Her flight response was useless is precisely why she comes off as dumb. She has no opinions of her own apart from wanting to run away for some reason just like other isekai FLs.
She didn't even had a concrete plan and would have failed faster if not for that old lady helping her. She knew 80% of people in the empure were blonde and she as a black haired person was a minority until they were looking for a black haired girl at the gate. She also never bothered usig a guise while selling the holy water then wondered if Arsen had found out it was her.
Anyone who knew Arsen knew he had changed and treated her differently. She being the closest couldn't try to even get to know the person she was about/supposed to marry. Didn't even bother observing him as an enemy. And this ia a recurring theme in most isekais, FLs just treat people like characters and not people which is kind of upsetting tbh. Arsen from time to time tried to communicate, she would rather deflect or lie than have a conversation with him.
Yes, her bias is justified but her treatment is not. She knew she landed in an age where killing others is a common thing but she keeps trying to judge him and only him by those standards.
I reread it again after marinating it. Tbh, FL has a justification for not trusting the ML because the first time they met & how they got engaged was more like a soft blackmail, plus she keep getting attacked after engagement because HIS enemies, If that was me my nervous system would blow up before anything else
- Right until the failed escape, the ML doesn’t really do much to gain FL’s full trust with the already trust issues she has.
- She also got swayed with bare minimum (him saying sweet nothings, tending her swollen feet, getting injured from horse riding protecting FL.)
- Like ok it’s sweet !! but your girlie’s neck here got slashed, she keeps getting targeted ON TOP of getting soft-blackmailed to get engaged and do stuff for him & shut up about ML’s murdering the count
- tbh her flight response was so useless & anti-climatic hahaha