I kinddda agree with you????
It's not just the time period thing the story takes place, where they marry young and "arrange" marriages with age gaps are common but. Like their character designs (and roles) are very much early 20s young adults rather than teenagers forced to grow up early. And the manhwa never explicitly tell us reader their exact ages. So we have to guess. Heck! The whole reason the whole marriage contract thing got complicated because the book Marcia had false information!!
Like in the early chapters, Marcia and Fabian are drawn actually looking like teenagers. Mentally, the FL preisekai was also like a graduating college before she died, so like 17-18. Fabian probably just graduated the academy before car investments and assuming on the same year he meets Marcia and his grandfather dies, he's around 18-19. It also doesn't help that Larissa also feels much much younger than 10yo because of abuse (she probably wasn't fed well, so she's tiny) and her infantilization* via healing process.
(*not saying Marcia treats her like a baby nor does she use baby talk but because Marcia gently takes care of her while Larissa is disassociating 24/7, yk what I mean? I can't explain better aaa)
By Season 2, Fabian and Marcia look like they're in their mid 20s. Fabian is literally drawn with wider shoulders and his face is longer. Marcia's bust is larger and her outfits are more elaborate and less childish befitting a dutches compared to when she first arrived in the dutchy.
Larissa does look like she's 13-14 sometimes especially when she finally started talking but imo her looks regressed back to looking like a 10 when she meets her new bestie, Amy. Heck even Richard, though baby faced is drawn with wider shoulders.
But I also agree that it's soooo weird seeing Marcia push for Larissa and Fabian's marriage through our modern eyes. Like miss ma'am why is Larissa so insistent with asking this grown ass man to groom and fall in love with her super traumatized baby sister??? Isn't like 1/2 of her soul from a modern world with age of consent laws is at 18??? I get the concern that she might die and want what's best for her sister and that this adds stakes/drama to the story but also WTF?
It’s because it’s been drawn out so long tbh
they mention in previous chapters that he is 3 years older than Marcia (he came of age 3 years ago) and 6 years older than Larissa
(unfortantly can't give chapter number cause I binge read 40 chapters in one sitting but it had mentioned how far apart in age these 3 were)
I doubt Fabian was actually the ML in the original book anyways tho, I think it was the cousin who has a crush on Larissa currently. He has never shown any romantic interest in Larissa in the current timeline either.
I do agree with their all kids tho, even at 18 it has been shown Fabian doesn't have the socialization to understand a lot of basic interpersonal relations and Marcia is really stuck in her own head (which is understandable both at a teen, her power, and just being thrown into a new world/life). her misunderstanding both steaming from the fairytale and from the fact her power only clues her into half of people's inner thoughts.she's never getting the full context.
I do appreciate that Marcia does try to talk things out when she ids aware she is being misunderstood by someone else, its just too bad she hasn't thought of it being possible to go the other way too tho.
So Larissa is 12. They become adults (or ‘come of age’) at 15. Fabian said that Marcia had only just become an adult, so she is supposedly 15. Fabian is either the same age as Marcia or a year older, as he had just graduated from the academy before living with the late Duke, which wasn’t long before the plot began. The nice Marquis’ son is 15, and Fabian’s cousin is probably the same age as Larissa.
Please stop getting pressed about the age gap. It’s only 4 years at the most, and the marriage (which was never gonna happen in the first place) was going to happen after Larissa became an adult in THREE YEARS.
Also, THEY’RE ALL FUCKING KIDS. Y’all keep complaining about Marcia’s being stupid, but all 15 year olds are pretty stupid, speaking as someone who was 15 almost 5 years ago. Also, she isn’t stupid, she’s just scared and pretending not to notice things because she’s still viewing the world as a book.
Let’s also mention how there is COMMUNICATION between Fabian and Marcia. They actually talk things through together. I like this.