The prince of the kingdom of Farsas, along with his reluctant retainer, Lazar, attempt to climb a mysterious, trap-filled tower in hopes the rumor that the witch — one of the five most powerful beings in the world, and the strongest of the group to boot — will grant a wish upon reaching the top. Oscar has no issue completing the challenges, but he’s stunned when he finds that the infamous witch, Tinasha, is a beautiful young woman.
Oscar’s hope was that Tinasha would be able to do something about the curse on him placed by another witch. Otherwise, the royal bloodline will end with him. Tinasha explains that even she would have difficulty undoing the spell, and that perhaps the best way to handle the situation is to find a woman that could withstand the enhanced pressure from bearing Oscar’s heir.
Oscar’s solution? Make Tinasha that woman!
Tinasha, who has lived a long life, rejects being Oscar’s bride, but she does agree to leave the tower and watch over him for a year.
The first chapter of the Unnamed Memory manga adaptation ends with Tinasha departing with Oscar, and the bulk of the volume involves Tinasha experiencing her new life at the castle and getting mixed up in an incident at a festival. She is hiding her identity, and no one knows what to make of this newcomer — least of all, Oscar, who is fascinated by Tinasha’s expressiveness. The manga’s art certainly captures this well, although I miss the more Octopath Traveler/Odin Sphere-style video game-ish art of chibi’s.
I also found the switch from the light novel to the manga a bit more jarring than expected due to the translation. I have no experience with the Japanese version, but there were moments that gave me pause. “I have no brothers”, he narrates in one text box, and that’s followed by, “Virtually all fell prey to the curse.” That seems to imply Oscar did have siblings, but they died. However, Oscar is and has been an only child. Also, compare Tinasha explaining about Oscar’s curse:
In my opinion, the novel’s explanation is clearer. At the very least, there’s a difference between “knotted twenty times over” (makes it sound like the caster had placed several layers on it) versus “a part of you for close to twenty years” (sounds like the spell has merged with Oscar). The manga adaptation could have changed the text (it certainly changes the order of some lines), but I can’t help but wonder if some parts will be confusing or misunderstood by those who have only read the manga.
But this is not the most convoluted story, and fans of (non-isekai) medieval fantasy have a lot to like here. Tinasha occasionally has dark or wistful looks on her face to hide her backstory, and Oscar is rather determined to win Tinasha over without pushing into arrogant jerk territory. While the goal is to get Oscar’s curse removed (or, in his opinion, marry Tinasha), the story is already demonstrating there are other problems and hidden agendas the leads will have to deal with.
Judging by the way the chapters are named and divided, it’s likely much (most? all?) of the novel will be adapted, and the visuals so far speed things up without losing the story’s charms. So even though the dialogue and narration here may need to be sharpened a bit, with pictures being worth 1,000 words, at least we shouldn’t have to constantly spend time on being reminded of Tinasha’s beauty; everyone can see that for themselves and instead look forward to what’s next.