Kinda miffed that the dude is up front and direct about his feels (minus his tsundere moments in the beginning) but chika still doesn’t get it? Like why else would he say I love you if he didn’t??
Besides that tho, the biggest elephant in the room for me is that he fell for her looks and didn’t care about her personality (seeing that he’s been pining for her even through 4 years of her being mean) and NEVER tried to think about why she way acting that way??? Like it irks me when nobility (in universes like this) turns a blind eye to how they essentially pimp their daughters out. Like the lady was forced to marry you AND you were involved in a war against her home (even though her dad was a dum dum to start it, the duke was still involved and killed her people - even if his knights did it it counts as his responsibility due to his position). Marriage for that type of society/era is high class prostitution in a more permanent fashion (depends on how the particular stories handle divorce - do they go back on the market to further benefit their families or can they retire in the countryside as an independent woman?). I know he didn’t force her to sleep with him, but that doesn’t make it better that he was waiting for her to be stockholmed into loving him.
I just have a REALLY hard time believing someone loves the other in that situation without trying to see their side of the relationship. Also the FL kinda annoys me with how she’s fine with getting feelings for a dude that would do that to someone. Cuz the original lady is gone and FL knows how he treated her. And he didn’t even grow to love the new her or anything, he just never stopped loving the original chick for her looks and is more excited now that she’s finally acting the way he was hoping she would.
I’ll still give this more time in case the author approaches this eventually. I REALLY hope they have a coming out scene where FL tells ML that she’s a different person so he realizes the original chick died hating him and that he needs to reevaluate what he thinks it means to love someone. FL also needs to read his reaction to see what his deal is and see if he actually does love her (which he might - the bantering was cute and their convos aren’t bad). Super hope they don’t bring a kid into this toxic environment tho - at least not until they clear up what’s going on with eachother.
Kinda miffed that the dude is up front and direct about his feels (minus his tsundere moments in the beginning) but chika still doesn’t get it? Like why else would he say I love you if he didn’t??
Besides that tho, the biggest elephant in the room for me is that he fell for her looks and didn’t care about her personality (seeing that he’s been pining for her even through 4 years of her being mean) and NEVER tried to think about why she way acting that way??? Like it irks me when nobility (in universes like this) turns a blind eye to how they essentially pimp their daughters out. Like the lady was forced to marry you AND you were involved in a war against her home (even though her dad was a dum dum to start it, the duke was still involved and killed her people - even if his knights did it it counts as his responsibility due to his position). Marriage for that type of society/era is high class prostitution in a more permanent fashion (depends on how the particular stories handle divorce - do they go back on the market to further benefit their families or can they retire in the countryside as an independent woman?). I know he didn’t force her to sleep with him, but that doesn’t make it better that he was waiting for her to be stockholmed into loving him.
I just have a REALLY hard time believing someone loves the other in that situation without trying to see their side of the relationship. Also the FL kinda annoys me with how she’s fine with getting feelings for a dude that would do that to someone. Cuz the original lady is gone and FL knows how he treated her. And he didn’t even grow to love the new her or anything, he just never stopped loving the original chick for her looks and is more excited now that she’s finally acting the way he was hoping she would.
I’ll still give this more time in case the author approaches this eventually. I REALLY hope they have a coming out scene where FL tells ML that she’s a different person so he realizes the original chick died hating him and that he needs to reevaluate what he thinks it means to love someone. FL also needs to read his reaction to see what his deal is and see if he actually does love her (which he might - the bantering was cute and their convos aren’t bad). Super hope they don’t bring a kid into this toxic environment tho - at least not until they clear up what’s going on with eachother.