She can save herself from everyone except the duke for somreason
she'll get to rub it in his face later, when she casually strolls in the room without a scratch on her. I was tempted to disagree with you if only to point out the mc surviving through her own efforts doesnt make what he did any less horrible. liking this new development is fine but insinuating he's forgiven in anyway just because this is less cliche is just wrong.
It's not that he's forgiven, I just think it makes him more believable and realistic as a character. He's meant to be a fuckboy with a messed up past, it wouldn't make sense if he liked her already. Normally in these kind of manga's the love interest who is supposed to be a 'bad person' wants to protect the mc early on, which if you look at the characterisation, makes no sense. I also prefer strong female mc's saving themselves to suddenly becoming weak af and needing the love interest to save them, as it's also more true to their character.
"I also prefer strong female mc's saving themselves to suddenly becoming weak af and needing the love interest to save them" yeah the plot tells us shes awesome karate master or a super intellect but then that all gets thrown out the window the minute the ML arrives in which case she's reduced to a crying vulnerable heap of mess that suddenly forgets all of her strengths. this is prevalent in a lot of romances and its annoying af. its the opposite in shounen, mc goes from useless scrub to all of a sudden hero badass and further badass when love interest appears.
I'M LOVING THIS PLOT TWIST, SURE HE'S A DICK BUT IT'S COMPLETELY BREAKING THE TYPICAL CLICHE. ALSO NOW SHE CAN SAVE HERSELF LIKE THE STRONG INDEPENDENT WOMAN SHE IS