As I catch up on this from the beginning I find that I can't connect to his the way I do with the handful of other otome game/villainess isekai series. I think it's mostly because they haven't really satisfactorily explained Mary's acceptance of her fate. I get that fatalism/the universe taking its course/destiny/whatever is a big philosophical bent in some cases, but it sucks ass as a storytelling crutch because it means the characters are just passengers along for the ride. Even if she's actively trying to push Alice or whatever her name is to achieve a proper ending according to the game, the fact that she's OK with being reduced to nothing because "it's what's supposed to happen" is dumb spineless laziness. Katrina or Bertia or any of the other major otome/villainess series protags usually tried to push the story along but allow for an escape hatch for themselves that would mean they didn't need to suffer and that made sense. Mary just going "I'm gonna live in poverty, whatevs" doesn't make her endearing at all.
Granted I'm only at chapter 5 so there's plenty of time to turn things around, but it's not an auspicious start.
