7th Time Loop 2
The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy!
by Tuoko Amekawa
art by Hinoki Kino
2022
Before we dive into the second volume of 7th Time Loop, let's quickly review the premise. On the night of her 15th birthday, minor royal Rishe was dumped by her price boyfriend and exiled from the country. At 20, she died and was reborn at the moment of being dumped. She's on her seventh life now, and is subjectively 45 years old. In each previous life she's had a different job and learned a different skill ... and died at 20, always due to a war of conquest started by Emperor Arnold Hein.
In her seventh life, Rishe is engaged to Arnold and determined to prevent his war. The Arnold Rishe knows is thoughtful, seems sympathetic to her attempts to treat others fairly, and doesn't appear to have a bad temper. She's not sure what will happen to change him.
In this volume, Rishe recruits the maid-staff for her manor, tries to reconnect with the merchant company she worked for in a past life, and meets Arnold's enigmatic younger brother Theodore.
Having worked as a maid in one previous life, Rishi goes undercover among the maid candidates. She ends up hiring the youngest and least experienced, plus the one maid who came from a rich but bankrupted family, who'd been bullying the other girls, to tutor them and teach them to read instead. This mostly seems to be about Rishe valuing education and second chances due to her unusual life, but she may also hope to use the maids who are loyal to her as spies in the main palace in the future.
Next Rishe tries to hire the merchants she was so close with in a previous life to supply her upcoming wedding to Arnold. They can tell she's keeping secrets and refuse. She disguises herself, sneaks out, and approaches them again. They still won't accept her as a customer, but will be her business partners if she can impress them in the near future. I guess this will get resolved in volume 3, presumably with Rishe enacting an ingenious stratagem.
When Rishe sneaks back home, Arnold is waiting for her. But he's not jealous, just curious about her hidden depths. He does warn her to stay away from his younger brother Theodore. Naturally, Theodore shows up napping in Rishe's herb garden the next morning.
He tries to warn her off marrying Arnold, and when that doesn't work, sends her an invitation (seemingly from Arnold) to a secret nighttime rendezvous. Rishe goes undercover as a maid in the main palace to learn more, then attends the night meeting (while sneakily alerting Arnold to it as well.) She wants to know more about the family dynamic, but I didn't feel like much was revealed. After sending Theodore away, Arnold is once again intrigued by Rishe's mysterious behavior.
The series continues to have a lightly comedic tone. Due to her many experiences, Rishe is hyper-competent, and due to her knowledge of likely future events, she's goal-driven and secretive about her motives. All of which seems strange for a 15 year-old royal fiancee with no major life experiences. I'm hopeful that in a future volume, we'll learn more about how and why the seemingly-kind Arnold Hein becomes a warmonger and mass-murderer. In the meantime, we've got Rishe's subterfuges and antics to entertain us. I'm especially curious to see what comes of her attempts to create a network of literate maids, employed other places, who are loyal to her as a result of how she treated them when they worked directly under her.
Since I borrowed this from a coworker and the series is still coming out, I'm going to wait until a couple more volumes are available before continuing with the series.
In her seventh life, Rishe is engaged to Arnold and determined to prevent his war. The Arnold Rishe knows is thoughtful, seems sympathetic to her attempts to treat others fairly, and doesn't appear to have a bad temper. She's not sure what will happen to change him.
In this volume, Rishe recruits the maid-staff for her manor, tries to reconnect with the merchant company she worked for in a past life, and meets Arnold's enigmatic younger brother Theodore.
Having worked as a maid in one previous life, Rishi goes undercover among the maid candidates. She ends up hiring the youngest and least experienced, plus the one maid who came from a rich but bankrupted family, who'd been bullying the other girls, to tutor them and teach them to read instead. This mostly seems to be about Rishe valuing education and second chances due to her unusual life, but she may also hope to use the maids who are loyal to her as spies in the main palace in the future.
Next Rishe tries to hire the merchants she was so close with in a previous life to supply her upcoming wedding to Arnold. They can tell she's keeping secrets and refuse. She disguises herself, sneaks out, and approaches them again. They still won't accept her as a customer, but will be her business partners if she can impress them in the near future. I guess this will get resolved in volume 3, presumably with Rishe enacting an ingenious stratagem.
When Rishe sneaks back home, Arnold is waiting for her. But he's not jealous, just curious about her hidden depths. He does warn her to stay away from his younger brother Theodore. Naturally, Theodore shows up napping in Rishe's herb garden the next morning.
He tries to warn her off marrying Arnold, and when that doesn't work, sends her an invitation (seemingly from Arnold) to a secret nighttime rendezvous. Rishe goes undercover as a maid in the main palace to learn more, then attends the night meeting (while sneakily alerting Arnold to it as well.) She wants to know more about the family dynamic, but I didn't feel like much was revealed. After sending Theodore away, Arnold is once again intrigued by Rishe's mysterious behavior.
The series continues to have a lightly comedic tone. Due to her many experiences, Rishe is hyper-competent, and due to her knowledge of likely future events, she's goal-driven and secretive about her motives. All of which seems strange for a 15 year-old royal fiancee with no major life experiences. I'm hopeful that in a future volume, we'll learn more about how and why the seemingly-kind Arnold Hein becomes a warmonger and mass-murderer. In the meantime, we've got Rishe's subterfuges and antics to entertain us. I'm especially curious to see what comes of her attempts to create a network of literate maids, employed other places, who are loyal to her as a result of how she treated them when they worked directly under her.
Since I borrowed this from a coworker and the series is still coming out, I'm going to wait until a couple more volumes are available before continuing with the series.
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