I think they put in subliminals with the scene of the duke killing the Queens spies and the carriage full of his lady harem except for mc being unphased by the murder. Another clue was the Harem explicitly saying that they don’t even serve as a harem or would even care to accept for the little! girl and the red head. Which peaked my interest about why he would take in a harem and what purpose they serve.The biggest clue was the harem naturally playing the role of a stereotypical harem to throw off the queens people and one the harem girls is just casting all sorts of spells. Then another harem !girl implies she is proficient in medicine and poison. This trope reminds me of Black panther and a ethnic group in Africa where the kings harem is to be warriors for king while serving as him harem. But in black panther his sunrise are actually elite women fighters and in real life the kings harem were deadly head hunters specialized for certain tasks or were key leaders in the community like teachers.I knew they would be skilled as spy’s but I didn’t think they would all be specialized in classes like a fantasy rpg which Is the only real surprise. I think the tone was set and I saw it coming the moment the mage in the harem was casting spells on everyone before the delegation arrived. We couldn’t have the harem fighting before because it would lose its paradigm shifting moment
Wasn’t really expecting a big demon fight, honestly there wasn’t much buildup to it or anything which might have suggested this kind of turnout. Ngl seems to random all of a sudden, the whole mood changed a lot.
Idk