The gorgeous novel!. The best in its genre. Smart, strong, charismatic heroes. An interesting story. No romanticization of violence! The chemistry between the characters is captivating, you want to reread it again and again.

Tilia is our smart, competitive, and hardworking protagonist. She comes from a poor, lower noble class family and has a terrible homelife, which she copes with by planning a way out and dissociating. Even so, maybe it's just me, but her thoughts and attitude rarely send home the feeling of "traumatized, ab*sed" heroine.

Ilex, ML, is the popular genius from a powerful family who always surpasses FL. He clearly likes her from the beginning, although it's currently unclear how or when that happened, and sometimes, we get hints of him being... more>> more cunning and dangerous than he lets on.

The romance itself has been slower paced

Spoiler

, although the ML and FL have had a couple of s*x scenes already thanks to low-quality holy water, which has an aphrodisiac effect here. The smut isn't bad, but FL always acts uncomfortable and constantly tells ML to stop during these scenes, which makes it kind of uncomfortable to read. She's the one who initiates both times, though, so it's not non-consentual.

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A lot of the story has focused on their school life and studies so far, but I sense a time-skip into adulthood approaching soon.

The translator is doing a great job! I appreciate their hard work. <<less