When she was little, Constance (Connie) snuck out to play with her best friend and accidentally ended up seeing the execution of Scarlett the villainess. While that was obviously traumatic, right now, Connie is trying to live up to her family’s motto of “thou shall be sincere” and not believe the rumors that her fiancé, Neil, is canoodling with another woman without any evidence. But at a ball, Connie gets proof with her own two eyes. Still, she’s torn on whether to say something and potentially leaving her family without financial backing from Neil’s.
But the other woman, Pamela, arranges a trick and paints Connie as a thief! With no one willing to aid her, Connie starts breaking down and she internally cries for help…but suddenly, the girl known for being a meek lamb becomes a fierce lion!
This first volume of The Holy Grail of Eris doesn’t adapt as much of the light novel as I expected. The opening where Connie witnesses the villainess Scarlett’s death feels comparatively long compared to what I remember in the original. This means the book ends as the ball is wrapping up and before Connie can process what happened. As such, while the execution scene was the novel’s prologue, it’s almost like the whole Pamela incident is a second prologue. The partygoers are stunned when Connie suddenly has a sharp tongue and an even sharper memory. This is the event that gets the story rolling, but while readers will have easily gleaned what happened, it’s technically not confirmed yet. So even the series’ basic summary (like the official blurb for the light novel) would be considered a spoiler until the next volume.
However, in exchange for a slow setup, the prologue had much more of an impact on me. The two-page spread of Scarlett starting her final words against a completely back background and her headless body gave me the chills, and young Connie’s reaction provides stronger evidence as to why an older Connie sees that mysterious, strange girl at the ball. Momoyama’s art beautifully captures the underlying madness in people that rise to a fervor in mobs. Scarlett I felt looked a little younger than Yu-nagi’s original drawings. She has a little less of that villainess edge, but she looks closer to her age. I like that.
Also, the manga features a different translator than the original, but I did check a few key lines, and they were mostly identical. Others that were more significantly different may have been changed in the original Japanese version to accommodate the visuals.
The Holy Grail of Eris volume 1 in the manga was never going to cover as much as the first novel (none of these adaptations do), but for someone new to this franchise, it may not show enough of the direction of the series to hook readers. However, the various dark visuals may help grab attention for newcomers and also provide a reason for who have read the light novel to experience the early events all over again.