Ronia Gavizera is the 16-year-old reincarnation of a Japanese woman, who tragically died from overworking. Retaining the memories of her past life, the woman realized that she was now living the life of the villainous noble, Ronia, of a web novel she used to read.
Expecting her fiancé to fall in love with the heroine and cancel their engagement, Ronia used her eventual banishment as an opportunity to set up a café in the town of Domskhasa near the border of the kingdom, where she could finally relax. This is where she meets a group of shunned beastkin mercenaries, who are instantly drawn to Ronia's beauty and kindness.
My Lady Just Wants to Relax (Reijou wa Mattari wo Goshomou) is a light novel, written by Mitsuki Beni with illustrations by RAHWIA, published by Alphapolis since April 2018. In March 2019, it received a manga adaptation.
My Lady Just Wants to Relax provides examples of:
- Adoptive Peer Parent: Shize to the rest of his mercenaries. When their home village was attacked thirteen years before the start of the series, he took it upon himself to raise the resulting orphans by himself. He is twenty-four when Ronia meets him, meaning he was eleven when this began.
- Always Second Best:
- Ronia's brother, Robert, was always second best, never being able to catch up to Gratia, which is why he is resentful towards Gratia and the feeling is mutual.
- Misano never quite bests Ronia. Jealous of her achievements, she aimed to take away that spot, and Ronia's fiancé, Schneider, as well. Even after Ronia left, Misano laments that she could never be able to win Schneider's heart regardless of what she does.
- Appeal to Flattery: Hilariously, Ronia does this completely by accident. When the fairies she asked to help her harvest coffee beans go on strike because she's been asking for more than originally intended, she tries to just thank them for their work and says they don't need to do more before talking about how much people like the coffee made from those beans. The fairies are so flattered to hear that people like the coffee that they go right back to work to Ronia's complete astonishment.
- The Archmage: Gratia Amethyst is the king's court magician and one of Ronia's mentors. In the academy, he always ranked first. Ronia herself is also one of the strongest magicians shown, despite never graduating and thus never receiving the title of magician.
- Beast and Beauty: Ronia has this with all beastkin. The beastkin are feared mostly for their monstrous strength, though, and the rejection of the humans makes them cynical and dejected. Ronia's kindness brings out the best of them.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: One of the main reasons the Beastkin Mercenaries feel very protective of Ronia, as she is probably the only person in town that is completely nice to them and let's them eat at her café.
- Becoming the Mask: Ronia never intended to fall for Schneider, as she knew that the events of her life would lead to him leavingher for Misano in the end. However, even her resolve to ultimately give him up without a fight didn't stop her from actually falling in love with him.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Ronia is an incredibly understanding woman, but if you don't heed her warnings, you will quickly learn that this girl packs a mighty magical punch.
- Big Brother Bully: There is no lost love between Ronia and her brother, Robert. Like his parents, Robert expects too much of Ronia and does not show her any respect. The first thing he does after finding her is to scold her for damaging the family name.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Schneider believes that Ronia is one, which is why he angrily cancels their engagement in front of the academy, and instead gets together with Misano. The irony is that Misano was the one who mind raped Ronia's followers into falsely admitting that their bullying was instigated by Ronia.
- Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Ryusei finds it odd he is a hopeless flirt towards every girl in town, but gets flustered when around Ronia.
- Celibate Hero:
- After the messy break-up with Schneider, which left her heartbroken, Ronia isn't interested in any romance anymore.
- Gratia is very popular with the ladies, but doesn't seem to be interested in anything but his studies. This isn't actually true though, he is very interested in Ronia, someone who is as dedicated to magic and the Spirit Forest as him.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Ronia is made out to be one, which is why she supposedly retaliated against Misano. In truth, Misano is the one who envied Ronia for her fiancé and did everything she could to break them up.
- Color-Coded Characters: The beastkin mercenaries are easy to recognize because of their different species and different colors. Shize is a black lion, Chise is a blue wolf, Sena is a green jackal and Ryusei is a white cheetah.
- Cuteness Proximity: Ronia has this to the fluffy fur of the beastmen mercenaries. Hilariously, Gratia also has this reaction, though the mercenaries are less inclined to indulge him than they are Ronia.
- Devoted to You: Ronia is such a kind person, that the entire mercenary squad, Gratia, and the Spirit Forest inhabitants would sacrifice their lives for her. Threatening or hurting her is a good way to ask for death.
- The Dreaded: The only person Ronia really fears is her older brother, Robert. This is the girl that doesn't even budge against a powerful demon.
- Dude Magnet: Ronia has far too many suitors. Almost every male customer is drawn to her, the beastkin mercenaries all fall for her, the elven prince, Orphias, wishes to court her, the mythical beast, Lacrain, has openly said that he loves her, and Gratia also has feelings for her.
- Dude Where Is My Respect: The Beastkin Mercenaries are hired to protect the town, which they clearly do very well, but all of the citizens are terrified of them.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Played for Laughs. Ronia is absolutely overjoyed at all of the fluff from her beastman customers. However the beastmen, knowing that their animal forms usually scare normal people, decide to change into their more human appearance, causing her to give this expression when there is no more fluff.
- Dying Curse: If someone manages to kill a demon, the demon will unleash such a powerful curse that it will Salt the Earth. Because of this, demons have to be sealed instead of killed.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Schneider is beside himself with rage when he (falsely) learns that his fiancée, Ronia, harassed the other woman he spent time with, Misano, out of jealousy. He goes so far to publicly humiliate Ronia and tear their engagement contract apart for all academy students to see, because he thinks she put on a nice persona for him and hid her true nature from him.
- Even Evil Can Be Loved: Interestingly, Schneider gets a lot of flak from others for not following this trope. As several people, including his uncle the king, explain to him, his engagement meant that even if Ronia was truly guilty of everything Misano accused her of, he should have still supported her with all his love and affection.
- Extreme Doormat: Being abused, mentally and physically, by her family has led to Ronia not talking back when confronted. This leads to her expulsion and broken engagement, as she doesn't refute the accusations against her strongly enough. Most people fear her family, and the few people who really knew her in the academy were Lexi, Hansel and her mentor, Gratia.
- Fantastic Racism:
- Humans are fearful of beastmen due to their great natural strength that can easily kill a person. It doesn't matter that the four beastmen mercenaries hired to protect a town from bandits (who are all too happy to Rape, Pillage, and Burn) are professional, courteous, and highly attractive, the townsfolk still barely tolerate them.
- Orphedot and Lacrain (and possibly other members of The Fair Folk) are extremely distrustful of humans in general, for numerous reasons, some of which may be justified.
- The First Cut Is the Deepest: Ronia's very public break up from the prince has left her uninterested in developing a relationship at this time.
- Grandparent Favoritism: Ronard Gavizera is the only decent family member, who acknowledges Ronia's hard work and unconditionally loves her. Naturally, she enjoys spending time with him — the few moments where she can actually relax — than with the rest of her family.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: Volume 2 of the light novel reveals that Ronia saved the Spirit Forest and its king, Orphedot, from the demon, Belzeta, two years before the story begins when she was 14. Since Orphedot is the Spirit of Plants, all plants would have withered if he had died, which means that Ronia basically saved the world. At her request, everyone involved keeps quiet, as she has no doubt that her family and the king or another country would drag her back if they learned this, and she has no intention to become a noble again.
- Harem Genre: This is a story about Ronia's reverse harem, as almost every male character has feelings for her.
- Heroic RRoD: Ronia's past self died due to working herself to death. While Ronia didn't collapse to death, her work as the Gavizera family's daughter was also very unpleasant, which is the main reason why she wanted to escape nobility and do a job where she can relax.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Ronia has deeply-seated confidence issues, as she was never given recognition for her hard work. She doesn't seem to realize how treasured she is for her outstanding talent and her kind nature.
- Horrible Judge of Character: For some reason, Schneider believes that Ronia was a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing and Clingy Jealous Girl, and Misano is just a Nice Girl who was treated unfairly. It's ironically the complete opposite.
- House Fey: While they technically live in a forest and don't hide their presence from Ronia at all, her fairy friends do help out a lot at the cafe.
- Humble Hero: Ronia is far too humble about her achievements, due to her own family never acknowledging her and her hard work.
- Humans Are Bastards:
- This is the general stance of the spirit Orphedot and the mythical beast Lacrain. Both are extremely distrustful of humans, especially nobles, as entering a contract with a spirit is an exam in the academy, but most students unilaterally end the contract once the exam is over. The few exceptions are Gratia and Ronia.
- The beastkin mercenaries don't like humans much, mostly due to being rejected by them. Ryusei is also extremely popular in his full human form, but as soon as they learn that he is beastkin, they get scared and try to distance themselves from him. The duplicity of humans is what makes him hate them so much, with Ronia being the exception, as she finds all of their forms very attractive and isn't scared of beastkin at all.
- Hypocrite: Robert Gavizera claims that it's nothing special to be the best (female) mage in the academy, thinking that it's to be expected. He also is as ambitious as his parents and pushes Ronia to put more effort in. Never mind that he never managed to get first place and was Always Second Best behind Gratia.
- Ideal Hero: Almost bordering on All-Loving Hero with Ronia. Ronia isn't prejudiced in the least and beloved by almost everyone. The few people that dislike her are the original heroine of the story, Misano, and Schneider, who is a Horrible Judge of Character.
- I Gave My Word: Gratia and Ronia are noted to be the only two human magicians Orphedot has a contract with, as they honor their promise to help if help is needed (which most aristocrats proficient in magic don't do), and are thus very welcome friends of the Spirit Forest. Ronia especially skipped an exam (which eventually would lead to being scolded by her family, despite a make-up exam existing for that specific purpose), because she wanted to help her friends. By doing so, she ended up saving the Spirit Forest and potentially the world, though as humble as she is, she doesn't want word of this to get out.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Belzeta calls Ronia an "angel", because she is too pure for him to corrupt and control.
- In Spite of a Nail: The story, up to the point of where her engagement was broken off, seems to play off exactly the same despite this Ronia being much nicer than the one in the story. Ronia even seemed to notice that her actions, which were more of an accident or something like it, were automatically seen as attacks or signs of deep jealousy by everyone else.
- I Owe You My Life: Lacrain opened up his heart to Ronia after she healed him and saved the Spirit Forest almost single-handedly.
- Lazy Alias: As revealed in Volume 3, "Serena" is actually Sena's little brother, Seth. He just took his brother's name and added a syllable to it, as he was pretending to be a girl.
- Love Makes You Dumb: Too blinded by his infatuation with Misano, Schneider abandons Ronia the moment he gets the excuse to do so. It took his uncle, the king, and several other people for him to realize what Ronia did for him, while he was flirting with another woman.
- Matchmaker Crush: Sena initially wanted to set up Ronia with Shize, but eventually realizes that he has fallen for her, too.
- Meaningful Name: Ronia names her café "Mattari", the Japanese word for "laid-back" or "relax".
- Merlin and Nimue: Gratia helped Ronia with her studies in magic several times, and he was also the one who led Ronia to Orphedot to establish a contract. Ronia has the deepest respect for Gratia's expertise, while Gratia is in love with Ronia.
- Mugging the Monster: A group of human mercenaries try to barge into Ronia's cafe and demand alcohol, and only get more belligerent when told that she doesn't serve any. She uses her magic to throw them out the door and ban them from ever entering again. As in they are literally incapable of entering the building. Of course, they later get someone else with a gun to try and threaten her to remove the magical ban, but that just pisses off the beastmen mercenaries who frequent the establishment, which goes even worse for them.
- Must Be Invited: Lacrain has placed a powerful barrier spell around Ronia's cafe. If she deems someone "Not Welcomed", a magic wind will blow out the people it's directed towards.
- Nature Hero: Ronia has great friendships with the spirits of the Spirit Forest. She has contracts with Orphedot and Lacrain, and also with the lotos spirits and fairies, who help out with cleaning/baking or harvest coffee beans for her.
- Oblivious to Love: Justified. Since she was a little girl she had been the fiancé to the prince, so despite there being a long list of guys that pined for her none dare do so and kept their feelings to themselves. By the time that is broken off and she sets up her café, she is emotionally wounded from that experience that she just isn't interested in love at this time.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The usually mild-mannered king is absolutely furious about Schneider's behavior regarding Ronia. Seeing as how she would have made a very good queen and could now be taken by another kingdom, it's understandable.
- Perfectly Arranged Marriage: The current Ronia and Schneider. Ronia at first thought once again she was merely a pawn for her family when announced she will be wedded to him. However they truly cared for each other up until Schneider assumed she was manipulating him and broke it off. Pretty much every guy points out to him what a monumentally stupid decision that was.
- Poor Communication Kills: Ronia doesn't reject or clear things up fiercely enough when prompted, which leads to a series of misunderstandings. For instance, Ramo profusely apologizing to Ronia because he messed up her coffee makes it look to Schneider like Ronia is as harsh as her relatives to their servants, and she is "sorry" Schneider found out. When she dropped a book on Misano or deflected a magical attack in Misano's direction supposedly out of jealousy, these were really just accidents, but to everyone else saying so sounded like an excuse. Lastly, Ronia neither denied nor confirmed that her followers acted on her orders to harass Misano. At that point, she already gave up on Schneider and willingly took the blame to spare these other nobles any harsh punishment. Since she never wanted to be a noble and Schneider's love was the only thing that kept her from abandoning her family, she had no more reason to not accept the break-up with Schneider.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Misano, envious of Ronia for her achievements, schemed to condemn Ronia so she could get Ronia's place and Schneider's love. While Misano succeeded, it ultimately ended up being empty as Ronia still had friends and a relative that believed and loved her and Schneider still had a torch for Ronia, leaving Misano lamenting that she never got to replace Ronia after all despite achieving a victory against her.
- Racial Transformation: The protagonist was Japanese on Earth but became Caucasian when reincarnated as Ronia. She found it strange at first but became accustomed to her new life.
- "Reborn as Villainess" Story: A young woman dies and is reincarnated as Ronia, the love rival of a web romance novel she read before her death. As she already knows the ending - her engagement to the prince is broken and she's exiled from the nobility - she's already made preparations beforehand. Now she's trying to fulfill her dream ever since her previous life: opening a small cafe in the countryside and living a relaxing life.
- Revenge Myopia: A common trait of demons in this setting, if Gratia is to be believed. It makes the worry several character have over Ronia's safety even more justified considering she is responsible for the defeat of a demon who attacked Orphedot's forest.
- Riches to Rags: Ronia was part of the powerful Gavizera family before she was banished. She is now basically a commoner and manages her café, though she isn't lacking much thanks to the support of her friends from the Spirit Forest.
- Sadistic Choice: How Belzeta confirms that Ronia is living in the town. He bombards it with magic, knowing that she is the only possible person who could be present that could create a barrier to defend against his bombardment. So either she lets the townsfolk suffer and die, or she outs her own presence. Not that she's aware he was the one casting it, though...
- Shipper on Deck: Sena realizes that Shize is fond of Ronia and is pondering on how to get them together.
- Sick Episode: In Chapter 8 of the light novel's first Volume, Ronia gets sick and collapses. Sena and the lotos spirits then nurse her back to health. This reminds Ronia of that time when Schneider nursed her after she had a fever, promising her to protect her.
- Slow Life Fantasy: This series is a combination of the Slow-Life Fantasy and the "Reborn as Villainess" Story. A modern Japanese salarywoman dies from overwork, and finds herself reincarnated as Ronia, the villainess of the romance Web Serial Novel she read. She attempts to prevent her downfall by being an Extreme Doormat, only to find she still gets exiled anyway. However, Ronia takes her exiled life in stride, since this is the first time in two lives she can finally, well, relax. The novel is mostly about her time as a cafe owner on the borderlands, where she mingles with various beastkin and spirits. As an equivalent to adventuring in Isekai written for males, Ronia is no longer interested in romance.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Ronia assumed that if she opened a café out in a faraway village, that most of her day would be just serving customers from time to time and having a lot of free time to relax. Instead, her café is quite popular with the locals and she is very busy running the place all by herself.
- Theory Tunnel Vision: Schneider seems to fully believe Ronia tricked him with a fake nice girl persona, even when shown or told to his face he is wrong.
- White Sheep: Of the current Gavizera family, Ronia is by far the nicest person among them along with her grandfather. Unfortunately, due to her family's reputation, people assume she is just like them.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Despite Ronia staying passive and refusing to harass Misano after Misano openly (and successfully) tried to court Schneider, a number of accidents lead to Ronia being abandoned by her fiancé and family, and expelled from the academy, just like in the novel. It's quickly shown, however, that Ronia had never had any intention of fighting the events of the novel and is instead thrilled to use her expulsion as an opportunity to flee her abusive family for good.
