In Volume 1 – reviewed here on Okazu by Luce – we met Natori Midori an over-zealous office worker who, in her desire to be needed and appreciated worked herself out of a job. When she finds herself inside the world of her favorite otome game, she ends up working for, and against, the villainess, Lapis. She becomes Lapis’ competent assistant, passing her knowledge of the game off as psychic abilities. Hoever, Natori knows that this will end badly for Lapis, so seeks to work against the story, so Lapis doesn’t die after betraying the game protagonist Diana.

In The Fed-Up Office Lady Wants to Serve the Villainess, Volume 2, by Nekotarou, the plot thickens. Natori, called Natalie in the game, is definitely becoming deeply attached to Lapis, even if she’s ignoring the why. but more concerning than the return affection from Lapis, is the growing jealousy from Diana…and the new attention the Prince is paying Natalie and Lapis. The Prince, it turns out, is rooting for Lapis and her new secretary to figure it all out. 

In a nutshell, this is also the problem. Natori is not very self-aware. We know that because she worked herself to the bone for a company that didn’t value her, and blamed herself for it. We can easily see that Natori and Lapis are developing feelings that are very decidedly romantic…and so can Diana, but Natori is wholly clueless to all of the dynamic within their group. The plot requires this, so we’ll just allow it. But we do have to look forward to a bunch more volumes as Natori convinces herself that it’s not anything real.

Nonetheless! This is actually a cute story. I particularly enjoy Diana’s “anything you can do I can do better” magic. How useful!

Of course, Natori will save Lapis, we know that immediately and it’s never really in question. The story will be a matter of how and when. So far this is a 5-volume series, so we’ll just have to get comfortable with Natori’s low self-esteem and misunderstood emotions and I think I’m okay with just letting it ride. And, somehow I am not tired of villainess stories.  ^_^

Ratings: 

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – not really. A little light skinship is all we’re getting now
Yuri – .05 because everyone in this story is going to be dumb for a while , but it is definitely there and definitely the point.^_^ 

Overall – 8 

As villainesses go, Lapis is nowhere near as villainessy as others I have recently enjoyed. But I’ll be happy to see these two figure it all out.