[Slow Burn, Pure Love, 1v1]
After becoming a cannon-fodder villain who gets stabbed from the start, he plans to steal the protagonist's golden finger and keep himself alive. Instead, he accidentally derails the original plot.
So he decides to risk everything and offer a hand to the protagonist, who hasn't grown strong yet. "Come with me. I'll keep you fed and make sure you live to see the ending!"
But before he can finish speaking, he's stabbed by another villain. As the blade flashes, he is transformed into a silver-haired girl who was never mentioned in the book.
From then on, Julian has no choice but to soldier on with his new identity. After all, he no longer has even the worst-case escape route.
While secretly raising the protagonist, he repeatedly takes hits for him, helps him claim the holy sword, accompanies him across battlefields, and helps him cut down his enemies. At the same time, he lives in constant fear that his secret will be exposed and the naturally suspicious protagonist will stab him to death. He also secretly gathers intelligence under another identity, recruits supporting characters from the book, builds up their strength, and quietly paves the way for the protagonist.
Once the protagonist can stand on his own, Julian prepares to slip away from the group. But the protagonist corners him in a back alley.
The other man's palm pins her waist against the wall, his fingertips brushing her silver hair. His tone is firm, and before she can dodge, his eyes meet her panicked gaze. "I've been taking care of you for so long, and now you want to run? This time, I won't let you go again. Come home with me."
The silver-haired girl looks up and sees the protagonist's companions behind him, waggling their eyebrows and sneaking glances as they watch the show. She finally snaps. He was supposed to be a villain who turned the tables and retired to a life of leisure, not someone being pinned against a wall and "forced into marriage" by the protagonist!
As the protagonist moves in for a kiss, she can only clutch her skirt and make one last attempt to resist. "At least, please be gentle..."
To be honest, something feels off. The protagonist is, after all, the daughter of one of the three great families. The original owner must have practiced martial arts when she first transformed into a woman. Although the storyline has changed, it feels like now everyone, even dogs, is stronger than the protagonist, a daughter of one of the three great families. It feels like the level of all the other monsters has been artificially inflated just for the sake of the plot.
Perhaps my understanding is too low to grasp it, but I still don't understand what the second volume is about. I don't see the reason why the royal family and the Magic Council are putting pressure on the female lead. Her counterattacks can only be described as pitiful; she only responds verbally and is constantly in a state of inexplicable fear. She's like a completely different person from the decisive and bold female lead in the first volume. The second volume is less than one percent as enjoyable as the first.
There are many questions, let's address them one by one.
Current progress: Chapter 94. The book is quite good, but I won't mince words and will get straight to the issues. First, the deus ex machina: ① The female lead's sudden large-scale AoE attack after being kidnapped feels like a deus ex machina. Why didn't she use this move earlier? Her combat power always seems inconsistent, fluctuating wildly; ② The scene where the male lead awakens his primal magic is ridiculously perfunctory. Earlier it was said he needed some fragment, but the author simply used a potion, which felt very forced. It's either a deus ex machina or something else entirely. Second, the setting is vague: ① The issue of damage retention when the female lead switches between male and female bodies. The injuries to the two bodies are independent, which is fine here, but previously the female lead's female body...
Is the female lead depicted as a firefly?
When will Julian appear? It seems like her interactions with the male lead are quite sweet. Right now, this rich girl's disguise will only get interesting when the male lead discovers that Julian is actually Yue Lina.
Seeing the Crown Prince appear in the middle of the night was incredibly frustrating. He just said he would respond, then immediately started disclaiming his identity. If you're going to write it like this, don't give the protagonist the setting of a time traveler. Having the "script" at his disposal, knowing full well that the Crown Prince is arrogant and conceited, and even feigning weakness in the dialogue, you're practically telling the protagonist to let the other party take advantage of him.
When will his true identity be revealed? I want to see it revealed!
Looking at the female lead always reminds me of Pepe, that's right, the one from the Fuyutsuki family.
A simple review of the first fifty chapters
Having read the first fifty chapters, based on the current situation, the world-building is insufficient, the plot has some minor flaws, but the writing is quite excellent, and the author reads comments and actively responds to readers. In summary, the novel reaches a high level. Let's first discuss the world-building issue. From the first chapter, we know the protagonist transmigrated into the book, but the overall plot structure isn't introduced, or rather, the description is limited. We only know that the male protagonist rises to become a hero, and it's only gradually revealed later that the demon race is from the north. However, the description of the country's politics, culture, and military is very scarce, revealed little by little. The advantage of this gradual unveiling is that it increases the mystery of the plot, but the disadvantage...
It died, so I gave it away.