Shes a bit dumb, but in a way thats believable for a noble thats never traveled solo before. Like shes highly competent at fighting, but she keeps getting robbed because she's not used to keeping track of her own bags.
And tbf, most of her troubles are caused by other ppl's beaurecratic fck ups, like the temple accidently marrying her off and the emperor's lackeys accidently putting a *bounty* on their empress' head due to a game of telephone
I really wasnt expecting to open a generic fantasy world shoujo and instead found a well written murder mystery. Aaaand the main character was not isekai'd in, nor did she regress or reincarnate. I love when a character is just allowed to be a genius without being a 40yo in a childs body or they just seem super smart because they know the future.
My only critisism of the series is that the title art really doesnt do it justice. Its not bad or anything, it just really hint that this is a shoujo murder mystery
Im actually loving this misunderstanding bc its sooo funny to me that
mc is like: god i need to land this business deal while not letting on how gay i am for my client. Any sexual tension is probably just my own wishful thinking
While ml is like: i cant believe im letting this cheating manwhore seduce me like this. I gave my father's mistress so much shit, but now i too am going to be a side piece.
Its like one of them is playing checkers and the other is playing connect four, and i cannot wait to see how they handle the reveal











Boi is extra uke-coded this chapter
Rare sighting of the straight uke
(in a non-bl manga that is)