Behold Demon White Sword Shirley and her twin daughters, Tia and Sophia.
A world where monsters run rampant. A noblewoman falls from grace and loses everything after being falsely accused. But, she started a fresh life as an 'Immortal'. She became an adventurer capable of defeating disaster-rank monsters and taking the heads off ancient dragons with a single swing of her blade. However, behind that cool exterior... beats the heart of a ridiculously over-indulgent mother!? “What should I do, my daughters are just too cute!?” She wields her deadly sword for the sake of motherly love! Ogres flee and dragons tremble at the sight of this overpowered adventurer! The fantasy adventure of the Doting Mother Sword Demon begins now!
Even Though I’m a Former Noble and a Single Mother, My Daughters Are Too Cute and Working as an Adventurer Isn’t Too Much of a Hassle (Moto Kizoku Reijou de Mikon no Haha Desuga, Musumetachi ga Kawaii Sugite Boukenshagyo mo Ku ni Narimasen; MotoMusu for short) was originally serialized online as a free Web-Novel, written by Taikoban. It would later be acquired by TO Books, who has published its volumes since December 2018 with illustrations by artist Mura. It has a manga adaptation by Yukari Higa.
Associated Tropes:
- Almighty Janitor: Shirley is an adventurer powerful enough to fight gods, but stays at B-rank because being promoted to a higher rank would force her to leave her daughters unattended for extended periods of time, as emergencies capable of threatening the country happen multiple times a week, and occur all over the kingdom. Adventurers of A-rank or higher are required by law to go face them, regardless of their circumstances.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Shirley is this to her daughters, as is the Demon King to his daughter. When they meet, they actually get into a fight over whose daughter(s) is the cutest.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: The reason white hair and mismatched eyes are hated in the Empire? The nobility were corrupt and excessive in flaunting their vices, abusing the people. A popular revolt against their abuses was lead by a "monster" with white hair and mismatched eyes. Although their lives were spared, they were forced to come to terms with their villainy and lost many of their privileges. As such, in the perfect definition of Moral Myopia, they view all children born with either trait as vipers in the crib and treat them accordingly, despite their origin or personality. The title character Shirley is born with both and is put through hell for it.
- Compressed Adaptation: The manga skips over much of the introductory content.
- Crapsaccharine World: The world looks nice at first glance, but just beneath the surface, things are horrific. Not only is the only criteria to be a citizen a one time bribe of three gold pieces, with no background check, but "emergencies" are so frequent, Shirley dares not accept being promoted to A or S rank because she'd have to abandon her twin daughters to deal with them, by law, multiple times a week.
- Did Not Think This Through: Whoever signed into law that A or S rank adventurers must go and deal with emergency situations, damn their circumstances or consent, never stopped to consider the pitfalls. As such, the best adventurers have to refuse the highest ranks to hold on to their freedom; whatever benefits arise from being A or S rank are quickly outstripped by the level of risk, and the fact that they lose their freedom, constantly being shuffled about like disposable weapons of mass destruction.
- Dismotivation: The main character, Shirley, goes out of her way to openly reject any and all forms of advancement in the adventurer's guild from B-rank to A or above, and it's justified, because if she ever accepts the advancement, she'd be forced, by law, to abandon her twin daughters to go run off and deal with whatever "emergency" the adventurer's guild tells her to, and the poor secretary, Yumina, who keeps trying to get her to advance gets yelled at by the guild master, who can't ever fathom why Shirley keeps turning the advancement down.
- Downer Beginning: While not present in the manga, in the webnovel, the prologue shows Shirley being abused her entire childhood, rescued by the crown-prince, declared by him to be her fiance, struggling until she bled to be of use to him, and loved by the emperor and the commoners, only to have it all torn away, for no readily discernible reason, with the crown prince yelling all sorts of crimes she could not possibly have committed, throwing her into a dungeon to be tortured into signing a false-confession. If not for the fact that she gave birth to two sweet, adorable little girls, she would have carved a bloody swath through her home country, brutally murdering everyone responsible, her father, mother, scheming sister, the family servants, the lesser nobles, their servants, the crown prince, and maybe even the emperor and empress in a fit of vengeance.
- Dual Wielding: Shirley wields two powerful swords, Igarima and Shul Shagana.
- Fantastic Racism: In her home country, people with silver hair or mismatched eyes are hated. Shirley happens to have both, thus she was imprisoned on false charges, tortured, and abandoned by her fiance. After escaping her unjust imprisonment and fleeing to a neighboring kingdom, she learns she's pregnant by said fiance. Becoming a mother had her put everything aside, including her desire for revenge, to raise her little girls.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Both Albert and Alice are jealous of Shirley's talents, and this is one of the reasons for their abuse of her. Alice is also jealous of how Shirley has retained her youthful beauty, while Alice herself needs to use makeup to hide her signs of ageing.
- Hate Sink:
- Alice Ragdoll, maiden name Alice Earlgrey, is the biological younger sister of the titular character, Shirley Earlgrey. Since they were both children, Alice, with her family's sanction, absolutely brutalized her elder sister, knowing Shirley was expressly forbidden from fighting back. Not content with that, she schemed to steal Albert, the crown prince, away from Shirley, and succeeded, by falsely accusing Shirley of many things, including Shirley brutalizing her when both were children, as opposed to the other way around, and tempting Albert into an adulterous tryst with herself. Alice is also entirely unfaithful to Albert, having so many men share her marital bed, that her bedroom might as well have a revolving door. She serves as the Freudian Excuse for many villains when it's revealed she used hypnosis magic to warp their minds, after luring them into her bed. She is also a petty, vindictive, entitled parasite who expects the best things in the world, for no effort on her part, and woe if the servants can't get them to her fast enough, even if she changes her whims without notice. When she hears that Albert sired daughters with Shirley and wants to make said daughters his heirs, she agrees to help him take custody, just so she can ship them off to the most physically and morally repulsive nobles she can find, just to spite Shirley for having things she can't.
- Emperor, former prince, Albert himself is nowhere near as charming as he thinks either. After being betrothed to Shirley for eight years, he accepts, at face value, with no evidence whatsoever, aside from some Crocodile Tears, that Shirley is guilty of a great many crimes, and has her taken to a dungeon to be tortured into confessing them, even though it was utterly impossible for her to commit the crimes in the first place. As he's putting Shirley through a Kangaroo Court, he openly admits that he's butt-hurt that she's a better swordsman, scholar, and mage than himself, even being more popular with the people, due to her charity and kindness. The very instant Shirley is taken away to the dungeons, he marries Alice, the accuser, whom he admits he had an affair with. Ten years after Shirley escaped the dungeon, and the country, he learns she bore twin daughters. Rather than make entreaties to try and make amends, he repeatedly uses mind-control curses on said daughters to try and kidnap them, purely so he can use said daughters as heirs, damn their consent or well-being. Deluding himself into thinking he's done nothing wrong, he drives his people to abysmal poverty, just to slate the desires of his adulterous wife, and refuses to leave Shirley and her daughters alone, bringing his nation to the brink of war, and can't, for the life of him, understand why Shirley and her daughters want nothing to do with him.
- Immortality: Semi-immortals like Shirley don't age and can quickly heal from most wounds (though injuries to the head can still kill them).
- Interservice Rivalry: The knights of King Edward's kingdom and the adventurer's guild don't get along, at all. If there's a national disaster, such as a three pronged invasion of multiple dragon kings, they will work together, but the moment the crisis has passed, they're right back to glaring daggers at each other. Even though Canary, who oversees the guild in its entirety, and King Edward, who runs the country and is the Commander In Chief of the knights are great friends, they can do precious little to keep the friction from breaking into civil war. The reason is surprisingly simple and petty. The knights are tasked primarily with peace-keeping and law enforcement, so their job is hardly glamorous and they have a fixed pay, not to mention has very rigid rules and protocols. The adventurers, on the other hand, have very unstable sources of income, but could strike it rich at any time, and have the role of fighting off monsters that threaten the townsfolk and are sung of as heroes, plus they have a very loose set of rules and protocols to follow, so they tend to be a loud and rowdy bunch with checkered pasts, causing them to butt heads with the knights near constantly.
- Lovecraftian Superpower: Dáinsleif, the heirloom sword of the Wolff family, allows its wielder to absorb the magical energy of those they kill. If it's used on a monster, only a small amount of energy is absorbed and it doesn't qualify for this trope. If it's used on a person, on the other hand, the wielder will absorb much more energy - more than their body can handle, transforming them into a massive multi-limbed monster that spawns more monsters.
- Refuge in Audacity: Shirley cuts the imperial palace in half at one point. She gets away with it because no one wants to look ridiculous by accusing her of such a feat.
- Schizo Tech: It's a medieval culture, and all the associated lack of infrastructure, but there are binoculars, refrigerators, and microwaves, and no mention of how they work, until the witch Canary is introduced revealing that they're magic tools she "invented" for cash. She likely got the ideas for those from her late husband, who was summoned to this world from modern Japan.
- Shout-Out:
- Kyle's first adventure is quite similar to the one that forms the opening of Goblin Slayer. In both cases, all but one of the adventurers is killed during a quest to kill goblins, and they are saved by a more experienced adventurer.
- Canary and Yumina's relationship (as an immortal who looks and acts immaturely, and her more serious descendant) resembles the relationship between Akane and Akari in My Monster Secret.
- Stay in the Kitchen: The empire is extremely patriarchal, with knights and soldiers absolutely refusing to recognize a woman having better martial or magical talent than them, until she literally beats it into their heads. Shirley learns this far, far too late when her husband turns on her for the "crime" of outshining him, happily believing accusations against her of heinous crimes, no evidence whatsoever, having her arrested and shoved into a dungeon, to be tortured until she confesses to them, so he can execute her. He then has the gall, ten years later, to think he did nothing wrong when he tries, repeatedly, to kidnap her daughters, to install them as heirs, rather than take on a concubine, or even adopt an orphan when his adulterous wife proves barren.
- Struggling Single Mother: As spelled out by the title. Shirley is the single mother of two adorable little girls and has to take up the dangerous task of adventuring to make ends meet. The "Struggling" part of the trope, however, is largely self-imposed and thus downplayed, as Shirley is B-rank purely by choice despite the Guild's attempts to convince her to accept a promotion to A-rank (long story short, she values the freedom she has and the time she spends with her daughters too much), and while not living in obvious wealth, her daughters do not appear to want for anything (it probably helps that the trio were taken in by a very nice couple who insist on helping Shirley out); Shirley simply has absurdly huge standards regarding her parenting to an almost comical degree, to the point that she seeks out a dragon-slaying quest just so she can get the one ingredient that the local pharmacy is missing for a special medicine that will cure her daughters' illness... which Martha points out would most probably run its course in just a few days and even compares to the common cold.
- Trial by Combat: A Duel Ordained by the Goddess is a traditional method that nations can use to settle disputes between each other. One such duel is used to settle the issue of whether Shirley's daughters should be taken to the Empire.
- Wretched Hive: What became of Shirley's home country after Albert, the crown prince, ascended to Emperor, with Alice, Shirley's evil sister, at his side.
