The villain we've been introduced to, the Empress? I LOVE HER! She's such a good antagonist character. We've already gotten some peaks into the tomboyish and cheerful young lady she used to be, so it makes me really interested to know how her personality became so warped. Also she's already had some sick lines. Like: "I, your mother, will place the empire in your hands." It's so simple but oh my god she's so cool and hot. I'm looking forward to more of her.

ML kills an innocent person for no reason, and MC barely reacts. As people with basic morals and understanding that mu*der is disgusting and horrible and should not be glorified or romanticized, this obviously is extremely uncomfortable to read. But, I think its meant to be uncomfortable for the reader.

I think the author is showing us that not only is ML not a good person, is a villain, but that MC is no longer a human. As humans, we created our own standards of morals, of right and wrong. Here's a real life example: dolphins will group up and literally b*at a shark to d*ath for fun.

MC is no longer human, down to a biological level, his thinking is inherently different. It's outlined multiple times that MC feels an aversion to humanity as a whole, and is trying to grapple with this change as it battles with his memories as a human. This is taken a step further with this scene. ML kills an innocent person, and MC discovers that all he really feels is a mild discomfort. He realizes how f*cked up that is, and doesn't want to continue dwelling on his own greying morality.

So, while I agree that the scene feels gross and bad to read, I also think it's a really good illustration of our main characters' major flaws.

Theo seriously killed an innocent person just because he wants to buy shuian some clothes? I understand the first few times ML killed others because it was self-defense, but killing Anne, who's as far as I know, is just an innocent store-owner, was mu*der. And Shuian didn't even react much... like he's losing his morality as a human now that he's a divine beast? I know there are other protagonists out there who are cruel and evil and other novels with really dark plot that mu*der is normal but still, this novel started off with fluff and with a pretty much morally-sane MC, nothing traumatic nor a reasonable event even happened to the MC to cause such a change? I really dislike that he's turning morally-grey for love, it's disgusting. The thing I like the most about the MC is how kind he is at the beginning when helping others as an eagle.... But now that he's losing his humanity and siding with Theo even tho we all know that innocent woman died because of him... Huh. What a let down. I'll change my mind if he'll realize what's happening to him and if he'll be back to having his morals, but if not and the MC just turned into another "I know you're evil, but I still love you" blinded-by-love protagonist, I'm out.

Shuian is a divine beast which is important to the empire lore cause it was founded by artes and dux the eagle. Hint Hint, yeah later on it's revealed shuian is actually Dux and Theo is the reincarnation of Artes.

During a expedition, the MC saves Liam who is the son of the enemy count who was executed because he thought he could bring a loyal ally to the ML since he doesn't have many which works because Liam wants to save his sister who is struggling from a commoner life after they lost their noble status.

Okay, yeah another ally. The author makes Liam be a cowardly person who is their new ally but why did they suddenly make him become the love interest of Orca??? Just because Orca trains Liam so he can assist him with his work since Orca is already overworked as the aide. It makes sense for Orca to train Liam for the job but the author makes that the reason why Liam is in love with Orca because he thinks Orca is so kind to him and protected him lol.

A person who thinks all the time would know Orca just did that because he knows Liam is their new ally who will assist them... It doesn't even feel like Liam is loyal to the ML instead he's loyal to Orca.

Next is the love story between the ogFL (Ariel) and ogML (Ricardo). Their character is written flat as h*ll too. It just seems like Ricardo only likes Ariel cause she's the first person who treats him nicely not because she wants anything for his prince status meanwhile he feels guilty for using her and then later in the story it feels like he just gaslit himself to believe he likes her too lmao.

The villain is the empress who wants the crown basically cause it's her "hunter instinct". She gets executed after the climax of the story but the author wants you to pity her by giving her reasons like the empress's father strongly desired power so he placed her in the empress position so she too has the mindset she must always win/conquest like a hunter and their prey. And she never experienced love and affections either except for her mother who gave her that so she reminices about it in her last moments when she gets executed.

Then there's Ricardo who the author wants you to like and pity because he's just a puppet for the empress, he's a victim too blah blah yeah I don't care. Truth is Ricardo, the ogML is tr*sh too. The author makes him apologize to the ML in the end for all the suffering he caused to the ML and the ML goes "Yeah don't worry you're just the victim, it's all good!" Seriously... Throughout the story the author written points here and there that Ricardo is not actually as nice as he's believed to be. For the moments that the ML suffered in the story, the author will point out how Ricardo likes it as because it basically reassures him that ML won't beat him for the crown prince position.

What really annoyed me was at the last chapter, the ML is practically emperor at this point but he ask to have another competition for the crown because the original competition was between him and the empress so he wants to fight against Ricardo himself this time. And Ricardo is like "Thanks for giving me this chance and sorry about before I was just a victim". Yeah f*ck off pls, the author ain't gonna fool me with this cringe sh*t. What's the point of trying to write off Ricardo like that in the end of story to make him seem more likeable when you pointed out here and there about how Ricardo is a sh*thead but you want to end it off with him only being a victim of everything.