Five Broken Blades (The Broken Blades, #1)

by Mai Corland

Hope pieces together dreams out of broken glass only for reality to come and smash them all over again. Hope is the cruelest punishment of them all. Because without hope, I know: it’s not her, you fool. It can’t be. It can never be. Because I killed her.

Tea

My parents were paid a handsome price for their eldest daughter. My former parents. I, like these children, am an orphan.

Weird way to say it

the rent is one gold mun every two months, so I stay.

Damn my rent is like $1800 a month

Steel forged for one purpose—to end the lives of men.

Period

The world will grab and pull at your humanity, try to strip you bare, but ultimately you decide whether to hang on or let go.

Joon is known as a god king for a reason. He’s not divine, but he might as well be, since he has the crown of Yusan. The crown is a relic of the Dragon Lord, and it makes the wearer immortal.

I’m reminded that this really isn’t the time to be horny.

LMAO

The legend is that the Dragon Lord gave his crown to the first Baejkin king, but his ring, scepter, sword, and amulet fell into the other realms as he ascended to the Heavens.

i bet that’s the rest of the series

If I were a lesser man, I would’ve soiled myself.

yeah but i’m a strong man i won’t shit myself today

I’m just not sure what good he expected to come out of both of us being dead. Sometimes revenge is a long game and, as much as you want a small win now, the larger victory needs time to manifest.

“So, I don’t know, I kind of think Gayan chocolate is better than water ice,” she says. “Although in the summer nothing beats water ice, no matter how pricey. So maybe it depends on the seasons.”

wtf is water ice

I cross my legs. It isn’t wet-undergarments time. And I probably shouldn’t be turned on by unflinching murder.

this is the same character that had the “horny” quote can we relax

Sora wants many things—my father’s death, mostly—but one thing she’ll never want is me. She’ll have no interest in my confession of love.

womp womp

I don’t even know how she’s managing in a country that lets women have rights.

huh

But girls cannot inherit under our laws. They can’t in Wei, either. Only Khitan allows that nonsense.

bro i feel like we didn’t have blatant sexism up until this chapter

I really don’t like having some guy’s hands near my crotch.

wild thing to say after a gay sex scene

This country doesn’t think much of girls to begin with—no one would believe a pretty woman like her could murder.

i can excuse being gay but i draw the line at thinking women are people

“I just… I saw what she can do, but I still…” he begins. “I don’t know if we need to rely on girls.” I can’t control my heavy sigh. Of course gender is the hang-up. The Baejkins lack many things—empathy, an ounce of conscience among them, human decency, mercy—but sexism, they have to spare.

like yeah maybe korea is sexist but why did we lay it on so thick all of a sudden

A thief, a strongman, a spy, an assassin, a nobleman, and an exiled prince add up to a ring of liars. Trust is a surefire way to wind up with a blade in your back.

She’s very smart for a girl, but then again, she is an assassin.

bro i’m so tired

Iku have the jaws of barracudas, but with four humanoid arms on human-shaped torsos. At the ends of those arms are five-inch talons. The lower halves look like enormous fish.

that’s horrifying actually

I really don’t understand what is going on right now.

yeah same