life, Villainess, Shoujo, Isekai
Sub-Tags: Otome, Game Elements, Misunderstandings
Synopsis:
Another school year begins! This time, Mary’s friends from Elysiana College join her at Karelia Academy for an exchange program. With crybaby Parfette, icy Carina, and ambitious hunter Margaret thrown into the mix, Mary’s life becomes all the more boisterous. But her lively routine is swiftly interrupted when Veltina, a younger girl from the exchange program, swoops in and starts doting on Adi! Veltina openly loathes Mary, taking every opportunity to bully her. The girl’s cheap tricks remind Mary of her in-game self and shake loose yet another insight: Veltina is an original character from the Heart High anime! Could Veltina have past-life memories too? How will former villainess Mary deal with this targeted harassment? And why does a strange dark mist swirl within her chest whenever Veltina embraces Adi? It’s enough to make poor Mary fear that her heretofore blissful relationship with Adi may be headed through troubled waters for the very first time… (Source: J-Novel Club)
Lady Mary and the Curious Case of Indigestion!
Lady Veltina and Lady Mary
Having found her happy ending, my latest review catches up with the cast of Young Lady Albert as someone seems set to tear the young lovers apart.
In the series’s latest instalment, Lady Mary suffers an about-face, discovering what it is like to receive petty harassment and bullying. As her friends from Elysiana join the academy in an exchange program, their reunion is cut short when someone else on the program steals the limelight. A junior member of the exchange, Lady Veltina creates ripples, openly doting on Adi and treating Mary with copious amounts of venom. Whilst her treatment of Mary amounts to little more that childish tricks, her open affection towards Adi causes an awakening of strange feelings within Mary.
As the story of the Heart High anime begins, the novel’s main plot follows the conflict between Lady Mary and Lady Veltina. A hilarious ordeal to add to Mary’s growing list of oddballs, it finds her at the mercy of all manner of childish tricks reminiscent of what the original Lady Mary would do.
From silly name-calling to committing faux pas on guest invitations, Lady Veltina’s actions can be shooed away with little more than admonishment or just ignoring her.
Indigestion or Jealousy
What can’t be easily shooed away, however, are the feelings brought about by Lady Veltina’s constant fawning over Adi. Serving as the major conflict of the volume, the plot forces Mary to come to terms with her true feelings for Adi.
At first, fearing that it might be a serious case of chronic indigestion, it is through her friend’s tireless work that she’s able to face up to the truth of her jealousy. This results in a much-needed outpouring of emotion from Mary, similar in style to the one given by Adi only two volumes previously. Moreover, with each other’s feelings laid-bare, it puts both protagonists on equal footing within the relationship emotionally.
After a previous volume, which mainly consisted of side stories, I’m glad to see that the latest edition of Courting Disaster is a fantastic return to form.
Much in the same fashion as the series did with Adi in the second volume, the story of the latest outing forces Mary to come face to face with the depths of her feelings for her beloved husband.
This comes to pass through the use of Lady Veltina. A handy mirror into her own past, her constant doting on Adi makes Mary realise a horrible future where she and Adi are no longer together. No longer content in merely watching the drama unfold, for the first time, she truly has to fight – a move that inevitably makes their relationship stronger.
Courting Disaster Vol. 4
My Rating: 8.5/10
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You can read the fourth volume of this series digitally on the J-Novel Club website.
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