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Marielle Clarac’s Engagement
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Rating(4.0 / 5.0, 88 votes)
5    58% (51 votes)
4    16% (14 votes)
3    9% (8 votes)
2    3% (3 votes)
1    14% (12 votes)
Language
Support Book
Author(s)
One entry per line
Artist(s)
One entry per line
Year
Example: 2012
2015
Status in COO
Status in Country of Origin. One entry per line
9 Volumes (Ongoing)
Licensed
Yes
Completely Translated
No
Original Publisher
One entry per line
English Publisher
One entry per line
Release Frequency
Every 127.3 Day(s)
Activity Stats
[Graph]
Weekly Rank: #7969
Monthly Rank: #6352
All Time Rank: #3770
Reading List
[Graph]
On 3386 Reading Lists
Monthly Rank: #6165
All Time Rank: #2280

Description

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The plain, unpopular, inconspicuous and dull wallflower of the social circles. Even so, a marriage proposal arrives for such a Mariel. The fiancé is, surprise!, the heart-throbbing imperial knight Simeon-sama! Why does he, towards this girl? Even as she is showered in jealousy and scorn, Mariel is happy. After all, Simeon-sama is the perfect delicacy, a handsome youth with a bright exterior but a dark interior! This is the story of a girl who secretly laughs at her fiancé and his surroundings.

Associated Names
One entry per line
Marieru kurarakku no konyaku
The Tales of Marielle Clarac (LN)
マリエル・クララックの婚約
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
The Magician Wants Normality (2)
Can Someone Please Explain This Situation (2)
Mahoutsukai no Konyakusha (LN) (2)
The Noble Girl Living in Debt (2)
The Earl’s Bad Wife (1)
Shinigamihime no Saikon (1)
Recommendation Lists
  1. Favorite JP Novel
  2. Liked Female Protagonist (JN)
  3. Strong Heroine Romance Novels
  4. Has a comic/webtoon/manhwa/manhua/manga
  5. Villainess & Aristocracy Female Lead Part 4

Latest Release

Date Group Release
07/31/20 FoxTeller c10
02/14/20 Foxaholic c10 part4
02/14/20 Foxaholic c10 part3
02/14/20 Foxaholic c10 part2
02/14/20 Foxaholic c10 part1
09/03/19 FoxTeller c9
12/12/18 FoxTeller c8
12/06/18 FoxTeller c7
11/19/18 FoxTeller c6
11/01/18 FoxTeller c5
08/04/18 FoxTeller c4
07/23/18 FoxTeller c3 part5
07/08/18 FoxTeller c3 part4
07/02/18 FoxTeller c3 part3
07/01/18 FoxTeller c3 part2
12
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10 Reviews sorted by


Lenva
Lenva rated it
June 17, 2018
Status: c2 part4
It maybe a little bit early to review this novel, but I really like the MC, Mariel. She's like a combination of Naedoko (from manga koi dano ai dano) and Alicia (from Shinigami-hime no saikon). She is an eccentric girl, from outside she is just a plain girl with ordinary noble background, but inside, she is a keen observer and has vivid imagination but she is cautious enough to not let people see her true self.

Her fiancee, Simeon (translated as Simon) is her ultimate moe, a good-looking glasses guy... more>> with black belly personality (in her imagination). Unknown to her, he already took interest of her from several years earlier and knew her eccentricity.

I'm looking forward for their relations to grow. <<less
18 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
macy2
macy2 rated it
July 2, 2018
Status: c3.3
The story starts off alright at first. Marielle is a noble, who perfers being a wallflower to better observe society. And in order to not spoil too much, lets just say Marielle is a fantasizer and has an overactive imagination.

Doesn't sound too bad right? And thats what I though too. But I may be biased, I'm turned off by books immediatly if there are idiotic, supremely happy-go-lucky, or MCs that lack sensibilities and basic common sense.

She seemed normal enough, a noble not taken in by the glamour and egos of... more>> society. Unfortunatly as you read on, her tendencies to fantasize gets annoying. It intrudes upon sensibilities and common sense. Like literally, in the face of trouble she's pretty much like "The maginificance of a true villianness lady! How quickly sje plots! How vile her words! Ufufufu I must remember this experience!" And this is pretty much the template (with allowance for changes in the given situation) for almost everything that drives the plot. It's freaking annoying.

Also, I'll like to note that marielle is an unrealiable narrator as well. If you're looking for a cute (?), nonsensical easy read I guess this is for you. If not, you might want to pass on this book.

Also, for those who read through my long review and want a spoiler see below.

Spoiler

She's an author that publishes dramatic chick-flick romance novels secretly. Which resulted to her becoming some plot manic to the point it overrides basic sensibilities and common sense (you can almost say shes a 'hentai' for plots). So yeah, "The maginificance of a true villianness lady! How quickly she plots! How vile her words! Ufufufu I must remember this experince" is quite a literal summed up internal monologue she has that repeats throughout. Marielle doesnt care about society at all in my opinion. And although her fantasizes are internal, that doesnt mean it doesnt clue out externally (overt and covert) but other characters pretty much conveniently ignore them all and the MC goes on with her self-centered life of going Ufufufu for various things. In my opinion she becomes more unlikable with her fantasys as the plot goes on (but at this point there's only 3.3 chapters, so maybe it'll change. But I'm quitting the novel after this review.) Her character is also very shallow and the author has yet to provide any subtance to her character growth and depth.

[collapse]
<<less
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Anra7777
Anra7777 rated it
May 15, 2018
Status: c2.2
I normally don’t give reviews so early in a translation, but I felt this one was worth it.

This story is quite refreshing so far, with a “plain, ”* but intelligent MC and her seemingly extraordinarily lucky engagement to an ikemen of high rank. In truth, each is hiding some secrets from the other, and I am looking forward to the reveal and how their relationship flourishes, as they seem, to me, to be quite well matched.

*Maybe it’s just the cover, or in comparison with the other ladies around her, but... more>> honestly, who would call someone like that “plain”? Maybe I just have weird tastes... <<less
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CrimsonHazel
CrimsonHazel rated it
September 12, 2020
Status: -
At first I really like how the MC reacted to everything. Her personality is unique and she saw everything in pretty positive light.

But as I read on, at the first misunderstanding where she sent the letter on breaking the engagement, I thought, if they took many chapter just to resolve this, I'm dropping it. And surprise surprise... it got resolved immediately!! I love it as I hate those novel where the mains misunderstood each other and took several hundred chapter to finally talk with each other.

Then the arc with thief... more>> started. I got a really bad feeling about this. And yes, my fear came true. She somehow got it in her head that her father is the one pushing the engagement. The arc where I thought she'll be snooping around acting like a detective, turned out to be the one where she misunderstood everything. Where she's pretty much useless and got used by the bad guy.

I think I'll be dropping this. I'll just look up a spoiler thread and see how this end.

Sorry for ranting, this is just my opinion. You might have different one, so feel free to express it too. <<less
3 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Aria
Aria rated it
February 14, 2019
Status: c8
The translation is a bit... But the story is 5 star <3

MC is a novellist with great imagination and would zone out into moe! land from time to time. When she's not lost in her imagination, she's very realistic and aware.

... more>>
Spoiler

ML is an upright vice knight captain, he knew about her hobby and have been watching her for years. He didn't really get her more outlandish fantasy (fetish) but is accepting of it. Good guy.

In the end they became a splendid (if atypical) couple who do a lot of tsukkomi-boke routine.

[collapse]

After the first 3 chapters, this story is comedy gold xD <<less
2 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
vasiliassy
vasiliassy rated it
May 29, 2018
Status: c2 part4
I like this story, the balance of MC and ML pov is good. And both of them is calculated people.

Spoiler

ML is first who notice he like MC a little by little, but after getting advised by captain, he become a little rush to say his feeling. Dat was so cute~

[collapse]

Edit*

It got MANGA SERIES! And the LN finaly finished in 4th volume~

Damn the cover was so cute! Manga web: http://online. Ichijinsha. Co. Jp/zerosum/comic/mari
2 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
HentMas
HentMas rated it
May 6, 2020
Status: c10 part4
Imagine an obsessive Otaku girl is born to the house of a noble family in the middle ages... except instead of "anime" she obsesses over love novels... and yet she keeps using the "otaku" terms when having conversations with her friends.

If you find this characters annoying, you will not like this story...

That being said, I really enjoyed the novel, no transmigration, no thick plot, no overwhelming protagonists, just a simple straight up love story.

The story progresses smoothly from monologues on each characters POV, I quite enjoy that there is no... more>> need for an exposition dump because it's a simple setting where you can fill in the blanks and every action is portrayed systematically and in very simple explanations, it's a fairly easy novel to read, and I'm thankful for that because the translation is so-so, but not to the point of it being distracting. (you may need to read some wording a couple of times to understand it but it's ok)

The interactions and the dialog is cute, and the ending is all you could hope to find in a novel of this kind, I think the description "short and cute" is fitting.

And now it's getting a second volume... and I'm happy with that, I think the setting is going to get more fleshed out and unless there is some ret*rded editor that messes with the plot I think it's going to be fine.

I wanted to write this review to give it a little push, this novel needs a bit more eyes. <<less
1 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Cantelope
Cantelope rated it
September 3, 2019
Status: c9
Pretty damn cute. Short and sweet, get your quick fix on sugar.
1 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
stormysaeon
stormysaeon
February 24, 2022
Status: c25
I know this is supposed to be for novels, but the manga is also based on the same material, so it should be fine, I think?

My impression of the manga was that it dragged on certain scenes too much. And it's not just the funny scenes. Is this normal for manhwas set in medieval times? The problem I've always had with manhwas was that when the author drags on a funny scene (too much dialogue, side comment, etc.) I quickly find myself bored. I immediately judged it to be filler,... more>> and preferred if it were cut off. I read mangas instead of novels because of how easy it is to read, and how pretty it is to look at. I think there wouldn't be any point otherwise.

Another thing was the uppity introductions. I would've been happier if her friend had been introduced in a more natural way. I'm not great at explaining this, so it'll be easier to sum it up in one writing rule, "show, don't tell."

Moving on to the more important part...

Marielle is an enthusiastic noble lady who is extremely optimistic. Despite not being good at riding a horse and always falling, she comforts her worried father by telling him he shouldn't worry about her because she's gotten better at falling while still upside down from her fall. She's a girl so plain she easily blends in the background. Which I believe can be because of her plain clothes and lack of adornment. Most importantly, she's a passionate writer who uses even her bullying experience to create stories. Her mental resiliency is unrealistic if I say so myself, but this is fiction, so it's only normal for that. Kind of like how it's impossible to find a guy as dumb as Bokuto, Hinata, or Tanaka. If they did exist, they'd be more annoying than funny.

Her family also commented that things tend to get worse when she puts her all into things because her priorities are eskewed, which reminds me of Myne from Honzuki.

But it doesn't make her (and them) bad characters in my opinion. I think her mental resiliency comes from the fact that she has decided to only joke about her apparent averageness. As Marielle put it, the ones who don't enjoy life are the ones losing. To the point that she asks her then possible future husband if he was fine with her. Not just because her previous marriage partner was disappointed when he saw her personally, but through her own experience. Early on, she's made it clear that to her, it's obvious that him getting married to her was a loss for him.

How should I put it? Insecure seems too heavy of a word for a girl as bright as her, but I don't want to sugarcoat it. Insecurity can warp a person and make them do things they never would've done. But she's not like that. Her actions can be intrusive at times, but she's never done anything bad towards others. One thing I'm sure of is that her evaluation of herself is very low.

Later on, how people see her self-deprecatory comments, and subsequently, her in general other than weird, funny, or interesting, is also explored. And I would love to see more of it. I also love that her traits are not just seen as funny. Her habit of people-watching means she is observant enough to find it interesting, and good at discerning other people, if given enough time. Her active, and often absurd, imaginations also meant she's good at 'connecting' clues. Other people often remark, in a surprised way, that there's actually more to her than what the eye meets. Which led to the crown prince himself asking for help in evaluating the true nature of crown princess candidates.

I also thought the dialogue would be shallow because I believed it had a few more words than it should've, but my opinion changed when Marielle met with the captain of the knights, and he slightly taunted her by disparaging her fiancée for being evil, and insinuating that he didn't trust her enough to show his true self. She responded instead by complementing the captain with a smile. She's quiet, but she doesn't cower under pressure and quite good at conversing, which was a value at that time.

I believe her strongest points are her freewheeling nature. She doesn't care that she's too plain compared to all the other girls, especially her clothes, she makes it her strong point. She also doesn't seem too bothered by her apparent lack of talents, and instead pours her all into the one talent she does have.

I also think that she misunderstood Simeon's remark about her father pushing on the engagement because of her lack of evidence. It's the immediate conclusion she jumps to. She just can't seem to imagine the guy liking her.

As for Simeon, he's got good looks, good at talking, observant, strong, high status, talented, etc. No wonder Marielle didn't think of herself as worthy of him. He's almost perfect except for the minor flaw that he tends to be harsh on others, his manner of speech that is. It's the same for the crown prince, who harshly said the truth that Marielle is a burden because she can't run fast. I don't mean this in a bad way, and I don't think it's a problem that should be vanquished. I see it as another character trait.

As such, when he's angry, he tends to say harsh things. For example, when he had his first fight with Marielle after he discovers Lupin really close with her, not due to her own choice mind you. But I think it's also because he thinks more as a loyal retainer of the crown prince. Which brings me to my next point.

During their visit to the Marquess, it becomes especially clear where his priorities lie.

"I would not have you insult my master's honor any further."

"To be honest, I don't like how she lied to the crown prince."

He said so himself that under no circumstances should Michelle lie to the crown prince. It is insensitive to her seeing how she was suffering. In a separate incident with Lupin explaining the situation and insulting the crown prince in the process, he reacted strongly and defended the crown prince. Despite it being the truth, he would rather not have anyone insult the prince. This isn't about how right or wrong he is, or whether he was compassionate enough. I think it just goes to show that beyond being his childhood friend and close acquaintance, Simeon sees the Crown Prince as someone worthy of his loyalty. Thus, he treats the crown prince.

And while he isn't a main character, I'd like to take this moment to appreciate Lupin. He's so mysterious, mischievous and so nuanced. There's so much more I'd like to learn about him. And I know it's not just my imagination when I say the plot went up a notch after he appeared. Honestly, my evaluation of the story went up a notch because of him. Not just because I like his character but because of the influence he has on the characters.

Simeon becomes jealous, and we see more of his ugly side. His overprotectiveness, at first, was portrayed more as a cute trait, but then the crown prince tells him off for being annoying. We see him get angry, too, which was a great treat. It's nice to see more sides of him. It's also one thing I like about this story, jealousy is actually discussed more seriously than romance manhwas. And it's not just because he likes her, but also because he's insecure that she doesn't love him as much as he does. That the love she has for him is the same way she adores other people. That she only sees him as a 'character' and not as Simeon.

Marielle and Simeon didn't seem like good romantic partners at first. She evaluates him highly, but her self-confidence isn't high enough to imagine – much less, consider actually being with him. While the captain liked her from afar, it was something akin to a crush because he never really got to know her. I won't elaborate much on it, but I can assure you that the romance got better. I liked that their mutual understanding of each other's feelings didn't drag on for hundreds of chapters. Not only that, their romance isn't all good times and bad times. Simeon got angry and said a few hurtful things, and Marielle made a blunder because of her carefree attitude. That said, these problems didn't hurt their relationship and only made it stronger as they solved through it together, which is what relationships are really like.

If anything, though, I think the way they kissed in a public place isn't typical behavior of nobles during that time. Though, in the first place, the story isn't strong on world-building, especially noble culture. And the way they resolved their problem in a single night plus a kiss is very shojo – like. Not that I have problems with it

TL;DR: Overall, the story does have that typical shojo elements, but it gets serious when needed. The characters become more interesting and reveal more of their traits, so the story doesn't get boring. More importantly, the conflicts aren't resolved by sprinkling a few mushy shallow soundbites here and there, and is actually discussed. It's a great example on how to exaggerate certain character traits without ruining characterization. <<less
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Brasdf
Brasdf rated it
February 9, 2022
Status: v1
I finished the first of the light novels. The idea is somewhat interesting, the writing seems decent and the translation is excellent. However, I think the implementation is quite lacking. This is very much a self insert fantasy for women who read too many light novels.

In short, it had some potential, but I didn't like the result. I'm unsure if I will try the second volume to see if things improve.

So the concept is that female lead is an exaggerated light novel fan and something of a fujoshi as well... more>> as a light novel author, and this is her 'raison d'etre'. She is basically delusional and lives in the imaginary world of romance novels. She doesn't actually want to live life as a person, just as an observer. Why she is like this even though she isn't a reincarnator and has a loving family of normal and intelligent people is unclear. This is the premise.

She also decided she is unattractive and beyond liking, while actually she just puts no effort towards her looks and bought ugly glasses. I also don't know why, part of the 'self-insert' fantasy I guess so she can have a make over later. I feel like this is a bit disingenuous towards ugly people or people with serious disfigurement. If she actually was a hunchbak with a huge disgusting scar covering half her face and her ruined eye constantly leaking pus, or less exaggeratedly, a squint and some expereince with bullying, I would feel her character makes more sense.

The problem with the implementation is that it is never clear if this is a parody or not. There is always a kind of tension between, am I supposed to treat this people seriously or are this just wacky charcters in a silly world ? It might have worked better if it was very wacky at first, and then later things would have gotten a shade more serious, but the novel often goes back and forth.

Should I treat Marielle as a woman with psychological issues ? As she is just unable to believe her fiance likes her even though her father explicitly tells her, multiple times, he was interested in her and there were no tricks involved, she imagines completely ridicouls alternate explantaions, because how could she possibly be loved ? She is nothing, she knows she is nothing... Yet, she is very confident and wacky the other half of the time.

Maybe the greatest problem of the novel is the male lead. On the one hand, he is severly emotionally stunted. On other hand, he is the overly serious type exaggeratedly perfect in looks, status and physicall prowess and in political ploys and criminal investigations, which doesn't make sense, but the bigger problem is that he isn't funny at all. He always dampens the mood. Once he appears, the novel no longer feels like a parody.

If a 13 year old hesitatingly observes his classmate unsure as to why, this is a little cute. If a 24 year old soldier secretly stalks a 15 year old at parties it is creepy, especially if this is done for years. In this light, their relationship is a bit off. Does he actually love her ? Why ? He knows nothing of her except that she likes to stick to walls and observe people obssessively, completely disconnected from reality. She likes him, because she imagines him as one of the characters in her novels based on his looks and job and doesn't actually take his actual character into account.

And this is the problem. I find myself thinking. Is this a novel about an actual romantic relationship between two individuals with serious psychological issues or a parody of the villainess noble girls genre with some romance for spice?

There are other minor annoyances, but it will be tedious to list them. <<less
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