Villains Are Destined to Die (novel) Volume 2 Review

After awakening in the body of the villainess Penelope Eckhart in the dating game Daughter of the Duke’s Super Love Project, our heroine needs to find a way to survive as all roads lead to death, especially in the hard mode of the game settings, which Penelope finds herself in. Volume 1 introduced the FMC and her game plan (yes, it’s a pun) to survive by making one of the love interests fall for her—not romantically necessarily as her adopted brothers are considered love interests too, but just as someone who is 100% on her side.

In this volume, the male protagonists take centre stage as they are involved in whatever situation Penelope finds herself in. Although she has decided to focus on her slave and future knight Eckles, Penelope cannot let the other males’ affection percentage fall below zero, as that means death in the game… and she’s pretty sure it’s the same in her newfound ‘real’ life. While she tries to buy Eckles’ love by splurging on gifts for him, the hunt tournament run by Crown Prince Callisto brings more disastrous events for Penelope that she would gladly avoid… if at all possible.

Already considered a violent girl and ostracised due to the original Penelope’s past actions at last year’s tournament, our FMC knows that something is bound to turn sour for her, no matter what she does or doesn’t do. However, what she doesn’t expect is for the efforts she has put so far into making Duke Eckhart—aka her adopted father—like her, being the catalyst that will help her in the tournament thanks to the gift he brings: a crossbow with magical pellets with which Penelope can protect herself!

In fact, when a first attempt on the Crown Prince’s life takes place, it is Penelope that saves the day. With four out of the five love interests in attendance, she makes a striking impression for once, but this is only the beginning… in fact Callisto has many enemies, and when a band of nobles supporting the second prince seize the opportunity to get rid of Callisto and House Eckhart, they don’t waste time. Penelope and Callisto find themselves on the run from assassins, and the traitor nobles blame the attack on Penelope. Now it’s up to her to prove her innocence and gain the title of Queen of the Hunt as per the game’s new scenario.

As in the previous volume, the series continues to be full of action. It’s not a Solo Leveling or Omniscient’ Reader’s Viewpoint kind of action, but Penelope has to fight back against every single event that happens in the story if she wants to survive—whether it’s a physical or political fight, she needs to come out victorious as that’s mainly how the affection rate and her fame tend to increase. Although she has decided to take a gamble on Eckles, it seems that Callisto, Winter, Reynold and Derrick cannot help themselves but get involved in her life, even if she would prefer for them to leave her alone. The most risky character is Callisto as he’s fast to draw a sword against friends and foes, and it’s even worse for Penelope as she doesn’t fall into either category. However, her behaviour toward him intrigues him, much to Penelope’s displeasure. Callisto is the typical prince that readers can find in the romantasy genre—cold-hearted, funny and the type of guy who would burn the world down and kill everyone to protect what he stands for. Reynold and Derrick’s relationship with their adopted sister takes a turn for the better for one brother and for the worse for the other. In fact, not both of them are able to overcome certain prejudices that they’ve built in their mind about Penelope, and the trial she has to attend to prove her innocence shows how far the siblings have come. Winter as well gets more involved in Penelope’s life, not just as the secret magician but also as a noble. The relationship with Winter is still kind of mysterious, but the readers can clearly see that it’s not romantic—more like business-like.

However, it’s the relationship with Eckles that progresses the most. It has increased so much that now the game changes the rules, and Penelope has to shell out thousands in gold coins to see the characters’ affection rates. Thankfully she’s rich, but will she really be safe when Eckles’ affection rate reaches 100%? The relationship between her and Eckles is like a master with his pet—Eckles seems like a loyal dog, but he’s hiding fangs. While that seemed a normal response when she first bought him at a slave auction, now he seems devoted to her, but there is still something that makes him weird for me as reader. He hasn’t done anything yet to make him feel like an enemy, but his affection seems more like an obsession, and I’m not sure if that’s the ending that Penelope is searching for, and that I would cheer for her.

The whole volume covers the hunt tournament arc, and it leaves the readers with a cliffhanger about what’s to come next when Winter calls urgently for Penelope. This series is a full-blown novel and shouldn’t be confused with a light novel, which usually has a lighter story theme and illustrations throughout. The typesetting tries to match what readers would expect in a game setting with system messages and gaming actions (e.g. accepting a mission). The only thing I found slightly off-putting is that the text doesn’t start at the beginning of the page, but there is a big blank gap between the running heads and the start of the text, which makes it a weird typesetting choice.

I’ve been reading the novel after having read the manhwa, so I can imagine how the characters look and act alongside my reading. However, the author makes good efforts in making sure every action, thought and character is fully represented so even readers who are not familiar with the manhwa can grasp how they look. While sometimes there are certain liberties taken when adapting a series into another format, so far novel and manhwa keep true to each other.

Villains Are Destined to Die is written by Gwon Gyeoeul and it started as a web novel before being adapted into a manhwa. Ize Press publishes both novel and manhwa in the English language and are still in progress although the series has concluded in both formats in Korean. Volume 3 came out in May and Volume 4 will be available in October.

Our review copy was supplied by Ize Press.