Story is quite good, how it's presented and developed at the beginning was great and it leave a lot of room to work with later on so as long as the author keeps his wits about him I have good hopes about later development. The middle part got a little less interesting yet the flames of war ignite again so I want to read more.
Characters are good and the main leads are both great, she's a little too perfect maybe. As for the rest, they are pretty minor so far but all are rathe believable. The enemies are indeed lacking as JapanRocks says but the current conflict antagonist seems quite cunning and ruthless. Dialogues are interactions are on the ok side but that's it.
Last, the art and drawing are very good, it's a bit weak on the combat scenes but that's not the focus of the story so they always end quite fast.
Overall it's a pretty good manhua, among the best I've read lately and after almost 100ch it's still interesting, something many fail at. Recommended for anyone who likes shoujos or middle ages stories.
By the way, I don't think it's rape, rape is taking someone against that person's will, in this case she is sent to marry the male lead, she accepts to this and the guy is not gentle when he takes her to bed, that's not rape, you can't marry someone and not have sex with them and the MC is bright and knew what was in store for her, also, women in that age didn't have the right to refuse their husbands (or future husband in this case). To put it more bluntly, saying that this is rape would be equivalent to say that all concubines and wives that are not happy getting married are raped by their husbands. Not to mention it's not the modern world, it's in ancient feudal times, even if you ignore that she's a woman of the times and he her soon to be husband, a maid was seen as a possession and by the times logic he had every right as a noble to kill her for trying to deceive him, to survive she herself seeks the marriage at that point and states "if I'm a virgin will you marry me?" clearly expressing her will, if blame is to be placed it's on the nobles who sent her to him knowing that she might be killed for it. So not only does he not rape her, he forgives her life, he marries her making her a Duchess even when she's not even a noble bastard (to the male lead's knowledge) and later actually leaves her in charge of the administration of the domain... I'd even say he was generous by the times mentality.
Edit: For those above, is it duress? again, this is her will and her judgment, which is the opposite of the definition of the word, she's the one trying to convince him of the marriage, proactively. If there is duress it's their noble parents who are applying it.
Still, I´ll re-read it at some point since people unanimously disagree with me, I may be remembering wrong.
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