The mermaids called a speshul white wolf with green eyes their king. Fair enough, guess he’s some sort of shapeshifter. How the main character managed to sneak away from an apex predator with keen senses despite having been almost burned, chased by an angry mob, being tossed about by a fast-moving river (as a local so helpfully pointed out), nearly drowning in an ocean and spending an entire night in wet clothes is beyond me. Okay, her wounds were healed. There’s still exhaustion from all that running and almost drowning. The wolf kept her warm but her clothes are still wet, buddy. Big fluffy thing on one side of her doesn’t completely negate hypothermia. Then she walks around, runs around and gets into a fight the next day with injured feet on top of all that? They’re bandaged up but they’re still injured and untreated. Author, I hope you stretched before all that reaching. Even if she’s a witch, there were no indications of her using her powers or her powers automatically activating to help her. Again, she’s still injured.
And the characters aren’t characters, they’re just set pieces for the main character and the emperor who seems to be the love interest. There’s no substance to them. They’re not people, they’re conveniences. The girl with the dark ponytail is a multitool who helps the main character escape a mob and reminds her of a beloved friend/servant in her past life, but also has problems so main character can show off how heroic she is. She has nothing to her except how relevant she is to the main character. Even her relationship with her brother is just so the mc can show what a good person and badass she is. The guy trying to sell her off to a... pub? bar? Is this just a lost in translation type thing or does the author think pubs and bars are the same thing as brothels? Anyway, the guy is just a generic obstacle to overcome complete with bullshit reasons for no one but the mc being able to stop him, evul minionz, and evul smirk face. The local lord is rapist who forces himself onto virgin girls as price for letting them marry their beloved. He’s also fat, ugly and a glutton, just in case you still weren't sure you were supposed to hate him. Did David Cage write the plot for this? I’m getting sick of gratuitious rape as drama. All those girls being raped aren’t important, they’re not part of the main cast! They’re just props to show how evul the bad guy is. Great message. “Don’t care about anyone who isn’t close to you getting hurt more than bare-bones pity. You don’t know them so they’re not important.”
Don’t get me started on the emperor’s conversation exposition dump with Clever. I get that it’s telling the audience what’s going on, but the way they’re discussing it makes no sense. Clever brings urgent political news, okay. Then they they mention it might lead to a war, fine. Then the emperor starts explaining basic international politics to his advisor; things someone in his position should already know? And finishes with his “Imma take over the world” speech. Is that the first time he told Clever his grand plan? From his reaction, it seems so. Also, I forgot his name (if it was even mentioned). The love interest’s name isn’t even as memorable as his assistant’s.