I’ve got sort of mixed feelings. On the one hand life isn’t a fairy tale and having resources and stability does matter. For example, Every single mother who’s broke and struggling is going to have similar pressure on them to get with a man who has resources to help the kids and make her life easier. Second, as you said, it isn’t that she is going to be marrying someone she doesn’t like. After all, they were already dating. I don’t think marrying earlier than she would have wanted is necessarily a bad thing when she is doing so for a better life for her family. Just like a guy may like his wife to be cute. What I think is a far bigger issue about the situation is that she is lying to him about it. I don’t think the pressure or early marriage is what will kill this. They’re plenty of very young people pushed by their families into an early arranged marriage and statistically they are actually more successful as they are usually arranged based on having common values, stability and similar life goals. Again my main issue is she’s lying to him. I’m pretty sure she just could have been honest with him and if he couldn’t help the parents I think he would still marry her.
What frustrates me is that from here on, the situation isn’t going to stop being uncomfortable for her. The blackmail and her family’s financial situation is at the forefront of the problem but if she chooses ML she will always feel trapped by her mother’s pressure to marry, the intimidation she feels from ML’s family’s wealth and status, the fact that the dragons are in need of heirs, and the fact that the dragons are powerful as beastmen in general. She was already under the pressure of ML’s feelings for her and was dating him while trying to process what she felt for him and whether it was enough. Now, there’s no time and the fact that ML isn’t unhappy at the prospect of marrying her (being unaware of the situation and unaware of how much pressure she feels and happy to have someone he wants to marry, having been under pressure himself) makes saying no difficult, regardless of how considerate he is, especially because she does reciprocate to some degree. I know it’s in the title, but we’re watching the beginning of an inevitable disaster, one that we now know could have absolutely played out differently. I should have realized the first part was going too smoothly—that wrong confession was cleared up far too quickly for rofan standards. Here’s hoping things don’t get too messy