7th Time Loop 1
The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy!
by Touko Amekawa
art by Hinoki Kino
2022
Did I say I was taking a break from manga? Apparently it was a very short break. One of my coworkers recommended (and lent me her copies of) 7th Time Loop. It's still coming out, so I'm only going to read the first two volumes for now. Next month I'll also start another series that I've been wanting to read.
The first volume of 7th Time Loop introduces the series premise. Rishe is minor royalty who was engaged to the crown prince of her kingdom. On her 15th birthday, he publicly breaks up with her, denounces her for imaginary crimes, (which is what makes her a villainess I suppose,) and exiles her from the kingdom. She connects with some traveling merchants, learns the trade, and then dies in a war on her 20th birthday.
And then she's reincarnated, right at the moment of the breakup! In her second life, Rishe becomes a botanist and herbalist. Again she dies on her 20th birthday, and again, she's reincarnated at the moment when her fiance exiles her. In another life she's a maid, and in her sixth life, she lives dresses as a man and becomes a knight. This time she doesn't just die in the war, she's killed personally by the dread emperor Alexander who started it by overthrowing his own father.
At the start of her seventh life, which will be the focus on the series, presumably, Rishe must be subjectively about 45 years old, although of course she's reincarnated back into her 15 year-old body. As she's fleeing the palace, she runs into a young, visiting, Prince Alexander. He falls in love at first sight, and since Rishe's just been very publicly dumped, asks her to marry him instead. Rishe initially resists. From her perspective, future Alexander just killed her a few minutes ago. He's carrying the same sword. She also realizes that all her deaths have been the result of his war.
But Rishe also wonders if she could influence Alexander to not attempt his coup. She realizes his country is one she's always wanted to travel to, and never had the chance. And she realizes, based on the way her life in each reincarnation has taken wildly different turns based on decisions she makes relatively early on, that if she doesn't marry him in this life, she'll never get another opportunity. So she agrees, although she insists on a chaste courtship.
Rishe initially impresses Alexander with the evidence of her martial training. On the ride back to his country, she also uses her herbalism to save some people from being poisoned by bandits. There's a running plot thread, which I guess gives the series its title, that Rishe has promised herself to take it easy and relax in this life, so she keeps announcing that she won't do any work or take on any responsibility, but then when she is gifted a manor house to live in, she cleans the whole thing herself, because having worked as a lady's maid, she can't bear to force that work on anyone else.
At this point, the series seems light and comedic. Rishe and Alexander seem like they will probably go from him having a one-sided crush on her to some sort of mutual attraction. Rishe will probably continue to declare herself lazy while astonishing everyone with her work ethic and multiple careers' worth of specialist knowledge. And I suspect Rishe will try to understand Alexander's relationship with his father, and try to figure out if there's any way to keep the relatively nice seeming young man she's now engaged to from becoming the bloody-minded warmonger whose patricidal violence has killed her six times previously.
The first volume of 7th Time Loop introduces the series premise. Rishe is minor royalty who was engaged to the crown prince of her kingdom. On her 15th birthday, he publicly breaks up with her, denounces her for imaginary crimes, (which is what makes her a villainess I suppose,) and exiles her from the kingdom. She connects with some traveling merchants, learns the trade, and then dies in a war on her 20th birthday.
And then she's reincarnated, right at the moment of the breakup! In her second life, Rishe becomes a botanist and herbalist. Again she dies on her 20th birthday, and again, she's reincarnated at the moment when her fiance exiles her. In another life she's a maid, and in her sixth life, she lives dresses as a man and becomes a knight. This time she doesn't just die in the war, she's killed personally by the dread emperor Alexander who started it by overthrowing his own father.
At the start of her seventh life, which will be the focus on the series, presumably, Rishe must be subjectively about 45 years old, although of course she's reincarnated back into her 15 year-old body. As she's fleeing the palace, she runs into a young, visiting, Prince Alexander. He falls in love at first sight, and since Rishe's just been very publicly dumped, asks her to marry him instead. Rishe initially resists. From her perspective, future Alexander just killed her a few minutes ago. He's carrying the same sword. She also realizes that all her deaths have been the result of his war.
But Rishe also wonders if she could influence Alexander to not attempt his coup. She realizes his country is one she's always wanted to travel to, and never had the chance. And she realizes, based on the way her life in each reincarnation has taken wildly different turns based on decisions she makes relatively early on, that if she doesn't marry him in this life, she'll never get another opportunity. So she agrees, although she insists on a chaste courtship.
Rishe initially impresses Alexander with the evidence of her martial training. On the ride back to his country, she also uses her herbalism to save some people from being poisoned by bandits. There's a running plot thread, which I guess gives the series its title, that Rishe has promised herself to take it easy and relax in this life, so she keeps announcing that she won't do any work or take on any responsibility, but then when she is gifted a manor house to live in, she cleans the whole thing herself, because having worked as a lady's maid, she can't bear to force that work on anyone else.
At this point, the series seems light and comedic. Rishe and Alexander seem like they will probably go from him having a one-sided crush on her to some sort of mutual attraction. Rishe will probably continue to declare herself lazy while astonishing everyone with her work ethic and multiple careers' worth of specialist knowledge. And I suspect Rishe will try to understand Alexander's relationship with his father, and try to figure out if there's any way to keep the relatively nice seeming young man she's now engaged to from becoming the bloody-minded warmonger whose patricidal violence has killed her six times previously.
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