The Villainess Is Dead! Long Live the Empress! Redoing the Story After a Poisonous End: Volume 1

by Tsuta Sonehara, Mac B. Gill (Translator), Yukio Qumoya (Illustrator)

Westalia, daughter of an aristocrat, has been brought up and educated with the expectation that she will become the future queen of her kingdom. However, when she is betrayed by a close friend and framed for an attempted murder, she is sentenced to death by poisoning. Luckily, Westalia, a master of poisons, manages to sneak an antidote, fake her own death, and escape with her life.

Now on the run, Westalia must put her royal education to use as she steals her way across national borders, commits some crimes, and endures the gruelling selection process to try and become empress of a neighboring empire and regain everything she’s lost. All the while, an irritating man who seems awfully familiar seems to follow her at every turn.

Still, with her loyal lady knight by her side, Westalia will do all that she can to make her dreams come true!

Genres: Light Novel

227 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 5, 2025

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got to 76% and DNF. I can’t overlook the fact that the MC h bought a slave, who she then became “friends” with, but she never ONCE thought to herself, “Once I become Empress I will abolish the illegal slave trade and save these people.” She also thought to herself that she spent more money on her slave than on her mansion. And despite being “friends”, she never ONCE thought to free her “friend” or to ask about how she felt about being abducted and forced to kill to stay alive as a gladiator.

1, this is just so Ick I can’t even, stars.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Do I love that Westalia buys a slave on page 23? Nope. But other than that, this is a book that's at least trying to twist the now-familiar villainess reincarnation formula, largely by having the reincarnation be metaphorical.

2.5 rounded up.

[Ninotchka Mantrom · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF, did not enjoy it. It was a breakneck pace, which made it hard to really sink into the world setting and characters. It was also fairly trite - any issue the MC encountered was almost immediately undone with either a plot beat from her backstory that was never mentioned until this moment (fleeing from her home country was fine because she was already incredibly rich, e.g.) or something that was immediately undone by a random world element out of nowhere (she just happened to find a rare herb to sell in her new home country on her travels, so she could establish herself as a healer and doctor).

[Lissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was rather delightful. I liked it a lot.

Refreshing in several ways, I did enjoy myself.

I look forward to reading more from this series.

Also shoutout to the illustrator - the art is STUNNING!! <3

Also also - Paige is For The Girls.