I'm kind of in the other direction from some people here--what I find hard to believe is actually the interludes of nonviolence and the sexual tension, not the attacks. Well, that and the heavy-handed stalking--if you're not allowed to kill her, and you've agreed to that provisionally, then whatever, let her get some food--ideally, find some way to do actual surveillance so you can catch her if she tries to grab someone's soul or do anything else illegal, rather than just sort of getting in her way without a purpose.

But for me the problem here is, the comic has this premise: Obsidian is a murderess, probably a multiple murderess. Specifically, she has tried to kill the female lead and has killed the person in the world who mattered the most to the female lead. It appears to have been premeditated and done with enthusiasm and pleasure. Since then, heroine seems to have spent her whole life training to be badass enough to take Obsidian down when she meets her again. This is "My name is Inigo Montoya" territory, not teen sex comedy hijinks territory. It doesn't even really matter if she can't remember doing it; if she isn't a completely different person with a completely different personality, she's basically an amoral killer and probably needs to be put down before she starts up again. (Well, with the mind control powers it will probably turn out she was mind controlled or possessed at the time--but until this theory is floated in the comic it shouldn't figure into the heroine's motivations)

That means,
IF
you take the premise seriously, the only question should be does the female lead use her to track down her superiors before doing her in, or just kill her now and investigate further without that bonus. The question should NOT be, do they fuck.

So that's my problem here: The comic has a serious and somewhat tragic premise, but it does not take it seriously. Rather, half the time it blows it off for quick lulz. Most of the time when the heroine attacks Obsidian, for amazingly good reason, it isn't even resolved, they just cut away and it's vaguely assumed it came to nothing. And it isn't even gallows humour, which I can appreciate. Rather, I find the comedy undercuts the serious premise, and the serious premise makes the comedy seem stupid.

It's a pity because I can see two different decent comics here, which appear to be spoiling each other.

last edited at Dec 11, 2023 12:33PM

Ah, you just have to love the rigid adherence to rules and hierarchies... /s

I do find myself wondering if, while you could still expect some disapproval, the overall tone would have been more positive and less threatening if she'd been a guy.

I dunno. I feel like Tan Tailan + Ming Wei is getting extra kudos precisely because they're the secondary characters and a lot of people just have a preference for that, and maybe also because people like it when the "masculine" half of the pair is the one taking the initiative.

But for my part, I am coming to really quite like Yu Dingdang--totally girly, but cheerful, self-confident and very much willing to take the initiative. She cares about the rules no more than the general does. Plus that thing with the scroll copying was clever and cheeky.

Because things go so fast nothing actually feels impactful. We got a kiss, but I don't really care because they shoved a hundred other things in this chapter that it feels unearned. Like lol a random summons for an arranged marriage and then MC just randomly stumbling upon the Princess's diary conveniently changed her mind about the relationship.

I kind of agree in general, but the "conveniently changed her mind" thing is I think a tad unfair. She didn't change her mind. She was already sweet on the girl. It was fairly clear that she was only saying "Whoa, slow down" because she was finding everything a bit too fast and overwhelming, not because she had any intention of saying "no" in the end. So then suddenly the thing she was trying to ease into is taken away, of course she's going to be reacting like "Hang on, you can't take that away, I was just getting ready to eat it!" Sure, they do the diary thing to sort of crystallize her resolve a bit more, but the direction of her thoughts and feelings was clearly already there.

There's an obvious solution here. The emperor wants dynastic succession. The girls have plenty o' magic. I'm sure magic babies could be arranged.

Does the princess have other siblings?

Well if not, she and the nun are gonna need to make some magic babies if the kingdom isn't to fall in the next generation.

Do they count as useless lesbians?

Well, they both seem fairly useful to the COMPANY . . .

So, that erotic scroll . . . I couldn't help noticing that it's yuri. Yeah, the general knows.

So how likely do we think it is that Tan Tailan and Princess Ming are to end up with each other.

100%

Yes, I expect that when Tai Tailan is keeping an eye on Princess Ming, she will let nothing escape her . . .

I don't see what the long range plan here is. I mean, just how long does she think she can keep that secret from a wife who's head over heels for her, no matter how gullible?

Time sure flies when you're having fun, eh? Why, that three years felt like it went by in the blink of an eye!

Honestly, that was one of the most drastic timeskips I've ever seen--not even a farewell at the airport, no quick handwave of a scene or two during the absence, just "Gonna go soon--whoops, back now!"

This is avian oppression!

It's fine if it's seagulls. Little bastards. Seagulls have stolen my wife's donut--twice! And we're talking best donut place in town, here. Oppress 'em, I say!

last edited at Dec 1, 2023 6:43PM

There is one thing I always found implausible about this story.
Cat girl--fine. Is the mistress' maid and they are fond of each other and have sexy times, sure.

Cat girl takes her job seriously and works hard . . . wait, what?! Has Zanka ever met a cat?

Ah Zanka. Never change.

You know, I was thinking it seemed a lot like the cat maid one I'd already read, but I just thought that was Zanka being samey . . . I thought this was maybe some old previous version that hadn't been scanlated before, or something.

last edited at Nov 28, 2023 7:54PM

I’m in a time warp

It's just a jump to the left.

And then a step to the ri-i-i-i-ight!

Is it just me or does the author somehow manage to keep the story really warm and cozy while also including bits of drama and excellent character development?

No, I'd say that is in fact happening. I am a happy man when I see a new chapter.

So Xingyuan is gay, 100% lesbian, but Xiaoen is bi and only had had crushes on boys till now?

Well, male celebs. No real crushes on real people at all, apparently. And for that matter, we know very little about Yunduo's sexuality--we know she has a fixation on one woman, and it seems like she didn't marry for love, but that doesn't actually tell us for sure that she doesn't/can't like guys, just not the particular one she married.

Her jumping and the sandals flying off got a good laugh from me, I love how comically expressive the art is.

That last page looked kind of different--I feel like it's her version of "chibi".

The death threats caught me off guard, i lmao'd hard (writing death threats to authors almost never is okay though realistically)

... Almost?

Yeah I also take issue with this word!

No, "almost" is fine. There's always exceptions. To take the ultimate example, there was this dude wrote a book called "Mein Kampf" that I'd have been fine with people sending death threats to.

That was 120% definitely a confession!

Don't be silly! It's not a real confession unless they turn towards the audience and say "We are now girlfriends." Their feelings are just S U B T E X T, and as we all know subtext is absolutely meaningless and reading between the lines is illegal!

Looks at avatar . . . um, I take it you're a Tara & Beverly fan?

OK, so hang on . . . in the absence of Elsa being there at that time, the curse would just have gone to Yvonne. And OK, the curse gradually eating her up could turn her into a villainess, fine, fine. But as far as I can tell, in the timeline before we did the time shenanigans, there was no particular sign of either of them bearing this curse, although the future-Elsa, or, um, the Elsa from SOME future, plausibly maybe did. Well, unless the curse manifested to isekai-ed Yvonne as the game villain system (remember that?).

So now we're going to try to change the timeline so one of them DOES have the curse? Or what's going on here?

I dunno. The feeling of the earlier parts of this story being connected to the more recent parts of this story is getting more and more tenuous for me.

Personally i'm so here for chaotic-neutral Naori

Chaotic neutral is best alignment.

Chaotic neutral is chuuni alignment.

Kyoot!

Tags: corruption of the innocent

But how could she smell her over the cigarette smoke, anyway?

Yeah, I was thinking "Whaddya mean, smells nice? She smells like a smoker."
Well, that was a few minutes of my life I'll never get back.

The way she got on top of her to check her temperature, that shit was instinctual. Girl has subconscious game.

Only to be blocked by . . . bad breath!