You might enjoy reading this if you like historical manhwa with a fake daughter and regression
TapasPlot Summary
The Fake Lady of House Silkisia is similar to Villains are Destined to Die in terms of the brothers’ treatment of the female lead.
Psyche Silkisia has been replacing the real daughter, Lillian Silkisia, for the past 10 years while Lillian was missing.
Her two brothers, Izar and Lennox, have never treated her as family or appreciated her despite living together for a decade.
She’s been supporting her brothers by doing their work or helping them train to help maintain House Silkisia’s image.
But she still has a reputation for being useless and incompetent because she’s given no credit for it.
That was fine with her though since Psyche thought it would lead to her being accepted by the family.
She realized too late she never had a chance, unfortunately.
At the start of the story, she’s framed for attempting to murder Lillian and is forced to commit suicide via poison as punishment with no one on her side.
When Psyche drinks the poison though, she wakes up in bed, having gone back in time to the day that Lillian first returned to House Silkisia.
She also notices that her magic, which had been sealed by magicians the first time around, is no longer restrained.
After this, Psyche decides she’s going to leave House Silkisia as soon as possible.
My Thoughts (Contains Minor Spoilers)
TL;DR It’s a decent fake daughter manhwa though you have to read 30+ chapters before it gets good
setting
It’s a pretty standard historical manhwa set in a European-style empire with four duchies controlling a magical power that’s passed on between generations.
House Silkisia is one of those four, having control over an ability called the Unmelting Ice.
And House Lestir is another, having control over the Unquenchable Flame.
There are two other duchies of course but the story mostly focuses on these two.
House Lestir is responsible for the northern part of the empire, where monsters constantly attack and put a strain on the territory.
House Silkisia is responsible for the southern territory where dungeons are located though there isn’t much of an explanation about those.
There also isn’t much of an explanation as to what the difference is between the magic the duchies have and what regular wizards have until at least halfway through season 1.
In general, the world seems to have a soft magic system that’s sometimes inconsistent, mostly regarding the engagement rings the main couple has.
These rings are magical and supposed to share strong emotions between the couple wearing them but there are times when the plot forgets they exist.
The story feels rather flat in the first half of the season as it kind of drags its feet in moving the plot, the world-building, and character development.
This is mostly because of the emphasis on the cartoonishly evil members of House Silkisia.
However, the second half makes up for it largely because of Berndia, Psyche’s fiancé and the ML but also because of some revelations regarding House Silkisia and the emperor.
House Silkisia
There doesn’t seem to be any redeeming qualities about the Silkisia family.
Lennox, the youngest son, is an idiot who doesn’t know he’s an idiot while confidently and constantly putting down Psyche.
Izar, the oldest, has an inferiority complex towards Psyche that’s actually unresolved daddy issues.
Lillian is an idiot with little influence other than existing until much later in the season.
Which is strange considering she was the one who framed Psyche and you’d think we’d get more of her POV at least.
But the one who really stands out is the head of the family, Logan.
Without going into too much detail, he purposefully made it so Psyche was isolated and her powers suppressed to further his own goals.
Though he hasn’t given much of those details to his own children which is understandable where Lennox is concerned but keeping Izar in the dark seems to be backfiring.
Another thing I found interesting was how it’s widely known that Psyche is a replacement for Lillian.
In other fake daughter manhwa, this arrangement is usually kept hidden until the real daughter shows up.
But I guess this was part of the plan to keep Psyche isolated as people hold being a fake against her.
For the first half of season 1, much of it was about showing off how awful the family is and how they’re surprised Psyche has a backbone.
And the second half is where we get a lot more information that unravels Psyche’s past and the relationship between Logan and the emperor.
Female Lead
As a female lead, Psyche isn’t unique by any means.
Though it doesn’t mean she’s a bad one.
She does have agency as she actively looks into the necklace used to frame her for attempting to murder Lillian in her first life.
And she’s willing to reject the members of House Silkisia when they try to convince or force her back home.
Or she’ll use them (read: Lennox) to smear their image when trying to antagonize her in public.
Plus she has her swordsmanship to fight off most threats.
That’s all we really get until, again, the second half of the season when we start learning more about her magical powers and see her react to new situations.
I’m hoping she’ll be developed more in season 2 to be more than someone House Silkisia wants to use because I think Psyche shows the potential for it.
Male Lead
For the first half of season 1, I thought Berndia was pretty bland.
The only things he had going for him was his obvious dislike of Lillian and how he appreciated Psyche’s sword skills.
He’s the head of House Lestir and Psyche’s fiancé who treated her well out of formality but nothing more in the past.
Though Berndia distanced himself when Psyche tried to get close to him due to her fear of being kicked out of House Silkisia.
Which is why he has a hard time believing her initially when she said she wanted to end the engagement though he does agree to signing a contract with her.
At first, it seemed like he was going to be the type of ML who falls in love with the FL because she lost interest in him.
It was even worse when he acted territorial against Aiden, one of Psyche’s only friends, despite himself being indifferent not too long before.
What changed my opinion was when he realized Psyche was brainwashed.
To help her, he stayed patient while talking her through it despite failing every time.
When he looked into getting others involved in treating her, he made sure she was fully aware of what was going on even though she didn’t believe there was anything wrong with her.
Then he became even better when he realized he’s in love with her.
Watching him try to make her happy and blushing over the smallest things was just so endearing.
And then, towards the finale we’re hit with what he did for Psyche in her first life, turning him into the greenest of flags.
If you’ve read this far, I hope you’re willing to give The Fake Lady of House Silkisia a try or you can check out my other posts!
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