Honestly the mage guy is better than gold eyed man. Like the mage is just a narcissist and blunt as all hell. So it's clear what his intentions are, he's not fake he's socially inept. (added point shadie wasn't hostile to him. More neutral than anything) Like I'm pretty sure I know who the Ml, it's not mage man. So I think mage guy could just be her friend to her given the chance. O
Goldie on the other hand is a fake as BIoch who is running the slave wage island and was pretty quick to try rope Mc in before he changed his mind a little also loses a point cause shadie clearly dislikes him.
Oh wait bonus round. Let's talk about the kids. The Mages daughter wanted to leave because of previous abandonment issues coupled with the social inept sudden dad. She honestly cute and due to dying so young she doesn't get the how's and why of the world. Thematically their arc works better and at worst they gave Mc a headache. (๑•ㅂ•)و✧
I can't not say the same for Goldies niece, her goal is to repay the kindness of her love ones. But she clearly is more aware of the situation on the island and seemingly is content with just saving her uncle and trying to rope Mc into marrying him. ( ̄へ ̄)
I'm not saying she is bad in and of herself. But the arc is weaker with a thematically worse father figure. Who is trying to entrap Mc. (〜 ̄△ ̄)〜
I enjoy toxic love interests but only if they fit story they are in, rate of delicious dark chemistry, and how it goes about things in general . But this story and it's theming don't jive with Goldie. You could cut him out and make the duchess the mages friend instead.
╮( ̄▽ ̄)╭
Yup, neither of them are the ML, neither are the two others we have yet to see (priest and ...emperor? Royalty anyways). The true ML is Shadie <3
I really hope the mage never develops feelings towards MC, I'd really enjoy seeing the two have more of a platonic friendship than anything else. Or at most he gets confused about what his feelings are but things are talked about and get solved quickly, they remain friends. Their personalities just match so well as friends! I hope they get to graduate from a customer-artisan relationship to friends asap so MC can finally speak her mind and not worry about it as much (๑•ㅂ•)و✧
Time for a break down. At this point Mc has experiance each of the bad ends with the current og MLS through flashback OH MY. Showing how he has influenced them for the better but also a clear warning of how bad things could actually get. With that context in mind if feels like the original story could have been a chose your own adventures mixed with a nitro plus game I mean minus the cannibalism and true body gore.
I hope everyone that drops this work find some stories more to your tastes and have fun.(๑•ㅂ•)و✧
For everyone else downing the toxic tea like me I still looking forward to where this nonsense is going. ლ(´ڡ`ლ)
Some of yall are silly if you think ML is trash, dude is just absent. A real trash ML would be abusing her intentionally, making her life shit and gleefully SA her at every corner. A real piece of shit. After plowing through black lotus, the bar has to be half as low to get a mildy smelly at most.
Lol yeah the only reason I don’t particularly like ml right now is because of how he treats Kanon, which is probably cause of his own upbringing but still, he can’t be doing that to my baby boy lol
Also he’s giving overbearing ceo type energy, where the supposedly strong mc is like being made to do stuff she doesn’t want just because he’s super overbearing and stuff and I hate that trope so much lol. Like, why can’t she just punch him ;;
I noticed some people talking about this. I think the author is playing around with disconnect between them being two different species. Hoyori is a human and he puts things into human terms and considerations. He literally won't understand what Hodaka is talking abount. He isn't a oni after all. Meanwhile Hodaka has a hardest time vocally expressing himself to Hoyori. It's actually one thing I like about this manga.
Hodaka knows Hoyori well enough to understand he gets in his own head and will stew. So Hodaka tried his best to be clear it sometimes falls short when it comes to his oni background. In this liking vs eatting thing. I won't to see where these weirdos go.
This is a better version of that weird vore beast man bl I read ago. Holy shit.
I also like how in the beginning Hoyori is too uncomfortable and embarrassed to express his feelings, saying stuff like he's rather be forced than say what he wants himself. Cause honestly that's so realistic and relatable. They were able to keep the development going at a steady pace even with a character who isn't verbally honest with their feelings, and I feel like a lot of other authors just use that personality trait to make up a lot of quirky unrealistic misunderstandings just for the development instead of fleshing out the main character's personality and working around this trait. If that makes sense lmao
For anyone that doesnt understand, it's called being a connoisseur. The author just served a hot evil guy with a side of tentacles. If that's not to your likely that's fine. I'll enjoy all the calamari.
However for those prefer another dish that's just as toxic but no monster bits I recommend, Profundis.
You know, I tend to jump ahead to peak at new chapters before going back to where I left off. I was like oh hey it's KINKY MAN why did you come back, buddy(⊙…⊙ )
I go back to where I picked up. Okay, he saw his dad, and everything was fine. Okay, they're at his house, everything is fine. Huh, I'm not sure what caused the toxic switch to fl...OH its the mother. (╬ ̄皿 ̄)凸
I'll say right now that the mangaka shows a lot of restraint for going back this long without diving into his kinks again. but we're finally addressing the elephant on the train. ╮( ̄▽ ̄)╭