That was a surprisingly merciful death... Hmm.... Strange. DId he make it quick because of the sister? Hmm....

I keep wondering how these people know they died in a hit-and-run? Aren't they dead? I mean, okay, maybe they stayed conscious long enough to see the car that hit them drive off, but somehow that seems unlikely - the shock of being fatally wounded would make it difficult to focus enough to notice much of anything.

“Just go...! Don’t come this way!” Me when the teacher walks around the classroom looking for students to call on

Annnnnnd of course its an isekai...

@Thoughtgap You. I like you. Feel free to hit me up to discuss bearable recommendations & dissect objectionable content.

Actually, everyone here: @akisame @Moth @mirai-chan @KarrotKakes
My door is always wideee open to those who stay critical of the media they consume. Y’all are so rare. :’)

Also, yeah, The Abandoned Empress was an abominable trainwreck. Who Made me a Princess? is another Korean webtoon with similar art quality, but a much more tolerable narrative/endgame loveline.

Tbh I’ve read more manga of all genres in the past 20+ yrs than any functioning adult should, so. I’d be happy to rec/rant with anyone who’s in need of a commiserating soul. I just don’t read ecchi anymore.

@akisame @ohkimch @KarrotKakes @Mirai-chan
as I [get] older I [become] more and more horrified with [assholes] who [are] verbally abusive.
That’s...that’s the male lead? We’re supposed to like him? When his men are the type to cheer at the prospect of sexual assault? When he deliberately unclothes a woman to make her vulnerable before killing her? I’m...disgusted.
Yeah, 100%. Dude's a total shitbag.
Kinda disappointed the main guy is such an awful person. I really don't want to see any romance plot between the princess and him.

Right there with you all..
Bright side, hey. At least he's not the rapist asshole from The Abandoned Empress, Spoiler.
I mean, it's a thin line, but that still seems worse. At least this guy is "only" a mentally unstable psycopath, the guy in Abandoned Empress actually got his jollies off with what he was doing Spoiler

@TrapCard113 It's pretty common in shoujo and josei manga/manhua/manhwa with a frail, floor mat female lead to fall in love with the first abusive bastard that she encounters.

In fairness, it's still fairly rare in isekais, outside of certain historical narratives, and I'd argue it's about as common in non-isekai versions of those as it is in isekai versions.
Well, regardless of whether it's an issue in isekais specifically or not, in a broader context, it's definitely a disturbing trend. At the very least, I'd like to see more wholesome narratives out there to counterbalance such stories..

@Moth Yeah, I don't understand why recently so many manhwa/manhua/manga are keen on glorifying toxic and abusive relationship and romanticizing relationships with these psychopaths.

Well, 50 Shades was strangely popular, despite being one of the most profoundly awful mutilations of the English language, even before you got to any of the actual content the words were intended to detail. And it's hardly the only example in western culture- so we really can't limit it to eastern comics alone. It seems to be this weird global trend.. despite being in an era where acts of terrorism based in bigotry have been spiking, and abuse and corruption by authority has been rampant to new extremes in at least some of the societies targeted by those works. It's.. bizarre.

Then again, I'm also irritated that it's so damn hard to get a non-smutty shounen ai story, given that both the US's often-sex-based LGBT culture and Japan's catering to fujoshis seems to push any narrative with any actual relationship depth out of view. And getting a good shoujo ai story is even harder, somehow, though at least the ones we do get tend to be less.. well, no, okay, recent ones have been pretty darn smutty. And androgyne or asexual or genderfluid or trans love stories? Essentially impossible. Closest I've found have been stories with [genderswap-based] transformation magic.

Basically, regardless of format, it's damn hard getting a romance story these days that isn't overly fixated with S&M [in a distinctly negative, tropey sense], overly sexualized [moreover, typically in a way that doesn't contribute to the plot in a meaningful enough manner to justify itself], cringely manipulative, and/or which have straight-up toxic abuse-based relationship foundations, and it's still way too damn hard to get anything involving a non-standard relationship in any way that'd actually be worth reading (by people looking for romance rather than fetishes, at least).

I mean, by all means, I am more than willing to listen to any recommendations you all may have..
On that note, also feels like I haven't seen a good sports or lifestyle [eg, firefighter, policeman, librarian, other role-based narrative] story in a while, as well.
Bright side, Isekai has been exploding, so that makes up for a lot, especially given the charm of many of them (especially among shoujo works).
..Of course, many of them have faults of their own, between the harem or power fantasy focus of many shounen isekais and, y'know, this kind of thing among shoujos.

@daallday Speaking of middle ages, you guys do realize that it's the middle ages right? Do guys think they have the concept of human rights?
The concept of human rights significantly predates medieval time periods, even before you factor in deviations in foundations that may exist in alternative (nevermind fictional) worlds.
Notably: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi

They have slaves for God's sake, of course the ML is an asshole.

Not exactly related.
I mean, the majority of humans may be able to behave as assholes with appropriate context, and the existence of slavery does imply the overall government is favorable to abusive behaviors but, beyond that, no correlation between the concepts. Unless you're trying to say everyone who comes out of a country with slavery is an asshole, which is.. a confusing perspective to have.

Anyway, those points aside, the complaints being expressed here in the comments should be based in things such as: That we don't wanna see an abusive relationship, that it's hard for us to identify such an individual as a romantic interest, that it's hard for us to feel a vested interest in a relationship involving him, and that- regardless of whether his behavior can be justified in some manner or not- we don't believe he's good enough for the female MC.

The setting has absolutely no meaningful bearing on those considerations. If one intended to make an argument against such perspectives, such an argument would be based in trying to argue the character's good points, in arguing that the narrative caters to a niche not intended for more wholesome relationship perspectives, or in arguing that the story isn't, in fact, primarily based in developing a romantic narrative [and is more just telling a story tangentially related to romance, kind of like The Scarlet Letter]. Meanwhile, arguing that the setting somehow justifies toxicity to the point where we should find it an appealing part of a relationship.. that doesn't quite work.

@itsmae

Page 8's "Proudful" should be "Prideful".

Proudful refers to being full of pride in one's accomplishments [eg, She was proud of her accomplishments == Her accomplishments left her filled with pride == Her accomplishments left her proudful], whereas Prideful refers to being filled with an arrogant, haughty, and/or snobbish demeanor (based in feeling excessive pride in one's self or status) [eg, Though she had many accomplishments, her prideful demeanor left her with few friends].

By the context [a reference Princess Alicia's proud demeanor, rather than to her sense of self-satisfaction and/or self-fulfillment], we can clearly infer that Beatrice's intent must be Prideful, even before she explicitly makes mention of arrogance.

whats the point of making it an isekai when you do absolutely nothing with it? you were a slave (which wtf why would you a modern woman accept being a slave?) for 20 years and seeing as how shitty your situation is you never did any amazing isekai things, no inventions, no games, no knowledge you just lived a boring life and then you were a bland background princess for 2 years before becoming a slave.
why even bring isekai into it?

The isekei backstory is pretty unnecessary. Surely there are other ways to explain why a slave would desire literacy. It's not like her modern veterinary background would do her much good in the middle ages.

Speaking of middle ages, you guys do realize that it's the middle ages right? Do guys think they have the concept of human rights? They have slaves for God's sake, of course the ML is an asshole. That's not even mentioning the fact that they're royals from an enemy country. Do you expect them to be given tea and cookies? Go complain about the asshole MLs in shoujo set in the 21st century

Does that guy with the red hair want to defile some one that bad jeez the past few chapters all he's done is abuse the mc and then cry about not having the princess

Thanks for the chapter!
Seems unlikely for Graham to be the male lead and completely trash. Granted he's cold blooded, holds nobles to a high standard that doesn't seek in his men like Leo, but does have some interesting points. Such as doesn't enjoy killing or the scent of blood, granted Alicia's request to be killed, and has no interest in being a prince or the next king. Definitely needs better discipline, concept of common decency and honor instilled in knights considering Leo's and the others cruel bullying. Like that guy on horseback, he's riding a horse and they're bound to a cart and have been marching along for a week, likely with little rest or decent food, and yet they're suppose to be able to keep up? If wanted to go faster should've put them on a wagon rather than obvious bullying and breaking their spirits through cruelty and exhaustion. Seems like Graham's main problem is extremely tired of life and corrupt people and has locked away his emotions, empathy and heart. Doesn't excuse him for acting like a heartless bastard but bet dollars to doughnuts that the flag Beatrice raised about not seeing him again is likely to lead her into getting close with him and reawakening his positive emotions. Be interesting to see how many chapters before thrown together again and realizing Chloe is Beatrice. Although unless Gilbert divorces her or becoming a war slave makes someone lose the right to be married or Gilbert dies she's still considered by law to be his wife and can't have any relationships with other men.

The male MC is clearly irredeemable. This is such a bad progression so far.

I'm so glad that there are so many people that hate isekai as much as I do.

I

Look at that, a slightly older female MC. They are so few and far inbetween they are next to mythological creatures (but tbf mythological creatures appear more often in manga/manhwa)

The lead guy is such trash though, I assume the red haired guys only purpose is to make the lead seem less terrible by comparison but so far his only redeeming quality is that he... makes slaves instead of corpses out of MC and her maids? Hm.

@KarrotKakes
I don't know!! Help... Something wrong when i didn't have enough sleep. Lol i hope it's gone. I think it's already marked as moderate or something, then it's good. Maybe i was drunk that time??!
I think I'm still half conscious when i posted it.
Thank goodness i don't go to some social media like twitter or something that time.

@akisame @ohkimch @Moth
Yeah, 100%. Dude's a total shitbag.
However, I'll wait this story out a bit further, wanna see where it's going.

@mrf
Jesus christ mate, wtf are you on about.

The random isekai backstory insert has a pretty bad timing lol

I am pretty sure that even a commoner woman would be embarrassed by a small thing like that. I like dark stories but so far no character seems interesting or anything.

Wow. This is quite dark and intense.... LOVE IT