Lauvil's manga / #Cold ML(56)

Comments say that the story has gotten really dragged out and boring, while the art style has changed a lot. The original plotline was abandoned, so I'm going to follow the advice that says to drop this.

It's a bit cringy and over the top at times, but overall pretty entertaining. A 23yo Korean woman dies from an incurable disease, which robbed her of all senses before killing her. When she wakes up she's inside the novel she read before she lost her sight, reincarnated as the Villainess, Ariel. Ariel is a genius perfumer, but has a rotten personality. She forced the ML into a relationship with her, by holding hostage the special perfume, that only she can make, which keeps the ML's curse/madness at bay. In the novel Ariel's villainous actions gets her killed. So, to destroy her deathflag the new and improved Ariel's first action is to break it off with the Duke. Next she plans start her own perfuming business to stave off her father's plans to marry her off to someone awful.

Elisha is a slave of the Cartier family. When she was young her aristocratic father died and left behind massive debt, and even though she had long been abandoned by him, she was forced to take responsibility. She becomes collateral and lives as a slave of the family she's indebted to. She is abused and assaulted and finally dies in an attempt to escape, only to wake up several years in the past. With the knowledge of her miserable future she decides to escape it by allying herself with the Cartier family's black sheep; General Lucerne, whom she knows plan to take over the family or destroy it if he can't. To solidify their deal, she agrees to marry him and thus their relationship deepens. I am thoroughly tired of premises like this. The setting is a sexist/mysogynistic shit show, that only serves as a backdrop for the toxic romance the story centers. The ML is creepy, forceful, cold and generally unlikeable. His assets are good looks, fortune and status - which, by patriarchal standards, are all men are needed to have to make a good husband - but his personality is shit. Any small kindnesses are highlighted as if the sum of them will somehow make him a good person, when really he barely reaches the minimum standard for what that is. Any scene in which the couple are intimate makes me uncomfortable, bc the FL is clearly afraid and the ML is completely unfazed by this and makes no effort to alleviate her anxiety. I know women are conditioned to like assertive men, but his behaviour is just scary and I'm not here for it. The FL has the blandness of a classic female main character, but one could attribute that to her past abuse. She's very cautious, anxious and nonconfrontational. However she does try to fight back against her fate and abusers. I just don't like that her only option is to marry out of the abuse - especially when the husband gives off toxic vibes. So, 20 chapters was enough for me. I'm done with this.

https://luacomic.net/series/4bed81769fa/ Ch. 111