Well, I can't say nothing happened, but for real, that seems like a waste of an aphrodisiac chapter, lol. I was expecting at least a little bit of romantic progress, not just the very limited horny scenes we got.

^
I didn’t really say that. I’m just saying that becoming a professional musician is something that’d feel forced for the character. I wouldn’t really call something like a sound engineer a musician... Therefore working in the music industry is another thing. I agreed with @Astraea Hill ‘s comment for that exact reason.

My point with emphasising the store is that this is the closest thing we have of a possible career path for her: working at a CD/Record Store, eventually taking it over and being the owner/manger. It’s still dealing with the music business.

Sound engineer is also not the only kind of background musical career you can have.
Y'know those people who play in backup bands? Record background tracks for musicians? Playing music is not all about putting yourself out there and trying to be a big star.

I'm not saying that's what she should do with her life. We've only seen a little bit of her playing. It's just that you don't have to want to be the centre of attention to be in the musical world.

last edited at Apr 17, 2023 10:08AM

I do wonder what Mitsuki plans on doing. Being a musician is such a meh way of answering it tbh. Just because you are passionate about music doesn’t mean you will drop everything to pursue such a career, specially given how she DOES NOT want to stand out — if that weren’t the case, she’d be playing in other occasions other than the afterparty. I think it would be nice if she decided to do something related to business administration (or whatever else you can study to be a manager), given her work at her Uncle’s store. The idea of Mitsuki taking over and being the rocker-looking store manager like her Uncle while in her 40s is really cool.

I would not even be that surprised if she did drop everything to pursue a career in music, but she definitely wouldn't write it in her career path form.

The story has been focusing on the high school life and the potential yuri, so for it to shift like that (turn into one of the MCs wanting to be a musician despite wanting to be a wallflower who has no friends among her peers) would be kinda weird.
That’s why I am thinking of something related to the store. Even if it turns out to be not getting any form of education to continue the “family business” but keep working there after graduating and that’s that.

It's weird that you think the only career she can get into in music is to be some kind of rockstar. Plenty of musicians do background stuff, you know.

last edited at Apr 17, 2023 3:54AM

No wonder Kimura is confused about her feelings, she has her friends pushing her into the arms of the boy, and therefore thinks that's what she should want.

I haven't read this in forever and thought I'd see where it was up to.
Holy heck, I didn't remember there being so much ridiculous boob and panties.
Went back to chapter 1 and was like, nope, it really didn't. Guess the mangaka decided only one "plot" was worth it any more?

Lol. This manga has now turned into flirting that looks like bullying, and I'm here for it.

This serious has, like, the perfect amount of confusion.
?
??
???

Poor Akira.
I'd let her grope my boobs, she does seem to appreciate them so much.
Mine feel pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Maid seemed to have green eyes when she said "I'll let no harm", blue eyes after that.

Omg, I didn't even notice until you said that.

Definitely something up with that maid.

I feel that what happened to the mother may have something to do in the end with the villainess system. Though it may just be me focusing on my own theory too hard... but I've felt for a while that the "system" isn't actually any sort of remnant from a game or anything like that, but is rather something like the mare that possessed Elsa in the first chapter: a hostile spirit that is preying in Evie's fears, presenting itself to her in a form she expects.

That makes sense. In hindsight, it does seem a little weird that a system ostensibly designed to make the story follow its usual course would order its charge to either watch the main character presumedly die, or to actually play an active role in their death, like the system was in the first chapter. Your theory would help explain that bit of weirdness.

Heck, based on that theory, maybe when Evie got possessed by that succubus love potion a few chapters back, it wasn’t actually a true possession? Maybe the potion caused whatever was already inside of Evie to physically manifest, possibly in an (ultimately failed) attempt to have it removed completely? It would explain why older Elsa was willing to let her younger self use that on Evie.

The theory answers that first plothole, but leaves others open. Who caused Evie's family to be suddenly exiled if not the villainness system exactly as portrayed to us?

I was going to say that the first scene with the mare was just a plot hole from the beginning of the story. It's at least half a plot hole, because I feel like the mare possessing Elsa was a consequence of Yvonne not making pacts with demons like has been hinted happened in the original storyline. It seems from this chapter that her mother may have also had a similar thing happen to her.

It's good to see exposition time is over. This was a great and exciting chapter. I was wondering about the changes to the timeline if Yvonne is considered a genius with the sword and went through all that training as a child, but maybe it'll be a bit less dramatic if her dad is holding her back.

There's something trippy about seeing an adorable chocolate-exchange kiss and looking up to see the tag of "Blackmail". Lol.
How far it came from that initial premise.

Now you got me a bit curious about the Bilibili translation because I found some very subpar translation of this manhua posted on... Youtube of all places (which is further ahead than Mangadex was, and I'm apparently very impatient when it comes to this story) and I assumed it was just someone's amateurish effort, but last two comments are starting to make me wonder if I wasn't reading official translation after all :P

Unlikely the official translation, since that is behind these, not further.

Bilibili's android reader was atrocious, but I tolerated up until they removed the ability to wait out paywalls.

After that was shown to be very unpopular, they let us wait again. Just in case there was still anything you were interested there (Straight Girl Trap is my favourite).

I guess she might start going to brothels by herself, though.

That's my guess. I don't know for sure what's going to happen, obviously; but knowing this manga, I suspect that Nanao will start using brothels, she'll be the one to find Mai, and that'll probably lead into a poly ending.

Just my suspicions, though. We'll see if it plays out that way or not.

Holy crap wait they're going to form a pact to find Mai in half the time by doubling up the search so that Asumi can give her an answer

That would be an amazing progression of the search for Mai.
If this doesn't happen, I'm just going to be disappointed (although, this manga has not once disappointed me thus far, so I actually doubt that).

Ahhhhh!!!!! How can I not ship that???
This manga is just all shipping, all the time. Why can't they all just be happy together?

Yay, I'm happy to see this here.
Been reading on Bilibili, but the translation has really gone to crap over there.

I wish they had made it a long chapter! Wah! I wanted to watch the whole quiz show, all the questions, and learn every tidbit of Ririka's info and find who knows what about her secrets! No fair they cut it short!

It was a dream, though, so it wouldn't be true at all, so ... what would be the point?
It may have been cute to see all of the things Watanabe does know about her, but as for secrets or anything she doesn't know, she still doesn't know it, and if it was in there, it would be made up, lol.

I'll be honest, it's been so long I spent the whole chapter going, who? Have I read this manga before?
Guess I gotta go back and re-read, I just have a vague impression of them.

You forget the biggest "problem". Most of the cast are suposs to be middle schoolers.

I'm not sure why problem is in quotes here. It is a problem. Like, I enjoy reading this, but I would never recommend this even to people that I know like manga. It's just a lot, and I don't think it's unreasonable to give this the side-eye. Plus, the Netflix Cuties controversy wasn't that long ago. The BDSM stuff is whatever, the ages of the characters feels like not only a huge barrier to entry, but a huge problem if this gets more widely known.

Agreed. Like, I can say that I enjoy this story, but can't deny that you can't think too hard about it. It's fiction, which smooths over a lot of what is problematic in real life, but the question is, why do they have to be young girls, why couldn't they be adults? I can deal with it, I can enjoy the story, but that doesn't make it not problematic, it just means that it doesn't cross that line into "too problematic to engage with" for me. It will most definitely cross that line for a lot of people when it comes more into the mainstream with an anime.

I wanted to add some actual chapter discussion too:
When I first heard Beserga's story, I was like, ew, you just like her because she's strong and beat you up? Then Leo agreed with her, and I was like, oh yeah, that's happened before and I wasn't squicked because the character doing it wasn't "evil" Lol.

last edited at Mar 22, 2023 9:05AM

Series: does a lot of fluff
Ppl: "ugh I wish smth was happening in this plot"
Series: does literally anything that's not fluff
The same fckng ppl: "why's there suddenly stuff happening, where's my fluff"

Sorry, where was this happening? I think you're reading a different comment section than me.
I've seen the "woe is everything, I only see doom in the future of this story because now there's time travel", but haven't seen either 'too much fluff' or 'not enough fluff' comments?

In reading the recent chapters, and being disappointed with them, I've been trying to figure out what, exactly, it is that's bothering me. and I think in this chapter I've worked it out.
In most of this story, things have happened in every chapter. Even if our MC and love interest are just thinking, they're thinking and they're making decisions and make at least one move per chapter. The recent chapters have been ... just talking about things. Talking about how old she is, talking about her engagement, talking about sword training and going on ... some kind of boot camp. It's all set-up in a way that this story hasn't been thus far. We jumped straight into the main story from the first chapter, and then filled in some flashbacks and such, but there's always been something moving. Now where the story is at is, we have to explain everything, and we've really just come to a standstill.

I reckon that would have been sorted if Evie had memories of this time at all, it would have been a shortcut (actually, she should remember things about her maid, her parents, her fiance, and such without having to slow down and explain them to us anyway). It kind of feels like in my own stories when I hit some writer's block, and I'm trying to get to the next plot point, so I painstakingly explain everything, spinning the wheels manually until they catch some friction and it starts to move again. One of the major downsides of episodic writing, really, and I hope something actually happens soon.

"should have added more flirting though"
Absolutely.
The flirting was so stingy in this manga, I kind of didn't feel any chemistry between the leads.
Like, Nanami liked to take care of Kaede, but it didn't seem like much more than just ... looking after your kid sister who you can't leave alone. Until suddenly she was like "am I in love?!?" and then went into crisis mode.

Scummy really needs to rant!
If the status "Friend" has such an uneasy connotation with her then she needs to get that off her chest, in front of Mashiro

True, true.
They could bond over both being socially awkward and bad at friendship.

This chapter certainly felt like it veered off into a tangent.
Defs not how you introduce side characters and their motivations properly, haha.

It's been so long, when I saw the "sisters" chart, I thought for a second they were actual blood relations and I was confused as to what kind of manga this was, lol.