The Abandoned Empress Volumes 6 and 7 Review
Tia is continuing to train as a knight, although she’s still an apprentice. She doesn’t want to live the same life as she did before time rewound. She’s succeeded her father and become the head of House Monique. Her being the crown princess is just a temporary thing until the real child of the prophecy arrives.
However, this new route that Tia has decided to follow keeps highlighting her talent, both in high society and in swordsmanship. When during the Imperial Foundation Festival princesses from other countries arrive at the palace — officially as dignitaries but unofficially to catch the crown prince’s eyes and become court princesses — Tia performs her roles as knight and crown princess perfectly. Even the noble ladies from the noble faction who don’t like Tia take a stand by her side to show where their loyalty is. They might not like Tia being the crown princess, but she’s certainly better than those foreign princesses!
Inadvertently, Tia has been surrounding herself with people who might not be important individually, but when together they create such a force that could threaten the factions in the empire. This is not taken lightly by the noble faction, headed by Duke Jena, who doesn’t hesitate to create situations that can turn deadly just to get rid of Tia.
While she navigates high society, Tia also has to contend with Allendis’, Carsein’s and even Crown Prince Ruveliss’ feelings. They all have their reasons for liking Tia, but they are all maintaining a sort of status quo by not openly admitting them to her. The situation has been going on like this for a while, and not everyone is happy. Someone wants a change.
The Abandoned Empress has turned into a soap opera. Pining love, betrayal, backstabbing, assassination attempts… there is everything and more. And the main character is just a teenager. I’m not sure if I should consider Tia a strong heroine or just naïve. Maybe a mix of both. She has lived her life once already, and now she got another chance to change her life and correct her mistakes. She knows what will happen to her and she tries her best to change the future.
She’s brave because she doesn’t know if she’ll be successful or what her new actions will bring. But at the same time, she’s still quite naïve and simple. She’s thrown into politics just for being the crown princess, so she has to deal with situations that involve other nobles without using her status as she’s not yet married to the prince. This brings other nobles and some of the foreign princesses to consider Tia beneath them.
I thought that the way she solved the issues that arose was just common sense, as it seems the rest of the court can’t come up with the simple solutions that Tia does. The authors want to showcase her growth, but at the same time they turn her almost child-like when she spends time with her father, and as a teenager who locks herself in the room to cry when things don’t go how she’d like. Her character has many facets, and how she behaves depends on who’s around her. I think locking herself in her room, Disney-princess-style, is the most characteristic way to showcase her age.
For the past few volumes, some of the friends Tia made couldn’t help but fall for her, even if she’s betrothed to Ruveliss. Carsein and Allendis have kept their feelings secret… they might not have told Tia how they felt, but it was obvious to everyone but Tia herself. Allendis, not being able to keep his feelings hidden anymore, finally confesses, only to have his heart broken. And of course, when his plan to have Tia only for himself goes awry and Tia gets hurt, Allendis runs away to repent (not literally as he’s sent away, but still).
Although the blurbs of both volumes hint that Crown Prince Ruveliss and Tia are getting closer, I don’t see the relationship developing much. The prince is more candid with his feelings and has started letting his emotions come through in his actions, but Tia is still keeping a distance because she knows how it will end when the real child of the prophecy, Jieun, arrives. And now that time has arrived. A year early that she was supposed to, Jieun is here. I wonder how Tia will deal with this and if she’ll finally develop feelings for Ruveliss, or even Carsein.
The Abandoned Empress is written by Yuan and illustrated by Ina. It’s released as a digital comic on Tappytoon, but it’s published in print and digital volumes by Yen Press with a translation by David Odell. Volume 8 is slated for release in July 2024.
Our review copy from Yen Press was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.
