he (and marianne) make a good point, this entire dating game is more like an opportunity to pick and choose marriage partners for alliances from a pool of appropriate candidates under the guise of finding “true love.” love might blossom, but if the match proves disadvantageous once true identities are revealed, then that budding love might be ignored in favour of a better match. even if you’re trying to find true love, half the people aren’t acting like their true selves anyway and getting time alone together to sus them out is hard.
I love that ML isn’t some righteous dude but rather MC’s partner in technically-not-illegal crime. Like make no mistake, she’s switching from one kind of villainy to another here, capitalism is just a much more comfortable and nicely-packaged form of villainy than whatever she was doing before. The subscription system? Perfect revenge and it puts basic math behind a paywall for any poor soul wanting to do magic. Being economical involves far more math—like this is top tier evil. She’s gonna run all the local businesses to the ground to build up a franchise empire and look fabulous while doing it. Evil queen behaviour.
DUDE, EXACTLY
Don’t blame Penelope for being like this, her behaviour right now is a result of the trauma that’s underscored the entire series. Penelope doesn’t believe him because her current home situation is triggering all of the trust-issues and fear of abandonment she experienced in her previous life. The game-like setting is only reinforcing her beliefs that people can’t change—her real family never did—and that her only option is to escape. Her desperation and inability to trust people is making her blind to evidence on the contrary. She’s clinging to the brutal certainties provided by the game mechanisms because they’ve been proven trustworthy. She can’t trust Callisto as a reliable means of escape because true love is the only way to beat the game, and she’s learned the hard way that it can’t be half-assed.
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The problem is that Callisto also has trust and abandonment issues due to constant threats and betrayals. He’s not going to move forward until she gives him the affirmation of mutual affections that he needs in order to trust that she won’t leave him. Which makes sense realistically, given how evasive she’s been. He also can’t leave her alone because she’s one of the few people he does care about. Penelope can’t see this because, again, she doesn’t believe people change. She only ever saw his ending with Yvonne and gave up on him during Penelope’s route because she couldn’t get past the first meeting without dying.
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For some reason I can’t remember what happens immediately after this in the novel?? But she’s just been betrayed at 99% affection, her behaviour makes sense
Loving FL’s confidence and the plot direction, but the translation is just awful. I’m still seated but damn
She really lived up to the title right there worrying about losing her bribes lmao
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Didn’t someone say the real ML was the head of the mage tower? Or did I misremember something. Either way, we’re over 20 chapters in and having the real ML not appear yet is worrying considering how many potential leads there are and the affection gage.
Yea I think I remembered reading that spoiler
Totally forgot about Sica Wolf taking place in the same universe but later in the timeline and went back to check…
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Made me feel so much better about the current mess without having to search up the novel. Sigrid actually gives a very brief overview of this series of events in particular at some point and notes how things worked out for her and Veramude. I actually laughed at how casual she was considering the drama we just witnessed in this version. I like that she keeps her own separate noble title of count when they get married, it only feels right given how her arc in this story involves becoming her own independent person. Veramude also learns about the time rewind at some point.
Wow this section is just empty. I truly hope this get’s picked up again because that was a brutal cliffhanger. Like the series devolved into kind of a mess but it’s still quite interesting. Was it cancelled??
as someone on the spectrum, i was not expecting this kind of representation in a rofan (at least, I see it as rep even if nothing is explicitly stated). it was really important that she said it was how he was born and an not illness to be cured, so understanding and accommodation should be the focus (more or less). it’s also important that she’s making sure his mother learns how to care for and support him once she leaves. the sudden brilliance at painting was a little extra, but they had to establish a lot very quickly, and the heavy fixation on something new that he really enjoyed checks. again, i’m just giving my two cents as someone on the spectrum. i truly hope this plot line ends happily
Mel, sweetheart, it took the great (chaste) hero Dominic 2 seconds to figure this act out before he got distracted. At this point Issac’s ulterior motives are as subtle as a brick wall. He even has the wholehearted support of the kids, who were (very obviously) pushing this match from the start. But fake dating is an incredibly fun trope and I’m so here for this.