[DeepL Translation - needs review] Volume 1 Introduction: His father, whom he thought was dead, is actually the boss of the Hong Kong Mafia...? One day, Takayuki Iba, who is leading a peaceful high school life, is suddenly picked up by men in black suits. They want him to avenge his father's murder in exchange for inheriting a huge fortune. What's more, he is now competing with his brother-in-law, Arthur, who is the same age as him, for the title of heir! But the moment she meets Arthur, who...
Fast-paced introduction to a triad world
(Please note that due to the setting of this work, these trigger warnings are applicable: rape and torture.)
This is a manga adaptation of a novel by the same name. I haven't read the novel at the time of reviews, unfortunately, so I can't speak to how faithfully it adapts it. I did enjoy the first volume of the manga, however: it's fast-paced, and having read some of the author's other works I can see her style of storytelling coming through.
The story begins with 隆之 (たかゆき), a young Japanese man who comes home one day and finds out that not only was the father he'd never met head of a Chinese mafia, but said father was recently killed and 隆之 is a potential heir. In Hong Kong 隆之 meets the other potential heir, アーサー, a sickly young man, and they're told that in order to win the inheritance and take over their father's position as head, one of them must find their father's killer and retrieve a precious gem that was stolen during his death.
隆之's not particularly interested in the whole thing, but he warms up to アーサー quite quickly, to the latter's chagrin. Both are watched over by a personal guard as well, who have their own history going on. This manga honestly really only felt like a warm-up, despite all the action that happens, and I was pretty happy for it. This kind of setting definitely feels like it can benefit from lots of page time, as there are lots of politics to cover. (Shame the series only got two books.) The original novel author included a bonus original short story for the setting, which was pretty nice.
Judging difficulty is difficult; this is also one of the first times I've been sure on a low Language Learning Rating score, due to my thoughts on the difficulty. Unfortunately, despite the fast-paced nature of the story, text density is not particularly light, though when you come down to it, the grammar and vocabulary don't generally touch on any specific field of knowledge for long, excepting some business terms. There's all full furigana.
The hard part comes from the author's tendency to give Chinese readings for every name, title, and proper noun; not only that, but important characters may be referred to by title, Chinese name, or English name. You get used to it after a bit, but this is one where honestly I'd recommend glancing at the Chinese furigana pronunciation, then disregarding it entirely for the rest of the book to make reading through easier.