Eh, I don’t like that one sided promise in the end. I would have seen growth if she likewise made the same promise that she wouldn’t harm any demons, and if they both would be only allowed to use force in retaliation. As my reader, my experience with this world and the story has so far been that humans are the cause of EVERY problem. So far the only problem caused by demons was when the Brother and weird secretary lady tried to do a coup which was so pointless and overall didn’t matter (well, it made a character I like happier and gave them more freedom so actually a solution?). Other than that’s it’s all been the fault of the shitty kingdom deciding to outsource their problems to uninvolved people (really forcibly summoning someone from another world to save you is so many kinds of wrong. I don’t care who started the war first, the moment you yank someone from their world and upheave their life(lives) to solve your issues YOU ARE THE VILLAIN), throwing away an innocent and uninvolved life (with the hopes they die), and that pathetic hero literally causing every disaster (I’ve commented this before but I swear if that redemption arc is still a thing and he doesn’t just die). I don’t really care about a war I haven’t been introduced to or had exposure in (its just a bunch of faceless people dying. You can tell me kids are starving in Africa, but it doesn’t make the terrible meal you cooked taste any better) and who’s right or wrong in a war is a philosophical debate in of itself (and just in general I think simple terms of “good” and “evil” or “right” and “wrong” are way to blanket and bandages to this complex conversations).
That’s a block of text, but basically an entire chapter of this recurring main character finally seeing how much of a hypocrite she is (will accept the mc’s wife but not demon lord), but still not backing down from her “never harm humans” without even giving in a bit herself (by making a similar promise of not harming demons), is frustrating and feels kinda pointless (like this is character development that should have happened gradually over chapters and a while ago, also it’s not really character development because she’s still falling back on her own bad habits (saying she’ll just tell the mc (I’d rather she’d said that she would die fighting him anyway; it shows conviction) and still being prejudiced towards the demon race (pretty sure she qualifies as the biggest racist of the group (like even the human killing demon soldiers adapt more easily and were more willing to live and work with humans now))).
That said I’m happy for her to finally move past being scared of the demon lord. That running gag (her scared and him overestimating her) was funny for about the first and second time (if that). What I really just wanted was for them to develop a relationship and that to propel her character growth and get rid of her double standards and prejudice (to see the war from both sides and think of demons the same as she does humans), but that was like idk how many chapters ago (and don’t want to think about how many months). With her long it took her character to get to this state, I honestly kinda just hate her now and would be happiest if she got killed of to up the stakes or something (give the demon lord new found conviction to rule and usher in peace).
