Title: From a Knight to a Lady Vol. 2
Author: Ink (Art), Ein (Story), Hye-rim Sung (Original Story)
Publisher: Crossed Hearts
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 342
Genre: Romantasy
Publication Date: May 26, 2026
The Story
Lucifela recognized Louis Luke as Khalid, the one who had beheaded her before she occupied Lucifela’s body. She wanted to desperately descend from her balcony to confront her, but Eozif prevents her by knocking her out. When she wakes up, she’s still filled with hatred, and she rushes out into the rain, wielding a sword. She collapsed, catching a high fever, but that wasn’t the only detriment she suffered as rumors began to swirl that she had lost her mind.
Wanting to avoid further embarrassment, her father sends her away to a country estate, where she is under the care of Masti. There, she tries to learn as much as possible, figuring that if she has to continue to be Lucifela, then she might as well start acting as someone from Jadsgar. While there, she enters the South Room and sees a portrait of her mother. She suddenly gets jolted with memories about Lucifela’s mother’s fate and everything her father did to try to prevent it.
Shortly after, there is a visitor who wishes to make a transaction for the gems in their mine; however, there is an odd request from them as she is to be present during the transaction under the guise of wanting to confirm if the rumors of her losing her mind were true. Suddenly, the meeting takes some odd turns with some blatantly obvious excuses to try and get her into a position for an easy execution, but her previous life as a knight of Ersha allowed her to sniff it out immediately. Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop the assassination attempt. She pieces everything together about who was behind the attempt when she comes across someone in the woods… and it’s the last person she wanted to see right now.
Characters
Lucifela’s development here showcases one of acceptance. At the start of the volume, she was still viewing Khalid through the eyes of Estelle, and you can’t blame her for doing so, as he did kill her in her previous life. Her blinding rage caused the rumors of her losing her mind to spread, so it wasn’t as if she wasn’t aware that she was orchestrating her own undoing. She had to reflect and pull herself together, and upon reaching the countryside estate, she came to her senses and accepted the fact that no matter what, she is now a member of Jadsgar, and if she has to play the part, then she might as well learn to make it as convincing as possible.
When it comes to Duke Zed, his development stemmed from the realization that he may actually be falling for Luci. There was a moment when she kissed him in an attempt to use her sex appeal to win him over. That way, she could use his status as a Duke for her own machinations; however, he saw through that… or so she thought. What actually happened was that he began to see her in a whole new light, and although he hates to admit it, that kiss made his heart throb for her. It’s also why he became worried about her once she left the estate, something that Eozif pointed out as uncharacteristic of him due to his previous disinterest in women. To think one kiss could sway his heart! It just shows one of Jadsgar’s mightiest is such a softie.
As for Eozif, there is still something uniquely strange about him. There was an exchange of words between him and Zed about Luci. Then, it was discovered that the Crown Prince, Temir, had been targeting maids with black hair, taking out his aggressions on them. When this came to light, Zed hurried off because he connected the dots. After leaving him alone, Eozif said some rather peculiar things. While nothing more came of it now, it’ll be interesting to see just how much he knows vs. how much he wants people to know.
Matsi is the one caring for the countryside estate and knows her and the Aydin family well. After all, he has watched Luci grow up from a child and remains loyal to the family to this day. He offers to teach her about politics, the economy, and so much more, all while showing concern for her; however, he is taken aback by her change in personality. The previous Luci loathed the countryside estate and wanted to live somewhere more lavish, while Estelle’s Luci loves the estate more than the imperial palace. He doesn’t fully buy her excuse of “people change,” but you can tell that he cares deeply for her.
Final Thoughts
I truly liked Lucifela’s character development in this volume. She let her emotions overtake her, but she realized that things were spiraling out of control because of it, so she decided to play the role. Even though she’s doing that outwardly, she continues to think like Estelle on the inside. You can feel her frustration because she was stuck in a frail person’s body. So many times she wished that she were in her old body so that she could wield a sword and take care of herself, but whenever she tries, she’s met with physical obstacles that deeply frustrate her.
There were moments when I thought she would break… especially during her sendoff from the imperial palace, when Eozif and Khalid came to pay their respects. She had quite an interesting exchange, and given how she reacted at the beginning of the volume, I was shocked that she took the high road with him, although, she did say a few things that alerted him that she knew more than she should. She was cautious, but not cautious enough, and that was something that came into play later on in the book.
Overall, this was another great installment, and I felt that the story’s quality was taken up a notch over the first volume. The deep conspiracy unfolding in the imperial palace is something to be expected. After all, you can’t have a romantasy series involving Dukes and Nobles without some form of royal corruption. It’s almost as cliché as the beach episode or a culture festival in a slice-of-life anime/manga. At least, here, this one is quite interesting. Obviously, the biggest hook is seeing if Estelle/Lucifela will let the secret out of the bag. If it happens, would anyone believe her?
For now, we’ll have to be left to wonder about that. We still have Luci’s escape from her assassination attempt to contend with, along with her dealing with that certain someone that she wished she hadn’t met. Of course, thanks to another person’s actions, a certain white knight is sure to appear to set everything straight, so I wouldn’t worry too much about the cliffhanger, as the solution could be seen by a horse-drawn carriage’s mile away.
Speaking of the physical book itself. CrossedHearts continued to show exceptional quality with the paper and cover; however, I will have to point out that it seems that they put a focus on looks and quality, and not on editing. In the table of contents, it listed a Preview of Volume 2, when that should have read Preview of Volume 3 (as we are already reading Volume 2), and page 48 had four word bubbles without any words in them whatsoever. It didn’t affect the overall story, but those were some quite noticeable errors. Hopefully, we won’t see something like that going forward.
The special cards that came with the book, though, were a nice touch and rivaled the physical quality of the book itself! The ones you receive are random, so you can’t target the ones you’d like. I ended up receiving Zed and Khalid. Maybe you will fare differently with your copy? Good luck!
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This item was purchased for review.
