February Read: The Knight Captain is the New Princess-To-Be Vol. 2

Last year, I read the first volume of this newer manga series which both looked fun and closely mirrored the concept for my work-in-progress. This month, I finally got around to reading Volume 2, which was a twisty, fun read, albeit with a few content issues.

Spoilers will be present.

Synopsis: Taken from Goodreads

In order to support Prince Leo, Chris agrees to officially take his hand in marriage. But the other nobles are not fans of the union, and to mollify them Chris gets sent to a boarding school to become more “ladylike.” Unfortunately for her, her fellow classmates are young ladies intent on marrying the prince themselves! Chris might be hot stuff on the battlefield, but is she prepared for this kind of warfare?!

Content Review

Positive Content: Leo and Chris bring about the bulk of the positive content in this volume, as the two are constantly supporting, trusting, and helping one another. One thing I especially appreciate is how Chris, despite her being the tough knight captain, is not a feminist who can “do it herself”. When Leo actually says he knows she could handle it herself, she thanks him for coming and refutes him, saying she’s glad he came and she relies on him as well.

Chris’s sense of duty is also a positive characteristic throughout. When some girls are bullying her at school, she refuses to punch them or let her anger out because she does not want to shame Leo as his fiancée. And despite not wanting to go to school at all, she does so because the king wants her to.

Leo treats Chris as a friend, not an underling or tool, and often stands up for her and protects her under the guise of being her “servant”.

*Possible spoilers* The three bully girls who also mistreat their knights, at the end, learn from their mistakes and do what they can to amend them, including helping Chris and valuing their knights as friends, not just tools to do their bidding.

Rating: 5/5

Spiritual Content: There is something called “witch’s lipstick” which makes whoever the wearer kisses do whatever they bid them for a short amount of time. Chris believes it’s a drug, and later is it proven to be that, a drug derived from a flower.

Rating: 0.5/5

Romantic Content: With Chris in a boarding school full of spoiled rotten noble girls who all want a chance at marrying the prince, there is plenty of romantic content in this volume.

Of course, Chris and Leo are engaged. They kiss once, and Leo carries her a few times. They also dance for a class at her school, and, while playing her “servant” Leo kisses her hand, confessing he wants to try living as a man with nothing to his name but his feelings for her. In a comedic moment, the two make a bet where the loser has to list off some things they like about the other. Chris lists a bunch of things she likes about Leo, including some physical attributes.

A girl kisses her knight to get him to do something. Another girl removes part of her outer dress to reveal her undergarments, indicating she’ll give herself to her knight if he does something for her (he immediately refuses and shames her for doing it, clearly uninterested). The main villainess who wants to marry the prince sees another good-looking guy and wants to take him as her concubine and mentions castrating him (and later gets called a pervert for it). A foreign princess who doesn’t want to go home jokes about becoming the prince’s concubine.

Rating: 3/5

Violent Content: Though most of the book is filled with girl drama, there are some fights. Chris knocks a man out who tries to attack her, and fends off other knights as well. Leo and Chris both knock out men, Chris by jumping on one from a balcony. Finally, there is a battle towards the end where Chris battles the villain and slices him across the top of the chest (but does not kill him).

Rating: 4/5

Language: There is one use of the H-word and God’s name in vain. Girls call Chris a harlot and strumpet, believing she got to be Leo’s fiancée through unscrupulous means. They call each other perverts and wastrels.

Rating: 3.5/5

Other Negative Content: The main bulk of the story is surrounding Chris being mistreated at school by the jealous girls. They bully her in an assortment of ways, including spilling tea on her, ordering their knights to attack her, and spreading untrue rumors about her. They also mistreat their knights, ordering them around as if they’re nothing but tools, and two use a drug to get their unwilling knights to do their bidding–the drug mentioned as being activated either by being mixed with saliva or blood.

The foreign “princess” is actually a boy, going undercover to try to capture Leo for his rumored “mythical ability”. He succeeds in capturing him, and removes his shirt to give him shots to try to “awaken” this rumored ability and wants to use him as a guinea pig for his experiments.

Leo lies about his identity at the school, pretending to be Chris’s personal knight sent by the prince to find the truth about these rumors the bully girls are spreading.

Rating: 3/5

Total Content Rating: 3.16/5 Stars

Personal Review

*Spoilers below*

I enjoyed this second volume, though not as much as the first. Some of the sexual references made me a little uncomfortable (although nothing explicit was shown or even happened, which was good, and it was the villains who made the references), and I didn’t like the fact that God’s name was taken in vain as a Christian, even if it only happened once.

However, I enjoyed the end–how the three bully girls learned their lessons and actually went to redeem themselves, helped Chris out, and treated their knights with the dignity they deserved. And their reactions to finding out Leo and “Chris’s knight” were one and the same was hilarious.

I’ll probably try the next book in the series and hope it has a little less negative content than this one since I do love the concept and the characters of Leo and Chris.

Personal Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

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Thanks for reading my review! Does this review make you want to read the book or have you already read it? Have you read any similar books? Let me know in the comments below. ~ Kay Adelin