From left to right: Zedekiah, Estelle/Lucifela, Khalid
Estelle Schubert was a knight and a commander in the army of Ersha. But after being murdered by her best friend, Khalid Gabrine, she wakes up 3 years later in the body of Lucifela Aydin, a spoiled young noblewoman who fell into a coma due to an attempted suicide.
To her dismay, she discovers that the Kingdom of Ersha has fallen to the Jansgar Empire, and her new identity is now in an Arranged Marriage to Zedekiah Heint, her former Archenemy in the war.
It can be read here
. The comic is an adaptation of a Light Novel of the same title.
Provides examples of:
- Ambiguously Gay: There are several hints dropped that Florence has a romantic interest in Lucifela. Beyond the fact she built herself up to be the most powerful socialite in an entire empire purely for the sake of protecting Lucifela from verbal abuse, she was the reason Lucifela survived her suicide attempt, having been the only one who cared enough about Lucifela jumping off a bridge into a lake to call for help. Once she finally has the opportunity to speak with 'Lucifela' (really Estelle in Lucifela's body) plainly, she blurts out, while blushing, that she wasn't protecting Lucifela because she loved Lucifela or anything of the sort. It gets to the point that when Florence and Lucifela's betrothed, Zedekiah, attend the same event with Estelle, the two have a fight over who gets to spend time with 'Lucifela.'
- Tellingly, when Estelle is giving Florence various options regarding how Florence can potentially escape a loveless, abusive marriage with Prince Temir, Florence cheerily likens the idea of Lucifela functionally kidnapping Florence and secreting her away to the Aydin estate to Lucifela proposing to her. It's later shown via Florence's thoughts that running away to live with Lucifela was her preferred option; she even had a means of faking her death via poison ready in her head to execute when the time came, and only changes her choice when forcing herself on Prince Eozif becomes a viable alternative. What's more, though it's implied they copulate, Florence doesn't show much, if any, emotion surrounding the deed, treating it entirely as a means to an end for her freedom.
- Accent Slip-Up: Early on as Lucifela, Estelle catches herself speaking with Ershan accent.
- An Aesop: Women can't rise above their station and be free to express themselves if society routinely tries to snuff out and ostracize the women who don't fit into the expected narrative set out for them from birth. It takes hard work and systematic change, starting from seemingly innocuous things like protesting their expected manner of dress and fighting to expand their future prospects and potential job opportunities. As Zedekiah notes when he talks to 'Lucifela' about the knight Estelle, so much potential is lost for a nation when it actively tries to control women and their aspirations; Estelle and Zedekiah both come to the conclusion that many potentially amazing female knights could have served the Jansgar Empire if only they were never forced to wear dresses that precluded their ability to notice the natural talents that could have served them as defenders of the realm.
- Arranged Marriage: For unknown reasons, Duke Zedekiah Heint's father set him up with Lucifela Aydin underneath severe consequences if he refuses. Zedekiah is reluctant to marry her because as beautiful as she is, Lucifela already made a suicide attempt over a previous lover. For her part, Estelle is also annoyed because Zedekiah was her biggest adversary during the war. They agree to postpone the wedding for a while and plan to divorce later.
- Big Fancy Castle: The ancestral castle of the Aydin family in the countryside, which was build centuries prior.
- Big Fancy House: Nobles' mansions in the capital. Count Aydin actually moved and built his house in the capital after Lucifela said she didn't like the aforementioned castle because of how old it was.
- Blue Blood: Basically every major character, Estelle included. Both Lucifela and Zedekiah are related to Jansgar's imperial family, while Khalid is the only surviving member of Ersha's royal family (albeit he was not in the direct line to the throne), which is why he was allowed to keep his (non-landed) ducal title in Jansgar.
- Bungled Suicide: Count Aydin, after he comes back home with a cure for his wife only to discover she just died. He drinks poison, but is rescued by his servants and survives.
- Subverted with Lucifela, who was rescued after she threw herself into the palace lake by a servant Florence desperately called. While Estelle is currently inhabiting her body, it's unclear whether real Lucifela died or her consciousness retreated somehow. Estelle still sometimes has thoughts that are clearly not her own and can access some of Lucifela's memories.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Despite wanting him dead, Estelle saves Khalid's life after he saves her from a monster, because she wants a proper revenge.
- The Cavalry: Khalid was this to Estelle's division multiple times. Estelle notes he tested her faith in him often, while wondering whether he was just mentally conditioning her before his final betrayal.
- Zedekiah Heint and his troops save both Khalid and Lucifela while they're hopelessly outmatched by monsters.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Not exactly a moron, but second imperial prince Eozif puts up a front of a mild mannered nerdy bookworm, while he's actually a shrewd politician and fairly skilled swordsman.
- Decapitation Presentation: Khalid presented the emperor of Jansgard with Estelle's severed head to prove his loyalty.
- Dirty Coward: Zedekiah describes Khalid as a spineless coward. Khalid asked Estelle to let him hug her because he missed her, which wasn't an unusual request between the close friends. As soon as she opened her arms, he stabbed her to death with a dagger. He then betrayed his kingdom and won a high ranking position with the invaders.
- Subverted later, when he fights with a linix to protect Lucifela and actually puts himself between her and the monster.
- After attacking Estelle and getting his ass kicked in the process, the coachman, who beforehand murdered several women, begs her to spare him.
- Driven to Suicide: Lucifela was lovers with the first prince, and tossed herself into the lake after he threw her away.
- The Evil Prince: Crown Prince Temir. He mentally and sexually abused Lucifela, manipulated and publicly humiliated her to the point where she jumped into the lake at his orders. Even after that, he sexually assaults her at the autumn banquet, while still trying to manipulate her emotionally, unaware that Estelle has taken over Lucifela and refuses to take his assault on her lying down without a fight. He's later shown abusing his servants for minor infractions.
- Evil Redhead: Prince Temir and Melrose Idris.
- Excellent Judge of Character: Played realistically with Prince Eozif, who outright admits he doesn't act on his hunches unless he is both convinced of them but cannot get physical evidence to back his claims. He still makes the occasional mistake (his read on Florence initially is somewhat off the mark, for instance) and he needs time and proof to come to a concrete opinion, but his observations are rarely wrong. Though Estelle mocks him internally for looking like a smug prick while explaining what he 'knows' about Lucifela, Prince Eozif is the first person to come anywhere close to realizing the truth about 'Lucifela,' having deduced that she was an admirer of Estelle who hates Khalid because Khalid murdered Estelle in cold blood and desires nothing less than the independence of Ersha. Excepting 'Lucifela's' true identity as Estelle in Lucifela's body, which Eozif would have no way of figuring out on his own given the supernatural aspect that defies logic, this is completely on point, and Estelle confirms his suspicions when she jumps at the chance Eozif gives her to help restore Ersha's independence.
- Good Parents: While he's not exactly perfect, Count Aydin seems to genuinely love and care for his daughter. Estelle, who was an orphaned street urchin, is actually moved by how much he's devastated by Lucifela's condition.
- Groin Attack: Estelle uses it on the crown prince after he sexually assaults her during the banquet.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Florence Loer took control of Jansgar's high society social circles purely for the sake of being a voice for Lucifela, wanting to defend a woman who she believed was being unfairly persecuted.
- Head-Turning Beauty: Lucifela, who was dubbed "The morning star of Jansgar" by the emperor himself thanks to her looks.
- Internal Reformist:
- Technically, Estelle herself as Lucifela, a Jansgar noblewoman. Her first major decision when she wakes up is to find her old knight comrades, and she only gives up the chase when she realizes she has no way to find them. Though she recognizes she doesn't have the power to give Ersha its independence back on her own, Estelle never takes the idea off the table, either, though she does place some priority on taking revenge on Khalid.
- Prince Eozif is convinced that the sheer size of the Jansgar Empire will eventually be its undoing, as civil war will eventually sweep across the Empire the moment someone incompetent takes the throne or the nobility begins getting too ambitious. With this in mind, he's fully supportive of Ersha's independence, and tries to recruit Estelle to his side with the promise of that independence, hoping her aid would allow him to ascend to the position of Emperor.
- Jacob Marley Apparel: When talking to Lucifela inside her head, Estelle sees her in the same dress she comitted suicide in. Also, notably, Lucifela tried to drown herself and said dress is decorated with pearls and seashell patterns.
- Kissing Cousins: Lucifela and Temir, as Count Aydin is a maternal uncle to both imperial princes. It doesn't last once Estelle took over.
- Light Is Not Good: Khalid, who has white hair and pale lavender eyes, and wears white and silver uniforms. He killed Estelle, betrayed his country for a lucrative position in the enemy empire and currently shows signs of getting dangerously obsessed with Lucifela.
- Marry for Love: Lucifela's mother, Luana, who chose Count Aydin over previous Duke Heint.
- Interestingly, the emperor of Jansgard offers to break off Lucifela's engagement with Zedekiah if she still loves Temir, even though doing so would result in a conflict between the imperial household and the temple.
- Neck Lift: Khalid does it to Estelle (in Lucifela's body) when she starts taunting him about his lack of honor and being crown prince's lapdog.
- Nice to the Waiter: Estelle towards servants in Aydin estate. Averted with Lucifela who was quite awful to her maids.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Count Aydin seems like a weak-willed fool who was peer-pressured into being a part of crown prince's party. Duke Heint later realizes his future father-in-law is much wealthier than he lets on and deliberately joined crown prince's faction as a way to hide in plain sight.
- The One That Got Away: Lucifela's mother is implied to be that for the previous Duke Heint, which might be the reason why he bethroted his son to Lucifela.
- Only Friend: Estelle spends much of the early story more or less alone and without any supporters, as her identity as Lucifela means she can't find and join up with her old knightly order and the first prince's disgusting treatment of Estelle, combined with Melrose's hateful slander, left her a friendless recluse. Florence Loer moves heaven and earth from the shadows to protect Estelle in secret before finally managing to meet with 'Lucifela' alone, at which point she effectively swears to devote herself to being 'Lucifela's' friend. The two become thick as thieves immediately, and Estelle even notes that, despite not having a positive view of nobles, she believes she'd still have been friends with Florence even if the two had met back when Estelle was in her original body.
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Estelle's interactions with other noblewomen, particularly at the autumn banquet.
- Princeling Rivalry: Eozif, crown prince's younger brother is playing a long game by slowly undermining Temir in order to take his place, all while keeping up his own facade of a harmless bookworm. He comments Temir should have killed him first if he was actually smart.
- Rape as Drama: It's later revealed that the First Prince Temir sexually assaulted the original Lucifela some months before Estelle took over, the trauma and denial that Lucifela experienced over the sexual assault was the reason for the engagement to happen until she was Driven to Suicide when Temir callously threw her away.
- Real Women Don't Wear Dresses: Estelle catches herself holding up that sentiment since she lived in her first body. After seeing the realities of being a noblewoman in a mysogynistic society, she realizes women have different ways of using what limited power they can have and stops looking at them so harshly.
- Red Herring: Bot Zedekiah and Eozif are quick to suspect that Florence has ulterior motives for getting cozy with Lucifela. Zedekiah thinks Florence might be working with the Poer family to undermine the Aydin family in a really long gambit, while Eozif believes Florence might be trying to enhance her station by becoming friends with a future duchess. Florence herself sometimes says some suspect things and doesn't quite refute Eozif's claims. It turns out these assumptions are completely off the mark; Florence really is as good and kind as she presents herself to be with Lucifela, and truly has Lucifela's best interests at heart, having been the one who originally saved Lucifela's life in the first place. She just happens to look sketchy due to her control of the social sphere of Jansgar.
- The Remnant: While the Kingdom of Ersha has fallen and its nobles have surrendered to the Jansgar Empire, parts of its army continue to fight.
- Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: Luana chose Count Aydin over previous Duke Heint. However, Count Aydin was not exactly poor - just less wealthy and politically powerful than his rival.
- The Scapegoat: It turns out Khalid was perfectly fine with accusing his former friend Liam Hirka of being a serial killer, even though he knew it wasn't the case. Subverted because A. the killer is caught before Khalid's men manage to find Liam and B. Liam is still a wanted criminal anyway due to being part of La Résistance.
- Self-Made Man: Estelle started out as an orphan on the streets who never knew her parents. Through charisma and fierce skill in combat, she ultimately managed to become a knight commander, a very rare position for a woman.
- Serial Killer: The Emperor assigns Dukes Zedekiah and Louis to investigate who is killing women in the capital, which is throwing the city into a panic.
- Spoiled Brat: Lucifela was pampered by her wealthy father and would frequently have servants beaten for minor mistakes. Unfortunately, this means that she was unprepared and out of depth at handling the trauma she suffered from being sexually assaulted by Temir.
- Stellar Name: "Estelle" is Occitan for a star, while "Lucifer" was an ancient name for Venus, known as the morning star. Both Estelle and Lucifela were called "Ishtar of Ersha" and "Ishtar of Jansgar" respectively (in fact, Lady Rein speculates that the reason for Lucifela's unusual interest in Estelle might be a Commonality Connection because of this). Ishtar was a Babylonian goddess associated with planet Venus.
- Stepford Smiler: Khalid. He's constantly smiling and polite, even when people insult him to his face. His mask slips only once, when Estelle as Lucifela calls him out on being a traitor with no honor.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tomboy Estelle to girly Lucifela.
- True Blue Femininity: Lucifela has blue-black hair and pale blue eyes, most of her wardrobe is in many shades of blue and navy, and she was a definite girly girl compared to Estelle.
- True Companions: Ersha's Third Division for Estelle. She even calls them "her whole reason for living". They're still out there (with the exception of Khalid, of course) fighting with the Empire.
- Unlimited Wardrobe: Played straight and deliberately averted. Lucifela has hundreds of best dresses and jewelry money could buy (her family actually owns gem mines). Estelle notes the knights stationed at their countryside castle are poorly equipped, only to be told Count Aydin cut the costs of their upkeep in order to buy his daughter more clothes. She doesn't quite believe it, but orders her wardrobe to be sold and resulting funds used to buy the necessarry equipment. After this she's seen wearing some clothes more than once. Later, when Zedekiah learns about it, he buys her even more dresses and things go back to playing this trope straight.
- Weak, but Skilled: Estelle retains all of her combat skills after taking over Lucifela's body, but no longer has the strength to use them since Lucifela was just a spoiled and sickly young noblewoman.
- Women Are Delicate: Played straight and subverted. Estelle was renowned as the great knight, was highly skilled with a sword and had no problem with physical activities. Lucifela was weak and delicate even before her accident, and currently Estelle struggles with using her body in combat situations.
- Written by the Winners: The history books describe Estelle Schubert as showing the poor judgement of a woman by putting up meaningless resistance against invasion. Her second in command, unable to tolerate her actions, killed her and gave her dead body to the invading country as a symbol of surrender.
