[DeepL Translation - needs review] Book 1 Introduction: Ionia, the knight who once defended his country at great risk, is reborn as Leolino, the fourth son of a frontier count, who is as beautiful as an angel. In a dream, Leolino traces Ionia's life and remembers his love for Gravis, the king's younger brother, whom he had locked away from his heart because of his status. He even recalls his memory of being killed by an enemy informer, and confronts the traitor on the day of the memorial ser...
I had mixed feelings about this volume. There’s less plot movement here than in volume 1, and more about Leorino’s relationships with other people. A lot of it is frustrating. But it’s complicated.
On the one hand, Leorino might be the physically weakest protagonist you’ll ever see in a BL, and there are times when it seems like it’s taking the beautiful-but-weak bottom trope to an extreme. On the other hand, he’s also a protagonist who is actually disabled and living with a chronic condition. When the people around him seem overprotective to the point of bullying him, how are we supposed to take it? There are lots of people IRL with health issues in the opposite situation where they're not well supported and are pressured into forcing themselves to do more than they should. This volume has a lot about living within one’s limitations, and suggest questions about when support is supportive, and when it’s a burden.
And at the same time, this is a BL light novel, and the writing is amateurish at times. Sometimes scenes feel clumsy, and some parts go on for far too long. There’s a section in the latter half of nearly 100 pages of the main characters in and out of bed, bathing, aftercare, etc. It’s not just smut for the sake of smut. The author is obviously trying to use this to talk about how the characters feel about themselves and each other. And part of why it takes so long is that Leorino is frail, and it makes sex as difficult as every other physical activity. This is realistic and I appreciated the author not making him magically healthy in the bedroom, but at the same time… omg, it went on for so long. And I read slowly in Japanese.
I hope the third volume gets back to action/politics/plot.