Forget Being the Villainess, I Want to Be an Adventurer! (Manga)

When young Serephione has a fateful encounter with Lou, the cute and fluffy guardian tiger, it opens the floodgates to a torrent of memories. She realizes she had a past life as an office worker in which she loved to read fantasy books, including one featuring the infamous villainess...Serephione Granzeus! After using her immense magical power in battle, the novel’s Serephione was defeated and condemned to die alone. The surest way to escape that fate is avoiding magic school altogether...so Serephione vows to hide her magic and become an adventurer instead! But what will she do when major characters from the book threaten her plans?

It’s finally time for Serephione to take the next step to becoming an adventurer: starting knight school! But just when she thought she’d escaped the original storyline, she runs across the heroine Maribelle—who wants a holy beast of her own. Will the plot force itself back on track and take Lou away from Serephione, or can she manage to defy her fate as the villainess?

After a shocking realization—that Maribelle could turn Serephione’s allies into foes against their will—Sere’s world is shattered. She begins searching for clues to help her puzzle out more about the mysterious girl. With Lou’s help, she works on a plan to counter Maribelle’s machinations and protect her loved ones. Sere’s school life is her shelter from this storm, and her peaceful days bring comfort despite the looming threats she faces. She fills this time with her favorite things: joking around with friends, diligent training, and—of course—cute, comfy clothes. But with characters from Wild Rose resurfacing left and right and behaving in...unusual ways, is it even possible for Serephione to guard herself against every possible future?

Serephione gets word that Gillain has become emperor—two years earlier than in the book. Could the plot be advancing faster than she thought? If it is, she’ll need to speed up her efforts to become a self-sufficient adventurer, so along with Alma and Nick, she takes on the challenge of Trundle Guild’s rank promotion test. Meanwhile, fourth-years Sasara and Elise are about to graduate and move on to the next stage of their lives—but before they do, there’s a graduation ball to attend! Sere and Alma step up as moral support for the party, and the four girls become the VIPs of an elite tailor, getting decked out in the finest of ball attire. But even at a top-tier boutique, Serephione can’t escape Wild Rose. What will she do when she’s confronted with a girl living the life she’s tried to escape?

The academic year is coming to an end at knight school, and that means it’s time for the graduation ball! Serephione is ready to give her senior friends Elise and Sasara a big send-off, but when she steps outside for a little fresh air, she finds a surprise visitor: Emperor Gillain himself. Soon after, Trundle Guild hands her a special escort mission that only she can tackle. But this mission won’t just take her dangerously close to the magic academy—it will put her right in the middle of another nation’s political conflict.