...in the latter half of the story. The sheer disappointment I felt, damn.
For 25-ish chapters after slogging through the beginning FL was enjoyable to follow. She was delightful when she was hard at work in the North. Her personality really came through.
She was doing just fine being the Boss Lady in the North but decided to get revenge on the Teardrops and to make ML the Emperor in the dumbest most asinine way possible. Why she went about this "revenge" in such a convoluted way, when she doesn't have all the clues about her own OR the fake's background, is beyond me.
In attempting to find out she repeatedly made deadly mistakes that would have gotten her killed again if she wasn't the MC. Plot armor to the max!
ML became Emperor in the 1st timeline just fine without FL, anyway. That's the frustrating part. In this timeline, if she'd just stayed put she would've given ML an even more solid backing for him to become Emperor but nooooo.
When she's in over her head after returning to the capital, instead of backing off and listening to her friend's warnings, she goes full steam ahead. She also refuses to call for help when she actually needs it.
She was warned about the bracelet and yet let it be broken without a thought.
She then proceeds to bring the vulnerable Fairies/Elves into the heart of the enemy's domain without adequately warning them first about the suspicious happenings. She only tells them when they're literally sitting on her lap, already ensnared by the very bad guys she is trying to expose.
Dumb. So dumb.
The beginning of this story was horrifically tedious, too. The FL and ML's "banter" was excruciating to read through. The writer attempted to make FL sound more clever than she is and none of it landed. It was made exponentially worse by the amateur art style and direction.
Like, the artists attempted to show and not tell us readers by having FL manipulate her environment in a way that's supposed to support her "mastermind" persona. All it did was make her look like a tween edgelord throwing random objects around.
The ML's attitude did not help. Although, I guess, I should be thankful that ML has a personality, at least. No matter how grating it is.