
Honestly the tension that had been building so beautiful up to chp 3 left me desperate to see the end. And then the end comes and it's rushed to hell. All tension and suspense lost. How disappointing. If the author had been brave, this would have been a bad/sad ending to their relationship, but sadly the author chickened out of that approach.

So the story is starting to go downhill. There is no plot anymore. It's just now: here's conflict, and the solution isssss. tea. The whole kingdom seems to revolve around this one duchess, and all the other characters now seem like side characters. Not to mention the duchess has no faults nor does she make mistakes, making her a rather boring protagonist as she is entirely unrelatable. Story had potential, but it now feels like the author is just milking this when it really should just be wrapped up if there is no further conflict.

The side-stories (which let's be real aren't side-stories but a continuation of the plot) have really ruined this. The author jumps from one topic to the next via time skips, and doesn't give us any conclusions to the problems that arise. This story had so much potential, but seems to be constantly wasted.

It feels like life though? Things don't get resolved and you just move on to more pressing matters...with topics ressurfacing from time to time. But you are right nothing gets even a bit resolved. The topics like the priests relationship with faith and solitude, the duke finding out Areum is from another world, etc..all are presented and dropped. the chapter ends before any kind of resolution. It feels like the first chapters of an undeveloped arc.
Dropped this story ages ago. Came back to see if it got any better from the comments.... well appears not.