@Pokari Except for the fact that this story clearly has no problem breaking those norms (Marriage age is seemingly 18) and women are allowed to hold stereotypically male-dominated positions such as knighthood. The author probably just has no interest in including such representation and that's...
@Exia1987 If anything my interpretation of it is they're both competing to become closer to her while the idol is oblivious to their rivalry (or more accurately the drastic measures maaya takes to keep the mc from getting too close to her) and is on friendly terms with both. Definitely too early...
@Moneymike1995 It doesn't have to be 3 way love for it to be poly: both the mc and the prince love Maria while the former are mostly just compromising and that's a valid polyamorous configuration.
For the second point, while there isn't something in the story that explicitly states romantic...
@Cynic
To be fair the relationship between the two does feel more like womance unlike the more explicit expressions of love shared by the het half of the polycule, and especially in a yuri anthology people expect to see the reverse.
It does feel like the punchline of the story was BOOM...