Of Swords and Parasols

This is part of Net Comics’ line of manhwa short story and novella collections featuring individual manhwaga. The title story here is over 200 pages, and the second, The Magic Box about 20.

In 18th century Germany, Count Eichner Wittgenstein is a newly-made vampire. We know he’s fairly new to this because his servant and he were born on the same day, and the servant is only about 55-60. As Eichner is sitting around, angsting over immortality, his 13-year-old neighbor, Elizabeth, comes over to look at his garden. They bond and fall in love, only to have her parents send her away to school. Elizabeth comes back years later (giving Eichner plenty of time to angst over lost love and the perfidy of humans) and recently married. Unfortunately, she hasn’t married due to her clueing in to there’s something off about a 20-something guy in love with a 13-year-old (much less a 60~ vampire) but because she had to to save her family from financial ruin. Husband is monstrous. Elizabeth is sickly. They fall in love again. There is Tragedy.

Cut to the 1990s, where Eichner meets twin sisters Buzz and Karen. Buzz is shy and lame and downtrodden by her manipulative sister, but also a rising violinist. Karen is beautiful and outgoing and uses Buzz to get attention for herself. One is Elizabeth reincarnated. You can guess how things go. There is a slight twist to it, but…also not a trope I’m big on. Then there is Tragedy again.

Cut to the mid-22nd century, where Eichner is amnesiac and being experimented on by scientists, and bonds with Lazlo, a young investigator assigned as his bodyguard. While the first two parts aren’t my thing (But if “angsty vampire finds love and seeks redemption with human woman” is your thing, this is totally the one-shot manhwa for you, as long as the bit where he falls in love with a 13-year-old doesn’t weird you out too much.) this part interested me more.

( cut for not-unpredictable spoilers )
So, most of it is fairly normal for the genre, but good enough for what it is. The last bit I wish had been longer.

The other story is about a man who spends his entire life making the perfect cut for a diamond, realizes he’s let life and love pass him by, and is given a second chance at life. Falls in love and wastes the new life trying to create the perfect ring for her. All I have to say it that that was a perfectly nice woman who would have rather had the guy than the jewel.

Has anyone read any other manhwa by Sooyeon Won? While some parts made me role my eyes and I wasn’t blown away, I suspect I might like her work in a good series.