beta
I agree with the comments about him being too submissive, but you have to consider that
a) his dad is an abusive shithead who is constantly telling Payne that he's disgusting, inferior, etc. & actively makes both the public & royal servants hate Payne
b) Payne's brother is a dick who also abuses him & treats him like garbage
c) his mom was executed as a sinner for going against the king & the king's been lording the whole "you're the spawn of a SINNER" over Payne's head the entire time
d) Payne is not even allowed to publicly show his freaking EYES in public & is shamed by everyone except for the foreigners who literally want him to either commit treason or to defect ._.
Basically, the royal family's one of 2 extremes - Johannes has too much of an ego despite having done the exact opposite to earn it while Payne has negative gajillion ego because literally nobody in his life appreciates him except for his direct subordinates & the foreigners he's repeatedly sent out to either fight physically or diplomatically.
Kinda agree with that. And it'll all comes down to their personalities too. Some might become rebellious/build-up hatred but some might just self-blamed
I mean when it all boils down, I think the main issue is that he doesn't have Sasha as his bff like Arth & Rebecca did. In the original plot, they both accepted their lots in life & didn't value themselves either (with Rebecca obsessing over a jackass like Johannes & Arth doing most of the heavy lifting to cover for Johannes' mistakes).
Sasha in their lives validated them & made them realize that yeah, they ARE great & they DO deserve better. Payne got Lillith, who, while she gave him love & comfort, bonded with him in the sense that they both had shitty parents & didn't give him a confidence boost/validation like Sasha did with Arth & Rebecca.
Chapter: -literally shows how if Helena tries to reject the prince & focus on instead living lowkey & actually doing her work, others will be punished anyway & dislike her for it no matter what-
Readers: OmG sHe'S sO tRaSh, ShE sToLe HeR fIaNcE, wHy DoEsNt ShE cOrReCt AnY oF tHe GuYs
The translation of this chapter is rather messy, but some of y'all literally have ZERO reading comprehension.
She only lets things happen while she's ignoring it saying to never hate eris for anything she does because she saw her cry
and needing to survive despite already having favor of royalty and high standing people are different things she could have used her fake ignorance to help her but she stayed still protecting her perfect image of cute, naive ,needing to be protected, adorable, humble, graceful picture perfect Cinderella in her own style
she may have starting as wanting to survive but she ended up using it as her way of life already getting used to it and she feigns ignorance and gets it in her favor she is privileged