A nice break from the current slew of copy/paste romance fantasy (e.g. Dukes and nobility and transmigration).
What we get is a dark setting (even the color palette is dark) where the mysteries behind one woman's power are brought to light as knowledge of the kingdom's founding myth are slowly discovered. The characters themselves are not dark or gloomy. They are enjoyable enough.
I like that it's not clear if the crown prince's brothers are good or bad. I like that the plot is more than a simple bad religion vs good religion trope.
However, it gets pretty confusing. The brothers just talk around the subject instead of giving Pell any direct information or answers. Most of the time, new information leads to more questions rather than any answers. At the end, some of the things that happened seemed to be convenient rather than something that makes sense within the construct that was explained. Or maybe I just have comprehension issues.
Not everything made sense and I'm left wondering how things will be for the characters moving forward.
Parts of the story seemed to meander off course. The storytelling could have been much tighter. I also couldn't understand the actions of some of the characters (especially the brothers), which pulled me out of the immersion. Although there were some 2D villains, they simply played their small part and left when appropriate.
Mostly, Essie be pulling some weird ass shit and Pell be like "nah nothing to think much about here". Bro you got bruises on your neck from your suddenly inhumanly strong girlfriend! That's not a "lol it's ok she stopped tho" thing.
(-8)
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