Erm, yeah, I thought you're smart, Charlotte. Turns out you're the dumbest fl ever, isn't ...

Idk about this take
Sure it might look like the duchess to us, but in the story, MC has only met with the duchess once at all and has barely considered her, partially because ML keeps throwing her all those poorly timed red herrings whenever she’s just about to trust him more
I think MC is doing a good job.

no cause like, if i were her, i wouldn't suspect the ml after looking at how he acts. I would find evidence to prove his innocence than his guiltiness. She should've suspected about the others that's around the duke rather than focusing ONLY on the duke so that she doesn't miss the real suspect, she will know about the real culprit after going inside Duchess garden. It is foreshadowed in the recent chapter about the butler planting a flower for the Duchess. It's just annoying how she went on and off about the suspect and that leads the ML heart to be broken. Yes, I get it that the ML gives her a suspicion every wrong time, but it's just annoying that it's on and off, like, she won't even suspect anyone except for the duke just because of the novel first sentence

That’s fair, I don’t agree with how she’s having tunnel vision on him.

I think this is hindsight bias. Of course, you as the reader knows this. She met duchess exactly once and so many ppl had targeted her life. She couldn't even know if it's related to the actual serial killing or not. Plus the duke did so many suspicious things and his feelings aren't evidence of his innocence.. (at least she didn't think he's lying)

No, there's actually a lot that proves his innocence. A serial killer wouldn't protect you from any danger, they would leave you behind, but our duke here protect the FL countless times and sacrifice himself even though he's traumatized by the smell of blood. A serial killer wouldn't answer the question regarding the victim, they would say they don't know this person and would lie to cover up their guiltiness

I would have to disagree that that alone would be enough to consider the ML to be innocent. Setting aside the expectation that the serial killer would never protect anyone for any reason, I think it must be noted that MC transmigrated into a webnovel. Those are notorious for having iffy depictions of mental illness or having very dramatic situations. I’ve seen plenty of stories with the same characteristics of him where the person turned out to be a callous murderer. For example, the Danganronpa franchise has someone who faints when they see blood but is also someone with a second personality who is a very skilled, very perverted serial killer. The personalities didn’t share memories iirc, and this could be a reason the ML could be the killer even if he’s bad at lying. ML having such a sweet demeanor while also having all that trauma and unhinged moments like “your wrists would be so easy to break” or “I want to kill the men who look at you” would make me expect him to be the serial killer.

No, a serial killer could do all that if they're good at acting.. and we don't know why FL was targeted, so maybe there'll circumstances that change that causes the serial killer to want to kill FL even tho they didn't want to before.

I mean it's not ML and FL is probably relaxed more around him too, but it doesn't completely eliminate all the suspicions, so it's better to be careful ig.

That if the serial killer have suspicion on the person who's suspicious of them, but the ML doesn't seem like he was suspicious as to why the FL asked her about it
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the FL is targeted because the empress is jealous of her, the FL already suspected it was the empress doing which is correct cause the empress has always mocked FL for being stupid before our current FL transmigrate there, because our current FL is now being favoured by the Emperor, the Empress and her children collided to kill her

But after fainting from the blood, the ML doesn't turn into another person no? He just fainted and sleep for days, if he does has 2nd personality, our FL would realize immediately after he faints when they're alone together. Those statements the ML said are all misunderstood by the FL because she's too focused on ML being the suspect. Like "Your wrists would be easy to break" means she's skinny and "I want to kill the men who look at you" means jealousy, which the FL misunderstood completely.

About the blood thing, that’s fair, I forgot about it while writing the comment above. The stuff that the ML said, maybe it depends on the person but it sounds a bit creepy / excessive even in context to me? It’s very common in otome isekai to say that kind of stuff but it doesn’t really feel like it irl. I’d understand if you felt differently tho

yep, you're absolutely right. But those statement is used in irl too, though, the second one is probably used by people who's possessive and creepy which creeps you out instead of thinking it was hot

Yes, but you can't read ppl's mind... If you're not the reader, you wouldn't know all this and it changes perspectives a lot. I'm just saying it's not weird for her to be uncertain.. just because someone's nice to you or like you doesn't mean they're a good person.

And yes, without the spoiler, we can tell the queen also targeted her (but probably isn't the real serial killer) because archduke Killian confronted the queen about that.

Yes you're right, but I'm not just talking about his personality, his action too. But let's just see if the FL still going on and off about him

Yes, I meant actions too. FL can't read minds. Her life got targeted often. She's a royalty where they're fighting for their lives in the palace. And she knows she's the 8th victim. That much can cloud a person's judgement. And ML's actions are not always clear. He helps her, but he's also sending mixed signals. He's just being more clear in recent chapters, so it'll take time to build trust.

Anyway, we'll see.