After helping defeat the Demon King, noblewoman Romelia is cast aside--her engagement to the prince annulled, her contributions dismissed. While the so-called heroes return in triumph, Romelia is sent home in disgrace. But she's no longer the powerless girl who once followed in their shadow. She may lack magic or brute strength, but Romelia honed the skills others overlooked: negotiation, strategy, finance, and intelligence. And with dark forces still threatening the kingdom, she's ready to use them all.

Armed with her wits, her will, and a Grace that quietly shapes fate itself, Romelia will raise her own army--and prove that the kingdom's true savior isn't the prince, but the young woman he cast aside.

Romelia War Chronicle: The Count's Daughter Rallies an Army in the Wake of Mankind's Victory has story by Ryo Ariyama and art by Ryo Kamito. English translation is done by Kristjan Rohde and lettering by James Dashiell. Published by Seven Seas Entertainment (January 13, 2026). Rated T.

Rebecca Silverman
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Romelia is no damsel in distress. The fiancée of the prince, she chose to accompany him on his mission to defeat the demon king despite having no obvious special skills, only to be summarily rejected once the war was over. She's sent home to her parents in what's supposed to be disgrace, but unlike her ex and his (lady) followers, Romelia is a thinker – and she knows that wars don't just “end.” The bad guys didn't vanish because their leader was defeated, and while the prince and his fans are all ready to declare mission accomplished and go home, Romelia has other plans. If you need any further proof outside of narrative convention that the prince is a moron, this is it.

Romelia War Chronicle is the story of one young woman ready to clean up the mess left behind by victory. (Or maybe that's “victory.”) It does borrow heavily from other, more tired stories, but it then takes those bits and pieces and uses them in a way that at least feels different, even if it technically isn't. The book opens with what's basically the “villainess renunciation scene” from countless villainess stories, incorporates harem elements in the prince's party, and, with the reveal of Romelia's overlooked blessing from the gods, throws in a little “banished from the hero's party” for good measure. But unlike those kicked to the curb in other stories, Romelia doesn't let anything slow her down. She takes her blessing of “Grace” (essentially an improved luck stat, although thankfully there are no levels or stat screens here) and her hard-won knowledge and sets out to build herself an army. The goal? Getting rid of demonic stragglers before they can get too comfy, killing more humans.

No one really believes in her in this volume. Her father makes a decent show of it, allowing her to move to their remote northern territory and do as she pleases, and she is allotted a small garrison of soldiers. But they're fresh recruits who don't think much of their new commander and don't really believe in her cause. The bulk of the book is Romelia's group realizing that she's right and that there really is a problem – and that she's not just going to hang back and let them get killed by demons and monsters. Essentially, this opening sally is about Romelia proving herself so that she can get the real work done.

Romelia herself is easy to root for – she's overcome a lot of obstacles with sheer grit and is determined to continue to stand up for herself and others. The art isn't amazing, and it can be hard to follow panels at times, but Romelia really makes it worth it. I'm looking forward to seeing what she can do now that she's got people behind her.

Erica Friedman
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Romelia, a noble's daughter, has always done what she could to help. When her fiancé, the Prince, heads out to defeat the Demon King, Romelia joined the party, managing the finances and doing intelligence gathering. But her work, like so much invisible labor that supports systemic structures, is not valued at all. As neither a saint nor a warrior, Romelia is cast out of the victorious party and denied any share in the honors. Prince Anri drives the nail in by cancelling their engagement and reviling her, because reasons. Romelia returns home to a nearly-ruined family, their reputation tanked, and no meaningful chance at redemption. Except that Romelia has always done what she could to help, and now she understands that while the Demon King might be defeated, there are people who are still in danger.

Romelia heads to the borders of her territory with a small force of fighters and sets out to create a peaceful land. Her understanding of commoners' lives, organizing skills, and ability to understand what drives people means that her ragtag group of mercenaries quickly becomes a fighting force that can scour demons and monsters from her land.

I went into this knowing nothing at all about the story, but I was hooked by the end of page 2. Yeah, yeah, annulment, revilement, blah blah, but grab me by the throat with the undervaluing of women's domestic labor and competence in the aftermath of “victory,” why don't you? Watching Romelia managing her small team of fighters was as emotionally satisfying as a training sequence.

Will there be betrayals and corrupt nobles? Obviously. We've all watched Mito Kōmon and know how this kind of story works. Romelia and her militia will wander from town to town, rooting out corruption, saving the common folk, and putting her at odds with the Prince who betrayed her, until he needs her help being bailed out from a losing battle with a powerful demon, or something similar. The specifics aren't really all that important; what we're here for is the delicious schadenfreude of a competent woman exceeding expectations. I'll be back for more of that, for sure.

Kevin Cormack
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“Oh no,” I thought on reading the first few chapters of Romelia War Chronicle. “Another villainess series where a noblewoman is rejected by her fiancé and made to suffer indignities before climbing her way back up the social ladder?” It seems you can't turn a corner without tripping over piles of these things currently. Thankfully, it isn't an isekai, for which it gets bonus points with me, though it does heavily feature tropes from that other recently well-trodden sub-genre, the “wrongly banished from the heroes' party for contrived reasons despite being utterly indispensable but somehow no one notices.” This story concept was fine the first couple of times, but the endlessly iterative and incestuous world of the Japanese popular entertainment industry can't seem to get enough of recycling the same old thing again and again and again, ad nauseum.

This version of the story is perfectly ok. Romelia is a good protagonist in that she's decisive, determined, and of strong moral character, and therefore she's easy to root for. She's got a great head for business, leadership, tactics, and regularly astonishes those who underestimate her. If I hadn't already experienced several dozen other stories with incredibly similar premises, I'd probably have enjoyed this more.

Also significantly hampering my appreciation of this volume is the exceedingly poor quality pre-release digital image file shared by publisher Seven Seas. It's incredibly hard to judge the art on its own merits when the scan is so low-resolution, with incredibly distracting warping of screen-tone patterns. It looks like something that's been photocopied about ten times over. From what I can tell, the art is probably pretty decent, but it's hopelessly marred by elements out of the artist's control. I've knocked a full star off for this.