Personally I was fine until the guard got his weapon taken away. Merchant was suspicious to begin with, so him being the prince wasn’t surprising. The prince was also the one to bring the younger brother to Agnes so he would have an idea of where the family he was investigating may go in a hurry. The mother being an idiot is unsurprising given how easily influencable she is. Them doing human tafficking is a bit heavy handed, but again their relationship with Robin was hinted prior, and father is desperate enough for even a crum of nobility that it’s believable.This is so heavy-handed.
Hmm, I want to remove the parents from the story. How to go about it? Oh well, they'll be involved in human trafficking. And the prince will be there, knowing about it, with some convenient knights to instantly deliver justice. And the mother will be a blabbering idiot. And the father will of course attack Agnes (while surrounded by said knights, who just conveniently and momentarily lose all competence to make Nazelbert have a moment in the spotlight) to add attempted filicide to his crimes.
At least the second half of the chapter saves it.
It was already heavily hinted that there was something odd about the merchant, and previous mention of the prince who never appears in public due to being sickly. It's a trope going back ages that the weak or foppish prince is actually secretly out there fighting evil. See "Scarlet Pimpernel".This is so heavy-handed.
Hmm, I want to remove the parents from the story. How to go about it? Oh well, they'll be involved in human trafficking. And the prince will be there, knowing about it, with some convenient knights to instantly deliver justice. And the mother will be a blabbering idiot. And the father will of course attack Agnes (while surrounded by said knights, who just conveniently and momentarily lose all competence to make Nazelbert have a moment in the spotlight) to add attempted filicide to his crimes.
At least the second half of the chapter saves it.
I almost missed it because I was reading the chapter on my phone and didn't feel like zooming in (what a fool).I must say the credit page edit is quite amusing.
Yeah, I feel like the Prince was decently set up (if not terribly original) but the human trafficking is a bit "wuh huh?".It was already heavily hinted that there was something odd about the merchant, and previous mention of the prince who never appears in public due to being sickly. It's a trope going back ages that the weak or foppish prince is actually secretly out there fighting evil. See "Scarlet Pimpernel".
The fact that he happened to be on hand is obviously not a coincidence. Simply put, when he encountered Paul, he used him as bait. He was already familiar with Agnes' story and knew what kind of impulsive, rash asses their parents were. He brought Paul to his sister and then waited for the parents to show up, out in the boonies where he could arrest him without interference from the palace and Robin.
The one point I will agree with you on, is the involvement of the father in the trafficking by Robin. That was sprung on us out of the blue. The fact that Robin was behind it, and the fact that the father was working to get into Robin's good graces, were revealed, but I don't really think we got any hint of the father's connection to it.
Honestly, even if it was some other crime to dissolve the house that was less grim (like fraud/embezzlement) I think I'd still have the "wuh huh" reaction here.Yeah, I feel like the Prince was decently set up (if not terribly original) but the human trafficking is a bit "wuh huh?".
I think it might have worked better if it was some other crime, but I guess they just wanted to cut to the chase about why the family would be dissolved.