beta
I like both of the lady rivals, it feels like they could both be heroines in their own stories; the shy book-smart heroine, the ambitious villainess-coded heroine, and our mc is the badass sword-weilding heroine.
I'm hoping for a rivals-to-friendship arc where mc wins them over by acknowledging their skills. Recruit Book-smart into an admin/research leadership role where she doesn't have to constantly make herself small, and enthusiastically discuss pigeon breeding with Villainess (it probably isn't a popular discussion topic among the city nobles)