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Now let me be clear first: I don't dislike the story itself, nor the characters (per se), I also like the idea that they have a subplot of the Duke and the Duchess becoming closer, which is a plotline fit to spawn a separate Webtoon on its own, ordinarily.
But I'm now at chapter 23, about halfway into the story as far as it's available as of now, and with every passing chapter, the bitter aftertaste of the premise gets stronger, which is why I have to air my grievances here.
You see, the problem is that I don't hate any of the people of the Sheridan Duchy, unless they are meant to be hated, like that Bessie bitch (and don't forget about her yet, I'm not done with that yet, she's just not my main gripe here), which seemed to have a character design that screamed "I'M A VILLAIN" in the same way that awful Batwoman trailer yodeled "I'M A WOMAN". But I digress: I don't know if the current king is meant to be unlikeable at the beginning, as he even dishes out a dig toward our Duke, as he speaks about him being surrounded by "mongrels", while being in favor of killing a small child. While, yes, it is his "fault" that she has to die, because he could have spared her. Yet even the Duke himself didn't actually spare the MC, he simply couldn't break the law by killing a minor. The king said it was fine, and we all know: People shown to kill children are bad. Killing adults doesn't really matter most of the time, but children and animals means you are evil. Got it.
Like, I don't know if he improves as a character to be an ally of sorts, but for now, he's evil, right? But then you have to think again. While yes, the MC thanks the Duke for giving her a longer life expectancy - when she originally thought she wouldn't grow older than 12, as her brother had always said he was going to kill her, as soon as he was the one in power - one should never forget that those are the naive words of a child that is yet blind to the world.
10 years sound like a long time and she has had barely anything to live for until now. She didn't know anything but cruelty, was hardly old enough to even understand the reality of death and the worth of what it meant to be alive. At the same time, as soon as she was old enough to have a grasp of these intangible concepts, she was told she would die soon, so she never had any goals in life, no freedom to even find a hobby aside from talking to her rocks and playing in the dirt, and didn't even know what she can or can't do. And despite all of that, she still didn't want to die even now!
I know, the king never said it was "for her sake" that he wanted the Duke to just kill her, but you have to understand: you can't blame him for that, because the whole story wants you to forget that gnawing reality, because if you don't, the Duke suddenly becomes a wretched, cold, inhumane monster. For that, even Quentin, the one guy who openly states that he loves children and wants the best for MC, therefore she should be killed, does not, in fact, argue how cruel he is being to her, but instead goes on about how the Duke wouldn't be able to raise a child with his own hands and kill it a few years later with those same hands.
No one ever acknowledges the fact, that MC is now a child who knows nothing and killing her now would be, ultimately, mercy. In ten years, she will be older, no longer as naive, but still a child at the core. The difference is that by then she will have learned about the beauty of the world and life which she hadn't known prior to her life at the Sheridan Duchy; her thoughts and actions would then be informed by years of new experiences, filled with love and happiness, creating inevitable hopes and dreams for a future that would never come. Why teach her etiquette, when once she would be old enough to need it, she could only use it to kneel down gracefully, when the Duke cuts off her head? Why let her experience having friends and playing around, making the circle of people who would grief for her bigger by the second, when there was no one in this world who even knew her before that? Her entire world had ceased to exist when her blood related family was murdered. But now?
Even if the author would have portrayed her as that kid that wouldn't make a fuss - even though she made a bit of a fuss even when she had nothing in life and knew nothing in life, so it's unlikely she wouldn't beg for her life later - to make it easier for the Duke or to thank him for giving him this grace period of ten years, it wouldn't change the fact that it would be the cruelest thing you can do to someone, especially a child.
There's a reason why children with incurable and ultimately fatal illnesses are exempt from their duty of attending school. Or why there are foundations to have children experience their last wish in the real world.
Because when you are sick, there are things you cannot easily do, as you are withering away. But MC isn't sick. If she wants to climb a mountain, nothing can stop her (aside from the Duke and her Prisoner Status, of which the latter is mostly for show if we are honest). She is fully healthy and knows it. The world is open to her, but as soon as she would be old enough to just set foot in this world, she will lose her head.
There's a saying that the older you get, the more you cling onto life and that isn't only true for old people. The more things you have experienced, the more things you wish to experience. Once she experiences some form of love and gets to be a teenager, she will wish for romantic love, maybe a family of her own. All the things she knows she will never be old enough to have and it's not because of some inevitable circumstances that are beyond anyone's means, but because of a decision that was made by someone deliberately. Even illnesses are usually cursed and seen as unfair, but what will she think this is? She never did anything to anyone, she was simply unfortunate enough to be born as the daughter of a useless King.
I get it – I know, and you know, and I know that you know she won't actually die at the end, because this is her story. The author won't just cut off her head at the end. But here's the thing: The characters in this mess aren't supposed to be aware of that. They don't know they are part of a trope-y RoFan story. To their knowledge, Clarisse is going to die on the day of her 18th birthday and that's a fact.
It would have been way better for the Duke's integrity, had he been the one to want to kill her and the king, who knew about the law, had been the one to say she shall be kept around until she's of age. It wouldn't have mattered, since they didn't seem to want him to leave a good first impression anyway.
But knowing this is the backdrop of everything we see, it makes all the people in-the-know about her fate seem more cruel than anything. Acting cold toward her just barely keeping her alive would be more than enough and it wouldn't make her want to keep living, if she has to be kept alive only to be killed in the end anyway. Showing a child love, just to kill her off, that's a lot more inhumane.
On the matter of her being kept barely alive, I also have to mention how odd it felt that it seems she had no noticeable health issues. Playing in the dirt all day and being hated, but apparently well fed and not otherwise mistreated – that doesn't seem to be in character at all, for the people who had raised her to this age.
And about that Bessie bitch: First off, why is nobody in this house communicating with each other? Like, the knight who just heard something outrageous didn't think of going to the Duke right away to inform him? Why? He didn't seem to hold a grudge against his lord, in fact, he seemed rather loyal. Why WOULDN'T he warn the Duke of a potential fraud, a spy at worst, who slept in a room adjacent to him? Instead he just takes her words for granted, that it's because of the Duke's suspicions toward the Duchess, that they have such a distant relationship. And when he sees them interact with each other in a way that barely seemed close, he throws away everything he had seen for three fucking years and forgot all about anything he had heard in the dungeon, about the Duchess not being who they thought she was. It makes no sense to turn around and just forget all about it, without even discussing it and even if he discussed it in a chapter after the part I have already read, it would mean he simply delayed talking about this to the Duke for an unnecessary long time. Why have the bitch say that shit in the first place, basically stabbing her real employer in the back, just to do fuck all with it?
What I want to say with all of this, especially with the two additional points: Of course, I did mention everything I was annoyed with - I was at it anyway – but they kind of go hand in hand, in a weird way. It's like the author had an idea and they were doing well with portraying the characters themselves, but beyond that, nothing was particularly well thought out. She sees the family she was with for her whole life die brutally in front of her, but it barely shows any repercussions on her psyche. Her brother had his throat cut next to her, she would have bathed in his blood. But nope, nothing but a few tears, because she thought she had to die as well. Which, btw, would have psychological repercussions on its own. Yet in the end, she doesn't even suffer from nightmares or any other sign of trauma.
Another example, which isn't a plot hole in and of itself, but speaks to this issue as well: MC is very thankful, because it's her shortsighted way of being happy about having more time (when obviously, that would introduce hell to her, as soon as the day of death would actually approach) and goes around saying she's a prisoner with no problem. But when she speaks to Noah Sineth, even asks him to be her friend, she doesn't even mention that they wouldn't have to be friends for very long anyway. Like, she explains that she's a prisoner, but I don't get the feeling that he understands what it means for her to be a prisoner of war and why she was even taken as a prisoner. He doesn't tell her that she shouldn't speak about her ability because he thinks it's dangerous to her per se, but that she wouldn't have a peaceful life, likely recalling all the tragedy he must have heard about his own mother's life, as she had the same ability and MC would be the only one with that ability now. But that is also why it would likely serve as leverage to save her life – it's at least a power valuable enough to attempt using it that way. But instead, they use that halfhearted way of communicating in a situation in which they were already talking about things kids wouldn't normally talk about, in order for him to give her the shittiest advice imaginable, considering her desperate need for some value to her own life.
Again, I'm well aware she's likely not going to die and end the story that way. But that's me – or you, fellow reader, by extension. Why do the people IN THIS story seem to know that, when it shouldn't be that way? They treat the fact that this girl is going to die so fucking half-assedly, it makes me mad. On that note, I want to add that I am someone who also says you shouldn't read and complain when you have a problem with a premise or something else that is obvious, because it doesn't make sense to read and complain then. But the problem isn't the premise itself, even if the title of the thread might suggest otherwise, I know - it's as I said: The way it is treated is simply shit. But with that irresponsible treatment of the matter at hand, the whole premise turns into a table of shit irreversibly.