What.A.Mess. I dunno if the author will ever read this, but I think removing the first version (the catgirl seggs) is the second best move. The best move was... not doing it in the first place. 😅
I myself have my own webcomic so I can understand the difficulties as an author. I'm neither big nor that experienced, but even I can tell that the original version was NOT a good idea. It really should've been cut during the writing stage.
I'll try to explain why I personally didn't like it and why I immediately dropped this series, though I'm sure some people also have the same opinions as me.
First of all, we've got this whole thing with them getting to know and slowly trust each other, and then it culminates in them having sex. Even if it's to help ease her curse, that still took incredible trust.
But one chapter later, suddenly, WHAM, catgirl seggs in the first page. I'm 100% sure everyone who dropped this series (including me) let out a "WHAT THE FUCK" after seeing that. It really ran counter to the story and the theme.
I'm pretty sure some of you have read some of Zyugoya's series. A lot of them involve the female protagonist being healed mentally/emotionally because of their relationship to the male protagonist, and I expected something similar to that from this series (cough, Doomsia's
Healing Sessions). Now imagine if the male protagonist, say, from
Ochiai-san had sex with another woman on the next chapter after they finally got together. Goodness, poor Ochiai-san would never recover...
Second, the catgirl seggs is behind a paywall, so us non-patrons only get the heavily-shadowed and awkwardly censored version of the page.
Third, if I was a patron in it for the story and not the nsfw... then I didn't really benefit from this chapter. In fact, I'd say it's a waste of money. As for chapter 5.5's sex scene, I think most people didn't mind it since it's part of the story, and the censored parts weren't in the way for non-patrons. Heck, it has enough detail that it can be enjoyed even if it's censored.
Fourth, having two months between the chapters (and the animated trailer is kind of a distraction), and then opening the chapter with a seggs scene with a stranger, with zero setup, and then it's all fucking censored, not a good idea. Even a kiss out of nowhere is a terrible idea, just check what happened to
Imasara desu ga.
Fifth, if you
must include the catgirl sex scene, it could've been easily rewritten in a much better way. Like, if they REALLY needed the money/potion because Doomsia was heavily injured beyond the Cleric's healing skill. There could've have been discussion between the the Cleric and Doomsia, maybe show some hesitation from the Cleric (I forgot if his name has been mentioned). Normally he would have been fine with paying the "pussy price", but his budding relationship with Doomsia is making him feel guilty even if the act is necessary. Maybe the catgirl notices Cleric's hestiation, and stops it before they do the act, but nope, BOOM catgrill seggs first page. The readers don't know nor care about the catgirl even if she has the same curse as Doomsia; she's a stranger.
Finally, I know it's technically not cheating and I've seen commenters say "they're not even in a relationship, what's the big deal". Bruh, this is a romance series, ya know, you BUILD UP to that relationship? I know some of you degenerates are in open relationships, but ya know, that's NOT the norm.
So... that's my opinion on it. I may pick up the series again because of the rewrite, and I can relate as a fellow artist. Heck, I still read worse series than this haha.
And thanks for reading this if you did. Bad writing gets me to write long-ass posts like this instead of just short funny/meme comments. 😅