This was a decent start to this fantasy shounen manga series. Cecily comes across as a bit silly at times; she wants to be a Knight Guard like her father and grandfather before her but doesn’t really have the training. She recognizes this and tries to seek out training. However along the way she gets obsessed with the fact that maybe an awesome new sword will make up for her lack of training.

During an incident where a madman starts terrorizing people in the marketplace, Cecily tries to stop the madman but fails miserably only to be rescued by reclusive swordman/blacksmith named Luke.

I thought the drawing was good but not spectacular. The storyline is pretty typical fantasy; complete with Demon Pacts, a lone swordsman who can kill anything, and a hopeful girl who wants to learn how to kill anything.

I enjoyed Luke a lot as a character: he has that whole mysterious lone samurai thing going on. I thought Cecily was okay but she was channeling a bit too much ditsy naiveness for me, hopefully this will be toned down in future books.

Overall this was a good start to this fantasy manga series. Although there’s nothing spectacular in this volume I enjoyed the traditional fantasy storyline and the illustration style. I think the characters have potential but hope that Cecily is less ditsy in future volumes. I would recommend to fans of fantasy manga; this reminds a bit of Claymore or Beserk but isn’t as edgy as those manga. ( )