Seren, the prince’s fiancée, knows she’s not nearly as beautiful and charming as her sister, Marietta, but it still very much stings when she overhears Prince Helios and his companions (with Marietta right there) gossiping about how a queen like Marietta would inspire the people more than “Princess Drab”. Seren has studied hard to lead the country by Helios’ side, and she can’t simply break the engagement. So she decides to take a difficult, low-passing magical exam that would give her the title of High Mage. This would override Seren’s current position so that Helios can marry his beloved Marietta. To that end, she asks the scary Viol, an expert mage, for a magic teacher since the test is in three months. Viol ends up sending his familiar to tutor her, but that’s a lie — it’s Viol in disguise. “Vi” the cat is impressed by Seren’s innate talent, but there’s another issue: she hasn’t even cast a spell before!
Thus begins the days of Princess Drab and the sweets-loving mage-cat.
When Viol is introduced, he seems like the usual grumpy love interest who reluctantly acknowledges the protagonist and/or their progress. Viol is not much of a people person, but he’s the one who volunteers sending someone to help Seren, and then he takes the job himself after finding Helios’ comments distasteful. We learn this directly from Viol himself, as the novel goes back and forth between Seren and Viol (and eventually others) as narrators. He is a nice twist on the usual considering his first illustration has the familiar “come near me and die” vibe.
Anyway, Seren likes to pet Vi, which of course embarrasses him — and delights his cat-self. He also delights in the sweets her chef makes. But more than that, he admires Seren’s fastidiousness. She’s very organized, loving to make schedules and notes, and she reminded me of Twilight Sparkle of My Little Pony. Just as fast of a magic learner as Twilight as well, which gives Viol even more motivation to teach her and make her a High Mage.
But it’s little surprise when his feelings become less of those of a mentor (if they were there much to begin with). The love story aspect of the novel, though, is more complicated than you may assume. It’s not just because of the Vi-Viol thing either. Seren admits she was hurt by Helios, and her feelings for him can’t be quickly erased. Plus, even as a Head Mage, she’d still be one of his subjects. Helios, meanwhile, has no reason to think their wedding won’t proceed, and there are others with their own motivations and opinions.
So far, there isn’t some world-ending conflict brewing; there just is a romantic firestorm brewing. Of course, this likely means some political ramifications to go along with those broken hearts, but the country is far secondary to the main characters. The story is very good as it covers Seren throwing herself into magic to move forward and Viol’s observations of her, but The Drab Princess, the Black Cat, and the Satisfying Break-Up becomes even better as it dives into others’ point-of-view. Despite the villainess overtones and the usual magical medieval kingdom, the atmosphere is closer to that of a school romance. A more PG one to boot, so this novel becomes even easier to recommend to any slice-of-life shoujo lover.
That may seem bizarre considering Viol’s secret identity, but despite the fantasy wrappings, it fits. Seren is trying to move on from a broken heart, Viol is a loner falling in love for the first time, and then there are various rivals and observers. The second volume will probably feature more action since Seren needs to slay a beast to pass her exam, but I’d rather the novel blend fantasy into the love story rather than vice versa. Because so far, it does a darn good job of it as we see if Seren’s odd, roundabout breakup-slash-matchmaking plot succeeds.