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:
- Actually Pretty Funny: During a performance of an opera, Lucifela is incredibly annoyed at seeing the main character, a young man who is in love with a woman, simply love her from afar rather than come out in the open with his feelings for her to the point of shouting about her aggravation. Florence is horrified at her friend's lack of decorum and pleads for her to be quiet...while Lady Rein is doing her damnedest not to laugh.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Lucifela was a victim of this from other noble girls, with Melrose Poer pulling the strings. Lucifela's relationship with the crown prince mitigated it somewhat, until Temir himself drove her to suicide. Estelle, with Florence's help, manages to eventually fight back and even gain her footing in high society.
- Alpha Bitch: Unlike Florence Loer, Countess Melrose Poer is a legitimately awful and self-centered woman who bullies Lucifela mercilessly.
- Amazon Chaser: Khalid reveals that what threw him off about Estelle within Lucifela's body was the fact she occasionally acted like a high class lady, something he notes with obvious disappointment. What convinces him that Lucifela is Estelle is that she would occasionally show herself to be a lot more courageous and action-oriented than her currently frail body would allow... because that's what excites him the most about her. This is deconstructed, because, in addition to Estelle still hating Khalid for killing her in cold blood, she's absolutely sickened when he derives sexual enjoyment from her attempts to slit his throat and bite him, implying he would have never had a chance with her even if he hadn't betrayed her if all he wanted was someone violent. When you idolize a person for how much carnage they create, the other person might not reciprocate because they might not want to be idealized for their capacity for bloodshed.
- 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.
- Later it is possibly zig-zagged to bi as when Florence believes that Prince Eozif is actually in love with Lucifela and isn't interested in her at all, she is greatly upset even briefly ending her friendship with Lucifela until Eozif and she have a proper heart to heart.
- We later meet Duchess Lahshi, a young woman who wears very masculine clothes, including pants, fights with a sword, and eventually asks to dance with Lucifela during a party. Downplayed, as she does show obvious interest in Zedekiah, but she clearly has a great time with Lucifela and looks forward to seeing her in the future, meaning she might be bisexual.
- Accent Slip-Up: Early on as Lucifela, Estelle catches herself speaking with Ershan accent.
- Anachronism Stew: Downplayed, but during the second half of the story, newspapers with gossip columns are introduced as having been part of at least the Jansgar Empire's media. Though newspapers have existed during epochs with kingdoms, they're generally featured alongside guns and somewhat more modern sensibilities.
- 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.
- Florence Loer is arranged to be married to the first prince, much to her dismay.
- Badass Bookworm: What few know but Estelle picks up immediately is that Eozif is no mere intellectual; he's secretly trained with the blade for years on end. Once he makes his move politically and begins to fight Temir for the hand of Lady Loer, he becomes far more overt about both his actual level of competence and his ability to fight, as Jansgar values power.
- Berserk Button: Khalid. Once she gets over the shock of seeing him again, Estelle feels nothing but hatred for him, and every action he takes that besmirches chivalry just further drives her raging desire for revenge. This is shown to actually be a major failing on Estelle's part and a major reason why she sometimes hampers her own efforts to kill him. In addition to the fact Khalid's presence takes up so much of her energy that she can't spend much time on putting in efforts to restore Ersha or find her comrades, Estelle's obvious hatred of Khalid for no seemingly discernible reason means he knows something is up with her and can basically control her by playing on her rage. Sure enough, Estelle's seething hatred of Khalid is the biggest giveaway to him that Estelle returned - he admits that he didn't know Lucifela was actually Estelle until after she started acting wildly different from the Lucifela high society knew beforehand and was only certain once Estelle displayed her obvious animosity for him. Killing Khalid proves to be difficult for Estelle, too, because each time she gets a chance, she backs down due to him not being in a position where she can prove she's definitively beaten him. Her rage won't allow her to do something quick and easy, or pragmatic. By the time she tries, Khalid sees it coming and abuses the fact Lucifela is so much weaker than Estelle to get away with little more than a small cut on his neck.
- Beta Bitch: Baroness Dahlia Rein seems to be this for Florence Loer, as she often does as asked by her and follows her word. This also means that she ends up supporting Lucifela later on when Florence calls out Countess Poer for having attempted to cause an accident to humiliate Lucifela.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Florence Loer is about the most kindhearted and charitable character in the story, having stuck her neck out for Lucifela's sake since the latter attempted to drown herself. That being said, the very chapter that reveals just how good and kind she is has her viciously tear into Dahlia Rein as a result of the woman misinterpreting her words and setting up Lucifela to be made a fool in what was supposed to be a friendly tea party. Even the comic itself goes out of its way to draw Florence's face in a more slanted, conceited style to demonstrate when she is especially upset, differentiating the angry, merciless leader of Jansgar's social elite from the normally lovable noble crusader.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Prince Eozif gives off the vibe of a goofy, book-obsessed nerd who has no interest in pursuing the throne. Turns out he not only is a skilled swordsman, but extremely crafty as he plays the long game to prove himself as far more deserving of the throne than his thoroughly unlikable, utterly vile brother.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: While Prince Temir is arguably the bigger threat as the man who could possibly take over Jansgar and is a self-entitled brat who is willing to abuse and use others for his petty amusement, Khalid serves as a far more personal antagonist to both Lucifela/Estelle as the one who murdered her in her past life and to Zedekiah who hated him from the start and only become angrier as Khalid has antagonized Lucifela.
- Big Fancy Castle: The ancestral castle of the Aydin family in the countryside, which was build centuries prior. Since it stands on the former border between Jansgar and another, currently absorbed, country, it's well fortified with its walls surrounding a wealthy town.
- 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.
- Big Good: He obfuscates his intentions at first, but once he lays his ultimatum out to 'Lucifela' in private, Eozif reveals he's more or less the central figure behind any concentrated effort to enact positive change in Jansgar - starting with returning Ersha's independence, as he believes that Jansgar's sheer size only acts as a detriment to its unity. Tellingly, while most of the heroes are saddled with dealing with more personal issues (even Estelle, who wants to restore Ersha but lacks the means to do so and finds the part Eozif would have her play in saving her former kingdom dishonorable), Prince Eozif's position and intent lead him to confronting the political elite head-on and fighting for the crown so he can fix things. Additionally, he's a large focus of the other three heroes' own arcs, as he's Florence's ticket to true independence, consults with Zedekiah often, and secretly supports Estelle from the sidelines.
- Bizarre Taste in Food: 'Lucifela' is once given some tea that all the other ladies at a tea party consider to be quite disgusting as a form of bullying and humiliation. However, upon drinking the tea without any reaction (even secretly finding it tasty), the other ladies are left horrified and bewildered. Furthermore, according to Estelle, she used to eat grass as a kid that even other kids on the street found too horrible to eat.
- Later, when Lucifela is traveling with Zedekiah to visit Ersha, she's noted by Zed's servant to be strangely fine with the food that they're eating, with this even being highlighted by her gently encouraging her own maid to eat their meal while the maid looks like she can barely stomach it.
- Black-and-White Insanity: A crucial flaw Estelle slowly comes to realize about herself is that she is terrible at judging people, institutions, and nations beyond the superficial details she's initially presented with, and even when she does recognize this flaw, she still has a bad habit of simply shifting extremes when offered evidence contrary to her initial views. note This unfortunately has a habit of blindsiding Estelle in any sphere of politics beyond the court, as national, international, and local politics often require something closer to Grey-and-Gray Morality to function in properly.
- 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.
- Camp Straight: Duke Kikal looks like an ostentatious, self-obsessed fop, but he is constantly flirting with and coming onto Lucifela to an uncomfortable degree.
- Cannot Tell a Lie: When Lucifela runs into a former soldier from when she was Estelle selling a brooch she had lost in the woods, she is easily able to read through his excuses at how he got his hands on it both due to how nervous he is and how few specifics he goes into when explaining himself.
- Can't Hold Her Liquor: During episode 107, Lucifela insists upon having some of the alcohol that Zed and other knights are drinking, wanting to relive her days when she was knight drinking with her friends...unfortunately, she forgets that she's no longer in her original body and, as such, doesn't have the same alcohol tolerance. Cue collapsing as soon as she drinks down the stein of beer.
- 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.
- The Church: The Temple. Not much is elaborated about it, but it seems to hold a fair amount of power in Jansgar, with Lucifela and Zedekiah's engagement, dictated in late Duke Heint's will, being approved by three priests and threatening Zed with losing his title and citizenship if he defies it. The contract, binding the noble ladies to hold their silence about what happened at the Empress' tea party, is also sealed by the Temple and breaking it means losing citizenship as well.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: The first time Khalid is ever caught at a disadvantage in regards to Estelle is when Estelle's instincts kick in and she rides off to protect Zedekiah following a hunting incident. This leaves Khalid quietly raging, because the one thing that makes him happy - Estelle thinking about him - is no longer there. In his rage, he ends up killing a hunting falcon as he tries to restrain himself.
- Color Motif: As revealed in the artist's commentary, each of the major characters are associated with a color or a combination of two colors, which frequently show up in their clothing;
- Lucifela is associated with navy and plum.
- Zedekiah is associated with black and green.
- Estelle is associated with grey and blue (and to a lesser extent, yellow, to contrast from Khalid).
- Khalid is associated primarily with white, though is often surrounded in purple imagery.
- Florence almost always wears yellow, though she's often associated with green as well.
- Eozif is associated with white and sky blue.
- Temir is associated with red and black.
- Though not listed in the commentary, Dahlia is frequently associated with purple, especially given her eye-catching hair.
- Fitting with her name, Melrose heavily favors red in every outfit she wears.
- Covers Always Lie: Despite what the above cover might suggest, there's absolutely no Love Triangle between Zedekiah, Estelle and Khalid. In fact, Estelle loathes Khalid and her relationship with Zedekiah, while taking some screentime, is not even the focus of the story.
- 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.
- Culture Clash: More of a class clash, but it's strongly implied Ersha suffered from significant wealth disparity between nobility and lower rungs of society, with Estelle being genuinely shocked that the Aydin family doesn't have to fear being attacked by commoners, since such thing was a common occurence in her home country, and that the people at their estate are well-cared for. She's also surpised to hear that the empire dispatches yearly inspection teams to make sure the land is well-managed.
- Darkest Hour: The opening of the second act has most of the lead characters in dire straits. Prince Eozif is winning over the nation, but Florence notes that he's starting to show cracks from all the work he's had to put in. Florence is willing to work with Eozif for her personal freedom, but she's suffering active, physical abuse from her brother and is isolated when Eozif isn't around. The worst off is Estelle; not only has Khalid confirmed her identity, she failed to kill him and learned he actually enjoyed her attempts to do him harm, and a lot of what he said leaves her conflicted about her identity as Estelle. Through Khalid's reveal, Prince Eozif has ALSO learned that Lucifela is actually Estelle, though he has not revealed this yet. Though the characters are trying to pick up the pieces and have the potential to bounce back, they're all at their wits' end.
- Dead Guy on Display: Apparently after presenting the emperor with Estelle's head, Khalid was allowed to keep her head. He decided to put it on display under a glass bell jar. By the time it's seen, it is only left as a skull with a few tufts of her silver hair to show who it used to belong to. While it was likely his attempt to memorialize the woman he loved, it comes off as a sick and creepy spit in the face after his betrayal.
- Decapitation Presentation: Khalid presented the emperor of Jansgar with Estelle's severed head to prove his loyalty.
- Defrosting Ice King: Zedekiah starts off the story as cold, harsh, and distant, butting heads a few times with Lucifela at the start. However, as he sees more of her good qualities and falls in love with her, he becomes much kinder and considerate, even fearing that admitting his newfound love for her would be unwelcome since she had made it clear from the start that she had no interest in marrying him.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: It is constantly shown that women in Jansgar have far less rights compared to men to the point that men are effectively able to harass women and not be held accountable for their reprehensible behavior. This is done to show just how unfitting Estelle is within the country. Among other things:
- Women are not allowed to be knights. Estelle is constantly mocked for "not staying in her place" and Lucifela even attempting to defend herself is considered ridiculous.
- Men are allowed to physically abuse women. Florence suffers tons of abuse from her brother, with him even preparing to draw a sword on her at one point. Lucifela defending Florence actually upsets Florence since it would be difficult to smooth that over socially.
- There is a famous opera that shows a man silently obsessing over a woman until he eventually murders her before killing himself. Many consider the story to be a romantic tragedy, sympathizing with the male lead while Estelle sees him as a cowardly sociopath who ended a perfectly innocent woman's life because he couldn't build up the courage to admit his love to her.
- Men are allowed to come visit a woman whenever they want and the woman must allow him in, even being expected to be presentable when the man arrives. Khalid uses this to mess with Estelle since she has "no reason" to reject him, with her father insisting that SHE is being unreasonable for not wanting him there.
- This later seems to be used again when Prince Temir comes uninvited to a tea party held by his mother and proceeds to intentionally ruin the mood by casually talking about Lady Loer leaving him for his brother and drinking the tea only to accuse them of disrespecting him by making it too hot, throwing and destroying the cup because of this. Despite this, his mother sits there silently, not seeming able to eject him from the tea party.
- A gift from a man must be accepted by the woman, even if she has no interest in him. Khalid has a brooch made for Lucifela/Estelle and uses this expectation to try and force Lucifela to accept it, lest her reputation take a hit for being "ungrateful". In this case, she manages to actually refuse his token and justify her reason for doing so, even if only to Florence who had initially insisted she needed to take it.
- Dress code, as expected, is scrutinized harshly. When Duchess Lahshi is seen wearing pants at a party, the other guests make veiled insults at her and are left flabbergasted when Lucifela says she not only saw nothing wrong with wearing pants but admired her bravery for having done so.
- Delicate and Sickly: Lucifela, who was always of weak constitution and her suicide attempt worsens the matters. Estelle gets a coughing fit just from being slightly incensed in her body, albeit she later gradually gets better.
- 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.
- Do Wrong, Right: The reason that the Emperor punished Prince Temir wasn't because he was abusing his maids, but because he was doing it so openly that it was being talked about.
- Driven to Suicide: Lucifela was lovers with the first prince, and tossed herself into the lake after he threw her away. Subverted when we learn that the first prince actually TOLD Lucifela to throw herself into the lake as a show of her love for him. She, in her desperation for love, did as she was told, much to his amusement.
- Entitled to Have You: Prince Temir seems to have this attitude regarding Lucifela, though this comes not from genuine interest in HER but due to being the Prince, which makes him feel entitled to whoever he wants.
- Khalid has this attitude with Estelle/Lucifela, being determined to keep all her attention and thoughts on him and getting violently furious when it's clear she's NOT thinking about him.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Downplayed as Lady Melrose is more of a bully than outright evil, but she admits that even without having to sign a contract forbidding speaking about the events of the tea party where Prince Temir openly admitted to having assaulted Lucifela and threatened to tell Zed to hurt her reputation, she would never spread rumors about such a thing.
- Everyone Has Standards: Prince Eozif thinks this about Khalid upon discovering a display case in his residence with Estelle’s skull and several tufts of her hair.Eozif: Really… and here I thought I was the most outrageous man around. This man is far, far worse than I am.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: In this case an evil detecting falcon, as after Khalid has Estelle make it clear she cares more about Zedekiah than him, a hunting falcon near him starts to spontaneously freak out. Several seconds later, he killed it with a thrown knife.
- 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.
- Fatal Flaw: As Estelle slowly comes to realize for herself, her Black-and-White Insanity and blind loyalty towards people she feels personally support her holds her back immensely. She may have been the greatest knight of her entire generation, but that meant nothing when she labeled Jansgar as 'evil' and Ersha as 'good' without bothering to contemplate the very obvious cracks in Ersha's proverbial wall that would allow Jansgar to so easily take over. Despite her own impoverished upbringing, Estelle was completely blind to the terrors others like her faced throughout the kingdom, even if she was able to identify most of Ersha's nobles as hedonists and corrupt officials. Estelle's obliviousness to the political machinations of everyone around her and the mere idea she could be betrayed by people who at some point supported her meant Estelle was left woefully unprepared when Khalid - who had several reasons for wanting to destroy Ersha's power structure Estelle never investigated - stabbed her while she was unprepared.
- Foreshadowing: The opera in Chapter 65 is effectively the plot of the actual story. This includes Khalid taking on the role of the jilted lover; the public perception of the story and the jilted lover's role within it as the tortured protagonist is effectively how Khalid sees himself, feeling deprived of the love he was owed by Estelle in the first place. Estelle and Zedekiah's view of the play - that of the jilted lover being a loser sociopath who really just deprived a woman of her life due to issues he couldn't get over - informs Estelle's stance on Khalid once Khalid confirms he knows Estelle is Lucifela.
- Freudian Excuse: Prince Temir seems to have become the absolute jerk he is due in part to his mother treating him very harshly compared to his brother Eozif, exemplified by him having gone to see his mother in her garden once only to get slapped while his brother was welcomed warmly despite having skipped his lessons.
- General Failure: Pointed out as Estelle's greatest failing. It's remarked upon by the previous Count Lahshi that Estelle Schubert knew only perhaps one equal in combat, and more than earned her right as Ersha's greatest knight, but that only extended to her combat and tactical prowess. Alluded to throughout the entire story and finally spelled out by Lahshi is that while Estelle commanded loyal knights, she wasn't a very clever leader, and made multiple mistakes all throughout Jansgar's campaign against Ersha - and presumably even before, given how many times Khalid's forces needed to bail out her own. Crucially, Estelle threw a wrench in the works regarding Jansgar's capture of Ersha because she was gullible, eating up whatever the nobles in charge told her about what Jansgar intended to do if they successfully conquered Ersha. Even after several Ersha territories defected to Jansgar, she never took the hint that they were in fact rebelling by turning to Jansgar due to how poorly Ersha's elite treated the commonfolk and the weaker barons.
- The Glasses Gotta Go: It turns out Eozif's glasses are purely cosmetic and used to fit a 'bookworm' persona. Once he no longer needs to maintain the facade and needs to prove he is a Badass Bookworm, he discards them and his goofier persona to come off as more attractive and capable. Eozif does note before discarding them, however, that he had worn them for so long he views them as a security blanket.
- 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.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: Though the story initially appears to apply Black-and-White Morality to the Jansgar and Ersha dynamic, part of the overall message of the story is that both sides have their advantages and flaws. Though both nations are filled with corrupt nobility, Jansgar has an overall better handle on its domestic corruption and was supported in its effort to take Ersha by Ershans suffering in squalor under local nobility that turned out even worse. Jansgar still was the aggressor in the conflict, however, and has its own flaws. Though its economy does a better job supporting the commonfolk, what few rights women have in Ersha are utterly suppressed in Jansgar, and Jansgar is beginning to see a downturn in its productivity and status as an empire because it is literally becoming too big to properly police and maintain. Part of what makes Eozif the Big Good is that he is the most aware of both nations' problems and feels that separating Ersha from Jansgar will ultimately help both sides, as it would allow Jansgar to prune territory and give Ersha a fresh start.
- Groin Attack: Estelle uses it on the crown prince after he sexually assaults her during the banquet.
- Estelle uses it yet again against Florence's abusive brother when it looked like he was going to threaten or even hurt her with his sword.
- Guile Hero: Though not by choice, the narrative effectively details an action heroine's transition into a charismatic schemer. Though still knowledgeable about how to fight properly, Lucifela's frail body stymies Estelle's early efforts to simply run away and find her old knight colleagues and subordinates, forcing Estelle to acclimate to the life of a noblewoman simply to survive Jansgar's social sphere. Estelle actively exercises regularly to push Lucifela's body as far as it can go, and even harms Temir and defeats a serial killer, but worries about her prospects about ever being a capable Action Girl again.
- 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.
- Handsome Lech: Duke Kikal is, despite being unbearably smug and foppish, a very good looking guy. He's also, unfortunately, a shameless skirt-chaser who flirts with Lucifela right in front of her fiancé without a care.
- Hate Sink: Prince Temir is a smug, selfish royal pain who uses his position to use and abuse any woman he desires. He verbally abuses Lucifela, convinced her to risk her life as an expression of her love for him, heartlessly laughs when she does it, and whips maids that look similar to her when she rejects his advances and knees him in the royal jewels. He also cheats during the hunting competition by taking others kills and claiming them as his own and insists Eozif must've done the same when he manages to bring a much more impressive animal back alive.
- Khalid Louis Luke, Estelle's former second in command, is a smug, traitorous jerk who killed her so he would be accepted by his army's enemies. Years after, he mocks Estelle for not knowing her place as a lady without hesitation and attempts to hunt down a former ally, claiming they might be a serial killer, despite having apparently figured out that the killer was actually a carriage driver. Things only get worse once it's revealed that he is an obsessive, monstrous psychopath who wants to make Estelle obsess over him as much as he does for her to the point of never explaining his reason for killing her so she'll have to find out on her own.
- Head-Turning Beauty: Lucifela, who was dubbed "The morning star of Jansgar" by the emperor himself thanks to her looks.
- Hypocrite: Khalid tries to call out Estelle for being a hypocrite for trying to rise in the social ranks of Jansgar as Lucifela despite calling Khalid out for betraying his nation. This doesn't stick and Estelle doesn't even bother to correct him because the entire point of the story is that she's doing the best she can in a bad situation to wait out her chance to make a difference for Ersha - starting with getting her revenge on him. The only reason she ever resorted to playing politics was the fact she was stuck in a physically frail body that wouldn't get far on its own on the journey to reunite with her colleagues. In fact, her first act upon waking up as Lucifela, when she had a plan to try, was to attempt to find her old comrades.
- Idiot Ball: One of Estelle's former soldiers, Balder, wasted time in an enemy country trying to sell a brooch he found on the ground...that could get traced back to her...after having killed two of the country's soldiers. He also is terrible at lying and can't hide his panic as Estelle questions him
- 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.
- It's All About Me: Effectively Khalid's major character flaw. As foreshadowed by the opera in Chapter 65, which very closely matches the main thrust of the plot of the actual story, Khalid largely takes the role of the jilted lover that feels so entitled to a woman with another man that he kills her and himself. As Estelle points out, the opera is only seen as a tragedy because it uses the jilted lover as the protagonist - the world is seen through his eyes, hence he garners sympathy. Estelle rather sees the opera as being about a spineless idiot who can't accept that the person he wants will never love him throwing a fit and depriving the woman of a future. Khalid fits this very mold; he chooses to see the world purely from his own perspective, and feels offended he can never have Estelle, so he betrays her, tricks her, kills her, and then stalks her reincarnated form in Lucifela. Though he's cognizant of the fact Estelle is not happy about what he did and how he deprived her of her happiness as Estelle, all he can care about is the fact Estelle has no choice but to think about him constantly.
- It's Personal: Estelle needs to be the one to get vengeance on Khalid, come hell or high water. This actually saves Khalid's life, since despite having him dead-to-rights after he protected her from rampaging demons, Estelle couldn't bring herself to do the deed because he'd die a glorious, heroic martyr, and instead set about healing him.
- Jacob Marley Apparel: When talking to Lucifela inside her head, Estelle sees her in the same dress she committed suicide in. Also, notably, Lucifela tried to drown herself and said dress is decorated with pearls and seashell patterns. This was revealed as intentional by the artist to draw attention to Lucifela's method of attempted suicide.
- Knight in Shining Armor: Estelle embodied the chivalrous ideals to the best of her ability, and proved herself to be a knight without equal. This actually works against her somewhat when she becomes Lucifela, because she was so used to surviving and living by her athletic and noble merits that she has a hard time adjusting to a life that demands she play politics. It's not until 'Lucifela' befriends Florence and has Florence tutor her in etiquette that Lucifela finds any real success with this handicap foisted on her. It also plays into why she can't kill Khalid at one point despite having him dead to rights, because her revenge wouldn't mean anything if she couldn't beat Khalid on her own terms. It also keeps her from taking a golden opportunity to help liberate Ersha with Prince Eozif, because Eozif's method of getting the nobility to side with him by manipulating Zedekiah through temptation is a bridge Estelle's knightly ideals won't let her cross.
- Subverted in regards to Khalid, who very much looks the part but doesn't truly embody any of the ideals, unlike his former commander. He stabs her in the back while pretending to want a hug from his friend, betrays his own country for his own gain, lies about the identity of a serial killer in the hopes of tying up loose ends, happily mocks his former commander and best friend for not knowing her place as a woman, and is so obsessed with Estelle that he stalks, harasses, and gaslights her all in the hopes of possessing her or at least make her think as much about him as he does of her, even if said thoughts are thoughts of hatred.
- 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. Things only get worse once it's revealed that he KNOWS Lucifela is Estelle, has been obsessed with HER during her old life, and is desperate to make her obsess over HIM to the point of intentionally angering and pursuing her even though she wants nothing to do with him.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: While Florence is in control of the social world and can come off as harsh at times, such as bluntly insulting some of the jewelry Lucifela wore, she took control over it in order to help defend Lucifela, whom she felt was unfairly persecuted by the other noble ladies, and insults the jewelry in order to try and teach her friend what jewelry she SHOULD be wearing instead.
- Love Confession: While staying with a drunk, sleeping Lucifela, Zedekiah tells her that he cares so deeply about her that he fears she might be disturbed by her feelings.
- Marry for Love: Lucifela's mother, Luana, who chose Count Aydin over previous Duke Heint.
- Interestingly, the emperor of Jansgar 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.
- The Mentor: Florence takes on this role as Lucifela's teacher in etiquette. Though Estelle wishes dearly she could become physically capable of fighting again, she admits to herself that without a lot of work, effort, and time, there's no realistic way she can bring herself to be as athletic as she was in her past life. Florence enters into Lucifela's life just in the nick of time to properly teach her etiquette and help her learn to use her words as weapons; following their first few meetings, Estelle is already proficient enough in the elite social circles to challenge Melrose on her home turf and come out on top, though not without some assistance from Florence and Florence's friend, Dahlia Rein.
- Minor Injury Overreaction: Upon hearing that Zed was "seriously injured" during the hunt, Estelle comes to the conclusion that whatever happened to him was so awful that it could potentially destroy his life as a knight. Once she arrives, she learns, much to her frustration, that he received a minor scratch on his shoulder from an arrow and that Zed's retainers believe "any wound [he] sustains should be considered serious". Downplayed in that there WAS someone who was gravely injured, that being Zed's retainer, Bernard, who fell off his horse and onto a stone, which at best means he would get a really bad bruise and at worst could've broken a bone.
- Misery Trigger: Even after physically overcoming him and eloping with Prince Eozif as a form of protection against him, Florence immediately seizes up in an implied panic attack when Prince Temir approaches her, due to the fact he at one point tried to rape her and was allowed to do so by Florence's father.
- 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.
- Never My Fault: During chapter 101, Prince Temir notes that a lot of the misfortunes he has suffered, including being deposed by his father, happened after Lucifela threw herself into the lake. As such, he ends up blaming all his woes on Lucifela rather than his own bad decisions.
- 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.
- Like her 'father,' Estelle is quick to play dumb whenever she's caught at a disadvantage to throw people off her scent. She's fairly skilled at this despite lacking the actual Lucifela's knowledge of etiquette, though her interest in Ersha and her hatred of Khalid tip Eozif and Khalid off that Lucifela is acting the fool more often than not.
- Obviously Evil: Downplayed, but Duke Kikal almost always look smug and will shamelessly flirt with Lucifela while Khalid is right in front of the two.
- 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.
- Out-Gambitted: During the hunting competition, Temir cheats and has other hunters kill his animals for him so he can inflate his score. When Eozif comes back with a live Orix, a massive ox-like creature with two winding snake tails, Temir tries to insist that Eozif cheated and had other hunters kill Eozif's quarry. Beyond the fact Eozif came back with a live animal, Eozif actually anticipated this response from Temir, counting on the man to accuse him of cheating. Eozif has the Orix freed from its bonds in front of the entire audience before knocking it out in a single blow, proving he had the capability to catch and tame the beast, thus making himself look even more powerful than he did before, rendering Temir's arguments hollow.
- 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.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Prince Temir, one of the most vile characters in the series, is revealed to have sexually assaulted Lucifela, possibly even having been the one to take her virginity. He seems quite proud of this, boasting in front of several other women about having done this to her and even attempting to blackmail her with this knowledge. Even Lady Melrose seems disgusted by such a thing.
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin:Zedekiah: Lucifela Aydin... with hair as dark as the night sky... a pale face... and eyes that shine like stars. She's beautiful enough to be called the Ishtar of Jansgar.
- 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 misogynistic society, she realizes women have different ways of using what limited power they can have and stops looking at them so harshly.
- "Reborn as Villainess" Story: In a roundabout way, this is what the plot for this story entails. A woman is killed and ends up in the body of a noble woman who is highly disliked for her treatment of others, from staff to other nobles. This woman, in her new body, does her best to survive in her new environment. The big difference is that Estelle, a soldier, is reborn within her own world three years in the future, during which time her old country has been destroyed by the war she was in and she now has to live in the enemy country.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: The First Prince, Temir, is outright said to be associated with the colors black and red, and he is a hedonistic, vile brat who raped Lucifela and encouraged her to throw herself into the river as a twisted demonstration of her love for him.
- Red Herring: Both 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.
- In particular, Zedekiah suspects that Florence was the one who had helped set up Lucifela's horse to go crazy in order to hurt or even kill her since she KNEW Lucifela had wanted to ride a Trakehner horse. This, of course, turns out to be completely false, and the real culprit was Khalid, who had done so not to hurt Lucifela, but to help determine his suspicion that Estelle had been reborn in Lucifela's body since 1, he knew Estelle would want to ride a Trakehner horse from knowledge of her old life and 2, he knew Estelle had the skills necessary to get the horse under control.
- Reincarnation: There's heavy implication that Estelle and Khalid may be reincarnations of Ishtar, the Goddess of War, Love, and Fertility, and Ares, the Destroyer. Both Estelle and Lucifela (who Estelle's spirit is now inside) are often called the Ishtar of their respective countries, and Khalid's obsession over Estelle, to the point of wanting her to only think about him, ties into how Ares wanted to have Ishtar all to himself and started a war so she would give him the attention he craved.
- 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.
- Satellite Character: Lady Dahlia Rein is friendly enough with Lucifela once Florence establishes that Lucifela is a friend, but otherwise Dahlia largely exists to be Florence's friend and establish Florence's control over Jansgar's social sphere.
- 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.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Due to Eozif overhearing Khalid as he is calling after Lucifela when she runs away from him, he soon realizes that rather than Lucifela being a fan of Estelle, she is actually Estelle herself.
- 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 and leaving their bodies throughout the capital, which is throwing the city into a panic. It turns out to be a carriage driver, who would take women out of the way, kill them, and then move their bodies to whatever spot he could find that would draw attention.
- Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Florence Loer. Downplayed as she has her moments of being a cunning and vicious social butterfly that uses her words as weapons, but she treats Lucifela very kindly from the start. Several people, from Zedekiah to Lucifela's society tutor, suspect that she acts this way as a mask and would be more than happy to destroy Lucifela with a smile on her face, but it turns out she genuinely just wants to protect Lucifela from other far less kind people with all the social clout she has built up over years of work.
- Smug Snake: Prince Temir is often flaunts his power and position over others, but the minute someone refuses to bow to him or is shown to have more power he is left floundering and will throw a petty tantrum.
- 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.
- Stalker with a Crush: After he reveals that he knows Lucifela is actually Estelle, Khalid starts to constantly hound her with visits and gifts, much to Estelle's mounting frustration. He was also dangerously obsessed with her in her old life, to the point of keeping her sword, skull and a tuft of her hair as trophies in his home.
- Stealing the Credit: Prince Temir pretends all the beasts he killed were his own. Estelle quickly realizes none were his own kills and laments how many sycophants he has. Then, when Eozif returns with a far more impressive hunt under his belt, Prince Temir immediately invokes this by accusing his brother of stealing someone else's credit, but the accusation doesn't stick.
- 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.
- Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: Played for horror. Estelle wants to take the chance to kill Khalid, but is thrown off and sickened by Khalid's sexual overtures towards her only becoming creepier and verging closer and closer to outright assault over the fact he'd enjoy the experience. He even notes that he'd only struggle because he'd want to draw out the experience of Estelle getting her revenge.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: After 'Lucifela' explains to Florence that she lost her memories, Florence is quick to assume that this also explains why Lucifela also starts talking in a way very unusual for a noblewoman. Lucifela decides to run with that explanation to avoid giving away who she really is.
- This Means War!: Downplayed as he doesn't declare war, but Zed swearing that he would never accept Prince Temir as being the Emperor of Jansgar all but ensures that the two will be sworn enemies, with Temir swearing that Zed would be punished as soon as Temir was crowned Emperor and even demanding that his guards execute Zed on the spot in his drunken rage.
- Threat Backfire: In an attempt to force Lucifela under his heel, Prince Temir threatens to tell Zedekiah about how he had his way with Lucifela in the past. In response, Lucifela counters that not only would Zede not think badly of her, such a reveal would only serve to ruin the Prince's reputation and make him look like a petty loser.
- Tomboy: Duchess Lahshi dresses in masculine clothing and will fight with a sword in her free time. Justified as she has found that emulating Estelle has actually made things easier for her while running her territory.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tomboy Estelle to girly Lucifela. Given Lucifela's consciousness is currently subdued, however, Estelle-in-Lucifela's-body forms a pair of sorts like this with Florence.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Baroness Dahlia Rein ends up becoming charmed by Lucifela after she takes time to help her figure out how to ride a horse correctly simply out of kindness and starts treating her better than she had initially. She even helps Florence to undermine Melrose's reputation after she had attempted to pull a mean-spirited prank on Lucifela.
- Tranquil Fury: After Lucifela goes to see Zed when she heard that he was "seriously" injured, she passes by Khalid and tells him she doesn't have time to waste on him. He ends up rooted to the spot for nearly a minute and seems to show no signs of a reaction...until he kills a hunting falcon without warning.
- 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: Sitora, 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.
- Underestimating Badassery: Due to Prince Eozif's mask of being a silly, eccentric bookworm, Prince Temir sees his brother as absolutely no threat to his claim on the throne. His father, the Emperor, even seems to lampshade this as he insists that Temir should be more cautious of him.
- Unknown Relative: It's heavily implied, if not outright stated, that Estelle's mother was the half-sister to Lucifela's mother, meaning that the two are cousins.
- 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.
- White Hair, Black Heart: Khalid's hair is pure white and he is a traitorous scumbag who murdered his commander and friend and sold out his country in order to save his own skin. He's also a creepy stalker obsessed with Estelle to the point of having kept her severed head/skull and a tuft of her hair is a display case. And, of course, he often acts like a smug jerk and doesn't hesitate to badmouth his former allies.
- Why Can't I Hate You?: One of Estelle's biggest challenges regarding her goal of killing Khalid in revenge is that she still has conflicting feelings about him. She's righteously angry about the fact he betrayed their nation and killed her in cold blood, but she's shocked, again and again, by how her internal feelings cry out for Khalid to do something, anything, to prove the Khalid she knew is still in there somewhere every time he besmirches what it meant to be a knight of Ersha. This trope and Estelle wanting to deal with Khalid personally are the biggest roadblocks towards her actually getting her revenge.
- 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.
- Yandere: Khalid's treatment of Lucifela upon revealing he knows her to be Estelle come off as chilling as he hugs her from behind, whispering of her being his "Ishtar", and even kept her severed head (which is now left as a skull) and tufts of her hair in a glass bell jar. He also admits to being obsessed with how she would kill on the battlefield, to the point of being turned on by her attempts to kill HIM, much to her disgust.
