To be frank the story quality dropped after they killed off the Empress. She was a much more interesting villian then the Pope ("The emperor was mean to me once so I studied dark magic" is not a compelling backstory) and this recent retconning of her to just a pawn in the Pope's plan is frankly insulting. Plus, this whole "reincarnation of the dragon" plot point means that almost everytime the Pope tries something, Calix just goes "nuh uh" and fixes it in seconds, which ruins both the tension and both characters. I'm probably going to keep reading out of hope things turn around, but if you're thinking of picking it up I wouldn't recommend reading past the first 50 or so chapters (or whenever the Empress dies I don't remember the exact chapter number)
To be frank the story quality dropped after they killed off the Empress. She was a much more interesting villian then the Pope ("The emperor was mean to me once so I studied dark magic" is not a compelling backstory) and this recent retconning of her to just a pawn in the Pope's plan is frankly insulting.
Plus, this whole "reincarnation of the dragon" plot point means that almost everytime the Pope tries something, Calix just goes "nuh uh" and fixes it in seconds, which ruins both the tension and both characters.
I'm probably going to keep reading out of hope things turn around, but if you're thinking of picking it up I wouldn't recommend reading past the first 50 or so chapters (or whenever the Empress dies I don't remember the exact chapter number)