The FL is kind of frustrating in this one

Tikky February 22, 2025 4:57 am

I don't remember why, but I'd like to say first that I have read this before and put it on hold. I did read quite a few chapters, but I can barely recall anything except for the feeling of frustration and irritation that was likely not supposed to be a feature.
Since there were a lot of chapters and I guess a lot "more" than when I last came here, I thought I'd give this a second chance, because the squirrel was cute. Anyway, I want to keep reading, but in order to do that, I have to went my frustrations a bit.

Now I'm maybe one quarter or barely one third into chapter 12 and I'm back at the feeling of frustration.
Let's start with one of the premises of the protagonist: She wants to get out of the place she was in, going back to her remaining family - brother and father - and stay there as a "guest" until she has come of age. Her reasoning is, for some reason, that they would let her stay and give her an opportunity to grow without being sold off to the imperial family, which was what her aunt clearly tried to do.
Now, there's a few problems with this tid bit of continuity in the long run, or rather with this bit of her motivation, because why would she assume her aunt would have tried to sell her, while her father, an oh-so-mighty duke, wasn't aware? The aunt made it seem to her as if her father had abandoned her. Why would she expect to be treated better in a house that had more reason to look down on her, if what she perceived as reality was anywhere near the truth? Had her father not, in actuality, loved her more than anything, prompting him to ship her over to the capital for safe keeping, she would have fucked herself twice over.
She says her world was small, which would mean she's bad at interacting with people, but she also read an aweful lot. How is someone simultaneously old enough to be seen as an adult (at least in mind) and "well-read", yet not smart enough to understand the simplest of things? Like, when she equates the word "cute" with people gaining something valuable, as if she had not encountered the word "cute" many times more in her stories. It's as if the author used the "I regressed into my younger self" trope, in order to bring in some cool future knowledge and some extra years of shitty treatment, without giving a shit on how someone of that background would act and think.
She wants to become a merchant, on the "woe is me" premise of how her aunt told her she had no shame, therefore she must "have it all" to become a merchant, seeing as some random book about merchantry says that merchants should know no shame. But guess what a merchant should first and foremost be? Yes, smart. Quite smart, in fact.
But even if they were to go on, trying to portray her as smart through some tell, the show has already spilled the beans on her being as dense as a fudgy cake.
That kind of pulls apart the story, because in actaulity, she should have come there with conviction and bet everything on her one card: That the father didn't know what happened.
Because if he did and hadn't done anything, that means he didn't care. And if she expects he wouldn't care even after knowing about it, she would have never traveled there, especially after hitting the second prince of the Empire with enough force to excommunicate one of his teeth from the unity of its denture. She could have gone anywhere, but she gave her freedom up, by going where people knew her and would be able to detain her, just to give that chance a go, so she could have only gambled on him giving at least 1/8 of a shit about her well being, because if she hadn't her going to the north would have made no sense at all.
From that setup, I don't understand why her first action isn't to tell her father that she doesn't want to go back there, because she's being treated terribly and all she wants is to live a quiet life as a merchant. Since she wants to form a contractual partnership with the duke in the first place, and is naive enough to think that would totally work, I don't get why she wouldn't state her grievances with her current place of suffering. Of course, she can't disclose transgressions that have yet to happen, like her being killed by the second prince in the future, but if she expects him to care even a tiny bit, just enough for him to try and uphold appearances, he should take her side immediately, hearing how her aunt has abused her position as a caretaker for 8 years now.
I read in a comment that she told them about the mistreatment in Chapter 35, and I seriously can't remember if I ever read that far, but I do know I read far enough for the aunt to get in some level of trouble because of the things she did and even at that point, it was never really adressed how she was treated in the capital. That's a bit of the frustration and irritation I remember feeling, because in the chapters I read, it was still only because the father overreacted on minor points that the aunt got into trouble and it was still kind of unclear if Beati / Beaty was supposed to go back to the capital after all or not, when it should be obvious that she can't go back there, since she's being abused. Her behavior can't even be chalked up to insecurity or childish cluelessness, because she's supposed to be older in mind and her actions are outright thoughtless. Like, her brain seems simply empty. Especially when the plot brings in the "misunderstandings", for her to not understand how people view her as "cute" or thinking they would offer entire floors of their mansion to mere "guests".
For a character set up to be someone totally capable of taking care of themselves and a go getting, hard working merchant in the making, she's portrayed from the beginning as an incapable, incompetent fool, who would be nothing without the literal future knowledge (as in, not even gained experience or smarts, but simply "I know this thing is the solution for this thing, because someone found out" type of future knowlegde), because she herself isn't even intelligent enough to be a merchant in the first place.

Responses
    Bob March 2, 2025 3:52 pm

    Hold the phone, i was just trying find spoilers but your comment really caught my eye literally

    oningka! March 3, 2025 2:46 pm
    Hold the phone, i was just trying find spoilers but your comment really caught my eye literally Bob

    Lmao same

    kodzuken March 21, 2025 5:27 am

    yeah i almost dropped it cuz she pmo

    Joybug March 25, 2025 11:15 am

    I think you are reading way too much into this. But I think you missed a big factor of how she could not see how people could see her as “cute,” or give her things. She was abuse her aunt took all of her things and used her to gain wealth.The prince who she thought was her friend and loved her used her and murdered her. So it is logical based on her life experience that if someone gave her something that she might think it might be some type of bribe or fake to take advantage of her. So her thoughts are how could she appeal to the Duke who she didn’t know cared about her but is realated to her and could house her temporarily and she decided to appeal to him by using her future knowledge.

    But if you want a smart merchant/ business savvy FL
    read I’ll Be the Matriarch in This Life
    The Villainess Reverses the Hourglass
    I’ll Save this Damn Family
    First Night with the Duke