I would say the story is less in shoujo/shounen and more into seinen/josei. It is certainly not for people that just wants to read about dumb action flick, teenage angsty shenanigan... which results in those wanting for those trash content disappointed.
The story focused onto two characters Erkin and Kaya and the theme is setup on the premises of consequences of war. Kaya being a child soldier blesses with the power of the sun (Kariya) that is among the opressing faction and Erkin, being an orphan herbalist that used to belong to the northern faction that had his family and hometown thorn apart by the opressors.
Erkin is established as a good natured herbalist that went to the south to search for good life whilst hiding his hidden plan towards the sun witch (that allegedly kills his parents).
He was asked to treat the sun witch that disguise herself as an unknown lord. Erkin also had an attraction towards Kaya, someone whom he sees as a free spirited person
Kaya - a child soldier that has grown up, getting sick and tired with war while staying far away from her retainer, battling with some unknown disease. She felt a sudden sense of familiarity upon meeting Erkin and this prompt her to disguise herself as Kaya the Maid to confirm as to what this sense of familiarity are.
Initially the story machination is driven forward by the slice of life on the castle for 2 points
- Kaya to make sense of her familiarity towards Erkin
- Erkin, his secrets and will he uncover the secret of Kaya
Eventually, the story progreass into them cementing their attraction towards each other (though they never confirm it by words, it is implied) and the story gradually had more gears to march its story forward and tbose gears are
- Kaya and her struggles with the conflict of keeping Erkin by her side
- Griselda (spoilers)
- The oppressong nation and their obsession towards their sun witch, and the conspiracy of politics
- The northern nation, their animosity towards their oppressors and what is their role towards the end of the final battle
- Erkin - who kill his parents, when and how will he finds out and make amends to the true identitt of Kaya. Wi he take revenge on his parents killer and what is his role in the politics as a whole
- Kaya - how will she uncover the past, how will she chose to took off her mask towards Erkin, how will she deal with this consequences. What is het role in the conspiracies of politics that has been gradually brewing
Conclusion
The story does not have those instant and simple gratification moment that is an usual traits of shounen/shoujo
It does not have instant gratification such as
- Action flick borned by revenge or competitiveness
- Simple good vs bad guy cliched machination (lose, train, gets strong, won and repeat)
- Simple aww or jeousty or triangle moment that is a common trait of shoujo
What it have instead is
- Non-simple characters that have a certain struggles
- How those characters deal with those strugglwa
- How one action that can be considered simple/naive could affect one's outcome in an unpredictable consequences
Last but not least, if people come into this manhwa expecting common cliched that is common to shoujo/shounen, consider yourself disappointed... but if you seek some of the good thing i listed above, you might enjoy some good reading
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