As you can surmise from the title, this is another otome game isekai. Although the villainess role has become incredibly popular for these stories, this heroine has been reborn as the game’s protagonist, Alice, who hunts down criminals as a vigilante.
As Alice realizes she’s been reborn in and near the start of her favorite game, she’s all set to raise the flags for her favorite love interest. Except no events are happening! Not only that, the Evil Alice’s Lover game has a high amount of bad endings where Alice dies, so Alice wants to get on a character route for both romantic and survival reasons. But she realizes she might be on a DLC route she’s never played before!
My first impression of this title and cover was that this would be like Alice in the Country of crossed with Ozmafia!!: guns, crazed love interests, based upon famous 19th century literature…a fair guess. But I think it had the most similarities to Black Butler. Alice, like Ciel, secretly works on behalf of Queen Victoria to hunt down criminals. She and her friends have been granted a second (well, for Alice, a third I guess) chance at life by demons and, in exchange, are condemned to hell. Oh, and she and Ciel both dress in what could be considered goth-loli clothing.
Anyway, despite knowing she’s in the game, narrator Alice can’t manipulate the story much. (And it’s refreshing that’s a disappointment compared to most otoge isekai protagonists!) Even in a case from the game involving comatose girls could have a different culprit because things didn’t progress as expected. Together with her friends, they hunt down criminals, and their special powers from being revived are slowly revealed as they investigate the Sleeping Beauties. The group includes Jack, the heroine’s favorite and who generally acts as Alice’s butler; Leeds, a doting, feminine man; and shota twins Tweedle Dee and Dum. As you would expect from an otome game setup, they are very close, living together as Alice’s uncle (nicknamed Bear) drops by to check on them.
The light novel at first seems one of those “pointlessly isekai” stories. Alice knows little of the plot now, having her significant events with an earl named Dark who was a side character in the original game. And Evil Alice’s Lover sounded so intriguing that I wanted to see the lead as “Alice”. A nineteenth century female secret vigilante working with other devil-blessed individuals? Totally cool. I often wanted to concentrate on that rather than being distracted by a teen now realizing she’s a beauty or her scheme to marry some rando to reduce her chances of dying. But at least the isekai aspect comes through in the end.
Of course, none of Alice’s friends are thrilled by her sudden interest to attend parties, and they — along with Alice — are not impressed either by the flirtatious, flamboyant Earl Arland. Part of the drive to solve the novel’s main case is to stop him from winning a bet and making Alice his bride. But Alice can’t stop her heart racing around Dark though or keep a distance from him.
I Reincarnated as Evil Alice, So the Only Thing I’m Courting is Death is more romance-heavy than the title may suggest, and the earl’s attention is focused on Alice from the start. But there’s still plenty of mystery in the novel, including lesser demons sniffing around as the gang investigates. The novel stumbles in the middle a bit in regards to Alice’s past (suddenly remembering a friend and reuniting shortly thereafter), but it gets back on track as Alice’s secret (no, not that one!) is revealed and they pin down the villain.
Even as that case wraps up, the ending is primed for DLC volume 2, and I’m sure we’ll get more of Dark’s flirting and demon-connected investigations. While isekai and romance fans will enjoy this story because of that, it’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and/or Black Butler fans that truly owe themselves a look at this light novel.