beta
I followed people's advice and read the novel and honestly, it starts really nice, but descends into such pushover territory I literally had to take breaks to calm my anger.
spoiler ahead, also this is my opinion and my rant, please don't get offended if you don't feel the same, I'm not trying to insult anyone who likes this.
it did start from the almost rape scene, until them the uke just seemed like a kid (even tho he's supposed to be an adult, but his inability to speak for himself literary got him into an almost rape situation. and yes, I know, it's victim blaming, but I swear I didn't kno what the scene was leading to, I really didn't predict the rape attempt, and still I was like, wtf, why aren't you speaking, why aren't you just saying "nah,I don't want to be a royal knight" if you're so disgusted by their gold digging asses, why not open your mouth and actually speak you fool, you don't have to be rude about it of you're afraid of them, just say no while you're still surrounded by people, don't fucking follow them alone to a far away exclusive hotel just to say those 9 words!! what's happening??? and then U realized what was happening, it was the plot leading to a almost rape scene....
don't get me wrong, I'm happy he managed to get himself out of there, it was a badass scene of a kid (adult in a kid body but he's not really adult like) managing to outrun a knight capitan.
AND THEN, my most hated trope, yay. Sooo, I despise with passion the trope of having sex (no penetration, but still) in order to "override" the almost rape that left some marks on him. but that's where they're going. cuz he was fed a funky tea that makes you hard, you see.
You know, as someone who's been in those kind of situations, what you need is to feel safe afterwards, so I did got the whole embrace him so hard he is completely enveloped, but these guys were not even settled on whether they're together. they hadn't had sex, barely touched a bit in a sleepy daze before, and in a moment like this you het al hot and heavy???? I felt dirty, like i was supposed to get excited reading this. Maybe if they were a long lived couple it would've worked, but to me at least, it didn't at that point. it felt like a twisted math was at play, where rape is equivalent to almost dying so taken seriously but almost rape is fine, nothing happened. maybe after that I just started to see the novel differently, but yeah
i actually don't have anything against the blondie hero-kun, he's an actual child here and aside from being extra horny for the uke nothing much os that wrong about him
anyway, later, a knight comes to tell uke that all that happened because basically his own father human trafficked him to the rapey knight and his father is bawling his eyes out at the uke saying sorry never gonna do it again, and in the same convo the uke os like, you're gonna repent so it's fine, i forgive you, which pissed me off again, and the knight is like wow, extra impressive how noble and forgiving you are for the father WHO TRIED TO SELL YOU INTO SEX SLAVERY, I was gonna punish him but since you forgave him (and also since i need to ask you to keep quiet about this) i guess he's free to go.
and I expected at least for uke to use the father guilt to get stuff from father but no, still never opens his mouth to oppose him. I guess he gets out of a christmas family party with that guilt payment but it's so not enough, just another excuse to get a bit frisky with hero-kun.
what got me writing this is the latest chapter i got to. I admit, I'm still reading the novel, but I'm I thing at the last time skip when reading this, they're days away from the invasion of the city.
Honestly the novel was so frustrating, the longer the uke lives on that world the more of a pushover he becomes. like, I'm sorry to burst anyone's bubble, but just thinking things in your head and never saying them out loud and instead just starting and not saying anything for yourself doesn't make you cool, it makes you lame, and the uke seems like such a pushover. his motherly traits are consistently empathized, he's oh so kind and likes to take care of others and oh so cute, just the perfect stereotypes of the japanese wife who stays quiet and never says anything bad especially in public (you know that these cultural expectation are why the stereotype that a japanese wife will poison you in your sleep has appeared, right?) and is so pretty and so beautiful.
but in this last chapter i read his feminisation was so over the top, damn. so he goes to his grandpa's ball and brings his own clothes with him, but there are maids in his room saying the master has prepared an attire for him, and it's basically a princess dress competed with a jewelry set and hair accessories and guess what, he just stays quiet and cries on the inside, not once attempted to order the maids who are, you know, maids not noblewomen, not kick them out, not use his rights as the frickin grandson of the lord to say no, not attempt to dress himself, not anything. it's left for the hero-kun to come and save him, I swear I hated it so much
and and and, wanna guess how that ends? hero says he looks pretty, brother says he looks pretty like a fairy, grandpa calls him a cute little bird and everyone ignores how uncomfortable he is cuz it suits him, and so ge goes on. what. the fuck.
if i wanted to read a straight romance I would've read a straight romance, now I have to pretend it's fine that everyone treats this 19yo boy as a girl cuz he's pretty WHEN HE DOESN'T WANT TO BE TREATED LIKE THAT, and he goes along with it cuz he's a pushover
anyway this os where i left my reading, might update, might continue, who knows, but probably not gonna read the manga because the manga is hella rushed compared to the novel. it's like 5 novel chapters per one of manga