Alternate title: "I Didn't Know How to Write an Entertaining Web Novel so I Took an Introductory Class on Economics and Now My Web Novel Has a Manga Adaptation?!"
I really liked the story until the male love interest came in
there are so many more people who helped so much more but just because he's the prince the author makes them go together zzzzzz
if it was just that though it would be bearable but the MC's feelings seemed to have shifted literally overnight because the author developed little to none of their interactions early on, just did a good old time skip and wham she likes him.
if you wanna make a novel like this just keep it romance free honestly, so dumb to ruin a good story.
@Cacklea its not overnight, Iris already show interest when they first met, but its just an afterthough at first because: not many men can court her (she is the daughter of 2nd strongest family in the kingdom) and she is busy in her own work.
It’s not a lightweight romance, but rather heavy on politics and economics and how a badass lady can apply it. I learn a lot from it personally, things that I once learned at school, new stuff I never considered, but also the way charisma works and how to convince people when used in the right context.
I know it’s heavy on the translation, that’s why I really appreciate the translators for doing this.
I fear that this manga is too complex for some people's simple mind that they would tarnish the face of this manga by denouncing it blindly... I'm starting to speak weirdly for some reason....
alot of people really forget this manga is demographed as seinen, which means it's audience is more or less directed for young adult men (late teens to their 30s), might be a reason why the recent chapters are very heavy on politics and etc. (also, running a business/fief is serious business so it isn't really going to be a lighthearted manga unlike some other isekai mangas).
altho i do agree with others that the author kind of forgot that it's an isekai manga, but not really because she's using her knowledge from the earth to literally everything she's doing.
but really, kudos to the author, manga artist and translators of this manga, because they really took the time for this,
and i really like how it's kind of slow burn romance because with all those problems, it's hard to find any romance when you're lit gonna go to war and you have a lot of problems to solve. /spoiler]
When Duke's Daughter first began serializing (and when I first read the WNs), I dismissed this as just an "otome" form of Isekai. Iris being a former tax-woman somehow translating into her being super-adept at medieval fief economics, becoming a master entrepreneur, being adept at politics, and creating central banking of all things with seemingly no resistance at all was basically a economics variant of the conventional Isekai where the world doesn't matter at all, and the MC just romps through it without a care and the world bending to his/her very whims.
It's because of this that, unlike a lot of people in the comments, I'm GLAD that the story became a lot more political.
In the great isekai of old like Twelve Kingdoms and Anatolia Story, the world actually matters. People have lives and goals outside of just interacting with the MC, and the MC actually finds her place within that world rather than cheat her way into making the world irrelevant. Iris being embroiled in the Kingdom's politics, experiencing hardship that she has to solve with her own savvy, was an extension of those tales. It shows that the world doesn't just MC's plaything; people have their own schemes and designs, and sometimes they outmaneuver the MC even for a bit. Rather than just having everything work out in her favor, Iris has to struggle against the world somewhat.
It's still not as good as the. Iris is still too competent, too quickly. She still has that protagonist air that makes most people just gravitate towards her and only her. Her enemies - the second prince faction - are still almost cartoonishly horrible as villains.
Her brother just going 180 from enemy to being shamed into submission in a few pages was a bit annoying.
The story still has very little nuance for a political tale, and the MC never experiences the fish out of the water effect that protagonists of better Isekai have. No attempt was made to develop Iris's political savvy, either - she just seemingly goes from tax-woman to master manipulator.
But it's still a fun read nonetheless. A giant breath of fresh air compared to a lot of the other Isekai series out there, including many of the otome ones.
This has actually become a favourite of mine quite quickly (currently at chapter 55) and I feel like the story is just about to get even more serious with political problems and fights!