The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen

rob z says:

Memomo’s review is pretty solid. Please note that for this novel you have to grind through the first 5-8 chapters, which quite frankly suck, and I wouldn’t blame a reader for saying “poison” if you just read those. But it gets much, much better once you get past that initial setup.

Basic premise is MC is transported to an alternate world (think its a novel world) where he becomes the butler of the villainess. Unlike many novels of the genre, she is just a damn villainess who becomes obsessed with a male “protagonist” (I put in quotes because it is not all that clear he is really a good guy) and becomes dag nasty evil about it (of course tormenting the commoner girl who is supposed to become the heroine and hook up with the male protagonist). Unfortunately, yes, the MC is a simp for the villainess, because she saved him when he was a street urchin just fighting to survive. Notably, the villainess didn’t start out all evil and twisted, she just fell due to her obsession with the male protagonist who did not reciprocate her feelings.

So villainess is basically abandoned by her family after she is expelled from the academy for messing with black magic to try and mind screw the male protagonist (becoming crippled and unable to walk in the process), living alone with the butler in their (running down) mansion. MC nevertheless stays by her side (taking a leave of absence from the academy) out of duty / loyalty (and maybe stronger feelings?) Problem is she is fined 1 million gold pieces for the black magic stuff, so MC has to try to make money so they don’t lose everything. He ends up getting together with a female character who is mistreated by her family and destined to die in the novel and helps her, and through that connection ends up saving the mansion – and the plot moves forward from there.

Notably, MC trained himself and used knowledge of the book to become a badass – he can basically wipe the floor with any of the good guy characters / academy students. There are also flashbacks to the academy life that show how he helped the male protagonist / heroine grow (basically the system gave him “quests” that would result in improving the other characters).

Over the course of these chapters, you see the villainess slowly reform and become a better person. And since a commenter below already spoiled it, yes, one of the steps in that growth is that she realizes MC saved her during the black magic episode, which caused him to be horribly injured / tainted, with his right arm decaying and losing functionality. She of course feels horribly guilty and is determined to be better and do what she can for him.

So, to answer the question as to why this is so popular with Korean readers and maybe not getting the best reviews here – this is a LOVE DRAMA. Take out the fantasy setting, and this would be the kind of drama you would see on Korean TV. Most of the characters are somehow romantically interested across each other or fall in and out of love with each other, and the various escapades all are really subplots of driving that drama forward. So if romantic drama is your cup of tea, you will like this one (once you get past those initial chapters).