It's dirty how he treated her on a supposed to be fair deal, it's disgusting to justify his bs and breaking of the deal so blatantly while abusing his power over her to overwork her with zero benefits for her. You justify it with failed logic....What story are you reading? I heard the shitty explaining he did for his abuse and wanted to knee him between the legs.(〜￣△￣)〜
I think you have comprehension issues. All I said it was not as bad as I thought it would be; and everything else I wrote are just events that occurred. I'm sorry if it came off as if I was painting him in a good light---I was not, he's very clearly not a gentleman, but not an evil person either. Moreover the one who set her up to encourage her to change was the butler anyway, not the ML.
Anyway, all I'm implying is that this is just really typical Japanese romance-fantasy styled faire. I wasn't expecting the best, but it isn't really the worst either.
It's a Chinese story. Please don't degrade Japanese stories
Just checked the book again. My bad. It's a Japanese story. Since when the author's lost their touch??
...The rating is quite low but it's honestly not that bad? The ML isn't abusive or has personality issues, she lives quite well and is quite capable, and the pacing is decent. They have good chemistry and retort too. She's not proactive but not a total doormat, and he knows that, which is why he's trying to help her live a more confident and fulfilling life because it's in her best interest. Chapter 16 really dumps a lot of background work for why he chose her as duchess and how he sees her.
While the ML likes teasing her, he probably won't do anything to her since it's a really tame Japanese shoujo publisher. They have an age gap, but that's quite normal for a historical (especially since it's not an isekai). For that era, she's the prime age for marriage, not only because mortality rates were much higher back in the days but men of the upper class married late because they had to focus on their careers (versus commoners who work and marry closer in age).