His Majesty's Proposal

Look, I’m going to be honest from the get-go. Structure and plot-wise, this is not the greatest thing I have ever read. However, it was highly enjoyable, but I will admit that this particular plot is one that appeals to me a lot. I could probably read a lot of different variations of the same “low-born noble catches the eye of the emperor/king/crown prince/higher-born noble” plot forever and not get tired of it. I did enjoy this mahua a lot, but it might not be everyone’s cup of tea. Please also note, this will not be a spoiler free review. A whole lot happens in the last 20 or so chapters that drastically change the meaning of everything that came before it, so I have to touch on it.

Summary

His Majesty’s Proposal follows the story of Penelope, a baron’s daughter in the fictional empire of Lavata who happens to remember her past life. Penelope is foul-mouthed and rude which has won her few friends at court. After her three-year long engagement is broken off, she wakes up in bed next to a handsome stranger after a ball. Unbeknownst to her, that handsome stranger is the emperor, Bart, and he has fallen hopelessly in love with her.

A pretty cliché premise, right? Despite this, it executes it well, spending less than half of the manhwa on their courtship. The main plot of the story actually revolves around a war that had ended ten years prior. The main villain of most of the story are the prince and princess of the country responsible for initiating the war—Yulson and Yulia of Turan. Yulia (the princess) has been acting as hostage by living at the palace in Lavata for the past ten years. She has been hopelessly in love with Bart (the emperor) this whole time. Her main goal as a villain is to prevent and then later, remove, Penelope as empress so that she can marry Bart. Her older brother, Yulson, has much greater ambitions and is far, far more competent at carrying out his plans.

Yulson desires revenge on Bart, for reasons that are unclear until the end of the manhwa. Sure, Bart (and Lavata) defeated Turan in the war, but Turan were the initiators in the conflict. The reasons run much deeper than a loss in battle, but we’ll address that a bit later. For now, let’s take a closer look at some of the characters!

Penelope Zecalion

As I mentioned earlier, Penelope is the daughter of a baron. She’s lived a carefree life with no responsibilities but is a kind person. At the age of 7, she fell from a tree and regained the memories of her past life. This was a traumatic experience for her as she suddenly gained 78 years’ worth of memories. In her previous life, she had lived in our world’s Korea. She had a rough life, being sold by her parents to an abusive husband, who later died at sea. She was a harsh woman who lived a long life only to die alone. These memories changed Penelope into the slightly aggressive and crass woman she is when the story starts.

I was a little surprised that her past life was explored so fully within the plot. I thought it would just be a gimmick to explain her personality, but a lot of her personal fears come from these memories, such as her fear of getting married and all that entails. She does fall victim to the classic shojou protagonist syndrome where their kindness and purity is the way they make it through the plot, but I honestly felt they mixed both sides of her personality well. I could be projecting a little though…

Overall, I liked her as a character and as a protagonist she took charge of the story well.

Bart Dermian

Bart is the emperor of Lavata and our main love interest. He first fell for Penelope when he saw her scold a guard for not allowing a beggar into the library that was decreed to be open to all. After their chance encounter at the ball, he is determined to find her and make her his empress. After fumbling through some dates and getting to know each other, they get married. Bart is a fearsome warrior and the only mage in Lavata. He cares deeply for Penelope and would do anything to make her happy.

Bart. I’m not kidding. That is his name. I nearly died of laughter when they had an emotionally charged scene where she ~finally~ calls him by his name.

But, joking aside, he was a pretty fun character! He was never too pushy with Penelope in the early stages of their relationship and responded well to her boundaries most of the time. He was a competent emperor and hoo-boy was he scary when someone dared to lay a hand on Penelope. I really liked him, and I felt their relationship developed pretty naturally.

Yulson Turan

Yulson is the crown prince of Turan. He is cunning and devious and will do anything to achieve his goals. He’s also hopelessly in love with Penelope and those inconvenient feelings keep making it hard for him to carry out his plan to crush Bart and Lavata into the dust.

As a villain, he was brilliant. But honestly, there were some inconsistencies. Like…how he managed to meet and interact with Penelope three times before realising who she was. I mean, sure, all three times were in situations where she wasn’t declaring herself to be the empress, but I feel like a little itty-bit of brain cells would have saved him the nasty surprise later.
Another thing I liked about this character was how his trauma was clearly the main motivator behind his villainous acts, but it was never presented as an excuse. Yeah, there were time when you felt sorry for him, but I never felt like he was being ‘misunderstood’ by the main cast. If anything, they were misunderstood by him!

The...confusing bits

Alright, buckle in. This section will be full of spoilers because, honestly? I have no idea why they did it this way. It by no means ruined the story for me but…did they have to leave it so late?

Essentially, Yulson is possessed by the evil goddess Acnila, who wants revenge on the Gold Dragon (who Bart is descended from). This explains the intense need to get revenge over what was really a pretty minor wrong on a state level. However, (because things can’t ever be simple) Penelope also possesses the powers of the goddess, Helenia, Acnila’s older sister. Now, to prevent the world from ending, Penelope has to defeat Acnila using her dormant goddess powers.

Cool. Fine. In fact, this was even hinted at earlier! We knew Bart was descended from the Gold Dragon in like, chapter 40! Helenia uses a bow and Penelope is crazy skilled at archery with no prior experience.

SO WHY WAIT UNTIL CHAPTER 80 SOMETHING TO BRING THIS UP?!?!?

Honestly, I didn’t mind it??? I just wished it had been hinted at more heavily. Not to mention, the final fight was so cool. Like…amazing. The art was 10/10. I’m just more annoyed than anything. It didn’t ruin the story for me, it just could have been better. And…the ending was happy eventually, but I couldn’t help but feel it tossed most of the manhwa out the window.

Final verdict

Overall, I enjoyed it. The earlier stuff was more my jam, but I’m a sucker for court politics. The worldbuilding was interesting, the art was beautiful, and the side characters were charming. I even loved the B-plot romance between Penelope’s older brother and her best friend.

So…if you can live with the last 20-odd chapters being confusing and a little counter-intuitive to the rest of the story, I would 100% recommend this manhwa.